I remember a buddy's VW beetle had broken wipers and he rigged up some coat hanger wires so he could work the wipers with his left hand out the window and the passenger's (me) right hand out the other window. We would take turns pulling back and forth. Did this in a light snow one day. He didn't have that car very long.
"Temporary" or Hack Repairs, 'Fess Up!
- Thread starter BigAl
- Start date
- Status
Yesss!
During a big snowstorm in 1995, the spline stripped on the driver's side wiper arm of my '83 Buick Lesabre Wagon. I drove 20 miles home down the expressway with my head out the window. When I got home, I fixed it "temporarily" by cross drilling the wiper arm and shaft and hammering in a roll pin. It lasted at least for the next three years until I sold it . . . Three years is temporary, right?
Now that I am driving relatively new cars, I find myself always repairing them properly, even using OEM parts. Yawn. I need to buy myself another beater so I can be creative and have a little fun with my "fixes."
These are great! Keep 'em coming!
Wow! For a crowd that is so fanatical about automotive maintenance, I'm reading some pretty outlandish stories. Not so much the emergency nature of the repair, but the fact that they were left that way?!
How the same man can agonize over 5w-30 versus 10w-30, yet do quite a bit of the above is mystery.
I had my headlights burn out on me once while driving late at night on a lonely highway. No spare bulb on me, but I did have a hand held spotlight in the trunk. I drove for about 100 miles, with one hand on the wheel, one aiming that spotlight out an open window down the road. It was kind of fun. I wonder what oncoming traffic thought?
But I did get the bulbs replaced the next day.
So why did I happen to have a spot light, you asked? As a kid we liked to drive around at night in the neighborhood and shine that spotlight on the streetlights. A light sensor would make them go off, leaving the streets pitch black. For some reason, we thought that was a hoot.
How the same man can agonize over 5w-30 versus 10w-30, yet do quite a bit of the above is mystery.
I had my headlights burn out on me once while driving late at night on a lonely highway. No spare bulb on me, but I did have a hand held spotlight in the trunk. I drove for about 100 miles, with one hand on the wheel, one aiming that spotlight out an open window down the road. It was kind of fun. I wonder what oncoming traffic thought?
But I did get the bulbs replaced the next day.
So why did I happen to have a spot light, you asked? As a kid we liked to drive around at night in the neighborhood and shine that spotlight on the streetlights. A light sensor would make them go off, leaving the streets pitch black. For some reason, we thought that was a hoot.
The 96B14 requires the occasional tap on the starter with a long screwdriver poked down through the intake manifold for ignition. My own automotive version of Russian roulette.
How's this for a bad fix:
A co-worker's husband is incredibly cheap. He drove around for over a year with one headlight burned out. The second one finally burned out late one moonless night on a lonely country road. He was agonizing over which ONE to replace.
A co-worker's husband is incredibly cheap. He drove around for over a year with one headlight burned out. The second one finally burned out late one moonless night on a lonely country road. He was agonizing over which ONE to replace.
1984 Escort: rear shock tower rusted so severely that tire had very noticeable negative camber. Used a piece of SS straping and bolted the tower to the side of car.
One of my favourite "fixes" was the manual cooling fan switch that I installed on my 1996 Intrepid and my friend's 97 Intrepid!
We both had the same problem - overheating on occasion with no cause in sight! It turns out that the resistance in the poorly designed cooling fan circuit increased so much over time due to melting plastic connectors, that the fans would run too slow!
So, some 10 gauge wire, a switch, and a relay later, we had excellent cooling at the tips of our fingers
We both had the same problem - overheating on occasion with no cause in sight! It turns out that the resistance in the poorly designed cooling fan circuit increased so much over time due to melting plastic connectors, that the fans would run too slow!
So, some 10 gauge wire, a switch, and a relay later, we had excellent cooling at the tips of our fingers
The latest hack is the rotted off left front swaybary on #2 son's 86 528e It has been re-attached using a double strand of 12 gauge baling wire.
ive got some good stories.
back in the day i had a porsche 914 and one day the throttle cable snapped at the throttle petal. i was pretty far from home and no where near a porsche dealer so i pulled the rest of the cable out and ran it over the top (had a targa top) and tied a knot in the frayed end of the cable which made a loop. now i had a hand operated throttle. i drove around like that for a week untill the replacment cable came in. it was really a blast, friends would operate the throttle and i would steer shift and brake. haha what good times....
another time i threw a alternator belt. i was about 150 miles from home and there was not an auto parts store on the route however i did have jumper cables. i would run the car untill it died, pull over and wait for someone to stop and charge me battery for 20 minutes. then i would go another 50 miles and do it again.
hmm what else, oh yes my old mercedes benz that had no reverse. in order to get out of a parking spot i had to run foreward and run up on the curb, then gravity pushed me backwards so i could back up.
more on the benz... when it got to the point where this poor old diesel with 400,000 miles on it was comming to the end of its life, i started injecting ether into the engine for more power. i had a silicone tube rigged up to the intake manifold and the other end to the spray nozzle of an ether can. whenever i needed more acceleration i just reached over and pressed the nozzle down. instant acceleration, and the neon orange exhaust smoke looked pretty cool too. i finally blew that motor up after dozens and dozens of cans of ether were run through it.
then theres my ford elite/torino. i flew up and bought this car 1000 miles from my home. the owner didnt tell me that it had 2 dead cylinders though. i had no other way to get home so i bought the car anyways and drove it home. in order to reduce pumping losses on the 2 dead cylinders i removed the sparkplugs. man that thing made so much noise, but it still did 100mph on 6 cylinders and i would cruise at 100 for hours at a time like that just left the gas petal floored all the time, its a poor mans cruise control! oh head and during the "test driv" the owner of the car and i took it dirt track sliding down some dirt roads and managed to rip the exhaust off from the headers back. i had to drive it like that 1000 miles.
i had a rusted out subaru 4wd and would take it offroading. one time i got really stuck in the mud, up to my headlights. some people came and pulled me out but managed to rip off my rear bumper in the process. i ended up making a new bumper out of 4 inch square aluminum drain spout tubing. hahaha.. man that sounds ghetto now that i think about it, but the bumper mounts were torn off the car.
had a vw jetta that blew out 1/3rd of the side of the transmission case by hitting a log in the road. the trans gears were EXPOSED becuase 1/3 of the aluminum housing was torn off as well as 1 trans mount. i sealed it up with duct tape as best i could and dumped gear lube in every 10 miles. that trans lasted 2 whole weeks before a rain storm killed it.
i had this kia that awalys gave me trouble. one day i stalled out 2 blocks from home and wouldnt start, so i put it in 2nd gear and used the started to crank me home. that starter was smoking by the time i got in the driveway. i was so ****** at the car staling out and not starting that i didnt even want to open the hood, i just wanted to go home.
[ September 15, 2006, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Master ACiD ]
back in the day i had a porsche 914 and one day the throttle cable snapped at the throttle petal. i was pretty far from home and no where near a porsche dealer so i pulled the rest of the cable out and ran it over the top (had a targa top) and tied a knot in the frayed end of the cable which made a loop. now i had a hand operated throttle. i drove around like that for a week untill the replacment cable came in. it was really a blast, friends would operate the throttle and i would steer shift and brake. haha what good times....
another time i threw a alternator belt. i was about 150 miles from home and there was not an auto parts store on the route however i did have jumper cables. i would run the car untill it died, pull over and wait for someone to stop and charge me battery for 20 minutes. then i would go another 50 miles and do it again.
hmm what else, oh yes my old mercedes benz that had no reverse. in order to get out of a parking spot i had to run foreward and run up on the curb, then gravity pushed me backwards so i could back up.
more on the benz... when it got to the point where this poor old diesel with 400,000 miles on it was comming to the end of its life, i started injecting ether into the engine for more power. i had a silicone tube rigged up to the intake manifold and the other end to the spray nozzle of an ether can. whenever i needed more acceleration i just reached over and pressed the nozzle down. instant acceleration, and the neon orange exhaust smoke looked pretty cool too. i finally blew that motor up after dozens and dozens of cans of ether were run through it.
then theres my ford elite/torino. i flew up and bought this car 1000 miles from my home. the owner didnt tell me that it had 2 dead cylinders though. i had no other way to get home so i bought the car anyways and drove it home. in order to reduce pumping losses on the 2 dead cylinders i removed the sparkplugs. man that thing made so much noise, but it still did 100mph on 6 cylinders and i would cruise at 100 for hours at a time like that just left the gas petal floored all the time, its a poor mans cruise control! oh head and during the "test driv" the owner of the car and i took it dirt track sliding down some dirt roads and managed to rip the exhaust off from the headers back. i had to drive it like that 1000 miles.
i had a rusted out subaru 4wd and would take it offroading. one time i got really stuck in the mud, up to my headlights. some people came and pulled me out but managed to rip off my rear bumper in the process. i ended up making a new bumper out of 4 inch square aluminum drain spout tubing. hahaha.. man that sounds ghetto now that i think about it, but the bumper mounts were torn off the car.
had a vw jetta that blew out 1/3rd of the side of the transmission case by hitting a log in the road. the trans gears were EXPOSED becuase 1/3 of the aluminum housing was torn off as well as 1 trans mount. i sealed it up with duct tape as best i could and dumped gear lube in every 10 miles. that trans lasted 2 whole weeks before a rain storm killed it.
i had this kia that awalys gave me trouble. one day i stalled out 2 blocks from home and wouldnt start, so i put it in 2nd gear and used the started to crank me home. that starter was smoking by the time i got in the driveway. i was so ****** at the car staling out and not starting that i didnt even want to open the hood, i just wanted to go home.
[ September 15, 2006, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Master ACiD ]
I had to do the same thing to my old 87 F150 one time. For some unknown reason, the magnets inside the wiper motor broke apart and jammed the motor up solid, so I had to remove it and tie a long shoe string on both sides around the wipers to operate them. Oh, Oh! And one time, when I had my 1980 AMC Eagle, the stupid floor mounted dimmer switch shorted out the headlights, so I had to drive home with only parking lights and 2 fog lights. It was after sunset too, so I was **** lucky I didn't see any police.
In 1984 I bought a 59 Cadillac. I was 23. It was had a lot of blow by exiting out the blow by tube which was on the bottom of the engine, near the oil pan. That is what they used before PCV valves. Every time I stopped at a stop sign the cloud of smoke nearly choked me and everyone else. I was broke, so I McGuyvered my own pcv system. I got some heater hose and some 90 degree pvc elbows and routed that up to the bottom of the air cleaner which I drilled a 3/4 inch hole in. After I figured out that I had to drill a hole in the lowest part of the tube to let condensed water out, It worked perfectly for years and no more smoke. Of course it smoked some out the exhaust but it was much more drivable and I didn't have to do ring job. Sold it and make a killing so I could buy my first house.
In high school I drove a Renault Dauphine with the Ferlec electro-mechanical clutch. It was always acting up and many times, I had to wait until it was past midnight to drive home, because it would only shift into reverse or neutral. Did you know that when your are going about45 mph in reverse that you can spin out with just the slightest wrong move?
I'm sure glad I never got stuck driving behind your car, especially with the gear oil! Peeeeewwwwwwwww!
I had an old jeep that would break axles and pulling the destroyed stub out of the posi-traction in the desert was a long hot job. So, out near the hat on the outboard end of all my replacement axles cut a groove on a lathe, about 10 thou smaller in diameter than the inboard splines. The axles did not break more often this way, but when they broke, they broke at the groove, you just unbolted the hat, slid a tube into the housing to capture the axle shaft and slid it out. Then in went the new one. A several hour job uas reduced to five minutes. I did all this to avoid buying a bigger rear end that was better suited for beating around in the boondocks.
Reading these brings back more and more memories, like the time my muffler and tailpipe fell off my F100 in '79. I was helping a buddy move from Detroit to Atlanta. We had just gotten about 10 miles down the road when the muffler fell off. I looped back to get it, but it had gotten run over and so we drove all the way to Tennessee with an open exhaust (well, there was a cat, actually two cats, one in the truck which got lost up under the dashboard) making all kinds of noise with the bed loaded. We stopped at at the crack of dawn in Tennessee at a roadside pullout and, while relieving ourselves, spotted a muffler at the bottom of an embankment. I retrieved it, beat it on the pipe with a rock, tied it up with some rope and on we went. Had that muffler on for a couple years, later adding a better hanger. Hadn't seen a cop the whole trip until we put that muffler on, then we saw a few that morning. Good timing.
Bought an old dodge dakota with "electrical problems". I sort of pictured the seller for a bumpkin and figured it'd all sort out.
1) The starter relay wasn't getting always-on battery power. He had been starting the thing (make sure the 5 speed was in neutral) with a rock hammer across the starter solenoid. To get it home, I brought a few feet of wire with an alligator clip and clipped that to the solenoid. Then, with pliers for a more positive connection (less arcing) I'd touch the other end to the battery terminal. Got home, took the fusebox apart, and resumed turn-key starting.
2) The heater blower motor wasn't working. Took the wiring block (bunch of female spade lugs) off the motor connection and all contacts were corroded. Some people might try emery cloth or a hand file to polish those up. Me, I grabbed my 10,000 RPM angle grinder and shined 'em all up in just a couple seconds.
3) The fuel pump was conking out and the thing stalling. (This stalling was disclosed, but didn't do it when I was looking at the thing.) Truck died on the side of the road. Got it running again by hammering on the underside of the tank with a 3-D cell flashlight. Now you know someone this actually works for!
1) The starter relay wasn't getting always-on battery power. He had been starting the thing (make sure the 5 speed was in neutral) with a rock hammer across the starter solenoid. To get it home, I brought a few feet of wire with an alligator clip and clipped that to the solenoid. Then, with pliers for a more positive connection (less arcing) I'd touch the other end to the battery terminal. Got home, took the fusebox apart, and resumed turn-key starting.
2) The heater blower motor wasn't working. Took the wiring block (bunch of female spade lugs) off the motor connection and all contacts were corroded. Some people might try emery cloth or a hand file to polish those up. Me, I grabbed my 10,000 RPM angle grinder and shined 'em all up in just a couple seconds.
3) The fuel pump was conking out and the thing stalling. (This stalling was disclosed, but didn't do it when I was looking at the thing.) Truck died on the side of the road. Got it running again by hammering on the underside of the tank with a 3-D cell flashlight. Now you know someone this actually works for!
What was the Ferlec like to drive when it worked right, or did it ever?
- Status
Similar threads
