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I've got a few of these stories, the most significant was on my wifes aerostar van (POS). It had this problem with oil pressure. We bought it with high miles and it turns out the oil pick up in the pan was clogging with sludge or whatever. We're in Wyoming going to Idaho from Minnesota when it starts acting up. Oil pressure is zero and the only real fix is to clear the clogged pick up tube. Well I didn't exactly have tools to lift the engine and pull the pan, so I got a drill and tap, some screws and a pistol cleaning kit. I pulled into a parking lot by a dumpster and parked it with the front tires on top of the curb. Drained the oil into a pail. Drilled 3 holes through the cast aluminum oil pan and right through the oil pick up, screen and all. Ran the gun brush through the holes to clean as much as possible, tapped the holes, poured some gas through the oil fill to clear as much debris as possible. Put a little permatex on the screws and tightened them up. Refilled with oil and started her up. It worked good and the only change I made later was shortening the screws so they didn't plug the holes I drilled in the bottom of the pick up tube. I traded it like that several months later on her current vehicle, the 99 suburban.
Which leads to my next story, much shorter. While replacing the intake gaskets I also replaced the rotor and distributor cap. When I was putting the new cap on, the little tab with the threaded hole broke off the distributor. It wasn't even tight yet, just a cheap plastic distributor body. The cap is currently held on by a nylon wire tie wrapped around the cap and base. It will stay that way until I can afford a better distributor, which means I'll probably trade it on the next vehicle that way.
HG
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