Ok, I made another strange fix to a vehicle today. Yesterday, my MGB overheated in the 103 degree weather, actually it just vapor-locked. Anyway, the throttle cable came off as I was trying to start it. I had to leave the car in a grocery store parking lot overnight.

This morning I diagnosed the problem; the gas pedal end of the throttle cable detached itself from the pedal's lever. I couldn't find the old part that attached it. It must have dropped onto my shoe and then I must have kicked it off, never realizing it was there. I have no idea what the old part looks like and my repair manual does not illustrate it.

So today I'm thinking about how to reattach the cable to the slot in the end of the gas pedal lever. In my head, I'm designing little clamp thingies that swivel in the cotter key in the end of the slot on the gas pedal lever. Then it hits me; use a lug-style electrical crimp connector.

It worked perfectly, like that's what it was designed for.

Want to hear how I used a tampon to fix a car?

 

Personally -

I'd have gone to a small engine shop, and bought a cable stop for a Briggs and Stratton (not to disparage MG's, but those little brass barrel thingies work great...)

 

About 10 years ago, I had the use of a friend's Volvo. This is the first mechanical thing I have ever done. So, you know how nervous I was, being a girl. It had a problem with the inner bearings, which is how I learned to do this.

Every week, the outer bearings would bust, so I'd take it to my friend's, and he'd fix it. After so many times, I became an expert at this. I also became a regular at Napa auto parts. One late night, broken down on the freeway, I took the tire off. I had spare bearings with me. Threw them on, lost the cotter pin, and unraveled a paperclip, and slid it in. It worked.

Drove the car to work the next day, 13 miles away. I was on streets, being afraid of breaking down on the freeway. Heard the clunking sound begin, so I thought, I'm driving this car as far as I can to my friend's. I was TICKED, I had enough!!!

He fixed the car AGAIN. He sold it to some guy, get this. The guy turned the corner (test drive), and the wheel fell off. LOL, he got his!!

Had an el camino (in bad shape). I asked a neighbor to cut off the tailpipes that were held by chicken wire, and had holes in it. I bought elbows,straight ends and clamps from an auto store. Bolted them together to create my personal tailpipes. Took it to Midas, and they were impressed that I did this without any help.

Of course, this stuff is easy to you, but not a girl who had no clue how easy it was to improvise.

 

Wheel bearings should last for many years. I like to replace them at 150-200,000 miles. If the bearings were failing weekly something was drastically wrong! Take things like that to a shop and let the professionals work on it.

Now you have a new clue... -Don't take ANYTHING to your friend to fix!!!

 

Only if you want to hear how my neighbor used a condom to protect the threads of his gas grill connection when the men poured his concrete patio. :-)

 

outstanding

 

I once used bondo to patch a muffler so it would pass inspection. I mixed the bondo applied it and put a little dirt on it to make it look like it had been there for awhile. It passed inspection and lasted about six months after that.

 

...Hey, I did the same thing with "Epoxi-steel"....still holding together after 3-months

...Oh yea, the old hockey skate laces for a fan belt routine worked pretty good too...

 

Only if you want to hear how my neighbor used a condom to protect the threads of his gas grill connection when the men poured his concrete patio. :-) [/QUOTE]


Outstanding!!! You know what they say, "you gotta protect your plumbing!"

 

The pump on my washer froze one summer. I removed it, placed oil around the shaft, then placed the pulley against the exposed belt on my VW bug (running). The pump started to move and sqeek, the went quiet and started to turn freely. I put it back on and it lasted another year.
Dono

 

Driving across Eastern Washington (high desert) with the family in the car A freeze plug falls out on the interstate miles from nowhere. What to do?

One of the kids was drinking juice from a bottle that had a pretty good sized cap. That cap and some chewing gum plugged the freeze plug long enough to get to a town (not quite, it fell out a mile from town but I kept going.)

 

Most of my shade tree engineering usually involves either coat hangers, JB Weld, duct tape or electrical tie wraps.

When I got my BII, the smog pump was missing most of it's pipes and hoses. The only pipe in the system under the hood is one that comes up from the passenger side exhaust manifold and had a valve at the end. Just my luck this valve leaked and I could smell the exhaust fumes inside the BII.
I couldn't get at the lower end of the pipe very well because of the A/C box and was afraid that if I tried to pinch the pipe closed, I'd end up breaking it off. So, I got a copper pipe cap & cut 4 slits in it's sides. I liberally applied JB Weld to the end of the pipe and inside the cap, slipped it down over the pipe and clamped it on with a heater hose clamp.
It's been on there for a couple of years now and I haven't smelled any more exhuast fumes. (I did duct tape the cracks in the A/C box at the same time)

*****

 

I was driving down to pick up my sister from college (about a 2 hour drive) when my vehicle at the time started to overheat. I immediately pulled over, popped the hood, and found one of the radiator pipes, hooked-up directly at the rad itself, had sprung a leak. At this point, I was 1 hour into the ride, and figured that by the time I called AAA, got a tow back home and used one of the other vehicles, I would have wasted half the day!

Not being in the mood for that, I nursed it to the next exit with the heater on high, found a grocery store, and parked the Benz. I wasn't a "truck guy" at that time, and didn't carry any tools with me (how things have changed since then). So I went into the supermarket, bought some antifreeze, a gallon of distilled water, and a really cheap set of screwdrivers & one of those snap-off & dispose utility knives.

Wound up grabbing a bite at the deli next door while the engine cooled down enough to work on it. I removed the clamp at the rad (with my cheap grocery store screwdriver), cut back on the rad hose until the cracked part was disposed of (with my cheap grocery store utility knife) and streched what was left of the hose with all my strength to re-clamp it back in place. All that was left was to refill the rad with fluid & water.

Needless to say, the rest of the ride went without a hitch. Less than 1 hour pit stop, with grocery shopping & lunch to boot! I even drove the Benz that way for anoter week or two until I could find the time for a proper fix.

Then there was the time I found my driver's side wiper blade clip went south on me during a rainstorm, in the middle of the night. A quick pit-stop under an overpass & some duct tape held things together quite well.

 

I was driving down a lonely country road one cold winter day when it began to sleet pretty heavily. My windows were getting icy and my wiper blades were badly worn and quickly fell apart under the strain.


Unable to drive any further because of the ice building up on my front window I suddenly had a great idea. I stopped and began to overturn large rocks until I located two very lethargic hibernating rattle snakes. I grabbed them up, straightened them out flat and installed them on my blades and they worked just fine.


What! You've never heard of . . . wind chilled vipers?


Ok,ok...never mind...bad joke