Limping Home in Broken Car Stories

[SMS]

This pic from Lee Stewart's thread made me think about all the times I've had to improvise a roadside repair.


What are some times you made it home purely on your own brilliance and ingenuity?

[BOWTIE67327]

do vice grips pinching a brake line shut qualify?

[SMS]

do vice grips pinching a brake line shut qualify?


You bet!


I had to do that over last 4th of July all the way from Austin, Tx. to Indy with two extra engine block in the back of my Yukon Xl. Rear line rusted thru, nothing at all was open, so I clamped it on the rubber flex line, and used duct tape around the vice grips for "safety" :) Most of my disaster stories are from my teen years and as a young adult, but that one happens to be a real time coincidence.

[Lynn]

Spring of 69; master cyl went out on my 54 Chevy. Used it to throw newspapers at 3 am every morning, and take the car pool to school every Thursday. Drove it for thirty days with nothing but the hand brake, until the handle broke off. Drove it another thirty days with a pair of vice grips in place of the handle. Finally rebuilt the master cyl.

If those kids' parents only knew how they were getting to school.

Have another story with the same car, but will save it for later. No vice grips involved.

[Mr70]

Went to look at buying a '70 Chevelle during high school lunch hour once in 1979.Seller said she runs,but had the interior all taken out & didn't have the shifter hooked up either. So he locked on a pair of vice grips through the hole in the floor tunnel so we could shift the TH400.No front or rear seats at all either.So we used 2 milk crates for us to sit on,and off we went.Rocking back & forth as we did hole shots.Cop pulled us over as we flew down a street within 10 minutes...Took one look at us sitting on plastic milk crates and him with his right hand on the vise grips and burst out laughing.Said he couldn't find it in his heart to right us up,but told us to go straight home,which we did.I ended up buying the car.. :burnout:

[x77-69z28]

After missing a 2-3 shift in my Z/28 and throwing the alternator belt, I took my shoelaces and wrapped thnem around the alternator, crank and water pump to make it home. Another time I had to use a perfectly good six pack of Lowenbrau to fill my radiator after a race at Connecting Highway to limp home. Ahhhh the good old days!
Buddy

[markinnaples]

Does just doing something stupid from the get-go as a kid qualify? My buddy's dad wrecked his 302 Maverick and bent one of the front frame horns. We started taking it apart to potentially fix it, but then wanted to get an idea how much it would be to pull the frame so we just put the hood down (minus the front bumper, grill, header panel, headlights, turn signals, front core support hood latching mechanism, etc.) and drove about 7 miles to my dad's friend's shop on Brownsville Road (south hills of Pittsburgh). The drive there was pretty uneventful, thankfully, and we got the estimate. On the drive home, we stupidly took a main 4 lane road home (Route 51) instead of the somewhat less traveled 2 lane road we went on so it was already a dicey situation with added idiocy. But, what was I to do when he pulled up along side in my car and wanted to race? Sure, I nailed the go-pedal in the Maverick and got about 100 feet before the hood flew up and slammed against the windshield at about 50-55 mph. Thank God it didn't break the windshield, but slowing down with virtually no visibility was a white knuckle ride to say the least. Once I got it slowed and stopped in a parking lot, we had the laugh of a lifetime that only can be had when you're a teenager doing the stupid things a teenager with a license does. Good times.

[Spooky]

Helped a fellow car nut in a parking lot of a grocery store. He broke an alternator belt at 10pm. (this was like 1988) I told him to use a pair of panty hose to make a new belt. He was too embarrassed to buy them so my wife to be went in and bought some to make the belt. It was a pair of leggs brand that came in a plastic eggs. Worked great!

[David Billingsley]

We one time were setting in a Burger King parking lot at 1 AM with a dead battery, Found a guy to give us a jump but had no jumper cables. I had always thought this would work so I tried it. We pulled his truck up to ours where the bumpers touched and then found a unnecessarily piece of wire from under the hood and connected the positive terminals from both trucks, let it set for a minute and it started. Made a MacGyver hero out of me.

[kwhizz]

We one time were setting in a Burger King parking lot at 1 AM with a dead battery, Found a guy to give us a jump but had no jumper cables. I had always thought this would work so I tried it. We pulled his truck up to ours where the bumpers touched and then found a unnecessarily piece of wire from under the hood and connected the positive terminals from both trucks, let it set for a minute and it started. Made a MacGyver hero out of me.



Did the same thing with the bumpers touching...… But I used the bumper jack and lug wrench to complete the circuit on the battery..... LOL

[njsteve]

Back in the 1979 I had my 69 Z11 Pace Car. I was running an Edelbrock 3x2bbl intake on it with three Rochester 2GVs (IIRC). The damn thing never ran right but looked really cool.

I was up on Cape Cod for the summer and was cruising one night when the throttle bellcrank snapped. This is the actual pedal cross bar/bellcrank that bolts to the firewall and the pedal hangs off one end and the throttle bracket/rod mount attaches to the other end.

The only way to get home was to use a roll of 10 gauge electrical wire I had in my tool box and tie it to the center carb throttle arm. First I put the convertible top down, then I routed the wire up, through, and out the cowl hood opening at the front of the windshield, over the top of the windshield header and down into the passenger compartment. I had to use the wire as an actual throttle "cable" for the hour long ride back to the house.

The next day my friends took me to a local junkyard in Hyannis, Mass and we found that an early Impala - around 1964, that had the same bellcrank I needed, minus the pedal.

[olredalert]

----I think I know the junkyard, Steve. Was it right close to the Hyannis airport? I worked at a resto shop for a good friend of the owner of the yard. Good memories! ...…Bill S

[njsteve]

That was the place!

[Igosplut]

I once blew an auto trans doing doughnuts at a remote beach parking lot in the winter. It was pouring rain hard, and there was no way I was gonna walk 2+ miles back to town. It still had reverse, so I backed all the way back into town.

[Igosplut]

----I think I know the junkyard, Steve. Was it right close to the Hyannis airport? I worked at a resto shop for a good friend of the owner of the yard. Good memories! ...…Bill S

Blackburns Bill. Down by the powerlines where George U dumped that stripped stolen Vette that he clipped from Dick Beards lot...but that's a story for another day.

[olredalert]

----Couldn't remember his name. I used to work for Dicky Garbitt so knew Blackburn well. They were pretty tight...….Bill S

[Igosplut]

All the yards on the Cape are closed down (due to groundwater concerns) Except for Center Street in Dennis. Marceline's was cleared out about ten years back (Jim just died last year) Handlers and that yard in Chatham (behind the gas station) sold out to developers, and Blackburns closed a few years back.

[SMS]

Great stories guys! A resourceful bunch ya are...

[Tommy]

1991.. racing some guy in my Nova I tossed the fan belt. The only thing open was an all night convenience store and my friend suggested buying a pair or pantyhose.. It worked. Alternator light on the dash flickered on acceleration but the thing stayed below 220 and the lights stayed on!


Tommy