You shouldn't have but it worked

[BlacklandCamper]

Have two involving my Nissan.

Had a fuel delivery issue a few years back, and had tracked it down to a bad relay. While I am getting ready to call around and find one at a parts store, my dad goes and scrounges two pieces of wire, some spade connectors, and a test light. Jumped the connections, and boom. Still runs to this day. Had another issue with a clogged fuel filter, and an iffy pump, pulled the filter off, and pulled the bed. Before we pulled the pump, we decided to do things old school. Grabbed a hammer, and smacked the top of the fuel sending unit, boom, started right up, and still runs.
I did end up replacing the fuel filter several years later after I had two injectors stick on me.

Another one was one night a few of us decided to go off roading, and there was this ditch, just begging to be jumped.

Well, I forgot that the engine being in the front really throws off the weight distribution in a truck, especially with an empty bed. So the truck predictably nose dives into the bottom of this ditch. hits so hard it snaps the bumper mount bolts off the frame. No tools, so I cant take the bumper off, even if I could, it would have been a cops dream to pull me over that particular night. What I did have was a pack of zip ties, and about 10 feet of baling wire.

Tied that sucker up, and drove it for a few years.

It has a different bumper now though.

[King Cary]

Had a 81 Z/28 with a 406 in it and it threw the alternator belt one night at the dragstrip so we went to the store and picked up some pantyhose. I stretched them tight and cut off the ends and limped it back to the shop that night.

My buddy wrapped the silver foil from a cigarette pack around a fuse to get him home, it was thin enough to burn through and not burn the car to the ground.. It worked...

My dad taught me a lot of tricks over the years... He always said " God gave us two hands, learn how to use them"...

[RenoKeene]

I got a couple...
Broke a motor mount on a Mercury 4 door (with a 460) after winning the first round at the drag strip. Cut one of the back seat belts out with a pocket knife (this takes forever!), tied one side to the frame and the other to the engine, rev..cinch, rev..cinch. Won the next two rounds like that.

Me and one of my idiot buddies decided to drive his 68 Torino from Tennessee to Florida (not sure why), made it to Georgia before running over something that poked a hole in the gas tank. He had a bar of soap in the glove box (again, not sure why) which he carved into a plug and screwed it into the hole. We made it all the way down and back and he drove it for another month before it fell out! Crazy but true.

[dukkie]

i have used the wooden handle end of a yard rake (in complete form) as my gas gauge for the in cab gas tank of my 72 for the past 5 years. and when the leaves drop i grab the rake from the bed and clean up.

[dukkie]

Originally Posted by 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

i used speaker wire and just let it sit overnight for a trickle charge. that worked

[jabborabbo]

Well, this actually falls under the present tense "I shouldn't but it works"...

I've spent maybe $1500 total on mowing equipment since 1986...I've bought three used ones and replaced an engine in one...started with a 1/2 acre yard in '86 and now have a 1.5 acre yard...the safety switches (one kills the mower if you get off of it, one doesn't let you start it with the blades engaged, one doesn't let you start it unless the clutch is engaged) are all bad and the mower won't crank with the key, so I just use a battery jumper cable from the positive battery terminal to the positive lead on the starter - it cranks up every time!

Some day I hope to quit being such a cheapskate and buy a new John Deere, but it ain't gonna happen until I lose interest in all my toys.

[alsriv2]

Originally Posted by dukkie

i have used the wooden handle end of a yard rake (in complete form) as my gas gauge for the in cab gas tank of my 72 for the past 5 years. and when the leaves drop i grab the rake from the bed and clean up.

I did this with an old '67 GMC 2500 I had back in the Air Force only I didn't leave the rake head on.
Guess what...ended up dropping the handle in the tank.

Drove that truck for years including one trip from CA to Maryland and then back to AZ. Gas gauge was broke but we learned to tell how much gas was in the tank by the sound of the stick banging around in the tank. the higher the pitch of the banging...the less fuel you had.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by jabborabbo

... the mower won't crank with the key, so I just use a battery jumper cable from the positive battery terminal to the positive lead on the starter - it cranks up every time!

I do that to, only a little more surgically....

I wire up a "bump switch" for use as a push button start.

My Chevelle got the treatment first because it wouldn't crank with the key (555 cu in and 13.5:1 compression). That worked so well I did it on my '63 GP (to fix a hot start problem) and now I've got one on my Cub Loboy, too (not sure what the problem was there - lol).

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 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

Dynamiting stumps was fairly standard practice back in the old days.

I had at least one distant relative killed doing that.

Ah! Just remembered: I also had one uncle who used a bit too much dynamite. Blew the stump out of the ground and it landed right on the hood of his new Chevy pickup.

K

[Tork?]

1.
Clearanced an Accel distributor cab (flat top) for the windshield wiper arm to move around inside the engine bay on a 79 El Camino. Ended up cutting too much and made a hole into the cap. Cut a pie shape out of a plastic coffee can lid and glued it down. Worked great!

2.
Got stranded when alternator went out. Was able to track one down from a passerby but there was no top bolt and my old bolt wouldn't fit. (this was at 2:00am in a Subway parking lot off the interstate). I was able to zip tie the alternator to the upper control arm and make enough tension to get me home... 120 miles!

[96Indyram]

Originally Posted by King Cary

Had a 81 Z/28 with a 406 in it and it threw the alternator belt one night at the dragstrip so we went to the store and picked up some pantyhose. I stretched them tight and cut off the ends and limped it back to the shop that night.

My buddy wrapped the silver foil from a cigarette pack around a fuse to get him home, it was thin enough to burn through and not burn the car to the ground.. It worked...

My dad taught me a lot of tricks over the years... He always said " God gave us two hands, learn how to use them"...

Good thing your friend didn't use a .22 bullet shell for a fuse as the 2010 darwin award winner did.

(Arkansas Democrat Gazette)
Two local men were injured when their pickup truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday. Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc, and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock, were returning to Des Arc after a frog catching trip.

On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pickup truck headlights malfunctioned. The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older-model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the 22 caliber bullets from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering- wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet the headlights again began to operate properly, and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River Bridge.

After traveling approximately 20 miles, and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged, and struck Poole in the testicles. The vehicle swerved sharply right, exiting the pavement, and striking a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident but will require extensive surgery to repair the damage to his testicles, which will never operate as intended. Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his nuts off, or we might both be dead," stated Wallis.

"I've been a trooper for 10 years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident happened, " said Snyder.

Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia (Poole's wife), asked how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck. Priorities, after all!!

Though Poole and Wallis did not die as a result of their misadventure as normally required by Darwin Award Official Rules, it can be argued that Poole did, in fact, effectively remove himself from the gene pool.

[96Indyram]

I had a 1985 ford f150 that the cams inside the steering column ignition switch broke.
It would switch to acc/on but would not work past there. Grabbed some speakerwire out of the toolbox and hooked it to the starter solenoid and ran them into the cab.
Hooked a house doorbell ( was also in the toolbox) to the inside and then closed the ashtray to hold it in place.
Sad thing is it was the nigh ttime light up doorbells with the orange light in it...LOL

worked great... turn the key on...hit the doorbell "ding dong" varooom....and off I went.
Had to relocate the door bell after a friends kid was with us and he kept trying to push it as we was driving...not good on a starter.

[Fatherof3]

Originally Posted by 96Indyram

I had a 1985 ford f150 that the cams inside the steering column ignition switch broke.
It would switch to acc/on but would not work past there. Grabbed some speakerwire out of the toolbox and hooked it to the starter solenoid and ran them into the cab.
Hooked a house doorbell ( was also in the toolbox) to the inside and then closed the ashtray to hold it in place.
Sad thing is it was the nigh ttime light up doorbells with the orange light in it...LOL

worked great... turn the key on...hit the doorbell "ding dong" varooom....and off I went.
Had to relocate the door bell after a friends kid was with us and he kept trying to push it as we was driving...not good on a starter.

Did you make that up or are you from Kansas?

[96Indyram]

Originally Posted by Fatherof3

Did you make that up or are you from Kansas?

Actual true story..on both questions.
1: Drove the truck for almost 6 months like that until I could find another column.
2: Born in Kansas...still here..probably be buried here.

[Fatherof3]

I recently had rear turn signals that I couldn't get to work on an old car so I ran wires from the front turn signals that worked to the back up lights and put amber bulbs in the back up light sockets (I have tried wiring rear turn signals to the fronts but it didn't work do to the way the braked lights were wired).

[truckdude239]

I had a back brake line blow out while hauling some stuff for a friend right in front a auto parts store I used brass plug to block the rear port of the brake master cylinder so 8 would have brakes to get home.

[AWKS1]

in baja messing around in my buddies astro van, we poked a whole in the fuel tank. an old timer suggested grating a bar of soap across the hole it worked, got us home and then some. it was still holding whem my buddy finally sold the van a year or so later!

[davepl]

When the floor rusted out of my '75 Monte I took the wooden door off the back steps' crawspace and stuck it under the carpet. Once I got used to the wedge-shaped floor all other cars felt weird.

[elimontfort]

Had a 73 valiant put pepper in the radiator to plug a leak worked for a month till I got a new one.

[1972RedNeck]

Originally Posted by 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.

I thought that was only in Pat McManus books.

[chevy72blu]

Originally Posted by 96Indyram

Good thing your friend didn't use a .22 bullet shell for a fuse as the 2010 darwin award winner did.

I've actually heard of my dad doing that with just a .22 case (no powder/projectile).

I have a hard time believing that story though. Even if the powder did ignite, the case would go farther than the bullet with no barrel around it to build pressure.

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by 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.

Did something similar with a 70 beetle only I ran heavy string through the back hood up and over the car and through the vent window.

Also broke the cable again near the pedal. Stopped at the local hardware store and bought my first ever ViseGrip. Clamped it to the broken cable end and used it as a gas pedal. Still have that ViseGrip today!

Paul

[davepl]

Originally Posted by chevy72blu

I've actually heard of my dad doing that with just a .22 case (no powder/projectile).

Yeah that one's already in the automotive lies section! I mean the exploding shell one, using an empty case like your Dad did would work in a pinch, until whatever caused the short to blow the fuse happened again, then something else would catch fire :-0

Could it happen? Like any good story, it probably could. But it doesn't mean the story was actually created in response to such an event, it was likely just a good story someone made up.

[BigMike]

Well this is not a fix per se, but a lesson I learned while playing with .22 bullets. When I was in the 3rd grade I would play with my step dads .22 bullets. For about a week I would grab a couple of them, go outside and use pliers to remove the bullet from the casing. I'd then put the gunpowder out in a line and then light it with matches. Well one day I couldn't find the pliers so I would hold the lead bullet in my teeth and move the casing back and forth until it was loose enough to remove. Well I did this to about 4 of them and started the same procedure on the fifth. I got it loose but not loose enough so I figured it would come right off with my fingers, so I started wiggling it back & forth...then BOOM! Damn thing went off. The casing tore the skin off my right pointer finger & thumb while the bullet did the same thing to my left fingers. Luckily it didn't get into the meat part, just tore up the skin.

My parents weren't home at the time so I wrapped them up with electrical tape. I couldn't come up with any clever excuses why my fingers were tore up so I just told them the truth. They were both just glad I didn't hurt myself worse and scolded me about the dangers of bullets. Then my step dad preceded to beat my butt for wasting his .22 rounds. Thankfully my butt only stung for a couple hours, my fingers stung for almost a week.

Last time I ever played with bullets, unless I was shooting them.

Mike

[truckdude239]

Originally Posted by 96Indyram

I had a 1985 ford f150 that the cams inside the steering column ignition switch broke.
It would switch to acc/on but would not work past there. Grabbed some speakerwire out of the toolbox and hooked it to the starter solenoid and ran them into the cab.
Hooked a house doorbell ( was also in the toolbox) to the inside and then closed the ashtray to hold it in place.
Sad thing is it was the nigh ttime light up doorbells with the orange light in it...LOL

worked great... turn the key on...hit the doorbell "ding dong" varooom....and off I went.
Had to relocate the door bell after a friends kid was with us and he kept trying to push it as we was driving...not good on a starter.

My 87 f150 does this every few years theres a 10 dallor part on he help isle at suto part store called acutaor i have to replace every few years