Art & Inspiration Road side repair stories

Everyone that builds or drives cars and trucks has had something break during a trip or outing. What are your favorite or most unforgettable roadside repair stories? I remember in the late 80s making a trip up to Iowa in my classic Bronco from Ft. Hood TX. Dropped a lobe on the cam almost half way. Wound up changing the cam and lifters in an Auto Zone parking lot. Everything was going OK until the cam wouldn't clear the grill while pulling it out. I wound up cutting a letter out of the grill to make a hole to get the cam out. Flushed the oil before installing the cam and again after getting the new one in and running the car for 5 min. The repair is still visible where I welded the letter back into the grill. I still have the same cam in it too.

 

In 2019, a valve spring in my low miles SBC crate motor in my avatar broke, several hundred miles from home, on the first day of a ten day trip.
Luckily I was near a freeway exit and limped it to a nearby truck stop that had a repair shop. I parked in the shade. The mechanic was just taking a break, so he called around and found a spring on the other side of the city, a 30 minute drive.
Using the Fellow Pages, I called around and found a local rodder who was just about to knock off for the day. He drove a half hour from his worksite to the parts store, then a half hour to my location.
It took the two of us about 20 minutes to make the repair and I was back on the road.
The trip was a success. He bought me a spare which I haven't needed.

 

I had a 65 ElCamino in the early 70's, took it fishing one time on a pretty hairy mountain gravel road and the original idler arm seperated, pushed it back in place, took a chain type fish stringer and wrapped it around the idler arm and went on our way, drove back home 60 miles like that.

 

1972 ... '48 Chev coupe with a '54 engine, somewhere in Wyoming ... the night before, something weird starts happening with the temp gauge - it goes from normal half-a-gauge to hot, then back to normal. Does same thing half a dozen times. Spend night at rest area. First thing the next day, it blows all the antifreeze out on the hiway. Gotta be the thermostat, right ? Pull stat, replace coolant with melted ice from cooler. Fire up, head down the road, 4 miles later blows water out on hiway. Scratch head, drink beer. Something wrong with pump ???? Pull car into a wedge in the merge area on freeway & jerk pump. Pull backing plate, & sure as hell, the plastic (!) impeller has come loose on shaft. Drink beers. How to fix ? Pull the .002 gauge from feeler gauge set, cut into several strips, wedge impeller onto shaft, replace pump. Still working when the car is sold for down payment on 1st house 1974.

 

Had just put in a new set of points in my '54 1/2 ton Chevy truck, driving along the interstate the following day
and the motor just dies. Logically, I go back to the last thing I did before that happened, pulled the distributor
cap and the little carbon pad on the points was laying inside the distributor. Had a flat blade screwdriver in the
glove box, eye-balled the setting for the points without the carbon tip, started right up and drove that way for
another 30 miles...gotta love the old stovebolts....not much a pair of pliers, wire, tape and screwdriver can't fix...

 

Continued....
How to replace the valve spring?
Took a 6 foot USB cable, folded it in half and fed it into the spark plug hole.
Put a socket on crank pulley to bring piston up tight against valve.
Put a socket on the retainer, popped it with the ratchet, keepers come out. Viola!
To reassemble, I put the rocker nut back on the rocker stud. Using two open end wrenches under the nut, in an upside down V to press down on the retainer. The helper installed the keepers.
Removed the phone cable, installed the spark plug. adjusted the valve, installed valve cover and was on my way.

 

Driving home in a 54 ford Anglia and the rear lower coilover shock mount snapped. Found house brick at the side of the road, jacked the car up, sat the brick on top of the axle and lowered the car so that the chassis rested on the brick which let me drive slowly home

 

Not exactly a roadside repair but got a non running (vintage OT) vehicle to the next pit stop.
I was taking a '56 VW home which involved catching a ferry to the main land.
I knew the car was low on gas but was not going to buy the high price of gas on the island,
probably $1.50 on island verses the $1.25 off.
Of course it wouldn't start when time to disembark, yup out of gas.
Looking down the huge filler neck I could see there was about 1/2" of gas in the tank.
As the deck hands watched wide eyed, I opened a half box of Heidelberg beer,
and carefully lowered six of the bottles down through the oversized VW fill neck,
raising the gas level to just above the outlet pipe.
Fired it up and drove straight to the nearest gas station.
The station attendant watched, again wide eyed, as I reached down into the tank to fish the six bottles back out.

 

Lost the clutch pedal due to pivot bolt breaking off. Robbed a body bolt from front passenger floor board and away we went.

 

Northern Idaho winter driving down hill on frozen washboard in my '49 Ford flatbed.
The battery jumped out of it's tray and landed on the distributor
knocking the cap off and breaking the rotor clean in two.
'taped the two halves back together and drove on to the next parts house.
bought a new rotor and fresh bungy cord for the battery.

 

On the way to the nats in okc (1991) , It was getting late and my buddy hits a recap laying in the lane. It pushed the fender in to the tire cutting it, lucky we right by emporia ks. We get a new tire in the morning and on our way until one of the other cars drops a rear u joint 10 miles out of town, so back to town we go. Get a u joint at Napa (th350 and ford 9 inch parts guy found the right part) using a hammer and socket install u joint in the parking lot. Installed drive shaft on the side of the highway.

 

1965 Pontiac Tempest with air shocks. Overnight camping/keg killing trip with some buddies and girl friends.
Broken air line. Tires wider than wheel wells. 30 miles from home, at least 10 miles to civilization. Nasty hangover.
Jack up right side with bumper jack as high as it would go using a tree stump under the frame for safety.
Hammer in a large piece of firewood between floor pan and rear end housing. Repeat on drivers side. Hangover cured.
Rode like a lumber wagon but made it to a gas station where proper repair with proper equipment was made.

 

69 Lincoln 4 piston calipers on the front brakes . Driving about 2 hours from home right side caliper decides to seize up .

get it off to the shoulder of the highway . Scratch our heads .

pip off the hub cap , loosen the wheel bearing , with the car turned off jerk the wheel left and right so the weight of the car pushed the pistons back and away we went !!!
Lasted about 30 minutes then would start to bind , pull over and “jerk it” And away we go !

 

One night a few of us were in my early Bronco. I rammed a tree branch through the grill and holed the radiator bad. We were in the middle of nowhere, next to the Brandywine river. We sat in the truck discussing things like eggs and pepper, not that we had any. Someone said "a potato". We did have a big bag of O'Grady's Au Gratin chips and a bag of Andy Capp's Hot Fries. Four of us sat chewing it up and horking it into a pile. I jammed the slimy ball of drool and chips into the effected area of the radiator. I took off the surf tag and used it to mash the mung ball through the radiator. A nice bloom came out the other side. A stick jammed between the radiator support and the tag held it in. Filled it from the creek, left the cap loose and drove it 40 miles home. I drove it 20 miles to work (auto parts store) the next day, it was holding it's water fine. I pulled the radiator to have a bunch of cores crimped off (sucked, it was custom and about 2 months old). It was tanked and painted. The radiator guy said "WTF was that shit ? I couldn't get it out !" There was still shit packed in the radiator. It was stripped of the orange color you can only get from Andy Capp's and was totally clear. You would think it was chunky epoxy. I have a million more, I figured this one was unique Mike

 

I have shared this story before but it bears repeating.

A buddy and I are hot shoeing it up to Tri Cities from the Couve, about a 6-hour drive south up the Columbia River Gorge on our way to Cool Desert Nights cruise. We were both driving '69 Vette roadsters, his BBC and my LT-1 when his car started messing about, big time. We hit the rest area near Boardman, that is in Oregon, on I-84 just before the bridge into Washington, to do some wrenching. We pulled the air cleaner, no gas in the squirters. We pulled the fuel line off the carb, no fuel anywhere. We crank it over, no fuel. We had re-fueled at Biggs Junction, we had plenty of gas but his wasn't reaching the carb. We have dealt with vapor locks before, this wasn't one. We could syphon fuel from the tank using the steel line so not a clogged pick up. We suspected the factory fuel pump still hanging on the 427 and called ahead to NAPA in Boardman to see if they have one. By chance they did but they are ready to close so we figure jump in my car and go get the pump and fast!

Before we could load up, a lady appeared. Wind draped white sari, long grey/blonde hair, kindly, 50-60 years old? She asked if we were having trouble. We explained our situation and jokingly asked if she knew anything about Corvettes and she smiled and asked if she could lay hands on the car and say a prayer. We figured "what the hell can it hurt" and I needed a smoke anyway. So, as I lit up a Marlboro Light, she has her moment and bids us a pleasant day. We go about loading up the tools and I told my buddy "let's give it one more go, we have nothing to lose". We slipped the fuel line back together, he hit the key and it started, instantly.

Not only did we not see a car come nor leave the rest area while we were there, never saw where this woman came from nor where she went, but that fuel pump is still on his 427 and still working trouble free...and that was over 10 years ago. This really happened, just the way I have described it to you, on a desert and deserted highway in Oregon.

 

We were out on a family cruise to a dirt race track 60 miles away. Three cars, me with my 48 Plymouth coupe, my son and his family in a 57 Dodge station wagon, and my grandson with his mom (my daughter) in his 64 Chrysler Newport.

The grandson's 64 wasn't quite up to the task. we were in between towns someplace in Iowa on Rt 64 when his car developed a vibration. We all stopped and discovered there were only 2 lug nuts holding the one wheel on the car, and those two didn't look very good. One rear stud was broken off, and one of the others was almost stripped clean of its threads. We pulled one lug nut off of two other wheels and forced the lug nuts onto the messed up threads, then we tightened the two lugs that were still on the wheel as best as we could. Then we limped down the road to the next berg. There wasn't any help there, so we headed to the town the race track was at. We were planning on spending the night there, so we watched the races, and retired to the motel for the night.

The next morning we found the only parts store in town that was open on Sunday. We scored a set of 5 lug nuts (all they had in stock), but they had no studs. We did manage to find a couple fine thread bolts the proper length and size (al of those they had as well). We pulled the tire and drum off, and beat the two worst studs out of the axle. We were lucky enough to be able to get those two bolts to stay in place good enough we could get the new lug nuts reasonably tight, and the new lugs also helped the remaining studs. That wheel had all 5 lugs on it, probably not torqued to specs, but we hoped it was good enough.

We went on the the Mopar show in Dubuque (all of us got a trophy in our class) and we made it back home. We got the studs all fixed up with all new lug nuts.

 

Stupid issue. Tail pipe broke a hanger so clunk cluck over each bump got annoying. Pulled over on a 2 laner hwy. No tools, no wire, nothing. Walked around a bit and there on the ground was a single FAT, LONG, beautiful industrial size zip tie. Should have kept going north to Vegas.

 

Another one. My son just got his 56 Dodge panel truck on the road, and the car club I belonged to all went to Back To The 50s and he tagged along. We had a line of about 10 cars all together so they stuck him in the middle. We had a great time there and we were heading home. Just as we turned off the interstate he suddenly slowed and pulled to the side of the road. Everyone stopped. We discovered his throttle cable broke. Like any teenager, he had lots of speakers in the panel, with speaker wire running all over the place. I pulled his broken cable out of the panel and we hijacked a piece of speaker wire and managed to get it stuffed through the hole the original cable ran through. Between the guys, we came up with a way to secure both ends of the speaker wire so the throttle actually worked properly. Of course we had no idea how long that wire was going to hold up, but we had a lot of wire to work with.

He made the trip home, and another two weeks afterward. That throttle cable had to be ordered and it took 2 weeks before it came in. He drove that panel all over during those two weeks. I questioned him about using the panel so much with just the speaker wire for the throttle and he told me the speaker wire worked better then the old throttle cable did, besides, he watched us put it together and he had lots of speaker wire, if he needed to, he figured he could do the same thing we did.

 

Bandit Billy. We have a guy at our Church that is part of the Christian Motorcycle Club. Every year they do a vehicle Blessing, and I have them pray over my hot rod every year. I don't have many on the road issues with my car and we drive lots of miles. I don't know if it helps or not, but I believe it does. I figure I have nothing to loose by having it done.

 

Nothing as dramatic as most of these, but
I was driving down 94 going south towards Chicago on a horrible snowy night. The tail end of my $50 ‘69 AMC Ambassador dragged, as it needed springs. Snow on the interstate was at least 8-10” deep. All the sudden the exhaust gets loud. I figured the muffler was dragging in the snow, so it just tore off. NO WAY I was pulling over, as the plows had the shoulder under even deeper snow. I just kept driving a few more miles to an oasis. Figured I’d pull off, rip the muffler and tailpipe off, and throw in the trunk.
After pulling over I get out and find my entire gas tank had broke both straps, and took the exhaust out with it. Tank was just hanging by the filler neck and fuel line.
Went across the oasis to the northbound lanes and hitched a ride with a van full of teenage hippie types, who actually dropped me at my front door! Got a ride back from a buddy the next morning. Ripped tank and exhaust out and threw in oasis dumpster. Strapped a 5 gallon gas can in the trunk and ran a piece of fuel line out a rust hole in the trunk pan and hooked up to the metal fuel line that used to attach to the tank. And we’re off!…….

 

We've done this before, but this is a good story: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-stories-post-yours-here.291685/#post-3095223.

 

First winter with my first car. Out late one night with my bud doing donuts in a parking lot.
Misjudged and planted it hard into the plowed snow bank and stalled the engine. Hit the key to restart it...Click.
No problem I kept a small ball peen in the car just for that reason. Dig down in front with my bare hands far enough to get to the hood latch so I could beat on the starter....Click.
We walk about a mile down to a restaurant to use the pay phone and call another buddy to come pick us up and get a couple hot cocoa's while we're waiting.
Go back to my place to grab tools, more winter attire and another used starter to fix it. Back at the car we tried to jerk the car outta the snow bank but it wouldn't budge. Run back to get shovels and proceed to dig down to get to the starter. Was lucky that the car had run up the snow bank far enough that the snow under the car acted as a jack stand.
Get it dug out enough to replace the starter and got it running. More digging and jerking finally freed the car so we could get back to doin donuts.
Sure wish I had that kind of energy and tolerance these days.

 

Was she ASC certified though?
Spooky cool story

 

I left my Roadster, the one in my avatar, at my Dad's house in Grants Pass Oregon. My buddy and I drove the wife's car up from the Bay Area to get it and drive it back. Spent the weekend in Grants Pass and headed back on Sunday. Leaving Ashland Oregon heading south on I5, climbing the hill out of Ashland the rubber plug blocking off the heater outlet on the water pump blew apart. We were moving pretty good, out in the left lane, my Buddy behind me when it blew off. I saw all the coolant spray coming out the back, all over the wife's car. Pulled over, figured out the problem. Only tool was my small Swiss Army Knife. Removed the hose clamp and what was left of the rubber plug. Cut a small branch off a pine tree, whittled it down, shoved it in the hole, and used what was left of the rubber plug and hose clamp to hold it in. Now the problem is we have no coolant or water to put in the car. Motor had cooled down, I could see the top of the hill, and I knew there was a gas station down the other side, So I started it up, drove it to the top of the hill, shut it down and coasted down the other side to the gas station. I was passing cars on I5 with the motor off. Put water in it, drove it into California, hit up a parts store, bought a piece of heater hose, another clamp, and a bolt. topped off the coolant, and continued our trip home. Alternator light started flashing, so I didn't shut it off until we got home, Also hit a Guineafowl somewhere in Northern California, No damage to the Roadster, but the poor Guineafowl didn't have a good day. So the wife's car had coolant all over it, plus Guineafowl feathers all over it too. Fun times.

 

Moving from Dubuque, Iowa to Mason city Iowa in early 80s my future wife and I were pulling a U-Haul with her 66 Fairlane when the clutch quit disengaging, not having ability to change a throwout, bearing on the road, the rest of the way starting the car in first and shifting without the clutch became the norm. Down shifting was simply kicking the transmission into neutral and coasting to stop. They say everything you will see in your marriage you will see before but probably ignore, well my wife killed in grand fashion every clutch she had an automobile the whole time I was married to her. lol

 

This isn't side of the road, it's middle of the lake. Back in maybe 1964 my buddy and I were out water skiing in his boat, about a 1959 Wards Sea King. It had a 35 hp outboard, also Sea King. Somehow we broke a shear pin and didn't have a spare. I didn't want to paddle back to the dock (way the other side of the lake) with a ski. At the time I chewed gum so I got in the lake, removed the prop, shoved what was left of the shear pin to one side and filled the rest of the hole with chewing gum. We motored back across the lake at low speed without a problem.

 

You can believe, owing to my user name, I have patched up a lotsa cars with traffic whizzin' past.
Usually someone I know , that I prefer to save them any expense. That's just who I am.
So I try to keep tools I need, and bring whatever part is suspect. Boring, no surprise.
Well one evening with the Tow rig under me I come upon a stalled out late 60 somthing Ford.
I pull over lights blinking talk to the driver. He and his wife spent the day in Philly get her treatment for the big C. Shes just slumped against her door out of it
Anyhow looking at the model year the present year, and the guy's decription of how it is acting,
I suspect we have clogged gas filter. He lives way further North than I'm interested in going. and Hey life is tough when ya fight big C. So I explain as how he'll need to have his home mechanic
service the carb when he gets home, due to the blasphemy I'm going to commit.
Removing the hose at the filter inlet ( yeah You saw it coming ) I shove and beat a small phillips into the filter and then some. A quick check that the motor would now rev up and hold speed.
The driver with wallet in hand approached, I simply said....
I Will be happier if you don't give me anything. We shook hands, and I worried that perhaps he might not make it. He needed a break

 

OMG you crazy geniuses.
I have nothing to compare.

 

Every one of these great stories seems to hit home. These are kinda like a secret handshake among hotrod brethren, like a forefinger to the side of the nose ala The Sting.
Here's mine. In the summer of '69 I was a surveyor for KC Public Works/Engineering. I drove a stock '29 Model A standard coupe and followed the survey truck in my car. Around lunch I pulled up to a curb near our job site and the shifter wouldn't go into neutral. I'd already been into the transmission after shelling a cluster gear drag racing a Corvair a block from my ho use. That's why the shift tower was not so corroded that I couldn't undo the tower with a tightly gripped pliers. Still wasn't easy. But when I got the tower off, I could see that the fork on the left rail slid freely, which means the roll pin was missing, which I saw. I thought for a second and then asked a co-worker to help me look for a nail that I could put in to replace the lost roll pin. Then I saw a bunch of nails pounded into a utility pole right next to the car. I pried out the fattest nail, put it into the shifter fork, bent it enough that I thought it might hold, put the shifter tower with forks back on, still had time to wolf down my PBJ lunch and I was on my way. Co-workers were impressed. I was grateful someone posting a flier on that utility pole used big nails. I'll bet that nail is still in there, wherever my old Model A coupe ended up.

 

Back in the mid '70's I worked as a mechanic for a local dairy. One afternoon we get a call from a driver that his Divco
had no throttle. The head mechanic who was all things Divco went into the parts room and pulled a mechanical throttle assemble off the shelf and said "This is exactly what you need to fix the problem. They break all the time and they're all the same" So I proceeded to jump in the wrecker and drive 30+ miles to where the driver was broken down. Got there and popped open the hood of the LATE model Divco which had a cable throttle assembly. So much for Mr. all things Divco and they are all the same. Now it was getting close to quitting time and I didn't want to drive 30+ miles back to the shop to get the correct replacement cable and then drive the 30+ miles back. Plus the driver had been up since 3:30 and was in no mood to wait for a proper repair. In one of the side boxes of the wrecker there was a drawer full so misc. odds and ends and assorted junk. I found a short piece of speedo cable and 4 small hose clamps. I placed the speedo cable so that was on both sides of the broken throttle cable and held it all together with the hose clamps. Worked well enough so the driver could finish his route without me having to hook up his truck to the tow truck and tow him to finish his route. The boss bought the beer that night.