What's your best road side fix?

[gregpark]

Not often can you save the day with limited tools in the middle of nowhere but I've had a few lucky ones over the years. One evening (pre cell phones) with darkness approaching my 260Z died on the freeway. Pull over, pop the hood and happened to notice a wire loom with a funny spot. Cut it open with my pocket knife and found a smoked wire. Looking around, hopelessly, I spot what was left of an old lamp by the side of the road. Cut the cord, splice it in and she fired right up, whew. Another time near the top of Donner summit, my 2002 sputtered to a halt. Crap, also pre cell phones. Pull the aluminum fuel filter and bang it on the asphalt, plug it in backwards for a couple of cranks for a quick flush, reinstall, and boom! Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good but there's something very satisfying in saving your own ass.
What's your best road side save?

[lin7310948]

not a roadside fix,,,,but it got me home the last 150 miles. in 1968 while traveling home from ft sill ok to charlotte nc on a cold Christmas holiday night the fuel pump in my 1962 3000 sputtered to a stop...on interstate 85 near the Georgia state line. it was in the dead of night and sort of in the sticks! chances for nearby parts or fix not readily apparent. so after deciding that it was the fuel pump points???? i banged on the pump and it immediately started clicking...pumping. so we rode the last 150 miles listening for the pump to quit clicking. when it stopped clicking a light tap on the rear bulkhead with the knockoff hammer would set it back in motion. we made it home and replaced the pump.

[mhackney]

In February of 1980 my college roommate and I drove from Ohio to Colorado to ski at Breckenridge in my 1975 Honda Civic. Just as we got to Denver, the brakes went dead - they were getting soft for the entire trip. We found a local parts store before closing time and got new front pads and brake fluid and 2 wheel cylinder rebuild kits. I didn't have a set of metric wrenches so we found a local K-mart and bought a cheap set of tools. Then I noticed a big (at least 6' tall) snow bank. I drove the front of the car up onto the back - it was at a very steep angle. Then we dug the snow out from under the front wheels so we could work on the brakes under a light pole. Several hours later, the cylinders were rebuilt (I did buy a hone at the parts store and we rigged a hand crank to turn it) and pads installed and we were off for a week of skiing. The repair held up great. I sold that car with over 300K miles on it!

[jlex]

Back in the late '70's while driving my 914 "flexible flyer" in the dead of night, winter, and very cold, the darn thing kept cutting out. Pulled over on the country road out in the middle of nowhere & popped the hood to see what I could see. Engine was running, but when it sputtered, I could see a bit of a spark.... aha.... the coil wire was shorting out against the tin work. Could only have spotted it in the dark. Moved the coil wire & no more short. Temp was about 20 degrees, so I considered myself lucky.

[roblav]

I have four:
1) August 1982 in a 1970 911E Targa. Right side timing chain tensioner went out near Provincetown out on Cape Cod. Had spent the previous night in a tent with a new girlfriend. Went in a gas station and picked up a few very basic tools and a can of automatic transmission fluid. Removed the tensioner and re-filled it with the transmission fluid and re-installed. Drove car for about a year then sold it.

2) August 1982 in a 1968 912 Targa. On drive from MA to SC, generator quit in Maryland. Drove as far as I could until battery died then pulled car over and slept. Got woken up in middle of night by State Cop, who then pushed my car with his to a local foreign car parts business. I bought a VW regulator and installed it. Good to go from there.

3) May 1984 in same 1968 912 Targa. Engine fire in North Carolina while driving from SC back to MA. Pulled in a gas station (!!!) and ran inside yelling "My car's on fire". Mechanic immediately handed one to me, and I put the fire out. I basically cleaned up the residue and continued back on the road.

4) October 1985 in a 1967 911 coupe. Exhaust valve broke and holed a piston while on the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I coasted down the rest of the bridge into Wilmington into a gas station. Removed the exhaust valve cover and the offending rocker arm. Installed the valve cover, filled the oil tank with oil, and drove all the way back to MA on 5 cylinders... filling the tank with oil a couple times on the way.

[roblav]

Another one:
June 1979 in a 1960 Austin Healey 3000. Ran out of gas. Turned the car around by hand and drove up the large hill backwards in reverse gear. At top of hill, turned it around by hand again and glided down until I reached a gas station. Fuel tank outlet is in the front on that car, and gravity fed the SU carb fuel bowls enough to get up the hill backwards.

One more:
November 1978: Triumph TR4. Conrod bearing went. I dropped the pan and stuck a piece of leather from my wallet between the shell and the conrod. Put a nickel in between the exhaust valve rocker and valve, pulled the plug wire, and drove 1000 miles.

[Bob Kontak]

Good stories.

Most of my 911 Found On Road Dead stories were my own doing. Not worth reporting.

I did paint an early 70's Spitfire for a guy who gave me a 73 Celica ST in trade in the way back. Celica died on the highway going home.

Now, I am 23 years old and still a pup. Points had a mountain on one side and a giant crater on the other. I don't think I used the classic curb story to file but somehow I scuffed the mountain down.

Car took me through three years of college. (started late)

[pete3799]

Don't remember what year ..... but i had to change the O rings on my oil cooler (1988 Peterbilt with a 425 Cat motor). The day i chose to do this was in the middle of winter during a cold snap parked in the snow covered hay field ( before i built my garage). I had some trouble getting the rear section to snap back over the O ring on assembly but managed to force it on with a 2x4 or pry bar or something. Filled the radiator back up and let it run for a while...... no leaks......good to go.

Leave at midnight to get a load of fuel oil in Albany, N.Y. After loading i'm headed back to Vt. and just shy of Fort Edward N.Y. my high temp. light and buzzer come on. It's around 3:30 in the morning well below zero and the only place that's going to be open is a Stewarts mini mart in Fort Edward. I pull in and anti freeze is pouring onto the ground from the oil cooler. Shut the truck off and figure i must have pinched the O ring when i pried the cooler back together.

So i go inside and figure i'll have a hot coffee and ponder my situation while my truck is quickly cooling down to sub zero. As i explain my situation the the girl at the counter, as i pay for my coffee, i spy a tube of Crazy Glue over her shoulder on a peg board display rack. The wheels start turning...... I said give me that tube of glue too.

I've already lost all my anti freeze at this point so on with the coveralls and off with the oil cooler. Sure enough the O ring is ripped but it's a clean break so back into the store to warm up and glue the O ring. After it dried i put everything back together, went back in and bought a mess of anti freeze, dumped it in and away i went.
After unloading i stopped at Cat and got a new O ring.......i still have it....the one i glued never leaked.....it was still in there 3 years later when i sold it.

[gtc]

Voltage regulator went out on a friend's '69 C10 pickup. Some of the wiring fried and melted/burned a hole through the top of the battery, causing a nice explosion when the hydrogen inside went off.

Coasted to a bus stop at the other side of the bridge we were on (520 floating bridge in Seattle).
Plugged the hole in the battery with a rag and duct tape.
Replaced enough of the wiring to get her running with a roll of hookup wire we found behind the seat.
Not really sure how we managed this feat, since we were just a couple of dumb high school kids at the time and knew very little about cars.

[dafischer]

My best roadside mcgyverism, was on a 75 BMW 2002. Going to work one morning, it just suddenly died on the cloverleaf ramp bridge from the Garden State Parkway onto Rt. 17 in Paramus NJ. Not a good place for a dead car, but at least there was a shoulder. Popped the hood and checked the carb...plenty of fuel. Checked spark at the points & coil...good spark. Then I noticed that the rubbing block on the points was missing. Okay then, what to do? I got back in the car to see if there was something I could rig for a rubbing block. Hmm...a Tic-Tac container with a little plastic flap on the lid. I ripped it off, wedged it into the point arm and backed off on the gap. It fired right up and took me the 10 minutes to work. Had a coworker drive me to a parts store at lunch, I bought a new set and put them in, in the parking lot at work. All this done in a shirt, tie, and suit, mind you.

[Jack Stands]

Rob Siegel (the Hack Mechanic in the BMW club) wrote a great book “Ran When Parked” that tells stories of his purchasing, resurrecting, and driving home in a BMW 2002. It’s amaz8ng how much you can repair on the roadside with vintage cars. Now it’s usually a cell phone call to the local flatbed.

My best is a split battery cable connector, broken throttle cable, and an erratic voltage regulator that were fixed on the roadside. Of course you carry spares with you!

[Nick Triesch]

On a very hot day up in Julian California, we pulled over to
Pick some apples . Got back in and car would not start . Apple guy gave me a push and it started right up and I got home!

[LakeCleElum]

73.5 Targa......15 years ago, quit on I-90 coming to my cabin for the weekend at Lake Cle Elum....Had it towed to cabin.....Found fuseable link of the Dist rotor no workie....Cut a short piece of wire off my dirt bike and used something like "Marine Tex" to glue it in.....Fired up and drove it home on Sunday.....

[david c.]

In my early 20's my 912 was my only car. Literally raced it on Sunday drove it to work on Monday many, many times. One weekday, driving to work in a suit and tie in LA traffic and car won't accelerate. Didn't stall but wouldn't rev. Immediately I knew the throttle cable had snapped. Easy. Pedal wouldn't return - spring was on carb side of broken cable. Pulled over. ****. What to do? Showed up at work on time looking good with one caveat - only one shoe had a shoelace. Worked so well I forget about it till a couple weeks later I tried to pass tech at an autocross and the scrutineer yells at me "Seriously man?" I had forgotten. Had to fix it right with tools I (fortunately) had at the event....

[RSBob]

When driving the 914 out in the farm lands I suddenly couldn’t get into gears 2-5. It was if they were blocked. Pulled the center console and carpet at the gear lever. I saw that the metal clutch cable tube broke its welds and was running down the center of the tunnel blocking the shift lever. Had a roll of black of electrical tape which I jammed against the clutch tube to push it back against the wall of the tunnel which allowed the shift lever to move.

The strain of the clutch tube quickly collapsed the tape roll. Hmmmm. Back in the tool bag, found a socket 15mm which just fit inside the tape roll. Jammed it back in and drove without issue 15 miles home.

The center tunnel had to be opened in two places to affect the welding repair. The tape and socket went back in the repair bag.

Another- Drove my 73 911 600 Miles from Sacramento to Seattle with no issues. Parked the car in front of the garage when I got home. Good trip. Later got in the car to pull into the garage. Started right up, put it into gear and stepped on the gas and nothing happened. Looked under the car and saw the accelerator linkage had fallen off on one end and was just dangling.

[Brian Cameron]

December 1987, driving my 1972 Volvo 142S from Toronto back to Calgary via the USA because cheaper gas, when about an hour after dark passing through rural Minnesota, all of a sudden the car starts bucking and lurching, with periodic backfires big enough to illuminate the trees along the road. Pulled over and the car wouldn’t start. WTF.

Finally figured out the low tension wire to the distributor had fatigued and broken from vibration, almost invisible because the insulation was still intact though slightly cracked. Of course, i have no wire with which to make a repair.

Then I remembered the loaf of bread i had bought earlier in the day, to go with the beer and sliced ham. Dug the loaf out of the back seat, removed the twist tie, which had a metal wire core. Stripped the ends off of it and the broken low tension wire, twisted the ends together to mend the connection, and she started right up. Drove back to Calgary for the next 2 days with no issues. Did the proper fix a few days later when it warmed up from minus 30.

[smadsen]

Ten years ago I started the '82 911 in the dark after work. There was a loud "pop", then nothing. The car would crank, but not fire. Took me a while of wiggling and jiggling, still no luck. Removed the air cleaner & found the pop off valve gizmo had fallen out of the air box and was laying there, creating about a 2" vacuum leak. I had a box of miscellaneous plumbing parts in a box in the frunk. (I'd rather be lucky than good). I fashioned a temporary plug out of an expandable plumbing plug wrapped in duct tape, forced it in the hole and cranked on the wing nut for all it was worth. Car fired right off on the last few amps left in the battery. It got me home on a dark night for a proper fix.

[Bill Douglas]

I was hitch hiking in Africa and the car that I got a ride in started dying, overheating, or something. The alloy alternator mount had broken and the fan belt was loose. I broke a length of wire off a farm fence and wrapped it around the alternator and the broken mount, then got a rock and whacked a bit of wood between the alternator and the mount to put tension on the fan belt. Good enough to get us from Zimbabwe to South Africa LOL. The guy laughed and said something along the lines of Rhodesians being a bit rough, but good to see a Kiwi do his stuff.

[nathanbs]

Dad’s ‘55 356 coupe while driving back on two hour drive to his house at night. I think I was only 16. Throttle linkage broke so I rigged throttle open and managed not to completely destroy his clutch getting to his place.
Same exact issue but on my ‘69 Karmann Ghia but far more horsepower(145hp) Jammed a ball point pen in the throttle cable tube, jamming throttle open, perhaps a lot too far, and ended up into a curb and on the sidewalk. Had an entire new front torsion beam and throttle cable installed by noon next day.
Lastly throttle linkage on same ghia’s carb snapped at night on freeway, fabbed a new one out of a soda can that I tore apart and folded over the aluminum several times to make strong enough and then punched a few holes through.
Moral of the story don’t have a lead foot!

[SCadaddle]

I've personally never had to do it, but my friend the long time Porsche owner claims he has emergency replaced the fan belt on a 911 without tools by placing the new belt on the alternator pulley, get it started on the crank pulley, put the car in gear and push the car forward to "walk" the belt onto the crank pulley.

Otherwise......I guess I was stranded back in the summer of 1985 with the VW van in the shop in Powell Wyoming while the owner of the shop gave my friend and I a ride 28 miles to the south to Cody Wyoming for the weekend. Sunday morning we got up and hitchhiked the 28 miles back to Powell. About 10 miles into the Sunday morning walk, I noticed a partial roll of electrical tape on the side of the road. Didn't break my stride and kept walking. We had plenty of that in the bus. Didn't need it. My friend, about 100' behind me noticed it and stopped to pick it up. He hollered to me and said "hey! did you see this?" I said yeah and kept on walking. About another 1/4 mile up the road I encountered a small piece of plywood on the side of the road. I stopped and waited on my friend. Once he caught up to me I told him to hand me the electrical tape. I picked up the plywood and in no time had a sign made reading:

P O W E L L

First car to approach our new tool was an AMC Pacer. "C'mon Pacer, make my day!" I said out loud. Sure enough, it pulls over and it is 2 girls that are trick riders in the Cody rodeo headed home to the trailer park with a load of laundry. They give us a ride about 8 miles and drop us off.

Next car I flash the sign to is an older Impala. Elderly couple with a little dog that rode on the armrest of the front seat keeping an eye on us. They saw us walking on their way to Church and picked us up on their way home. Took us the rest of the way into Powell. Laid up in the Park Motel for 5 days visiting daily and drinking beer with the owners Rod and Mary Lou Koler, ate damn near every meal at the Burger Hauz that had a really good broccoli soup, and finally Bob's Auto Repair had a new engine in our VW bus.