Got me home man. All it was turning was the alternator and the water pump- no fan. I'm sure it was still slipping, but the temp never got out of control and I never lost my headlights.
I used peanut ****er packed in the pilot bearing hole and drove it out with an old pilot shaft in the pits at the Indy National drags. We filled the gas tank in the same 58 Vette with concrete to drop to a lower cl*** and used a moon tank mounted in front for gas to the Hilborns. Slide tacked together welding rods thru a cutoff piece of garden hose and tack them on to a broken axle stub to remove it. Fish food will also fix a radiator. Pepper, fish food, & eggs according to severity of leak in that order. Vice grips also make an excellent shifter handle on a Pinto
Duct taped a u-joint.......Had a rear u-joint break in a Ford Dually, parts house didn't have the correct universal so I got the smaller one and a roll of duct tape. Towed my 40' enclosed race car trailer 15 miles home and only used half the roll.
I see some neat ideas and tips in this thread. But, I also see that a lot of you guys leave these 'temporary' fixes on for wayyyy too long! Rigging something to get you home is one thing, but leaving it that way for a long time isn't good. Some of the stuff I've read above (ball-point pen distributor cap repair, leather belt radiator fix, etc.) is getting pretty close to rat-rodding, which is not what this site is about! Fix yo ****! Nick
whatever anybody tells you, the exhaust on a 71 dodge dart ******* is still too hot at the rear axle to use a T-shirt to replace an exhaust hanger. BTW, it is always a good idea to learn what the word for "your car is dropping flaming balls of ****" in whatever language the local minority groups might speak when a car full of em happens to drive up next to you looking very upset and screaming at you.
If you need to move a car with a bad fuel pump have a buddy spray carb cleaner into to carb to keep it running. We once moved a car 2 miles to the shop doing this Gary
Hood latch broke on my '47 Ford convert in Indy, had duct tape but I didn't want to stick it on the paint so I layed towels from the hotel across the hood and top of the fenders then wrapped a roll of duct tape around and around. Held the hood shut all the way back to Detroit. If I remember correctly this explosion happened to "HotRod2Hells's dad and he ended up in critical condition in the ICU for a long time. Has the scars on his face to prove it. They didn't even know if he was going to make it for awhile. I used the strap from my luggage to tow Nads on his motorcycle with my car rental on the freeway in Florida two miles to the next exit. Tobacco also works to plug radiator leaks.
I've used Fels Naptha soap flakes mashed into a ball to fix the leaky gas tank on a 53 Dodge pickup. Drove the truck for a year and had to fix the leak about every month or two. Broke a fan belt up in the woods and peeled the cords back on each side of the belt, cut the rest of the belt to the right length to run the water pump and tied all the cords together to get us out. Worked fine, ran for 20 miles until I found a gas station.
After i split the front brake line in my 81 camino i pulled a br*** plug out of my exhaust manifold and plugged the master cylinder outlet to the front brakes had to sypon brakefluid off of friends cars 30 miles into the middle of nowhere, those mountain roads were sure fun with the drum rears!! had one hell of an exhaust leak too but i made it home and to work the next day
...ever full-field an alternator after your regulator goes bad? It'll get you home, but keep the RPMs down or you'll fry out ALL your wires...
What were those Krazy Mo-Fo's doin out there in the middle of nowere, oh yeah, drivin to Texas and back.
I had a 66 chevelle with a nice running 283 that had head gasket issues. Always weeping coolant into the sump and oil into the radiator. I had no $$$ to fix it, and it ran too good for me to junk it, so I drained the coolant and re-filled it with used ****** fluid. Drove it that way for 2 solid years before the head gasket finally went all the way out. It leaked about a quart a week cuz the ****** fluid was slick enough to get past the hose clamps, but it worked. Oh, and the heater got REALLY warm... Aparently oil conducts heat VERY well
Was at a run in Bakersfield a few years ago--a friend from Santa Maria had a Quadrajet start leaking and finally quit running. He pulled it off and I tore it apart--bad top gasket and broken primary spring.We went to the hotel lobby and stole a box of Cherrios and a ballpoint pen--half hour later, new Cherrio top gasket and ballpoint pen primary spring. Ran pretty good too. Fast forward about 6 months--see the guy at a show in Santa Maria and he tells me the car's never run better--so the Cherrio gasket and pen spring was still in the carb--been told it stayed like that for a couple years!
I don't have any temporary fix-its to share, but, look on E-Bay, item # 150211361951, a 50' Chevy coupe. The upper radiator "hose clamp" is an exhaust u-bolt style clamp!
I did the same thing but my linkage broke at the pedal.Pulling the string threw the firewall worked well.Althogh I got **** for it from my friends for years.Still try to keep twine in my cars just in case.
Duct tape makes a great radiator hose repair when you are on the PA Turnpike in the middle of the night and your fan belt wore a groove through the hose... Fortunately, I had a 5-gallon bucket in the back of the truck. When you are out of coolant in winter and no stores or gas stations are open, gas station windshield washer fluid makes a good antifreeze subs***ute. Just don't let the paper towels go in when pouring. Done the gas can & hose thing before when the mechanical fuel pump fails and towing is out of the picture. Toothpicks do seal pinholes in radiator tubes. Bubble gum will seal a hole in the differential cover to get you home. The best one I can remember: A friend once bottomed out the oil pan on his big block Duster entering a car cruise-in parking lot. While checking out others' cars, the damn think lost all 8 quarts of oil in the parking lot, too. I sent the friend to the gas station down the street to get more oil and told him I'd fix the pan (he wasn't too hands-on). Went to into McDonalds to get a napkin, mixed up a bunch of 2-part epoxy, and stuck it to the bottom of the pan over the gash. By the time he got back, I told him it was already fixed and to just pour in the oil. The store owner told us not to worry about the spill and he would have his employees clean it up (a car guy himself, probably felt bad about the mishap). Many people just about paniced when they saw the 8qt oil spill when he pulled the car out of the parking space, and I just played dumb as we drove away... Never leaked at my mickey-mouse reapir, and he even sold the car like that.
A coat hanger is good for: - getting into your car - starting it - alternative antenna - holding it all together Always carry one in your back pocket!
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