Thread: Weird Things You've Done to Keep Going.

Due to an unsuitable thermostat being fitted by a mechanic, my engine overheated (head gasket blew). I nursed it back home over a few hours by getting water from puddles in the table drain and topping up as required. Preserved the head. Repair job was done 'on the house'.
In the mechanics defence I think the t/stat was labelled incorrectly the packaging.
Don.

in a series III 2.25 I've pulled the remnants of #3 out of the engine after the rod broke, hose clamped the bearing shells back around the crank to keep the oil pressure up after removing the pushrods and scooping the remnants of the piston out of the sump and cylinder.

I've put a jerry can on the roof using a syphon to work around a dead fuel pump.

Ive tied CGI to the chassis and sat a back wheel on it after pulling the propshaft then driven out as a front wheel drive sled to get 3-4k home after seizing a brakedrum/bearing.

Ive cut down a tree with a suitable Y shaped branch set on it and used that, chains and ratchet straps to temporarily replace the A frame of a caravan to get it 300 km

Ive welded star pickets to a propshaft as braces to get a vehicle to limping so it could be gotten on and off of the recovery trailer to get across bridges we were over the load limit for.

used jam as gasket goo (make sure its the seedless stuff)

eggs in radiators (and pepper)

put diesel in the cooling system after doing a radiator repair. (old truck cooling system held ~40l)

used the electric winch on the vehicle to pull start a vehicle up a slope that was just enough that we couldn't push it (starter motor was dead usual routine was a roll start, that morning the nuff nuff reversed into a tree and stalled.)

used bits of tree branch as various drain and fill plugs

cut up and used floor mats as rubber blocks for body mounts

used a fan speed switch and resistor as the regulator for an alternator

long spliced rope to replace v belts

In 1965, driving my Series 2, I had the steering arm on the bottom of the relay break. I drove it (slowly) twenty-odd miles into Pimba with no steering. Every time it started to drift off the road, got out and dragged the wheels round. Mostly it just tamely followed the ruts. Got the arm welded in Pimba, replaced it in Alice Springs.

In 1964, I was working in the Gulf country, had a camp at Haydon, between Normanton and Croydon. One of the blokes on the crew did a big end bearing on his Holden. Our mechanic pulled the sump off, pulled the piston and rod out, and cut a bit of jam tin to fit round the journal, put a hose clip round that, to maintain oil pressure. As best I remember, it was still running on five cylinders a couple of months later.

John

Sprang a leak in (I think) a radiator hose on my E20 camper van. We were just down at Victor Harbour for the day. The E20 has access to the motor under the passenger's seat. Being a camper van, we had a tank full of drinking water. The (ex)wife sat in the back. Everytime the temperature got a bit high, I'd stop, we'd flip the seat forward and top up the radiator, then drive on. Got the brute home safely.

In reading this story, remember that this was in the days before mobile phones so everytime I called in the NRMA, I had to get someone to give me a lift to a phone or a depot.

Friday afternoon before driving from Sydney (where I was living at the time) to Adelaide (where the family was). That particular week, I was working at Gosford and had driving my MGB up there. Bought a tank of fuel at the end of the day and headed back to Sydney. Got part way back to the highway, and she stopped. Couldn't get her going so got the NRMA to rescue me. Tow truck back to Gosford, into the workshop where they found I had a tank badly contaminated with water. Everything cleaned out - they had to drop the tank to empty it properly. Picked her up and headed off to Adelaide, a day late (Sunday).

A couple of hours out of Sydney, she stops. Basic checks - no fuel. Fiddled a bit, got it started roughly. Eventually she packed it in properly. NRMA again, back to the workshop... which, being Sunday, was shut. Had to spend the night in a motel. Fuel pump burnt out. New fuel pump. Everything's working. Head off again.

Well out into the country. Stutters to a stop. Yup, no bloody fuel at the engine. Climbed in underneath, disconnected pipes and things - the blockage is in one of the pipes. NRMA again. Got towed to a workshop, which didn't have time to see to my car but let me use an air hose to blow down the blocked pipe and out popped a piece of SILASTIC

Okay, starting to get a feel for things now... and which pipe was blocking.

She stopped a few more times on the drive to Adelaide - more than a few probably as I had to spend another night on the road. Everytime it stopped, I'd climb in underneath, disconnect that pipe, and blow as hard as I could through it - always got a lump of silastic out if it.

A trip I usually did as an overnighter, took me three days. My beard was bleached white by petrol from sticking my mouth over a fuel pipe.

Once in Mum and Dad's driveway, we had a look at the tank. Sure enough, the idiots in Gosford, when they dropped the tank, had used huge amounts of silastic to seal the inlet pipe. Apart from the fact that they should know that silastic and petrol doesn't mix (it goes soft), they didn't have to seal the rotten pipe at all, hose clamps were all that were needed.

Cleaned the tank. Reinstalled it properly. Never had a problem again.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

used bits of tree branch as various drain and fill plugs

Carved a stick to plug a pressed metal sump that was holed when crossing a creek in a rally then finished the rally. The trail of oil after exiting the creek was a bit of a give-away.

I drove an old car around for about 6 months that couldn't hold water. If I parked it on a slope and filled up the radiator the water came out the exhaust. At the time I only lived 10 minutes from work so I just kept driving it. Anytime I had to stop at a set of lights I turned the engine off, going down a hill turned the engine off. Never blew it up although it used to get pretty hot.

Travelling in the table drain on the Wanaaring road I encountered a washout that was bigger that I had counted on. Falcon panel van with a u shaped steering arm. Pulled it off on the side of the road, took it the 20 km into Wanaaring, hit it with a FBH and got a lift out to refit it. Vehicle made it back to Orange but wore out the front tyres on the way home. Worst part was getting a lift into town with the shearers that I had left in a cloud of dust as I went past them. ( I was much younger and more foolish at the time in about 1985)

Regards,
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