Hot Rods Creative Roadside Repair Stories - Post Yours Here-

Beaner, especially considering the two totally opposite personalities in your story, that's the best example I've ever heard of "educated" vs common sense.

 

Back in '87 I was driving my '76 LTD taking one of my Aztec buddies to Tijuana so he could hop a bus to Mexico City. It had been raining and the roads were a mess of rocks and ruts, and when we got within a couple miles of the bus station we reached a puddle about 100 feet across. My friend told me to go ahead just as a '63 Chevy reached it from the other side, and I told him "If he makes it, I'll go."
He didn't make it.
I turned around partway in and heard rocks hitting underneath my car, but managed to get my grumbling friend to a taxi stand that had cars which could get through the mess. After dropping him off the oil light came on and I pulled up in front of a store, figuring I was a bit low; bought a quart and poured it in to see it running out of the sump.
Nice going.
By now it was 10 pm and the store was closing so I bought six more quarts, curled up in the car and tried to sleep, sort of... At sunrise I pulled the car onto the curb, crawled underneath and found a small split near the corner of the sump about 1/2" long. I ended up using needle nose pliers, a ball peen hammer, a center punch, a chisel and a fair amount of cursing for about an hour until the split was closed up tight and I finally headed home.
Guess I did a good job; it never leaked any oil after that. And that was the last time I schlepped anyone to TJ.

 

Me and a friend was in his Galaxie and had picked up
some girls that we was giving a ride home.
We were sure we was going to get lucky; )
Then in the midle of nowere we lost the fanbelt
dark no tools no fanbelt
I stoped a van with a realy wierd looking guy driving
and asked for a fanbelt.
No he had no fanbelt -but hey look back in the cargospace
there could be some rope or something
I opened the side door with the girls standing beside me.
And there was a nylonrope only problem it was tied around
the neck of a dead cow bathin in its own blood all ower the floor
The girls started to scream and run in to the woods.
The wierd guy laughing his ass off
I tried to untie the rope but no luck, ask the wierdo if he have a knife
he steps out and pull out a goddamned sword and cut the rope
we ties the rope around the wp and alt and melts the knot with a lighter.

The wierdo have left so now we trying to find the girls...they runned in to the woods
but began to think maby it was not so dangerous so the started go back to the car
when they see the wierdo pull
that big knife in front of me and my friend.. hahahahahah... then they realy started to run.... in high heels in the dark in the woods.
Well we found them after a while terified without shoes
And we didnt get lucky. Can have something to do with my friend
laughin so he cried

 

Way back in the day my buddy and I used to take turns carpooling to CSUN in my O/T Oldsmobile and his '61 Impala. Well one day we take his car and his fuel pump takes a shit. Now we're stuck in the school parking lot.

We went to the campus convenience store and bought a bottle of Arizona iced tea and drank it. We then take a screwdriver, punched a hole in the cap and duct taped a spare fuel hose to the cap, long enough to reach the carburetor from the passenger seat. We siphoned out some gas from the tank into the bottle and filled it up. Now it was my job to hold the bottle up above the carb from the passenger seat window to gravity feed the carb while he drove. Worked well enough to get us to Autozone a few miles away and swap his fuel pump out there!

 

While touring in the 32 I lost the hood to wind in Tuba City Az. It blew across the road into the sagebrush. I got turned around & went to find & return it to the roadster Only to have the wind damn blow me away while hold the hood vertical so had to hold it horizontal till I got back to the car. I set it in place but had no fasteners as they broke when the hood became airborne so I sat on the hood while peggy drove till we got to a ranchers drive into his field. I scoured the roadside & found a piece of barbed wire about a foot long. I seperated the strands of wire & made 4 hooks to hold the hood on until we got to Sumners place in Blanding Utah. I went next door to a farm supply & bought 2 long bungie straps & bungie the hood on & down to the frame. We drove across country to Pa & back to Oregon that way. While in Colo we got blasted with gravel from road repair & the poor roadster looked like it went thru a war. The insurance repaired the car with a repaint & new hood.

 

1st time going to bowling green hotrod reunion.

Driving down I-65, doing about 70, everythings going good when we hear this horrible schreeching noise. Still had power but temp was rising quickly. Pull into truck stop and start looking. Theres antifreeze everywhere, smoking, im thinking we lost a head gasket, dad thought belt. While dad is in the restroom i start looking more.Belt was in tact but loose. Look closer the alternator is laying against my innerfender. Look at the bracket and its leanong to the side. Turns out one of the alternator bolts snapped, and the alt fell into innerfender causing said noise.So half the bolt is in the block, and all we have is basic and tools and a drill. So a generous pipe fitter gave us a new bolt, while the truck repair shop let me us a tap. Drill old bolt, tap new threads put belt back on and put the rest of it back together. Fill radiator and hit the road

 

at the billetproof show at big daddy's in march the fuse blew for the air ride system and i didnt have any extra so we took the pull tab from a bud can and jumped the fuse out .worked great till i could buy a fuse at the parts store

 

Had a 51 ford tudor chopped lowered with a 226 flat six when i was 19. Pulled.in to get gas everything was fine went to leave and i had no throttle pedal... The linkage had come off of the bellcrank amd the stupid clip was.gone... So i took my shoe lace out tied it back together and drove home with no problems! I love old cars! Try that with your drive by wire bullshit

 

During a military transfer I was driving a Chevy Luv. Fan belt broke and truck died in the midle of No-Where. Turns out the electric fuel pump was powered by the alternator. No belt no fuel. Thankyou Chiltons. Sacreficed 1 leg of the wifes panty hose to create new belt. Thought the Old Boys at the first repair center we found would NEVER stop laughing!

 

Back in my crazy broke assed VW days hack fixes were a regular thing.

Busted throttle cable- Rigged the wiring inside the cab and hand operated the throttle. Also vice gripped the carb open to run around 2500 rpm. Used the ignition switch to control revs. Got me from downtown LA to Pasadena.

Busted clutch cable- Made it from Eagle Rock to Pasadena in traffic without using the clutch. Only had to start it in 1st gear a couple of times.

Blown brake line- E-braked it the whole way home. Again from DTLA

Rod through the block- Pushed that MFer home about 5 miles (albeit mostly downhill) while my wife steered.

Generator fail- Battery power using only the running lights at night taking surface streets

I admit now that all of these were pretty damned stupid but that's youth for ya............and no cash.

Now when something goes wrong I don't even flinch. Everything can be fixed or is a AAA phone call away

 

Not a roadside repair but more off a WTF. It was late Sunday afternoon packing up pulling out of Daytona Speedway at the end of the Turkey Rodrun. I was hooking up my 24 ' Haulmark trailer when I couldn't find the pin for the hitch. Not a problem I was able to buy a brand new pin and clip from one of the venders . I purchased the pin recall saying good-by to friends then headed out 95N . I was in Jacksonville and just happen to notice the brand new pin on the seat next to me. WTF I gently slow down pull over grab the pin and run back and check. Everything was hooked up except for the missing pin. The holes were perfectly lined up the new pin slid right in. I guess someone was watching over me.

 

I got a call from my FIL one night, years ago. H had a 77 Caddy and it just crapped out in a parking lot. I got there and determined there was no spark. Well even though it had electronic ignition and there were no points and condenser to fiddle with, I pulled the cap off the dizzy and saw that one of the wires to the pickup coil mounted to the breaker plate had broken. I went under the car and scraped up a wad of undercoating big enough to stick the wire back in place so it made contact. The thing fired right up! Fortunately he was close to home and it died again about halfway there so I had to re-glue it. In hindsight, I should have pulled the vacuum advance hose, that would have kept everything still in there till it could be fixed, but we did make it back!

 

1996 girlfriend and I are in Baja headed to Mikes Sky Ranch http://www.totalescape.com/lodge/ADS/mikes.html
In her 1990 Volvo740 - her idea not mine . So the road in is flooded and we turn around
She's bent and driving too fast and I see the anti freeze hit the windshield
And yell stop!
Couple of hose clamps and some duct tape ant the top hose fitting makes it
For another thousand miles
Maybe you had to be there

 

My son and I fixed up a 63 Fairlane 500 2 door for his first car. It was his everyday highschool car, looks awesome and he loved the attention. One summer night about 6 years ago, he had a car full of guys and was cruising around town chasing girls. I get a phone call from him saying they are stuck on a side street and the right front tire is stuck against the back of the fender. Something broke. When I get there, I realize the front of the frame rail was rusted and the strut rod mount had rusted off the rail, allowing the tire to slid back into the fender. After thinking about it, I have him follow me the 2 miles home as I drive the car backwards, which pulls the tire forward. Nice and slow, using his headlights to see. Thankfully, he wasn't out on the highway with that carload of boys when it broke!

 

My roadster has quarter elliptical front springs, I broke one on the road, the whole left front dropped to the pavement and slid to a stop in a shower of sparks. luckily there was a parts store with in walking distance so I bought a couple of muffler clamps and a cheap wrench to use for a splint, bodged the whole thing together and it got me home.

 

Same deal happened to me with a leaky fuel sender that I sealed up with that black RTV gummy glue. ( I was ignorant as to the effects gasoline has on it when the 2 combine with each other).
Everything was fine with under a half tank of 93 octane.
When I filled it with racing fuel at N.E.D in Epping, the fuel licked the opening at the sender in the upper tank area and sent little ribbons of gum all thru my fuel system.
The fix was a ride home on a ramp truck, one new shiny, clean, fuel tank and a complete flushing of the rest of the system.
A good lesson learned that weekend.

 

Ah good it's not just me then! I thought I was smart to use a bit of rtv to seal the large grommet around where the fill tube comes into the tank on my Chrysler. After getting stranded on the side of the road and pulling my carb and entire fuel system apart to get the jelly like substance out of it and then sacrificed a inner tube for a bike wheel to wrap around the fill tube and replace my bodgy grommet. This was this last weekend, I feel better about myself.
The other thing I did was sheared my distributor shaft in two and managed to jam it back in and bolt the clamp down and drive it for the rest of the weekend and made it home.

 

Off topic vehicle - import (before I learned the value of buy American).

Cruising along about 30 miles from home at about 70 and the engine dies. Would not refire. Since ignitions hate me, I immediately pulled the distributor cap. Points contactor arm had broken in half! Had a bottle of wooden matches in my emergency kit in the glove box; so cut the fire part off two wooden matches, and cut them to length. Found some #18 lighting wire in my kit, and wired the two splints to the contactor arm. Had my wife spin the engine, while I adjusted the points by guess. Replaced the distibutor cap, and the engine fired right up. Took us an hour to go the last 30 miles, but made it home.

Added a set of points to my emergency kit; and have never had another set of points fail.

Sequel - the next vehicle had electronic ignition. After about 40K miles, the ignition module failed. That vehicle lasted over 400K miles. The head was never off, but I changed ignition modules on the road 11 times (not counting the first one). I carried TWO in my emergency kit. The points are easier to change!

Jon.

 

So there we are , 5 v.w. Baja's out for a run on/ off road, a buddy in his newly finished first trip out bug decides to see if it'll fly , hits the dirt mound about 5 foot tall at about 40 mph . great launch .............. beautiful air ............ spectacular landing ........... nose first straight down! sets for a moment , falls forward on to top and mashes the roof flat to the window sills ,, still running (you'd have laughed if it had killed him type of show) one bud pinches off the fuel line to kill motor with Leatherman while the rest of us are pulling on doors to get him out , 45 minutes later with a hi lift jack and a hatchet the roof was back up enough to drive , sure as hell soon as we hit the highway home (no glass in his car) stater pulls us over says no go with out a windscreen ,( funny how those old trailers you see abandoned always have the "screen" doors still intact and just the right height for a bug window,) same stater (cop) a few miles down the road after telling us that wasn't what he meant thru his laughing let us go and said get it out of here and don't put it back on the roads till it was fixed right , ahhh the good ol days

 

Broke a clutch cable in Santa Cruz wich is over 3 hours from my house.walked 4 hours to get a cable cllamp and drove it home.stuck in traffic up hill with nothing but a cable clamp

 

These are similar to my tale. It was in about '94, we had a '79 Town Car, loved that car, could drive all day and not be tired. This one was a one owner-pretty nice. But it started missing and sputtering, and was getting worse, definitely fuel related. I checked the filter, it was clean, decided to replace the pump, it had some age on it. Seemed to pretty much clear up, might sputter once in a while though. So what do you do when you're not completely sure about a car? Yeah, let's take a freekin' ROAD-TRIP!! Went to Oklahoma, we wanted to look at some land, you can buy cheap places down there. Sure as hell, it started acting up, we stopped in Shawnee, bought another pump, (it acted like a darn pump), you could change them in 15 minutes, 400 engine. I blew through the filter, gassed up and left. O.K., let's end up on a tiny dirt road, looking for this place! And that Okie red dirt was NEON down there!! It died, completely, we were about 6 miles from the highway! Cars pick these spots out of orneryness!! With her working the key, no fuel at the carb, but we had vacuum on the inlet. So something was blocking it from the tank, I figured it was the tank filter. I could just get my head up around the pump and blow through the line, it was solid and she couldn't hear anything at the fuel inlet. Hummm, I needed some air to blow that line with! About now some cats in an old pick/up drive by, several times, they don't look real friendly. Our Kansas plates didn't help! Scenes from " Deliverance" start to pop in my head!! C'mon Mike figure out something! The boys were having fun, (2 and 7 years), they're RED from that dirt! O.K., idea pops up, we've got 30 some pounds of pressure in the tires, if I can get the spare up in close enough. I can slip the inlet hose over the valve-stem. I keep a valve core tool on my key chain. Always prepared!! LOL!! Yeah it worked, that was enough. Man we high tailed it outta there!! I'll tell you about the huge spider that was coming after me when I was under the car later!! Yee-Hawww!!!

 

Definitely OT as far as vehicles, but I thought it was clever....

My daughter's car had a clogged heater core, so I flushed it out and put it back together.

The next day, we're out on the highway and....POOF!!!!....a plume of smoke at 75 MPH! Yikes!

Pulled over and immediately knew the culprit....heater hose had blown off due to my own negligence,,,,didn't put one hose clamp on! slid the hose back on, installed the clamp PROPERLY, then checked the radiator. No water in sight, in the radiator or available for refilling. Grabbed a water bottle from inside and emptied it. Like spitting in the ocean!

What to do?!?!?!?! Aha! Pulled the hose to the bottom of the hood from the windshield washer pump, stuck it in the bottle and "washed the windshield", then poured the content in the radiator....5 times!!!!

Once full we were on our merry way! A gentleman had stopped to help us and watched as things transpired. My daughter sait "I've never seen that before!" The gentleman then replied, "Neither have I!"

"Dad, you're just like McGuyver!"

 

Way back in college, my Fiat 128 sedan stopped for no reason. The dammed + lead to the fuel pump had corroded in half (salted Illinois roads). Got it home on a scrap piece of wire and then made a permanent repair in the lead. A year or so later same thing happened. After the second fix, I fabbed up a short "emergency splice" wire with a 1/4" eyelet on one end and an alligator clip on the other. It came in handy the 3rd time (snagged the wire on some road debris). I used that same emergency lead several times since then and I always have one handy now. The latest version has my choice of 3 leads at one end, male and female blades and the eyelet. Gary

 

We were going on a family vacation in an OT car that I had, wife, 3 kids and dog. It was typical Saturday summertime traffic along the Cape Cod canal, putting along at 10-20 mph for a few miles when suddenly the shifter separated and I’m just holding it loose in my hand. Luckily I was in second gear so we drove the next 60 miles in second. Sometime during the week I stopped at the local hardware store and got a long carriage bolt that fit into what was left of the shifter. Wasn’t great on the hand but it got the job done. Pretty sure it stayed like that until I got rid of the car.

 

OT jet boat, wife and I are about 8 miles up river at a sand bar. Go to head back and throttle cable broke. Not a big deal, carry a small toolkit so I take the screws out of the hood hinge so I can remove it. That way I can sit in the back and run throttle (460 Ford) while she drives. Only telling this story because I remember how much fun it was messing with her on the way back. Got yelled at a lot , told her it was hard to control throttle and hold hood down .