What roadside repairs have you done?

[andrew_g]

92 gmc sonoma seperated upper balljoint was able to get into parking lot under my own control without damaging anything other then a wheel weight and the broken ball joint
between being a parts store employee which was close by and good friends i was able to replace ball joint and drive home within two hours i had plenty of tools with me just no way to undo the factory riveted in balljoint until a friend brought a diesel powered air compressor and grinder
lesson learned was when front end is making creaking noises to pay more attention truck since then has had two full front end component replacements $750 truck and i wouldnt trade it for the world good old s series cost virtually nothing to fix or maintain

 

[Colt45ws]

Kinda barely, since I had help but I had a spark plug blow out while I was out of town. I unplugged the fuel injector and coil pack and limped it to a nearby garage where they said basically, "Your best bet is to have Ford do it." Since I had no tools, I asked them if they wouldnt mind removing the coil pack and spark plug. Which they did. I was thankful and offered money but they refused.

I then drove it 160 miles home with a dead hole. It sounded like REAL bad rod knock. I had no power; I had to drive in O/D lockout just to maintain 60 mph. Couple times I went to manual 2nd to pull a hill. Often would stall coming to a stop too.
Halfway home I had an epiphany and when I stopped for gas, I unplugged the MAF. This forces it to use the failed MAF tables for the Load value, which is Throttle Position on one axis and RPM on the other. Got a fair amount of power back from doing that. My thought was that the load value from the MAF would be really low because one cylinder is drawing in outside air. Basically a huge vacuum leak. The hardcoded Load tables were closer to what the other 7 cylinders were actually doing, though.

 

[TurboFiat124]

Fiat Spider:

1) Magnetic pickup
2) V-belt, The belt had stretched and flipped itself inside out and was still on the pulleys! I was able to walk about 1/4 mile to Autozone and get a new one.
3) Rigged the fuel pump to run off the tail light. The bakelite material fuse holder had melted. Being being fuel injected, I had now idea where the loss in power in the circuity was since power has to go through a relay, air flow meter, etc.

There has to be other roadside repairs I've done to this car in the 25 years I've owned it.

Trabant:
1) a couple of fuel filters, lawnmower fuel filters don't last long, too much garbage in fuel these days.
2) Broken throttle return spring
3) Cover that "covers" the points had worked loose and was dangling causing one of the sets of points to short out.

Yugo:

1) broken clutch cable

 

[Anduril]

My wife did one I'm quite proud of. Coolant hose burst right where it clamped to the pipe. In the same parking lot as AAuto Zoneso she borrowed a pair of channel locks, undid the clamp, stretched the hose so the tear was on the outside of the clamp, filled the radiator with water from Jack in the Box, and drove the car home. I had already ordered that hose, and was in the process of changing them all; it came the next day.

I think the only one I've had to do myself was fixing a broken ground wire on the starter. Why won't my car crank? Oh, maybe this broken wire over here has something to do with it.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Late August of 1960 on Berthoud Pass west of Denver.Going home to Albuquerque after working in the Medicine Bow near Ryan Park, Wyoming. One of the six volt coil lugs on our 1950 Ford V8 broke off just above the terminal. We used a two part epoxy to hold terminal on what was left of the stud. Ran fine for awhile, but then on the east side of the pass the engine quit. Apparently the epoxy was conductive until it cured and then--nothing. Remember we coasted all the way down to Empire,CO where there was a Ford dealer right there on US-40. Purchased a new coil and made it all the way to south of Taos,NM where we slept for the night.

 

[mister_two]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
I did get home though on Sunday morning without having to call a wrecker....driving along the Merritt Parkway and I-95 with no lights.


I HATE the Merritt Parkway. Such a terrible road, and driving at night like that with no lights? Lucky you made it home alive!!

I haven't had any roadside repairs knock on wood.


But it's so lovely in the fall when the leaves are changing colors.

 

[cjcride]

Replaced flat tire with spare.

 

[ecotourist]

I had to pull off and throw the back muffler in the trunk (once) and sling up the exhaust with wire (another time) on my '86 Volvo.

That car was famous for dragging its exhaust in the middle of long trips. After a 1500 Km drive to Vancouver I arrived with the exhaust dragging (the third time).

But my most interesting field repair was the distributor on my '65 Comet. I was at my in-laws for the week-end and the car just wouldn't start. I eventually figured out that the rotor wasn't turning and that was because a pin holding a gear at the bottom of the central shaft had fallen out. I pounded a bit of heavy wire that happened to be the right size through the hole and it worked perfectly. All done with tools that I carried. I never did replace it with a proper pin.

 

[BrownBox88]

Rear driver side spindle on a 2008 BMW 135i. My buddy claims he tightened the lug nuts after getting new set of rims and tires. Rear driver side flew off, the spindle hit the road and also flew off.

NEVER AGAIN.

 

[berniedd]

The only (but many) roadside repairs I have done were on our old 1968 VW Beetle over a 30 year period from 1978 to 2008. I carry a full set of tools and replacement parts for such occasions.

Changed a broken accelerator cable.

Replaced a broken clutch cable years later. If you know air-cooled Beetles, you know the whole gas-brake-clutch pedal assembly has to come off to change the accelerator or clutch cable.

Went to fetch my daughter at school and car wouldn't start. It had spark. Replaced a bad fuel pump.

Replaced a fractured clutch pedal arm. It is part of a whole assembly containing the gas and brake pedals, all of these had to come off too. Not fun! Especially since it happened in the middle of a very busy street at dusk and I had to push the car all by myself for half a mile to the nearest parking lot. Nobody stepped up to give me a hand. I parked it there overnight, bought a new assembly the next day and installed it in 2 hours without help.

Once had a fire in the dash due to a grounded wiring short in the ignition switch. Lots of melted wires up front. So I removed the positive battery cable to prevent more damage. I also removed the wire to the + ignition coil post and rigged a long wire from the positive battery post to the + ignition coil terminal. We push started the car, it ran fine and got home safely in the dark running without lights.

Not a roadside repair, but car developed overheating condition. Turned out to be due to a shop rag that had gotten wedged in the cooling fan vanes.

 

[ndfergy]

Fortunately in my 35 years of driving I've only had two roadside repairs. The repairs were no biggie but the circumstances were. One in particular:

Driving home from college durring a brutal snowstorm I took an off the beaten path shortcut. Proud of myself for making good progress, as fate would have it, my car died. With only a light jacket on (cool=form over function) I popped the hood to inspect but was pretty sure what the problem was - it was my points. Fortunately I was planning to change them anyway because they were slightly pitted and had a replacement in the glovebox. So, freezing my nuts off, gapping them with my cigarette pack, then stripping the leads because the connectors were the same gender I was finally able to fix it and restart the car. I don't think I've ever been so cold. I can imagine I must have looked like the most incompetant driver ever stalling and jerking the car with the clutch and generally driving like a granny until I managed to warm back up.

Those were the days!

 

[kc8adu]

lots of little stuff on my vehicles over the years.worst was an alternator and belt.bearing froze up and ate the belt.
but the most involved was a friends ford superduty he bought cheap for "hard starting"
he bought it in chicago and got to indy when it just died.he had a scantool and told me no ficm main voltage.
i packed up tools,parts,and an inverter that could run my heatgun and soldering station.repaired the ficm on the side of i-70.
all 4 current sense resistors had seperated from the board.
did my mods to it too.has run perfect ever since.he paid $500 for the truck and figured the injectors were shot.
turns out someone else did all the expensive stuff and the p.o gave up too easily.the truck was worth more in scrap than he paid and the fix was easy(to me)

 

[BobandWeave]

Read through this great thread. Some of the stunts are true McGuyver.

Not quite roadside but parking-lot. Waiting in the line for a ferry on Whidbey Island, WA. Played the radio for 30 min [is there anything wrong with that??? I'm not stupid, made sure lights were off!]

Line starts moving. Engine won't crank. Battery dead. I'm instantly holding up the queue. The ferry guys have seen this plenty. They wheel over in a pickup, orange light-bar flashing, highlighting my plight. They jump-start me.

On the ferry, I (probably illegally), keep my engine idling for a long while to charge the battery (car deck was open air). Mercifully, car later starts ok. Disembark. Drive straight to Costco. Did battery swap in their lot.

Just a note that this happened on vacation, in a different country than my own.

 

[Olas]

The one that sticks out in my memory was a snapped accelerator cable that didn't quite have enough slack to fix the two ends back together.
I used a leather man and a cable tie to rig the remains of the snapped cable to the choke handle to be able to modulate the throttle, with the benefit of finding a way to improvise a cruise control system in a completely mechanical vehicle

 

[Claud]

I hae used a wire cot hanger for a plug wire, a tree branch for a Lans Rover front road spring, My father stuffed tires with straw after two flat tires in one trip, this on a 1940's Morris 10hp. He told me when he was in India driving an army truck carrying water he plumbed the cooling system into the water tank after the radiator burst.

Claud.

 

[y_p_w]

I've done my fair share of spare tire replacements. However, we have freeway patrol mechanics paid by counties to do basic repairs and change spares. They figure getting broken down cars moving again helps with traffic conditions. I had one arrive before I could even get out of my car. I was wearing a suit, so that helped a lot. Another time I was finishing up, the driver saw me waving him off, and decided there wasn't much he could do.

I've also used a stop leak before on a cracked radiator tank. It wasn't an ideal fix, but it kept the radiator from completely spewing out all the coolant long enough to get it home. Kind of reminds me of the episode of M*A*S*H where Klinger is forced to use his bottles of Chateau Margaux to replace the lost coolant in his Jeep.

Once I borrowed my dad's car when someone just backed into it in a supermarket parking lot. I was in the car, but fully parked in a designated space. I took the driver's insurance info and her insurance paid for the full repair. However, the brake light housing was busted. I went back into the supermarket and went to their fairly extensive (for a supermarket) auto parts aisle. They actually had translucent red repair tape.

I could have used a spare belt though. I know it's conceptually easy, but I don't really like working on anything in tight spaces.

I'm curious as to why keep an old belt? They're kind of dirty, and I've seen new belts for less than $10 each. As long as it hasn't been used, shouldn't they last indefinitely. And if it needs to be installed, a previously unused one wouldn't need to be replaced, although maybe the tension might be adjusted in better conditions than on the side of the road.

 

[Stag]

The most memorable one I have was many years ago in a near new 1976 Honda Civic 5speed. On leave from the service, went on a weekend jaunt with a young lady to a "cabin in the mountains" that she had access to. The road turned into a jeep trail, I was about to turn back, when there was a great lurch of the car and a crashing noise. I got out and the car had slipped into a rut with a sharp rock jutting up- and my gas tank had a slit in it that had my fuel streaming out. Somehow I managed to get the car tuned around and heading back down the hill before running out of gas. Rolled several miles down toward the town of Bodfish (outside Bakersfield Ca.), then pushed the car the last way to town. I tried making a wedge out of soap to plug the tank- fell out. Made another wedge of soap and glued it with whatever the gas station/quikee-mart had, put some gas in the tank and settled in to the motel for the night.(this being a weekend, no auto places open). Next morning, started the car and we headed back to San Diego. Got just past the gas station and the car quit. One look at the repair job showed me it hadn't held.A walk back to the gas station proccurred a 1 gal gas can and some tubing that I made into an auxillary gas tank where the fuel filter was , underneath the back seat. We drove back to San Diego with the windows open because the gas fumes were bad, stopping for fuel to put in our l little tank it seemed like at every station.

 

[ford46guy]

Old Crown Vic, started it by jumping the broken starter relay on the fender.