In my last thread I created, I mentioned using a bungee cord strapped around the stearing column and attached to the brake pedal to keep the brake lights from staying on.

What is your best MacGuyver shade tree trick that would be frowned upon by purists but worked really well?????

You can also share any funny failures as well.

 

Sorry Karl,

I only do quality, professional type repairs.

Means I buy all my bailing wire through Snap On.

 

Well, I used 4 pennies taped together to make my brake lights work on a '71 340 Duster. (taped them to the top of the brake pedal so they would rach the switch).

Used bungee cord to keep the tailpipe/muffler up on my '90 Firebird (lasted about 18 miles before burning off)

 

I used a coat hanger to keep a tailpipe up. I then got shipped off for a month for forest fire duty and forgot about it. The coat hanger rusted off a few months later. Lesson learned: These tricks are best for temporary fixes.

 

When I drove the 54 to the paint shop, he had no glass or door hardware except for the hinges. To keep the doors shut I wrapped a bungy cord through the rear window hole and around through the door window. Jag

 

I once fixed a busted radiator hose with a bicycle tire repair kit. I was in the Nevada desert, and let's just say my options were limited at the time.

 

I've done so many that I've lost track. It's sort of a way of life for me. I've lived most of my life in areas with limited access to parts (and me with limited access to the funds to purchase said parts!) so I've had to learn to make do with the items at hand. Bailing wire exhaust hangers are old hat to me...


However, one that comes to mind is an interesting story. Bear with me...

Back about 1983 I decided to fix up my '67 Sunbeam Alpine that I'd purchased as a parts car for ther Tiger, but was in too good a shape to cut up. I'd stuck a smaller '60 1500cc motor in it to get by in place of the missing original 1725 motor. I then came up with another '67 parts car that was complete but very rough, badly dented and rusted through in places. I got to messing with the 1725 motor in it, found it was frozen but I was hopeful it could be broken free. I pulled the plugs and soked the cylinders with WD40 to no avail. I had a new head gasket set, so I pulled the head and found the two cylinders that were rusted, soaked them well and cleaned them up as best I could, then alternated between the two tapping on the end of a 2X4 block on top of each piston while applying pressure via the accessory hand crank that came with most English cars of the '60s (anyone who knows anything about English cars and Lucas electrical systems will understand why they came with this hand crank).

Eventually it broke free and the cylinder walls looked amazingly good, so I cleaned it up some more and gace the cylinders a bit of a hone (with the pistons in place!) and kept roatating the engine and wiping down the cylinder walls till the pistons stopped leaving any rusty residue on them. Then I slapped the head back on, pulled it and dropped into my '67 and fired it up, changed the oil and drove it to work for the next two days and then drove it from Redding (where I lived at the time...well, near enough) to Olympia Washington and back for a Sunbeam convention.

It ran flawlessly the whole way, except for a coupling (like a tiny little u-joint) on the throttle linkage that broke when I was autocrossing it in Olympia. I repaired that, enough to limp home anyway.

I was about 10 miles from home when the linkage coupling let go for good and I had no throttle. 10 miles to go, very late in the afternoon and I had a spare coupling at home...but that was still a bit too far to do me any good. So I got out a trusty roll of electrical tape and used most of it wrapping it around and around that coupling, half an inch thick. It was one sloppy-feeling throttle, but it got me home.

I have more of these...maybe too many!

 

My ugliest one was using duct tape to hold a front blinker light onto my old toyota truck after it was in accident. That duct tape held for 2plus years which included days as hot as 102 and as cold as -10F. That Toyota (85) was a decent, but not great pickup. It was great vehicle though.

Another quick fix did not require any extra tools or parts. A couple of friends and I were walking back from lunch in a parking garage when a construction contractor was pulling in. He had the usual contractor metal utility ladder/everthing else holder in the back. It was too tall for the grages ceiling and he was stuck there. My friends and I jumped on the back bumper and lowered the rear end enough that it freed up the utility rack and he could back out.

 

Dan's story reminds me of the time I was in the service (US Air Force) and had a 1972 Duster with the bulletproof 225 six cylinder in it. This was in '78-79 or so. It had the 3 on the tree manual transmission, and the throttle cable had broken. The local Chrysler dealer did not have one in stock, and had to order it. So I decided to use a couple of shoestrings tied together, and pulled on it with my left hand while steering/shifting with my right.

"Digger the Dog" was a popular kids toy at the time, and my car got the nickname of said toy after my friend's son started calling it that. The SP's at the gate would not let me drive the car on the base with that setup, so I had to go around to a different gate, and let the shoelace hide between the fender and hood while I cruised thru.

 

Just did this one the other day . . .

98 Outback missing and running like doo.
Replaced the platinum plugs that had 100K+ on them and worn to the insulator,
yeah one good reason to run like doo.
New platinums in all put together, still runs like doo. Hmm says I, pulled codes found cylinder 4 misfire. Pulled plug again, its fine, so it must be the wire.
Of course I can't just go pick up Subaru wires at the local parts place. So for a quick fix I find an old wire from my Ranger thats the right length and will reach the 4' into the valve cover to get to the plug. Runs like a champ now. I have new wires waiting for me, just have to pick them up, tear apart the engine compartment again and replace them.

I knew I kept old parts for a reason, but this wasn't one of them . . . .

Rich

 

I don't know if anyone would frown upon it, but a good laugh maybe.

Before I installed my Fumoto valve on the oil pan of my Powerstroke I used the shop vac trick to hold the oil in the pan until well after I removed the plug/bolt. I'd pull the oil fill cap off then put the shop vac hose over the fill tube and turn it on. Then shimmy on under the truck and remove the bolt. You hear some bubbling and gurgling and when you go back and turn off the vac the oil would fall through the hole and into the drain pan. Presto- no oil on your hand.

 

I too had an early '70s duster, but I lived in the midwest at the time where they salted the roads. I used to joke that next year the car would run faster because the sheet metal kept rusting away.

Anyway, I was canoeing down a river and capsized, losing my keys. Oops. We're stuck in the middle of nowhere, no phone, and no transportation. What to do?

I popped out the ignition switch, shook out the tumblers, and reinstalled. I never did fix it properly. The car was so ugly, noone was going to steal it anyway.

 

I had forgotten about this, but here's a good one:

I had a '73 Ranchero that had been much abused by a previous owner. When I got it, it puleed so hard to the right I'd wear myself out trying to keep it heading down the road straight. Tire wear was...abominable. I found the upper control arm bushings on the left side were shot, gone in fact. It was so bad that the pivot arm had worn about 1/2" into the control arm. I reapced all that and it was better but still pulled. I measured my wheelbase and found that it was about 2" shorter on the right side than the left. Upon closer examination I found that the strut rod which locates the lower control arm had at one time torn out of the frame and was held back in by a plate badly welded in to hold the bushings, but in the wrong location. I just lived with it for a while, figuring I'd fix it when I had the chance. That chance came one day when I hit a bump and the whole thing tore loose and jammed the right front wheel back against the firewall. Needless to say, that really made it pull to the right...

I was about 4 blocks from my shop at the time and by sheer luck happened to have a come-along in the back so I hooked one end to the lower control arm and the other to the front frame crossmember and started winching till the wheel was back into position, then drove it that way...very carefully, come-along still in place...the rest of the way to my shop where I finally fixed it.