What Broke? and how did you MacGyver it to avoid the Tow bill

[afterburn 549]

What broke on your car and how did you fix it to get home?
I will start -Cruising along in my 911, lost all power..but would idle. Thought the throttle linkage came off....Worse then that! Just where the linkage comes out of the tunnel a rubber grommet separated.....( part of the throttle cable) No fixing that!
So I walk up the road, find a house with owner and borrow a long piece of wire....I jerry rigged a temp throttle cable with it.
Made it 50 miles home, NO Tow bill !

[euro911sc]

I was cruising up to a friends in Nashua to do some 911 work about 4:30pm. I reached for 3rd and something came loose and I got stuck in neutral. I had just rebuilt the tranny a few weeks earlier and was having a nightmare as I pulled to the side of the interstate. I called my friend... no answer as he was not home yet. I poked under the car a little, and then the shifter. Thing was loose as hell. I looked in the coupler area and the clamp on the forward rod had about fallen off!

I was so happy, but I had no tools to fix it... the evening rush had come on full and it was all stop and go. I sit on my fender for about 5 minutes when I see this boxster coming along... this was '98 so that thing was brand new. I flag him down and he looks at me weird like 'What the hell do you expect me to do?'

I ask him if he has his tool kit. He stares off into space... 'um tool kit? whats that? I do all my service at the dealer.' I show him the tool kit... which I know has a 13mm wrench in it. He is amazed that I knew that. I tighten the clamp after adjusting the shift linkage and all is well. I hand him his wrench with a big thank you. I'm not sure he knew what just happened, but he smiled as he drove off. I doubt that wrench saw any more use in its lifetime...

My friend and I had a laugh and a beer that evening as we worked on his car and lamented the decline basic mechanical knowledge in the US.

-Michael

[Joe Bob]

ZEngine dies in the parking lot....found a corroded fuse....licked it....engine fires up, I gets home.

[ShakinJoe]

Omega spring busted in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. Had some kids push start me in second gear and it fired up and I rev matched shifted it home. You think a 915 is hard to shift with worn synchros?

[al lkosmal]

Good thread George,

Coming back from the ALMS races in Portland on a Sunday..........just as I got into the no mans land North of Vancouver WA....I felt a vibration, pulled over.....checked things out. Nothing to see, so i get on I-5 and head North again........but the vibration from the engine gets worse...........I pull over again and with the engine idling i notice my fan belt vibrating like crazy, which was caused by the fan pulley having sheared completely through along the drilled holes. It was barely attached to the fan. It's Sunday!!!! i am approx 300 miles from home. I drive North, taking it slow and vibrating like crazy...as I pull into the next gas station mini-mart....they direct me to the next exit, where there is a truck maintenance place, which is closed....except for noises i hear coming from the big warehouse/shop. There is one guy in there amidst all kinds of truck junk. I explained my dilemma and asked if I could look through all the junk for something to fix my pulley..........I find this big a$$ washer....and ask him to weld it to the pulley, which he does (the whole time his wife is calling him home for Sunday dinner with the folks..etc.) He has to leave, so I buy his big file from him and shoot him some cash and I went to work on filing the washer hole to fit the fan shaft.................It took me another hour or so to get it to fit and be somewhat centered...I drove it all the way home without incident. I saved my handiwork. Here are a few pix of my roadside fix...compared to a unmodified pulley.
regards,
al

[haycait911]

914 halfshaft CV fell out of the swingarm ( OK, maybe I didn't torque it properly ) used the ignition key to turn the internal 12 point bolts in enough to get home, all by feel. I sure as h*ll couldn't fit my head under there.

[afterburn 549]

AL .You might get the MacGyver award ! Thats a pretty good creation !

[m110]

Not a 911 but my old M6.
NY to Seattle solo in one go. 2,400 miles. 10 tanks of gas.

Overheated in Montana at 3am due to a seized thermostat. Pulled over, removed the thermostat (inline in front of the water pump). Hiked onto some farm property, filled a gallon jug with water from a hose without being shot, left a note, filled the car and regulated temperature through Montana, Idaho and Washington with a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator until I hit Seattle. Still under 30 hours. Slept and went up to Vancouver and replaced it. ...all with variable pieces of cardboard regulating temperature. Nascar style.

I also witnessed the broken accelerator cable in midst of rally replaced by a sparco shoelace in an ur-quattro, came in 2nd.

[DRACO A5OG]

Heck I got AAA PREMIUM PLUS, Free towing for 100 miles

But for thread sake,

Blew up 1st, dragged her out of 2nd and drove home. An expensive night out with the boys

[m110]

I almost forgot.

Bombing across the desert Vegas to Provo in a 1979 450SL. The coolant line to the heater core bursts (after 6 hours at redline) spewing boiling coolant over both of us. I have replaced the core before and know the inlet line is just so big. A truck pulls over and says "120mph didn't get you very far this time did it boy?".
Then an RV pulls over and a guy comes out and asks if I need help. I say I need a wood plug just so big to plug the line. He summons his army of kids (6) and they spread out over the desert and one of them comes up with an empty shotgun shell....fits perfect. He offers me some gas, some food, some water, some money....all refused and he goes on his way. Worked perfectly.

[OttoB]

Always having owned older cars, AAA Premium gas been used regularly over te years by me, so each if my cars has a card, plus a carry another one in my wallet just in case!

Heck I got AAA PREMIUM PLUS, Free towing for 100 miles



But for thread sake,



Blew up 1st, dragged her out of 2nd and drove home. An expensive night out with the boys

[osidak]

Lost the fuel pump relay while out with my son - jumped it with a piece of wire I found on the road nearby - Son thought I was a god and brags about it to all his friends. I was happy to be back on the road - Keep an extra relay in the car now

[GH85Carrera]

In my 74 914 2.0, driving home at dusk. I was cruising along the highway and swerved to miss a tire in the road. The engine just died like it was turned off. I cost to the side of the road and look at the engine. It is getting dark and it is real dark in the engine compartment. My flashlight is the typical place to store dead batteries. I looked around and noticed the head temperature sensor wire had broken. It was easy enough to strip the wire back with my pocket knife and twist the wire together. It fired up and I was off. I finally taped up that connection a few days later.

[daniel911T]

Traveling cross country to Oregon in a '81 Vanagon Westy, (2.0L air cooled type 4, same as 914 2.0) loaded to 6K lb, out near the middle of nowhere Wyoming, one tank of gas west of Buford: what could possibly go wrong?

The car was HEAVY, and I was driving into a 40kt headwind (Vanagon= same cd as a large brick), so I hadn't needed my brakes at all in the last tank of gas or two. I got off the highway to fill up, came easily to rest at a stop sign, remember, 40 kt headwind, then pulled into the gas station. As I was pulling up to the pump, perpendicular to the wind and slightly downhill, I pushed the brake pedal and it just fell straight to the floor. No joy on the e-brake either. I just jammed it into first and shut the motor down. At that weight it didn't roll for **** anyway, so it wasn't that hard to stop.

Found a blown wheel cylinder on the Port side rear, it had pissed out ALL of my brake fluid! I was very lucky the hydraulic clutch had enough fluid to work!

The fix: I bought 3 bottles of brake fluid, zip ties, and a set of ultra cheap needle nose vise grips. I put the vice grips on the soft line back to the rear wheel, zip tied them shut, then zip tied them to the swing arm to keep them from flopping around.

Filled the tank, filled the brake reservior, pumped the brakes a bunch, but didn't do any "bleeding," and carried on smartly. It got me to the Oregon coast safely, and didn't even feel any different. I eventually got around to fixing it... but I wasn't in much of a hurry.

I miss my Westy all the time. Some vehicles you just shouldn't ever get rid of.

-Dan

[schumicat]

when I was in law school had a Merkur XR4ti. It would stall at idle speed so I mounted a wooden cigar box under the throttle linkage as an improvised throttle stop to keep the idle up.

Also, one time while being pursued by Russian troops, my F150's radiator ran dry. My friends and I peed in it to refill it. Ok that wasn't me, that was Red Dawn.

[david c.]

I have used my shoelaces to make throttle cables in several states and, in particular, I remember doing this trick in Beverly Hills once. It was one of those days that driving the vintage Porsche to work wasn't exactly what your mind's eye envisioned.

At one point I recall having forgotten of the shoelace repair and when I showed up for tech at an autocross, the tech guy looked at me like I had bugs coming out of my face.

[g sturgill]

True story. Some local here in western Colorado had his headlights go out, (at night, of course), had no fuse but found a 22 cal. unspent shell. Fit perfectly, but after a few miles, the heat caused the bullet to go off. Shot himself in the groin. He survived, but I think he now has a few extra fuses.

[Flieger]

Originally Posted by g sturgill

True story. Some local here in western Colorado had his headlights go out, (at night, of course), had no fuse but found a 22 cal. unspent shell. Fit perfectly, but after a few miles, the heat caused the bullet to go off. Shot himself in the groin. He survived, but I think he now has a few extra fuses.

I don't believe it. Mythbusters busted that one a long time ago.

[Joe Bob]

snopes.com: The Bullet Fuse

Urban myth....

[afterburn 549]

Lead being the more HVY part of the shell would likely stay put ..But you might get a piece for shell casing as shrapnel I would think..
just a guess