Whats some of the jury rig things you have done to cars?

68 ElCamino, 327, points distributor. On my way home one night, the engine just simply shut down. It took me about a half hour to eliminate wiring, and open the distributor. The lever that rides the cam and drives the points had snapped off and was nowhere to be found.
It was around 2 am, and I was in the middle of nowhere. I sat in the car for 2 hours, playing out every scenario I could to make it run in my mind. Then I saw it. A small zip tie in the ashtray. I wrapped the zip tie around the points, drew it tight, and snipped off the end. The end of the zip tie that the other end goes through ended up a perfect lever to ride the cam. I adjusted the points, fired it up, and left it on there for the next year.

 

Boy! Some of these posts bring back some strange memories from the wayback machine!

I have too many of them. I can only relate a few here tonight.
Here is just a small portion of the adventures I can laugh about today.

Vise grips on the steering column.

Throttle cable snapped a long way from home. I used vise grips on the broken stub of cable to attach a coat hanger at the floor near the firewall, and pulled on the coat hanger with my right hand for throttle control for the rest of the 400 mile trip home.

Used some bootlaces through the vent windows when the vacuum wipers went out on the 1951 Studebaker Starlight Coupe (Yellow Submarine). 20 years later I see someone on Funniest Home Videos win $10,000 for a video if him doing the same wiper/shoelace trick. I didn't get a dime for mine.

1,100 miles from home (Dan's Bake Sale 1992) the cadillac engine in my Stude Hawk had a rocker arm come loose and bend a pushrod. In the hotel parking lot I pulled a valve cover, pushed the rocker back onto the pedestal, and used a few Craftsman sockets hose-clamped to the rocker mounts as a spacer between two rockers to hold the rockers in place and continued the trip home. 17 years later, the sockets are still inside the valve covers holding the rockers in place. Still works great- why disturb it?

In 1975 on a 950 mile trip from Fla to Illinois, my 1955 Stude developed charging system troubles. It was starting to boil the battery. I ran the rest of the trip with a set of jumpers running from the regulator, thru the shifter boot, into the passenger compartment. I used it like an on-off switch. I would hook the two jumper clamps together when I thought the battery neede a bit of a charge, then unhook the two jumper clamps when I wanted the regulator to stop over-charging for a while. It got me home.

I was towing a trailer from Charleston SC to Illinois in 1976. I was bringing my newly purchased 62 Hawk basket-case home. The trailer developed a problem with a spring mount that broke loose from the frame (bad weld). The trailer was tracking a bit side ways with the leaf springs not located correctly. I jammed in a couple jack handles in the right places, and used two rolls of that strong filament tape with the fiberglass strands they advertised could pull a train car to hold the springs in place so the axle would hopefully stay under the trailer. 12 long hours of white-knuckle driving got us safely home again. The jack handles and tape held the axle in place and saved the day.

One time far away from home I had a taillight go out and couldn't track down the source of the problem. I duct-taped a flashlight with red cellophane over it as a new taillight to the back bumper and continued the trip.

Another time I was far from home and found that the load I was carrying in my Stude pickup was making the rear end sag way too much. I jacked the rear up, shoved some thick pieces of wood in between the leaves of the rear springs to act as "overloads", then wrapped the springs with duct tape to keep the wood spacers in place. Those homemade overload springs worked so well I used them for years before I finally got around to installing heavier springs (added new duct tape every 6 months).

In 1985 a friend and I had just put together a 1973 Jeep Commando the night before a thousand mile trip from Illinois to Miami. The brand new fuel pump lasted five hours into the trip, then completely quit in the mountains of Chattanooga Tenn. We were stranded in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.
For some reason, we had a hacksaw in the toolbox. My friend insisted we bring a hacksaw even tho I thought it was a stupid idea. The hacksaw saved the day. We hacksawed that fuel pump into pieces, bolted some of those pieces to the shifter mount on the transmission tunnel, and my friend had to manually pump that fuel pump FOR NINE HOURS until daylight, about the time we reached Florida and the parts stores opened.
I felt so sorry for my friend having to manually pump the fuel pump to keep the Jeep up to highway speeds. Sputter, sputter- "c'mon Ralph, it needs more fuel.." NINE HOURS?

Those were the days... I wouldn't trade them for anything.


I have so much more, but I don't want to over do it all in in one post.

 

Wow I got a bunch.
Towed home 40 miles with a seatbelt around our bumpers.
3 inch lowering block on one side 4 inch on the other to sit even.
Washers between the axle and drum to keep the too short axle from causing the drum to rub.
Wire holding my battery down until the insulation wore off and it went boom.
Breaking an axle and having to stop and push it in every so often to get home.
Spray painting the inside of a window black for cheap tint. (Not me this time)

 

Yeah! I can relate to that! I had one of those too.

I had an 8 inch Ford rear under my Stude pickup for quite a few years that had the habit of walking the axles out of the wheel bearings when I carried too much lumber on it.
Every now and then the axle would move outward, and the splines would disengage. The truck would come to a halt. I would have to pop off a hubcap and whack the end of the axle with a sledge hammer to get the splines to engage again so I could get home with the lumber.
I am glad to hear I wasn't the only one.

 

I was driving my buddies ramp truck with his Super Pro Dodge Colt on the back when the shifter snapped off at the base about twenty miles from the shop. Popped out what was left of the shifter & made it to the track in time to race by shifting the sliders with a big flat tip screwdriver. I'd worked in a heavy truck shop so I knew just how the sliders worked, but my buddies thought I was a genius. We drove back to the shop the same way. Got a lotta free beer out of that one.

 

I was in high school back in the mid 70's when nitrous was beginning to come out. We (my buddies and I) read all the hot rod mags about how it worked and why. One of my buddies, Darrell, thinks he can do the same with pure oxygen. In metal shop, we drilled out a Mr Gasker Rachester to Holley adapter plate and tapped it for a pipe nipple. That night, Darrell hooked up a welding O2 bottle to the baseplate, and with me in the passenger seat of his El Camino holding the welding bottle between my legs. He began a series of test runs to see if he could tell any difference. After each pass, Darrell would direct me to turn up the regulator a little more, as there didnt seem to be much of a difference. After a few more passes, the regulator is damn near wide open and right about the time Darrell seems to think he can feel a difference the engine overheats and seizes, never to run again.

 

Wow. A torch inside the engine. I'll bet it melted a few things.
The "extra fuel" part was missing. It must have been eating itself.

 

Yep.
It's always fun to shift with three rods sticking up thru the floor and no shifter.
You have to know where to position each one before the next push or pull on the correct rod to get to the next gear.
I wonder how many people can figure out the procedures doing it that way.

 

had a water pump seal failed on the way back from the racetrack, pulled the pulley off and hammered a grease zirk into the weap hole and pumped it full of grease, would last for about half an hour and we were 4 hours from home.

after pulling the pulley the second time to refill the grease we drilled a hole in it so it would be easier to lube.

 

thats hilarious.

 

I once used a nail in the brake line after blowing a wheel cyl on my '66 Chevy truck, rebuilt the wheel cyls as soon as I got the $$ to do so.
While stationed in Korea, on mobile maintenance, got called out for a HMMWV that would not move, checked the trans fluid and nothing, checked the T'case and it was overfull, (trans cooler inside T'case leaking into T'case) pulled fill plug out of T'case and used an MRE bag to catch the trans fluid and took some cardboard from the MRE packaging to use as a funnel to put it back in the trans.
Recently in Iraq, I had to disassemble the towbar on my recovery truck to tow a Merceds Benz tractor that ran into the back of another one of the trucks in the convoy and tow it back to Kuwait. But these are just all in a days work. lol

 

Im lost, how can a 17th century British Naval term be racist?

I know you were just joking, but still? Offended? Racist?

I dunno.

Doc.

 

Me:
-We pinched a brake line to the rear since it had gotten torn off when an axle came out of my 9". Made it home with just the front brakes.
-Fuel pump was dying in my 69 z, so since I was at GLD, we raised the idle up to 3 gs and off I went. Drove it 45 minutes that way.
-Blew a head gasket at Byron in OT car, 75 minutes from my house. Bought 4 gallons of water from gas station and drove it home. Every time I stopped for a long time it overheated so I'd top it drove and keep driving.

Friends:
-VW bug floors were gone, stop signs fit pretty good. I don't recall them being affixed in any way.
-Broke a piston at the track, pulled the plug, raced it some more and drove it home that way.

But some of your oldtimer stories win for sure, like the gas can and the siphon.

 

Had a local guy bring a REAL Plymouth Superbird to my garage one Sunday morning, had me weld the ball joint to the A frame. Promised he would fix it right, but who knows?

 

Once, way, way back during school days (1970?) I ran out of gas in my 20 year old car.
I went and picked up a gas can with no spout.
No funnel.
I found a square piece of metal and bent it into a "Vee" to make a crude funnel.
The panel had paint on it which cracked and flaked when the metal was bent.
I was late for class, so I brushed away the paint flakes onto the ground with my hand and then used it to pour in the gas.

The gasoline must have loosened up more of the loosened paint flakes and sent them into the tank with the gas.
From then on, the car would drive a block or two then stall.
A block or two, then stall, starved for fuel.

There was no way I could get to school that way.

With only a pocket knife for a tool (they aren't very good at being screwdrivers), I unscrewed a fuel line, ran it to another gas can sitting inside on the front floor board.
Since I had absolutely no time or money to do any work on it till the weekend, I had to borrow some gas cans, drive a few miles until the car stopped, pour gasoline from one can to the other inside the car (the 5 gallon WWII surplus jerry can wouldn't fit under the dash, so I stored it on the back seat floor) then start the car and drive several more miles, pull over, pour the gas, then drive again...

I did that to get to classes for the whole week before I could drop the tank and clean it.

Thank goodnes I didn't spill anything or get bumped. It was a good thing we didn't have today's Traffic Nazis prowling around looking to make trouble.

That may sound way too foolish, but at the time I didn't think of anything but getting there.

 

I HAD to have a manual tranny for my '57 Chevy which had an auto from the factory. Found a clutch pedal assembly at a junkyard and put it in, but had no clue about what else I might need. My dad came up with some ideas for the cross shaft/bell crank. It worked for a while, but would come loose at the worst time and I would have to crawl under the car and fix it. I didn't put in new bushings for the clutch pedal either, so I wore out the pedal shaft and it broke on the way to work one day.

 

Sounds like a car I would buy and eventually cuss the previous owner for welding a nut on the spindle.

 

Ah, yes, when you pop a wheel cylinder away from home, a folded brake line and vice grips is one way of "coming home on a wing and a prayer".

You really haven't had a true American adventure until you get far far away from home and have to go across the USA on baling wire, string, tape, dedication, and MacGuyver talent.

 

I had a column shifter break once and get really stuck in two gears.

I had to crawl underneath, use a pry bar to pop a linkage and go to neutral on all levers.

To get home I had to reach under the car (Rambler station wagon) jab one lever into reverse, back out of the parking spot, crawl under, jab into neutral, find the second gear lever, then jab it into second gear and limp 25 miles home.

 

Once in my 1952 Stude pickup, the overdrive solenoid stopped working and would NOT let it go into OD.

With 4.88 rear gears, and a top speed of 42 mph with engine screaming, I obviously wouldn't make the 960 miles to Orlando and 960 miles back without some sort of fix.

No working solenoid to be found.

I hacksawed open the OD solenoid, rigged a choke cable to the solenoid plunger, and put the choke cable on the dash.

That worked so well I used it for another few years until I took out the flathead six drivetrain for a Stude V8 engine swap.

The choke cable was much more reliable than a 40 year old solenoid with 40 year old wiring inside.

 

I had to drive backwards 3 miles to a buddies house when I broke a tie rod.

 

At 16 years of age, my first car was a 55 Olds. I just knew it would run in the 13's, stock. I took it out to the local dragstrip to prove it. Jacking up the car, I pulled the muffler off the exhaust pipe. After a few runs, I was proven wrong about the 13 second et's. At the end of the evening, sitting at the tracks exit, was a bunch of sheriff's cruisers. The cops were there to catch the guys that would do burn outs leaving, and the guys with the open headers. I was unable to reinstall my muffler completely so it made real racket upon firing off the engine. Smart lad that I was, I wrapped a shop rag around the exhaust pipe/muffler joint, then tied the ends together. Nice and quiet, now. I drove right past the cops without any of them even giving me a glance. About two miles down the road, I smelled smoke. I rode along til I smelled smoke REAL bad. I pulled over, lo and behold, the car was on fire. Fortunatley, Florida has abundant sand available so I was able to extinguish the fire. I chose to leave the shop rag on the roadside.

 

held a throttle linkage together with kite string in order to get home one day. weeks later i remembered i did that and promised myself id get to it soon.





2 years later i was under the hood for some reason and noticed the string was still holding everything together.


another year goes by and it works fine so whatever leave it.



when i sold the car to a kid down the street i did make sure to show him that and recomend he gets some hardware... but at least he has a visual aid in case he ever needs to do it with kite string sometime to get home.

 

had a brake rotor crack and would cause the wheel to lockup when the brake pad came around, pulled the wheel and smashed the rotor off with a rock, back on the road woo hoo

 

Uh, that's not fit for publication or public knowledge.

 

Me and Fraz at the HAMB drags. Broke the generator mounting lugs off the bottom of the generator racing his 60 Buick. Found some JB weld from one of the vendors stuck the ears back on and made it home. That was three years ago...

This year at the drags his generator goes out heading for the drags. We enjoy most of the day, figure we ought to be getting ready to go so he borrows a multi-tester and yep the gennie is dead.

Big box o junk in the trunk. Hey! there's that gennie with the broken ears. It work? Dunno. Hook it up. Works but still no mounting ears and no JB weld..

Put the top bolt in the gennie. Figure we need to hold the back end against the engine to keep it tight. We commandeered a piece of fence wire from MoKan's spectator side about 3 feet long.. Tied a loop around the back of the gennie, ran it over to the power steering bracket twisted it till it tightened the belt and drove it 185 miles back home. Got a text from Fraz about 12:30 Sunday morning.

"made it home no problems." I think he's still got it in the car that way now. We spent all our $$ at the drags. He'll fixit I'm sure, but right now.. it works..

VonDad

 

Why is "jerry rig" offensive?

 

Throttle pedal brake so I clamped vise grips to the stub and drove it for three months.
The best one I have is when we were out 4x4'n and ripped the steering box off the frame of my buddy's CJ-5. Over the hill from the sand pit was a nutcase that had all kind of junk laying around. We "borrowed" the hitch assembly off his Mobile home and a few sticks of rebar. Bent the rebar around the tube bumper and thru the bolt holes on the hitch and hooked it to another 4x4 truck. We towed the jeep out of the sand dunes and all the way back home. It worked so well the owner of the jeep used it to tow the jeep to another house 15 miles away to use the welder.

 

Had a 72 Datsun as a winter beater once and the altenator went on it - $300 back in the day to replace. Drove the rest of the winter with a truck battery in back to run the electrical, with the main battery running only the ignition. Worked great !!! Except when I forgot to hook the charger back up at night !!!!