Last year the throttle cable snapped on my 1988 Ford Escort XR3i, i was about 12 miles from home and i managed to use a zip tie to "jam" the throttle at around 3000rpm, varying speed exclusively by downshifting or upshifting, i made it home!
Sketchiest fix you've done to get home?
- Thread starter FCD
- Start date
I did a similar thing almost 40 years ago with an beater 63 (I think) Dodge sedan. Slant 6. The throttle busted so I turned up the idle speed screw and drove it from Santa Cruz to Sunnyvale on Hwy 9. Luckily it was middle of the day in the middle of the week.
Had to wire a generator to turn it into a motor to run the cooling fan. Made it far enough to be able and walk the rest of the way home.
Rear Ujoints went out on my old blazer and pitched the driveshaft when I was driving it to work one day. Duck taped a styrofoam coffee cup i found alongside the road tot he tail shaft housing. Put it in fourwheel drive and went to work. Drove it a month or so that way.
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2024
1989 GMC 1 ton. Accessory bracket bolts broke the heads off. Used ratchet straps to hold it in place against the block. Drove home towing the 5th wheel 70 miles.
My great uncle told a story about being stranded in the middle of nowhere after running out of gas in his pickup. They jury rigged a 20lb propane tank by cutting the end off the hose and routing it into the engine compartment and stuffing the hose into the intake of the carb and wiring it into place. He drove while his gal varied the amount of fuel with the valve on the tank from the cab to keep the engine running.
Shel_B
Site Donor 2023
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July 2, 1967. Throttle linkage in my 1961 Dodge 318 V8 broke, somewhere in Western Colorado or Eastern Utah, on Highway 70. Put it together with a paperclip dug out of the glove box. Got me to San Francisco and for another year or so of driving before giving up the car.
Bungee corded a lawnmower gas tank to my 69 Buick Riviera engine with a hose to the carb when the electric in tank pump died. I had to stop and refill 4 times from a 1 gallon jug I siphoned gas into from the car to get the 5 miles home.
Blew a coolant line, drove my car 20 miles to get home. Watched the coolant temp, it was covered with coolant as the hose was above that sensor. It slowly rose, but never went nuclear. It helped that it was a diesel and it was well below freezing at the time.
Although I think honorable mention should go to just about anything Derek (from Vice Grip Garage) drives home, sure seems like all them include a level of sketchiness that just about takes the needle back around to ok.
Although I think honorable mention should go to just about anything Derek (from Vice Grip Garage) drives home, sure seems like all them include a level of sketchiness that just about takes the needle back around to ok.
Left rear power window stopped working, in the down position, in my cutlass ciera when I was two states away from home. And it just started raining. Took the door panel apart, put some nails in the electrical contacts, and used jumper cables (carefully!) to raise the window to the closed position.
When I got it home I read the wiring diagram, did some voltmeter tests, and decided it would be lazier to ground some wire right at the switch, disabling the driver's door controls but allowing local use.
Honorable mention goes to my dodge neon that blew a head gasket in Epsom, NH. I filled a McDonalds cup with warm sink water three times to refill its radiator, and I took one more cupful of water "to go". Temp stayed normal until I was 7 miles from home when it started creeping up, but I made it. Fixed the HG only to have the thing rot out from under me a year later.
When I got it home I read the wiring diagram, did some voltmeter tests, and decided it would be lazier to ground some wire right at the switch, disabling the driver's door controls but allowing local use.
Honorable mention goes to my dodge neon that blew a head gasket in Epsom, NH. I filled a McDonalds cup with warm sink water three times to refill its radiator, and I took one more cupful of water "to go". Temp stayed normal until I was 7 miles from home when it started creeping up, but I made it. Fixed the HG only to have the thing rot out from under me a year later.
Had a '65 Ford Thunderbird that I planned to restore in the late '80's. Blew out a front brake hose and lost nearly all the brake fluid since it had a single chamber reservoir, resulting in zero braking capability. Since I didn't have AAA or towing insurance coverage, I decided to drive it home approximately 3 miles away just using the the parking brake pedal while holding the release lever with my left hand so it would not lock up. Took the back roads and never exceeded 20 mph while maintaining 6 or 7 car lengths of distance between the cars in front of me.
Vice grips clamped onto two end of broken throttle cable on 85 AMC Eagle . It stayed like this for 2 years as forgot to tell my parents.
When I was 16 I broke an upper ball joint in my Toyota pickup way out in the desert. I used a motorcycle tie down wrapped around the control arms and drove it home.
How about sketchiest fix to your home?
I found out my deck steps were attached with..... 4 nails .. 2 on each side.. and the bottom posts are floating.(not in ground)
Went out to mow.. and deck steps(5 steps) were slightly tilted.. figured out fast I had 2 nails holding the top of the stairs to the deck.. and that was it.
Score another one for hilljack home remodeling.
Finished mowing and yard work(2 hrs) after a 9hr day at work.
Used some ratchet straps to pull the steps back against the deck..
then a 12ft 2x4 to pick them up.. after sawing off the old nails and screw with the vibrating multitool(this thing has 100 uses)
Reattached with 3x 3" deck screws from both sides and a 6" lag through the deck side into the steps.(doubled 2x8's?)
Sketchy? yep.. 10x better than their 2 dinky nails from each side... yep. Some days you just dont have the energy to fix the world.. or even some steps.
edit: railings are slip fit.. no support from those.
I found out my deck steps were attached with..... 4 nails .. 2 on each side.. and the bottom posts are floating.(not in ground)
Went out to mow.. and deck steps(5 steps) were slightly tilted.. figured out fast I had 2 nails holding the top of the stairs to the deck.. and that was it.
Score another one for hilljack home remodeling.
Finished mowing and yard work(2 hrs) after a 9hr day at work.
Used some ratchet straps to pull the steps back against the deck..
then a 12ft 2x4 to pick them up.. after sawing off the old nails and screw with the vibrating multitool(this thing has 100 uses)
Reattached with 3x 3" deck screws from both sides and a 6" lag through the deck side into the steps.(doubled 2x8's?)
Sketchy? yep.. 10x better than their 2 dinky nails from each side... yep. Some days you just dont have the energy to fix the world.. or even some steps.
edit: railings are slip fit.. no support from those.
Two sketchy 'on the road' repairs:
The exhaust on my Volvo broke off immediately in front of the rear muffler - for a second time. It only did this on long trips when I was hundreds of miles from home. Pulled the back third of the exhaust off and threw it in the trunk. Slung up the rest of the exhaust with a bent coat hanger. After that I always carried sturdy wire and a pair of pliers in the glove compartment.
The gear at the bottom of the distributor on my '65 Comet (a 289 Ford V8 engine) began rotating freely. Not surprisingly the engine wouldn't start. I guess the tip off was that the rotor had completely stopped turning. A pin had fallen out, letting the gear rotate on the shaft, independent of the rotor. I found a nail that fit perfectly and got us home. I don't believe I ever replaced it.
The exhaust on my Volvo broke off immediately in front of the rear muffler - for a second time. It only did this on long trips when I was hundreds of miles from home. Pulled the back third of the exhaust off and threw it in the trunk. Slung up the rest of the exhaust with a bent coat hanger. After that I always carried sturdy wire and a pair of pliers in the glove compartment.
The gear at the bottom of the distributor on my '65 Comet (a 289 Ford V8 engine) began rotating freely. Not surprisingly the engine wouldn't start. I guess the tip off was that the rotor had completely stopped turning. A pin had fallen out, letting the gear rotate on the shaft, independent of the rotor. I found a nail that fit perfectly and got us home. I don't believe I ever replaced it.
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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This thread has me laughing and would make MacGyver shake his head!
CleanSump
Site Donor 2022
When I was 18 I had a 69 Lemans convertible with a Turbo 400 automatic. The console shift cable broke when I was out with my GF.
She sat in the drivers seat with foot on brake as I reached under and shifted into drive. Those were fun days.
I had a Jeep Wrangler that the rear output shaft of the Transfer case broke an ear on. I removed the rear driveshaft and drove in 4x4 (front wheel drive obviously) for about 3 months before I fixed it.
She sat in the drivers seat with foot on brake as I reached under and shifted into drive. Those were fun days.
I had a Jeep Wrangler that the rear output shaft of the Transfer case broke an ear on. I removed the rear driveshaft and drove in 4x4 (front wheel drive obviously) for about 3 months before I fixed it.
1974 Mercury (Ford) Capri, 2.0L. Heading from Chicago to a wedding in New York when the car started running on three cylinders on the Ohio Turnpike. Pulled over, found a plug wire that had pulled out of the spark plug socket. Gee, thanks, Beck-Arnley! Taped it together with electrical tape, went to the wedding, made it back home where I had spare plug wires. Oh, the joys of being a poor college student.
1999 Ford Taurus wagon, a bolt fell out of the shifter linkage and the car was stuck in first. Got a zip-tie to hold until I got home, bought and installed a new bolt the the next day.
1999 Ford Taurus wagon, a bolt fell out of the shifter linkage and the car was stuck in first. Got a zip-tie to hold until I got home, bought and installed a new bolt the the next day.
