Craziest thing you've done to "just get home"

[70 shorty]

no crazy stories in my truck, but in my Vette I drove home from a cruise in with a broken clutch linkage. Fortunately when the pedal went to the floor, there was only 1 more stop light to the interstate, and only 1 from the interstate to my house. I made it home, but almost had to stop at the last light, even though laying WAY back for a red light. 2 weeks ago, in the same car, drove all but the last 2 miles to the Run to the Sun car show in Myrtle beach when the water pump let go. My buddy was trailering his car in front of me, so we just put his on the road 2 miles out, and put mine on the trailer. We towed it the last 2 miles to the hotel and thanks to the help of several in our crew, we fixed the water pump in the hotel parking lot.

[cam.man67]

Two stories:

1: It was a little before I sold my '69 C10, I had just had a guy put a new motor in for me. I drove to college that morning, noticed the battery wasn't charging, in fact the alt wasn't working at all. It was rainy out, but I didn't dare use the defrost should the battery die, so the windows were down the whole way. Made it down to class 35 miles and back 30, before the truck died about 5 miles from home. Turns out the voltage reg. went bad. Got that replaced, and 2 weeks later I get stranded again after all the electric goes into meltdown mode, victim of a bad ground.

2. Was coming home late one night from my fiance's I was about 20 min past curfew. So I was booking it in my '68 Dart. I take this little mountain road to save some time, hit the S-turns, and all of a sudden my brakes go out. OH CRAP! I get myself slowed down with some fancy use of the e-brake, and finally make it home. Turns out a brake line had burst.

[Earl Junior]

Originally Posted by tobytuttle

this is not about me... but its one of the crazys that live around here ..while driving sitting at a stop light i pulled up next to a guy and noticed that he had a generator running, in the bed, plugged in to a battery charger, and hooked to the battery with the hood slightly ajar....obviously he had a bad alternator...priceless ......i still tell that story to this day...i laughed for days after that

We did this with the motorhome once. We were dry (primitive) camping about a billion miles from anywhere. When we fired the motorhome up to leave the voltmeter was dropping steadily. So I fired up the on-board generator and had the same problem-- volts dropping but slower than before. Gennie charges at 4 amps, battery charger at 12! Plugged the charger into the outlet and hooked the sparky end to the batteries. Genius!

[GMtrucknut!!]

I had a fuel punp go out and the nearest town was several miles away having only a few gallons in a five gallon can ,and no way to jerry rig a gravity fed tank I removed my socks draped them over the carb poured fuel on them and let it drip into the carb . I kept the throttle wide open so that the few drops it got kept it running and limped into town!!!!

[aventur1]

Used an ink pen housing to fix a split rubber gas line to get me to next town.

[Scott Webster]

Originally Posted by GMtrucknut!!

I had a fuel punp go out and the nearest town was several miles away having only a few gallons in a five gallon can ,and no way to jerry rig a gravity fed tank I removed my socks draped them over the carb poured fuel on them and let it drip into the carb . I kept the throttle wide open so that the few drops it got kept it running and limped into town!!!!

Now that is some serious McGuyvering right there!

[cam.man67]

Got another story:

I live about a mile from my farm, and while we do have a dirt path that runs the length of my farm down to the house, most of the time I drive farm equipment out on the road. Well, one day i was taking my '63 jeep down tot he house to grab something, then I was gonna come back to the farm. I hopped out on the road, and took off. About 1/2 way there, the jeep starts sputtering, losing power. I make it to the house, shut it off. I start it back up, it starts fine, run great. For about 1/4 mile, then it sputters again, loses power, and dies on the road. This happened three times on the way back up tot he farm, I wasn't getting fuel. I had to put it in 1st-Low and floor it to keep the engine running.

Turns out, a spider had gotten into the gas tank and plugged the fuel line.

I haven't had any trouble since then.

[va72longhorn]

Ive done the reverse deal when I was a teenager. Think i was about 16, 6 of us were hanging out at the house on a Friday night and realized it was about quarter to midnight and we were down to the last six pack. Jumped in mom's 69 Fleetwood and hauled butt to the nearest 7-11 (12 miles) before they locked the beer cooler (this was YEARS ago....lol). 2 miles before we get there, I lose all forward except 1st gear. Priorities first, we make it to the store just in time. Get back in the car to leave, all we have is reverse. I made it all the way back in reverse after zigging instead of zagging twice (ended up leaving ruts in someones front yard on one occasion) and stopping at least 3 times to allow the drunks in the back to get out and call their buddy "Ralph". Seems going in reverse at 30 mph does something to the drunken head.

Out on a date in my '72 C10 blazer (my first 67-72) when I was 17, dropped an exhaust valve. Pulled over on the side of the road, pulled the valve cover, and saw that the valve had bent and was stuck in the head. I then removed both push rods for that cylinder, removed the spark plug and opened it up, put it all back together and finished the date. Drove around town that night and back home 30 miles on 7 cylinders. Next morning by 10am, the 307 was hanging from a tree branch.

Few years back, coming back from a Charlotte race at 2am through Charlottesville, I lost the fan belt on the '83 Chevy Class C. Stopped and tried the ole belt trick, but that only lasted about 3 miles. Well anybody familar with the area knows Rt 29, in the Piedmont area, is hilly so what do I do? Crack the radiator cap, get a running start for alot of speed going up the hills, then put her in neutral, cut her off and let her cool on the down side. Made it 32 miles to the house like that.

Last one that comes to mind, I was late for a meeting a couple years ago and the clutch slave cylinder let go in the F*#@ superduty that I was driving, sitting in DC morning rush hour, at that! I ended up killing the ignition to come to a dead stop, restarting the engine with it in low range, and then speed shifting, up and down, from there. Made it to the meeting and then back, 40 miles, to the shop, after traffic died down.

[HotRodScottsdale]

Driving my 76 long box 350 down the road and seen a biiiiiiiiig puddle and got the idea to go hit it....bad idea, water blew up around my motor so hard to shot my fan belt flyin to wrap up around my air intake and distributor, made it home almost over heating and tranny shifting funny, fixed the belt but the trans was still shifting funny till one day I was going to a friends just outside of town when it just gave up on me.luckly I had enough speed I coasted into a church parking spot and shut it down to let it cool off.my gf showed up in her f-150 to try and help and found out that only reverse worked..great, so I threw my backup lights on and away I went about 10 miles threw the city backwards with my girlfriend nose to nose with me fallowing all the way home.got a lot of strange looks and saprizingly no cops even pushing my skills to the max doing up to 50km in reverse,forklift driving skills came in handy that time!
There's lots of little fix's I've done to get home like bypass fuel selector valve, quick wired fuel pumps even flashlights to see at night,don't think any of my girlfriends have ever liked my truck lol
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[MARKDTN]

My uncle was an airline pilot for Delta. He lived near Nashville and drove to Atlanta (about 200 miles) in his '79 C10 with Olds Diesel. He was coming home 1 night about midnight in 1985 and on the way up Monteagle mountain (150 miles to go) he heard a loud bang, but didn't shut it off. When he got to the top, there was oil dripping out and a small hole in the oil pan. He bought 2 cases of oil at a convienience store and drove until the oil light came on and added another 2 quarts. Every now and again it would make another bang. Got it home and swapped for a gas engine. The rod had broken right at the base and every so often the piston would fall enough for the rod shaft to hit the base on the crank.

Me and an '83 Chevy conversion van in about 1990. The TH350 lockup trans lost the front pump seal. Inspired by the story above, I bought 2 cases of trans fluid figuring it was cheaper than a wrecker. I would drive until it quit pulling and put 4 quarts in. Got within 1/2 mile of the transmission shop and it wouldn't go and there was no place to buy fluid. Had to call a wrecker anyway and the bottom of that van was never the same. 10 years later there was still transmission fluid under there.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

I used a friends rollback to go to Colorado & pickup a truck I just bought. It has a 6.2 Diesel engine. An injector line broke. It would take pulling the intake manifold to replace it. I called a Diesel man I know & he said if I pinched it shut it would damage the pump. I ran a piece of rubber tubeing from the line down to near the ground. I drove clear accross Kansas on 7 cyls. It was slow on those long hills & the mileage was bad but I got back with it & the truck. I still dont know why I bought that truck. It was a piece of excretion.

[phase_one]

I was a 18 and had an 84 D-100 driving home from a night out in town 30 miles away. 25 miles out truck is running poorly and lights are no longer on. Pull in to a quickie mart. I convince the clerk to let me put my battery into his truck so his alt can charge my battery. After 30 minutes, say thanks and head out. That got me about another 15 before the battery was dead. I pull into another quickie mart and repeat. Made it 2 miles from home. GF comes and we use jumper cables to charge it to make it the final 2 or 3. Next morning new alt and regulator and I was set.

[best view]

was plowing with my 98 chevy 2 oclock in morning on a dead end road in the woods i went to shift in reverse with mt 5 speed and the shifter handle falls on the floor now i have been plowing at this point for 28 hours awake for 42 hours still snowing like crasy dark i start taking shifter apart and 2 of the nuts are off and there is this white plastic piece that the hande fits in well with this all apart you can see the snow down below i dop this plastic white piece throu the floor into the snow i sat there in disbelive i just did this there is no way iamm finding this it took me 30 mins to get the truck in reverse i drove it bachwards to my shop 32miles my neck is still not the same