You shouldn't have but it worked

[96Indyram]

Heard of a old guy off-roading in his truck, and busted a connecting rod while playing out in the middle of nowhere many miles from home...but has tools in his toolbox. so The dude dropped the oilpan, removed the broke rod and piston then noticed the rod broke the cylinder wall into the water jacket.
So after some thought he gets a idea. He cuts a treelimb around the same size as his cylinder dia. Wittles it down with his knife for a good fit, then he hammers the "wooden piston" plug up into the cylinder hole covering the crack in the wall. wood swells when it gets wet and will keep it from leaking was his thinking.
He puts the oilpan back on, and fills the radiator back up with what water he had. Starts it up. It ran like total crap but he drove it out and back home on 7 cylinders.

[BC10]

My dad tried to use old fuel that was in a gas tank he bought from a yard. He pumped it into his C20 after trying to convince me that I should put it into my tank. His truck froze and stopped running the next day...

[96Indyram]

The throttle cable broke off the back of the pedal on my 72 superbeetle.
I yanked some speaker wire going to the rear speakers from the radio.
tied the speakerwire to the cable end and had to pull on it to operate the throttle.
So shifter in right hand, steering wheel and "hand throttle" in left hand. Was kinda tricky to operate and steer and shift..but it got me home.

[cleanfreak]

Way to many to list.... I've been real lucky thru the years. Just one to start with.. Big block chevy ,3 different pistons , 2 different connecting rods , 2 different heads , 2 types of spark plugs , miss-matched rockers---you get the point. Engine went 10.30's in a 2800lb car for years , 1000+ passes. Couldn't kill that poor thing - Bob

[70jnktrk]

Had a broken motor mount on a 62 Chev SS...to young to know about such things...motor would rise up and fan would hit fan shroud...yup...ripped out the shroud.....

[DUD2STUD]

Went camping with a bunch of buddies a few years ago. About midnight and after a few beers we decide to load up and go wheeling. An hour into it and about 3 miles up the Mountin my buddy puts a stick threw the side wall of his tire. Of course it's way to dark to walk back and almost done with all our beer I decide I'm going to fix the tire. All we had in the truck was a tube repair kit for a bike. Using the tactical light on my 9mm and 2 screw drivers I get the tire partly of the rim use my pocket knife to ruff up the tire and put said tube patch on. I used an egg to lube up the bead to get it back on and aired it up. We made back to camp wheeled the next day then drove 60 miles back to the house. We back in the driveway got out and boom tire blows. That's how I got the nickname McGiver.

[Twiz]

Not my story but someone I work with. Not sure if I beleive him but here gos.

He said he was replacing his intake manifold but didn't have a gasket. To late at night to go to a parts store and buy one. So he uses JB Weld to "create" a gasket and put the manifold on. Said it ran great with no leaks. And when he needed to take the manifold off the JB Weld just chipped off real easy because of the heat of the motor.

[franken]

Originally Posted by Fatherof3

They had an arc welder, an oxy acetylene set with cutting torch, a bench grinder and a whole lot of bailing wire.

I resemble that remark... No stick welder (light MIG), but an O/A torch is sort of like nuclear weapons...

Once I was talked into being weight on the back of a reddish Mopar that was parked in a ditch in an NE Ohio winter. The car was at a 45 degee angle.

With me lying on the deck lid, zero hand/teethholds; just the friction of my frozen fingetips as he drove that car back and forth in the snowy ditch. After some speed he'd try to steer up and out.

Soon the sheriff deputies arrived to watch. We lived so far out they drove 1-ton Chevy trucks w/ ambulance bodies. They said they take use (me) to the hospital later.

After quite a while and a few hundred feet of road made in that ditch my friend did drive that car out, with me lying on the deck lid, and the police laughing.

Ah, the old days when everything wasn't illegal

That's just scratching the surface...

[darush01]

Not sure where to start bc my dad raised me that if it don't fit make it fit, I know he used the wrong tranny in a 65 biscayne and only two bolt holes in the bell housing lined up with the motor but he drove it like that, and I lost the key to my dads old wrecker once so I ran a wire from the battery to the cab under the column then another to the coil so when I put them together I had ignition then since its a ford and the sylonoid is on the fender and easy to reach I jumped it off with a screw driver still set up that way lol

Also used 3 sets of jumper cables hooked together because I couldn't get close enough to my truck to jump it

[volksworld]

jeff foxworthy referred to that as the long jump in the redneck olympics

[SeniorVerde]

I lost/broke my jeep's throttle return spring on I405 just before rush hour.
I was able to shut it off and coast to the shoulder before the thing blew itself up at 7000 rpm, but I didn't have another throttle return spring...

This is the spring from between the handles of some cheap wire strippers and a section of coat hanger to reach the rest of the way. One end was held on with 2 very tiny plastic zip-ties. I made it to the parts store this way (bought two springs!) but I was very nervous about those plastic wire ties failing and starting the adventure all over.

[chevy72blu]

Converted my trucks alternator when I was in high school, but I didnt really understand how the "exciter" worked. Decided I could just rig it to a push button... Found this bad boy at the parts store for $5 and mounted it to the dash



Every time I started the truck I had to push in this button to get the alternator started. I always considered it an extra anti-theft device! Worked for years

[Hawghauler]

Back when I was a kid, I was haulin ass on back country roads to Monroe one night in my trusty old '68 chevelle. I was in a hurry to get to the track before the races started. Anyway, I hit this curve at about 55 MPH, Should have been 25-30 MPH corner. It was all good, then I punched it just as I hit the straight, I heard a "clang". I saw a flash of red at the bottom of my vision, and just as I was about to look down at the gauges, something went shooting by, just out of the corner of my eye. It made me look there instead, and I saw my harmonic balancer and pulleys rolling down the road about 10 MPH faster than me. I punched it to catch up, (the dash was all red lights), then slowed with it in sight until it stopped. I shut off the car, got out, retrieved the balancer and proceeded to scratch my head. I popped the hood, and saw my belts dangling from the alt. and waterpump. I had never messed with this balancer before, and didn't even think it would do something like this. I slid the balancer back onto the shaft, (For some reason the crank didn't have a bolt holding it on) and It would slide right back off without resistance. What to do? I dug a pop can out of the back seat, (It may have had some strategically placed holes) cut a strip of it off the side. wrapped it around the crank, then used a BFH I had in the trunk, and drove that b*tch back on. It lasted until I sold the car about five years later.

[AirSpeed]

Originally Posted by Wizo

say um air speed;are you sure it was a sig? just wondering

It was cigarette shaped!

[chopnchaneled]

Few years back I was on my way to work in my old S10 pickup and the clutch master cylinder went out in atlanta traffic causing a traffic jam, only thing i could come up with at the moment was pouring my coffee into the master cyl. Got me the way to work.

[dmartin1]

my dad tells me all the time of breaking down in an old dodge ramcharger with a 318, and it snapped a pushrod a feww miles from the nearest tiny town, and used a bolt that hi and his buddys ground down at a small garage there and used it for a pushrod. to get it home.

or using a hollowed pen tube in place of his old clogged fuel filter.

or a cereal box for gaskets on a quad. lol

[Wizo]

Originally Posted by AirSpeed

It was cigarette shaped!

Roger that. got it

[leftybass209]

Swapped my cab with 2 chains and an engine hoist. One chain popped off just as the junk cab was a few inches from the dolly. The reverse was much more secure but used my weight in the cab while suspended to level the cab to clear the frame rails. Not safe and I'd never recommend it but functional none-the-less.

[derotoreut]

When I was just a kid I fixed a pin hole gas tank leak with a sheet metal screw and roof coating.

First engine rebuild ever was a 289 to put in a Comet. Knew nothing about tearing an engine apart. Had no idea how to get pistons out. Never heard of a ridge reamer. Just pounded out the pistons out until the rings broke. It was all down hill from there. Believe it or not we got that engine rebuilt and running.

[67_C-30]

I pulled up huge, old holly bushes with my '67 C-50 wrecker once. I almost messed up and let the boom go through the living window! -lol

[desertnick69]

Originally Posted by Fatherof3

"I used toliet paper rolls as a jack stand..." Boeing has a coating you could put on them and they would work great

Maybe that's way I do not fly?

[Fatherof3]

Originally Posted by desertnick69

Maybe that's way I do not fly?

Living in the Seattle area you meet a lot of Boeing employees but come to think of it I have never met one on a flight

Just saying

[70STOVEBOLT]

Fuel pump failed just down the street from home on a 72 Catalna that I had in high school. I walked to the house and got a can of gas, walked back to the car, had my girlfriend drive it with the hood up whole I sat on the fender pouring gas into the carb. Got a fuel pump the next day.

[dajn]

I have so much respect for that time. My grandpa and my dad could keep anything running. We have internet forums and youtube and google. They learned as they went. I faintly remember my grandpa blowing out a stump with sticks a dynamite. Now that i'm older it makes me wonder where he learned how to rig dynamite. I wish i could ask him

[dajn]

I'm not proud of this one but this is my story. After drinks at the bar, i ended up at a local party in my 1986 k-10 which i still own (poor thing). I had a liter of captain morgan in my hand. We took it out in field's and through the trees and gods what else happened that night.. When i woke up, i have never been so thirsty for water in my entire life. This it like 6:00 a..m. everyone else that stayed is still passed out. Go to start my pickup to head home and there's nothing. I managed to crawl out of the cab and lift the hood. My battery was laying next to the frame and it had melted off the positive cable. It wad a side post battery with top post. I had a clamp visegrip in the cab and clamped the cable to the top post and drove home with the hood part way. Still drunk. Don't drink and drive kids. I learned the hard way.