History BREAK DOWNS ON THE ROAD TO OR FROM A EVENT.

blew the engine in the 40 coming home from the Nats in Louisville in 2015. AAA picked it up for the rest of the way home.

 

Back in the day when I was an always broke MP in the Army I had an old beater Chevy 4x4 carryall. On a trip home on a 3 day pass I burned a hole in a piston on the 230 straight 6. I asked an old time machinist in town if he thought I could limp the truck the 500 miles back to my post. He convinced me to pull the pan and head and remove the piston in question. A buddy and I proceeded to remove number 4 piston and took it down to his shop. He promptly removed a piston and rod assembly from an exchange core motor someone had just turned in and replaced it with my piston/rod. I buttoned up the 230 with the used piston/rod and made it back to post no problem, In fact it ran so well I made the 1000 mile round trip home on another 3 day pass before I replaced the 6 with a 327small block.

 

OK
On one of our trips to the Great Northwest. I left early to make sure I got to the first meeting place on time. I had just changed oil and I also changed the breather system on the valve covers. 2 hours into my trek I started smelling hot oil. Now I had smelled a bit on and off for the last hour but I thought it was just a bit of oil dripping out of the breathers. I looked over the gauges and noticed my oil pressure was very low. Pulled off to the side of the road on the 71 and noticed the whole left side of the roadster was covered in oil!!!!!!!!!!!! Took the hood off and found the oil filter and expanded and wore a hole in it from rubbing on the frame. It is now 3am. I called AAA and the sent out a roll back. The nice young man was a gear head. Asked me what I needed. I told him 5 quarts of oil, 1 oil filter, a hack saw, and a quart of Lucas oil stabilizer and some engine cleaner. He said no sweat. There is a 24 hour Walmart just up the road. Loaded me on the roll back and off we go. Get to Walmart, buy all the stuff I need. The guy unloads me, helps me cut the filter off, helps me fill it with oil. cleans up the mess we made. And asks if there is any thing else I need. I say uhhhh yeah I need a DIY car wash. He says follow me. We fire up the Roadster and it does not make any unusual noises so off we go. We get to the car wash, I give him a 50 dollar tip and spend the next half hour washing off as much oil as I can. Call the group I am supposed to meet up with and they are just leaving the 1st meeting place. I said OK I'll catch ya. We had a set Itinerary as to gas stops and lunch stop. I am 2 hours behind. took me 5 hours but I caught them. Over the next week every time we stopped for the night I went and bout 5 cans of engine cleaner and cleaned. Did I mention my car was in PRIMER!!!! By the time we left for home it was finally clean!!!!

 

Last year my kids wanted to be in a parade.. We took the 41 convertible. When we left the staging area (grass) one tire was dead flat. I cut across the lawn to the edge of the route- there was a local tire company running a fleet of trucks in the parade. Got air in the tire and pulled out exactly into the space/order we were supposed to be in. Quick eye on my wife seeing that truck ahead.
Other not terribly exciting but here it is. Dual carb linkage fubared on my 56. No throttle action at all. No good tools or parts at hand for that today- adjusted the "idle" to about 2800 rpm and carried on. Got some looks at intersections but it worked!

 

I've had a few. It seems I have trouble keeping gas in my rigs, or push it just a little too far. I think I;ve had to call for gas 5 times in the last 3 years, often within blocks of home.

Aside from that, I broke an alternator bracket once on a Route 66 run about 8-9 hours away from home when I was 17. Typical sbc short water pump bracket for headers, bolts to the front 2 header bolts on the driver's side. It tore up the belt and cocked the alternator sideways. I caught a ride with another participant into the closest town, bought a new belt, and completed the run and nursed the car home.

Another time I broke the clutch pivot ball on the way to a Super Chevy Show. Young and dumb, about halfway there, after a gas stop I was hammering on it on a freeway onramp, all of a sudden I had no more clutch. Pulled over and checked it out, found the problem. Nursed it the rest of the way to the show, using the starter to get it moving each time I stopped and shifting on the synchros. While at the show I wandered the swap meet, hoping, but not expecting to find another clutch ball. Finally, I ran across a guy who had a 409 block he was trying to sell, completely bare except for the pivot ball I needed. I swear that thing had a golden glow around it. Changed it in the parking lot with a pair of needle nose and my fingertips. 25 years or so later that pivot ball is still with my car.

Why are we always so proud to tell our tales?

Devin

 

Some may say the vehicle involved was OT, but if a '64 Jeep 4wd pickup with sbc power ain't a hot rod, it's close!
Bought this thing in mid 70's about 2 weeks before an already scheduled trip to Cumberland Island, one of the "Golden Isles" on the GA coast, about 15 miles long and 4 miles wide art the widest point. Driving the truck around and doing a check of all the driveline convinced me the truck could make the trip and be quite an asset on the island, which could be reached only by private ferry which required reservation and advance payment and had a rather rigid schedule that required an early start from home to make the 300 miles to the ferry landing in Fernandina, FL
Somehow we overslept that morning and had to flog the Hell outta that worn out '56 265cid sbc to make it in time for ferry departure. By then all the fluids were hot, the oil was thin, and the crank sounded like it was swapping ends cause the mains were so loose, but we had made it!
After a couple of days on the island, driving the old Jeep p'up around and doing fine we made plans to make a run up to Lake Whitney, a fresh water lake near the North end of the island and surrounded on 3 sides by sand dunes. This was our 3rd trip to this island, the lake was about 10-12 miles from our camp site on private property whose owner allowed us to camp there. The island had a few jeep trails , but this was our first time with something that would make that trip in and over the sand dunes to the lake, and off we went!
Doing great and within sight of the lake when a big bump in "road" resulted in a big "WHAM" and a series of ominous sounding thumps from underneath caused me to stop, and get out, with the engine still idling.
The driveshaft to the front axle had come up when we hit that bump and hit the starter on the engine and the starter was broken off, a chunk of the bell housing still attached, and was dangling down hanging by the battery cable!
Knew I couldn't do anything till the engine and related cooled off, so I switched it off, we walked to the lake and spent awhile looking and doing the sight seeing we had come to do. Then after time for stuff to cool, we went back and I surveyed the damage. The starter looked OK, and the chunk broken out of bell housing was still there, bolted to the starter. Had a few tools with me and during the sight seeing while the truck had cooled down I saw an old wire fence from long ago. Took some wire cutters and cut wire off the old fence till I figured I had enough and crawled under and wired that starter back in place enough to where my-14 year old son could wedge it in place with the handle of the axe I had in the truck. Started the truck and back to camp we went!
Got a roll of bailing wire that was back at camp in big tool box, fashioned "cables" from multiple strands of bailing wire and more securely wired the starter in place, drove the truck around the island till we left several days later then after ferry ride 300 miles back home!
Tore the thing down. cleaned up the bell housing and ni-rod welded the bell housing back together and it was fine, even after I built a 283 and used it again till the day I sold the truck. Kid who bought it was friend of my son and it was still doing fine when he sold it.

 

When ever we travel in a group which is quite often, i usually make sure I'm the last car.
I carry a bag of tools, a coil, some plug wires of different lengths, several different gauges of electrical wire and connectors, fuses for cars from the 50's to the present and more stuff i'm forgetting.
ive been able to help folks several times the last few years.

 

Had a 64 impala SS, somewhere around 1989. Was going from K-Falls to Portland, OR for roadster show. About dusk going thru Wilsonville I turned on the lights. Lights started getting dimmer and dimmer. 1 exit from where I was staying as the lights got dimmer, had a Stater pull me over, for you guessed it, dim lights. After I shut the car off It would not start. I told the State cop my predicament and with the bubble gums on he pushed me with his cop car to where I was staying. The buddy I was staying with was crapping his pants, wondering what the h was going on in front of his place. We put the charger on the battery in his garage, next morning off we go to Glisan auto parts to pick up an alternator. Replaced the alternator, drop my buddies spare battery in, since mine was not fully charged, and all is well with the world. First time I am driving in Portland and somewhere on the way to the roadster the two way street I was driving on turned into a one way. Next thing ya know I am driving wrong way on one way street. So I burn A u turn back in the correct direction on the one way. Get to roadster show. Get inside then hear an overhead page for person owning light brow Impala SS Or lisc # blah blah blah to return to their car. I rush back to parking area, car is on fire. I arrive just as security guy is about to break the glass to find the hood latch. I stop that from happening. Security puts the fire out. What I found on inspection is that when I burnt the hasty u turn his battery which was not as wide as mine had slid in the battery tray, putting the hot side in contact with the wire hold down. hold down must have just gotten red hot and it melted into battery top then proceeded to catch fire. So I call My buddy from a pay phone, leave message to meet me when he was off work. I just wanted to go get some new battery cables a small length of wire, my battery and and a new hold down and just fix it where it sat. He brings his beater Datsun pickup and insists on flat towing the Impala 10 miles t back to his house. As we are getting closer and closer to the house the burning clutch smell is getting worse and worse. He is yelling at me out the open window to quit riding the brakes. Get back to his house and the smoke is rolling out from under his truck. evidently he had never pulled anyone before as he was riding the clutch and not letting it fully engage. AAAAAUGH. So Saturday morning back to Glisan auto parts again to get a new clutch for his pickup, and stuff I need to get my car going. I get my car going. Get the new clutch back in his Datsun, get cleaned up and off we go to go get food. We're on 102nd coming from division back toward Glisan and some dude pulls up at a red light and wants to race. So I ablige and shifting from second to third BANG car now longer is putting power to the ground, we coast to the convenience store around the corner from his house. We pushed My 64 from about two blocks to his place. Figure out that the left rear axle is broke. Its now 9pm on Saturday, I figure Im shit outa luck til Monday. My buddy says there is an auto parts store that is up off 122nd that is open 24 hrs. We go to see if they have an axle by chance. Guy at counter says now, but his sisters boyfriend has a bel air 4 door parts car. As luck would have it the Axle was in it but boyfriend would not be home from work til 8 am Sunday. At this point it is beyond beer thirty, so being 21 years, dumb as hell my buddy and I go back and drink most of the night. Dude from parts store calls us at 830 am says to get over to address where car was. Hungover as all hell we get there guy lets me have the axle if I pull it. We get the axle out after about 4 hours, since the brake drums were froze. At this point we get back to my buddy's house. We both are tired, I am pissed cause the weekend was a bust, and I spent my whole budget for the weekend and the whole weekend fixing shit. Get the axle back in my car about 8pm that Sunday night. I took about a nap, then left Portland about 145 am, Rolled into work Monday morning about 8am my boss say must have been a fun weekend because you look like shit. Needless to say I sold that car about a week later after I steeped through the floor under the back seat when I had the seats out putting the new stereo in and replacing the package tray. I swear that car was the perfect storm. That little fawn beige 327 4 speed car was fast and fun while I had it but man oh man....

 

I have 2 misadventures to relate. Misadventure #1 went to the NSRA show in Spokane back in '99 the old man had an inner rear axle bearing get stuck (immobile that is) in his '34 Plymouth. Well 6 hours and a lot of work later they got the old bearing off, installed and greased the new one and off we went. Misadventure #2 back in '87 we were driving through Star Valley Wyoming during Tex Smiths Grand Tetons run when my friends '35 Ford coupe experienced transmission issues. After checking all nuts, bolts and brackets, it turned out to be a loose bolt on the rear differential cover. After tightening the bolt were on our way.


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Testing a carb adjustment on the 33, up to the bypass, 35 mile round trip, no stores, shops, just a bunch of farm houses where the new interstate bypass cuts through, dropped off the interstate, turned under the bridge and nailed the 33 for the acoustics ( we all do this in tunnels and under bridges don't we??)..little "POP" ..then nothing. Popped the hood, took a few seconds to realize the spark plug wires shouldn't be bunched up in such a spiral formation. Rotor screws had backed out, caught the cap and spun the cap disconnecting from the cap or the plugs....no tools, but I had an electrical ring lug on my keychain as a reminder to purchase more...it made a fine screwdriver...during this time, a trooper, a sheriff, a towing shop owner and two Harley's stopped to offer help...AND all of them was asking why I was out in the sticks by myself....made it home ok


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Most embarrassing? On the way home from the Turkey Run one year, I ran out of gas. I had an easy-going, fun time at the show that weekend and the weather was so nice the morning we left, I simply forgot to fill it up. 2/3 of the way home.... sputter, sputter. Call the road ranger. Fuck. Gary

 

It was a nice fall day and we decided to take the 32 mordor to the V8 club's picnic at Lake Greenwood,we left home at 8:30 AM to meet up with the 4 others going to the picnic.

the trip was uneventful but when we arrived at the shelter I pushed in the clutch to back into the parking space and the clutch would not engage and you all know the sound that makes.

After lunch I borrowed a jack and raised the car up enough to adjust the clutch linkage and everything was good.

A couple of hours later we bid our goodbys to the guys from the lower part of the state and set out to go home,,,

Just when we got to the front entrance of the park I pressed in the clutch and heard a snap and the the clutch pedal went to the floor.

Several guys helped push the car to a shady spot and I got the jack again but already knew it wasn't going to be a simple fix,,sure enough the pivot ball for the clutch arm had snapped.



Nothing any of us could do this far from home except get on the phone for help and a trailer,I told all the other guys to go ahead and head for home,nothing to do but wait.

Brenda and I talked about it and there was nothing to get upset about,it can be fixed when I locate the part.

I've been close to 17,000 miles in this car over the past 13 years and I guess the law of averages finally caught up with me.

About 2 hours later my pals Dave and Steve arrived with a trailer and we got the car loaded.



After a long day we finally arrived home around 6:30 PM but due to the way my driveway around to the back of my house narrows and turns sharply we unloaded the car from the trailer and pushed it around behind the house up a slight hill backwards with my wife driving and all this went well.

Then I got in my pickup to pull the car uphill to be able to back the car down into the old shop,everything was fine until I heard a horrible sound,like running over a cardboard box but it wasn't a cardboard box,it was the front splash apron being crumpled by the tow strap that had slipped from the position I had it on the axle.





They ain't all great days,but I do have great friends and my to do list had just got a little longer. HRP

 

A few years ago, I was headed home from a days drive. I was in the middle of down town Houston, when the throttle cable broke. I walked to a store and bought some string. Attached it to the carb and ran it over the windshield. Drove that way for 15 miles, until I found a parts store.

I stopped using those cheap cable throttles soon after.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share ,,most of us have multiple story's to tell.HRP

 

I have been lucky that none of my old cars had any problems on the road but my late model truck loaded with furniture decided to burn a hole in a piston coming home from my sisters house in New York,was able to drive it 500 miles on 7 cylinders blowing oil out the breather and all over the motor.

 

Always carry a toolbox and some spare parts. Here's a few I captured,


Alt bolt


And a fuel pump

 

Was headed back to Rapid City, SD on a Sunday from The Suedes show in Hillsboro, ND(1200 miles round trip). Stopped in Lisbon, ND for fuel. Looking over the '29 I discovered a cracked rear coilover shock mount. Asked some locals where I could get some welding done on a Sunday. Went to the shop and the fellow was there and no kidding was dressed to go to a wedding. He didn't hesitate to throw on some coveralls and welded both sides. He probably did $100 worth of welding but I only had $20 cash so I said I'll give you the $20 and take you for a ride. He said sure and was excited about it. He wanted to drive by his boss's house to show him the '29 so we did. That's the only problem the '29 has given in all the miles it's travelled since getting it in the road in 2003.

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I'd forgotten this. I was headed home from Springfield Mo. show and flipped a fan belt off. Of course I was paying close enough attention and it led to a boiling radiator. While I was on the side of the road Mo Junk came along and we were about 40 mi from his place. Nursed it there and replaced the stat and tried it but going down the road the temp would climb, so back to his place. After spending a few hours without getting anywhere I decided to call my son to come with my trailer. It took a bit to find the underlying problem. It had cooked so bad, from info given by another passerby I figure I drove about 20 mi after the belt flipped, that the aluminum tubes in the radiator had expanded and they were touching each other and no air could pass through. Holding the radiator up towards the sun no light came through. After installing a new radiator the car was fine. .

 

That's good to know about the aluminum radiator. I'm going to take a look at mine today!

Mo Junk is a good guy. I met him years ago at a traditional show in Caledonia, Mo. Those were the days! I still see him a couple of times a year.

 

It looks good. It's been hot before, but not boiled over.

 

I was on my way home from the 1983 nats south when it was in Columbia,South Carolina in my model A pickup when the throttle cable attachment on back of the gas pedal snapped,

I eased over to the side of the road and discovered that it couldn't be repaired with what I had on hand,so time to think outside the box.

The solution was simple, My bride said,"why not use the shoulder strap that clips on my pocket book"(purse for you non-southerns).

I proceeded to remove the hood and put it in the bed,I pushed the windshield out and ran the strap under the windshield to the carburetor.

I was able to drive home with the pulling of the strap to give the engine gas,It was a quick & crude repair but it worked like a charm.HRP

 

Events getting towed over the past 25 years in different hot rods and muscle cars.
36 Ford, points closed up.
71 Chevelle, MSD burned up.
71 Chevelle, loose electrical connections and splices. ( The cause of numerous MSD subsequent failures.
71 Chevelle, Fuel pump flange cracked and the pump exited the block. ( Hot tip, check for loose mounting bolts on all your BBC & SBC fuel pumps.
53 Lincoln Capri, full shut down from chafed hot cable to the starter contacting upper control arm.
53 Lincoln Capri. Torque converter failure.
32 Roadster, general foolishness.
32 Roadster. A 6 month visit to a body shop.
66 Satellite. Broken coil wire in a dark location.
99 Eldorado ETC. Expired alternator.
99 Eldorado ETC. Ran out of coolant ( My fault, drove without the radiator cap fully secured after checking the level earlier in the morning.)
Probably many more but you get the idea.

Just a few examples why I keep my AAA membership card on me whenever I'm driving these old things. Hey they're old and stuff happens, gotta expect it. Part of the adventure.

Always got me home......eventually.



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My wife knows the first name of every tow truck driver in the area.
From an electrical ignition problem, lost oil pressure, bad generators, feed wire shorts to name a few.


In my old age...
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked.....
the good fortune to run into the ones I do.....
and the eyesight to tell the difference.

 

This one happen when I was around town.

I would be driving and all of a sudden the car acted like I was out of gas and sputtering,it might crank and it might not.

I replaced both filters,test drive proved that didn't solve my problem.

I was convinced after blowing out the fuel line it was my fuel pump,I replaced it.

No dice,I had to call a roll back.

Knowing there was one more piece that now was almost 20 years old I bought a new carburetor, I drove the car about 10 miles and was convinced my problems were over.

The next Saturday we got in the sedan and headed out to a local cruse-in and dammit,the car cut off and the filter was dry,again I called my friend with a rollback and told him to take it to his shop and see if he could find my problem.

Monday morning he called me and said,"I have fixed your car and you owe me a buck for the part and 2o bucks labor"

He ask me how long had the car been built and I said almost 20 years,he laughed and said come get the car.

When I arrived he was holding this small piece of rubber gas line,it was between the gas tank and the hard gas line and had split and probably sucking more air than gas.

Age and Ethanol is not kind to rubber. HRP

 

A couple of years ago, I was going to back the '32 out of the trailer (storage trailer) and when I set the choke and hit the key, it fired right up and hit the rev limiter!

Got to looking at it and found it had frayed the inner throttle cable and the show was on! Just glad no one was around and I had it in neutral! Totally scared the Bejesus out of me!

Replaced it with a nice soft stainless cable and it's been fine ever since.

 

Mine had really cooked. My radiator guy said the only other time he'd seen that happen was a circle track racer who was running in front and wouldn't pull in because he was sure he'd would win if he didn't. I was afraid the problem was warped heads. After teardown I found one was a warped bit but not enough to blow the gasket. Only found the radiator problem by accident. The passerby who stopped before Sam told me I'd passed him about 15-20 mi back and was trailing a bit of water. I just wasn't paying attention to the gauges that morning. I've also changed to a deeper alternator pulley and haven't flipped a belt since and that was 8 years ago

 

My cars are for driving so if it's on a trailer it's probably broken.

If you drive any car enough it will eventually leave you stranded, but that's part of the adventure. And I've had a few of those adventures.

Years ago I met some friends at a Friday night cruise in about an hour from home.
When it came time to leave the starter in my friend's Plymouth had given up.
After an hour of me lying under the car beating the starter with a tire iron and cursing, we gave up on getting the car started. 200 cars out that night and the only person to offer help suggested we try push starting the 273 automatic
Another friend worked at a garage up the road so we decided to try and get the car there.
A thorough search of all vehicles left us without anything to use as a tow strap so we started pushing, young, dumb and full of, energy.
I pushed on the pillar and steered while my two friends pushed on the trunk.
After a few hundred yards the car got really heavy and I looked back to see my friends doubled over trying to catch their breath. I kept pushing since the car was now on a busy 4 lane road.
Next thing I know I can hear an engine and the car is taking off! I thought the car somehow started and was in gear and driving away, then I saw it.
One friend driving his mustang and the other sitting on the hood, pushing the Plymouth with his feet. I did my best dukes of hazard through the window and steered us to the garage.
We left the Plymouth behind the shop to be fixed the next day and then my friend's peeled out in the mustang and left me to walk back to my car!


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You call them FRIENDS!!! With friends like that a guy doesn't need any enemies. LOL

 

One of my dads cars has an AOD trans and that trans is very sensitive to throttle valve cable adjustment, so when he got the car running the first place he drove it was to his friend's transmission shop to get the TV cable setup checked. Just before the entrance to the shop are some railroad tracks and when the crossed the tracks the car died. He coasted right in to an open bay in the tranny shop. I had wired the car so he called me to see if I had any ideas. Now it's important to note that I'm an accountant and the mechanics at the shop all got a great laugh at the idea of me sitting at my desk in a suit and tie, diagnosing a no start over the phone.
Now that car has an electric fuel pump and I always wire in a ford inertia switch when I wire a car with an electric pump. The inertia switch kills power to the fuel pump if you get in an accident. Turns out my dad had mounted the switch on it's side and driving over the train tracks had the same effect on the switch as being rear ended.
I heard one of the mechanics say "tell your kid to go back to counting beans and leave fixing cars to the pros" and "there's nothing in the trunk of an old car that would make it not run" as I told him to press the red button in the trunk and try the key.


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Last year on our way to Nashville about 100 miles into the trip all of a sudden I noticed smoke coming from the left rear tire on my coupe.After pulling over quickly and inspecting the axle looked like it was working it's way out and only the tire hitting the fender stopped the disaster. I could see 3/4 of the brake lining. A contractor stopped and had a hydraulic jack to get the car high enough to push the wheel back in towards the pig.(Its a 9")
Called AAA for a roll back and found one name in the NSRA fellow pages in Champaign Illinois, Tim who said to bring it to his "shop" which turned out to be an industrial unit that was fully equipped and had his cars and projects also.
After tearing it apart the retaining ring had come loose and the axle started walking out.
Tim took me to get parts and the use of his tools, had to buy a length of 2" black pipe to pound the bearing and ring on and buttoned it up and on our way.
Drove about 40 miles and the rain and wind forced us to stop.After seeing the forecast and flood warnings for Nashville we decided to just go home and live to travel another day.
When I got home I replaced the el cheapo Autozone bearings with Strange and no problems since.
If you're reading this Tim thanks again and I'll search you out in Morris or Frog Follies.