Roadside repairs that became permanent?

[sciphi]

Any good stories about roadside repairs that were meant to be or turned into permanent repairs?

Here's one from earlier today helping my brother. His 00 Olds minivan's exhaust had been iffy for months. Today, the back half decided to start getting cozy with the pavement after a temporary repair long on rush and short on brains failed. Running the risk of the exhaust poking into the cabin was too much for him, so he called me to come fix it. I found him jury-rigging the downed section with a plastic coat hanger. A tubing cutter, some new tubing and 3 exhaust clamps later he has a much quieter van after fixing in a mini-mart parking lot. The repair won't move a millimeter, and is permanent as far as we're concerned. Meaning we're not touching it again...

 

[rjundi]

The accelerator cable snapped under the hood leaving me stranded in college in my parents AMC eagle with 210k miles. An older gentleman with a trunk full of rusty tools pulled out some vice grips and twisted/attached the cable back together. He put a plastic zip tie around the vice grips to make sure they did not pop apart.

The repair lasted another 2 years at least as I never looked at it again.

 

[severach]

I had several gasoline Chevy Chevettes that would eat belts every 50,000 miles or so. Once the belt had been done once and the lower shroud discarded they were very easy. I would get a call and head out with a belt and tools. I install the belt and time the engine on the side of the road. No tow, no pick up, they just drive away.

 

[addyguy]

BIL broke a bolt doing brakes or a bearing repair on his 1999 Buick LeSabre.

No automotive stores open (Sunday afternoon, small town), so he gets me to take him to the local Home Depot. Rustles through the containers of general bolts, until he finds one, right size, bit too long. Cost like $0.60 or $1.20.

Takes it home, screws it into place, and AFAIK, it's still in there.

 

[UncleS2]

I dunno about permanent, but...

For the last 9-10 yrs that I owned the Volvo, it had a Weber 2-bbl 2-stage downdraft carb on an aftermarket intake manifold. The fuel hose connection/inlet was a pressed-in spout. In Sept. '97, on the way to Austin, Tx to put it up for sale, at about 65-70 mph on US 271 N of Tyler, I suddenly smelled gas *Very* strongly. Scary "Your car is about to burn up!" strong.

It sputtered & almost died just before I shut off the key, pushed in the clutch, & pulled onto the shoulder.

The fuel hose was still firmly attached to the carb inlet spout with clamp- but the carb inlet spout was hanging free under the hood, & everything was wet with gas! Exhaust manifold was on the same side as the carb & intake too.

It had come free from the carb body, no apparent damage to anything- and fortunately nothing caught fire. I could push it back in, even started the car & jumped back out- yup, even when revved, no leak. But how to keep it there? Couldn't risk it coming lose again, all my fire-avoidance luck was used up already!

And while I had quite a few tools, there was no tie-wire, etc- this was the closest it had come to setting me afoot in many years.

I *had* to get it going- 2 other people were behind me in another car for the trip. Hmm...road debris to the rescue! I walked up the road abou a dozen yards & found some cords/strings from a shredded tire- or mebbe fan belt? They were a bit over 2 ft long. Anyhoo, with the spout tapped back in firmly with a plastic mallet, & hose re-attached, I tied a miniature hay hauler's hitch to keep constant tension pulling it back into the carb body.

It held without incident all the way to Austin- stopped & checked it several times- and was still on the car when it sold a few hours after I parked it on a lot near UT the next afternoon. I shoulda asked more $$! And, yes, I told the buyer about it. For all I know he might have left it on there for a long time- or maybe not.

 

[dishdude]

I have seen people who unscrew the license plate and walk away. Thats the most permanent roadside repair I can think of!

 

[ekpolk]

Oh, I think I can top you all. Around 79-ish I was driving a rusty, well-worn '69 VW Beetle I had semi-inherited from my Dad (who's still very healthy today...). Anyway, one day, it bogged down and finally just stopped. I opened the "hood" in the back and was instantly hit in the face by the overwhelming "fragrance" of fuel. The fuel supply line had detached itself from the carb and was hosing raw gas all over the place. Good thing I don't smoke... Anyway, I temporarily stanched the flow and then set about finding a solution. All I could find in the car (in the middle of nowhere) was an 18 inch-ish piece of fuzzy, 60s style, magenta-pink yarn that for reasons lost to history, was on the floor under the passenger seat. So I used it to lash the offending fuel line back on to the carb where it had previously refused to stay.

Anyway, the "pink yarn" became a still-on-going joke between my Dad and I (actually to this day, though the VW is long gone). I drove it with the pink yarn lash up for about another year until I had to park it for rust and failed ball joints. Pink yarn, fer cryin' out loud...

 

[PF52]

Back in 1985 I was on a road trip in Colorado with a friend in his 1979 Malibu with the 4.3 or whatever was the small V8 that year. At one point the car stalled on a steep grade amid a small cloud of smoke. We opened the hood to find a rubber vacuum line had scorched and burned itself all the way through and the resulting vacuum leak had evidently killed the engine. After we doused whatever was still smoldering, we plugged the two loose ends of the vacuum line using golf tees and the car was perfectly fine. He drove it with the golf tees for the next half-dozen or so years until eventually trading it in.

 

[lexus114]

that depends on what that vacuum line was for,to determine any ill long term affects.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

The Cubans seem to be the best at doing roadside repairs...They keep their cars running forever.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: CROWNVIC4LIFE
The Cubans seem to be the best at doing roadside repairs...They keep their cars running forever.


Necessity is the mother of invention...

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

BTW ekpolk my friends brother was in a major car accident in Cuba a few days ago [car turned over] and I asked the dumb question was he wearing a seat belt.

 

[ekpolk]

Hope he was OK. That was pretty silly

-- seatbelts in a 1950s Chevy...

 

[The_Jeff]

Was driving to ohio and back last weekend for a funeral in my $300 minivan. Hit a big bump in connecticut and the ABS light came on. Next stop was a hotel in Milesburg, PA where I discovered something hanging.

It was the air compressor for the rear shocks! I had already retrofitted ghetto non-air yellow monroe shocks, the cheapest I could find, so this air compressor was superfluous. Yanked it the rest of the way out by bending it back and forth against its highly rusty bracket until it metal fatigued and gave way. I held this 10 lb whatsamjigger up to show the wife, with hoses and wires sticking out of it, and said, ayuh, there's your problem. The look on her face was of course priceless. The thing barely fit through the garbage can trap door at the truck stop where we had breakfast, and I performed the "surgery".

It was hanging on another wiring harness that I hoped was for the rear ABS, but, alas, it turns out my FRONT sensor wire was scraping on the ball joint thread and probably snagged/broke internally. The light was my impetus to stick my head underneath. I have no intentions of fixing the wheel sensor, so we'll call this "permanent".

The trip continued and the remaining 1500 miles passed uneventfully, save for a turn signal bulb that checked out but came back. Got 27 MPG with the AC blasting going extra-legal speeds. A Mass state trooper standing on the shoulder zapped me going 80 in a 65, but, on I-290, that's okay.

Minivans rock.