Ghetto repairs

[aboard_epsilon]

ive had a fault on my car for two years now

starter motor gets stuck..no time to fix ..when my solution, so far seems to work

that is to open the drivers door ..and slam it

all the best.markj

[vpt]

Forgot about my latest from this last winter. I think I already posted this experience here. Snowed, went and put gas in the plow truck, came back and went to start on my driveway, didn't even get to do one swipe and my job for the day changed with one quick thud.





Didn't want to spend a bunch (if anything) on a old worn out, might not make it till the next year plow truck. Ghetto part: So I went and picked up some exhaust tubing from a local store, welded it up, and away she goes plowing snow just like nothing ever happened.





That exhaust is a 96 chevy truck exhaust that has been on three different trucks now.

[A.K. Boomer]

OMG look at that frame! I forgot what it's like back there...

I think the titanics in better condition...

[EVguru]

You get a much better class of jury rigged repair in the US.

Here in the UK we have an annual safety check for almost all vehicles over 3 years old including testing the brake efficiency and balance on rollers (brake dynamometer).

[gnm109]

I used to drive a fleet car in my job. It was a 1980's Plymough Reliant. That was a funny name for a car that would quit when it felt like it. Every now and then on a hot day, it would stall. After about 15 minutes, it would start again. This problem happened several times, once on a rural road in Northern California after dark.

I spoke to the dealer service man about it and he explained that there were two thermal relays in front of the radiator, left and right. In order for the car to keep running both of those relays had to make contact. If one of them opened due to heat, the car would stall. He told me that he could replace the relays but, due to the poor design, it would probably not be a permanent fix.

The trick, he said, was to locate the relays and, if stalled, take off your shoe and bang on each one in turn. The next time it stalled, I did just that and the car started immediately. Thankfully, it only happened a few more times during the year that I used it and they finally gave me another car. But whenever I was driving it, I made sure that I had shoes on so I'd be able to fix it.

[BMW Rider]

I always thought BMW made their own motors. I had no idea rotax built motors for them.

Rotax built the single cylinder 650cc engine (now built by BMW in China) and builds the 800cc vertical twins. Both are BMW designs manufactured by Rotax. The original single 650 was an Aprilla engine made by Rotax which BMW licensed and later reworked to their own design. The 800 twin is an original BMW design and has now been tweaked to 900cc for the Husqvarna line.

[Bob D.]

In a very windy snowstorm, the driver's side windshield wiper flew off my buddy's car, the bare arm was rubbing against the glass doing no good and we couldn't see anything. So I took off my glove and stuck it on the arm with the middle finger covering the shaft of the the arm. We made it home ok, giving the finger to every passing vehicle.

[Black_Moons]

Forgot about my latest from this last winter. I think I already posted this experience here. Snowed, went and put gas in the plow truck, came back and went to start on my driveway, didn't even get to do one swipe and my job for the day changed with one quick thud.


Didn't want to spend a bunch (if anything) on a old worn out, might not make it till the next year plow truck. Ghetto part: So I went and picked up some exhaust tubing from a local store, welded it up, and away she goes plowing snow just like nothing ever happened.

That exhaust is a 96 chevy truck exhaust that has been on three different trucks now.

Nope dude, Not a ghetto repair! those welds look wayyyy too good.

Next time weld it using some jumper cables, coathangers and the car battery for true ghetto quality!

[Sleazey]

Not really my repair, but my dad's.

Back about '61, when I was 9, the entire family took a vacation to see my Dad's sister and her husband in Silver City, NM. We lived in Pampa, TX at the time, up in the Texas Panhandle, and Silver City is most of the way across NM, in the desert.

Of course, this was late July, the best time to take a trip across the NM desert in a car with no A/C, and 3 adults (Mom, Dad, and my Dad's mom), and 3 kids, in a 1954 Dodge.

We made the first day and evening OK, but the second day was just unbearable. So, my Dad stopped at some small town, and bought a 50 lb block of ice and an ice pick. He chopped the block into 3 sections, put one on the floor of the front passenger seat for my Mom, the other two went on the floor in the back, one piece on each side of the driveshaft hump. That was to keep us 3 kids and my Grandma comfortable in the back.

We rolled up all the side windows, and placed a couple of sheets of newspaper on all of the windows except the driver's side window, and took off west. We also put several sheets of newspaper under each block of ice, to insulate them somewhat from the floor of the car. It actually got semi-comfortable. It was a hell of a lot better with the ice than without!

Of course, the blocks would melt in about 45 minutes or so, so we would buy another block of ice, trisect it, and take off again. About 2 hours or so, the floor pan in the back seat had about 2 inches of water sloshing around in it. "Hey, Dad, it's getting deeper back here! What should I do, you want me to try to bail it out?"

He just reached down, and held up the ice pick, and said "Poke a few drain holes in the floor, son. That way we don't have to open the windows and let the cool air out."

So that was what I did! Eventually my Mom asked for the ice pick, so she could drain out the floor pan on her side. Trailing ice water all the way, we continued blissfully on to Silver City.

My Mom drove that car for another 3 years at least, after that trip.

[vpt]

Nope dude, Not a ghetto repair! those welds look wayyyy too good.

Next time weld it using some jumper cables, coathangers and the car battery for true ghetto quality!

I did use a car battery, coat hanger, and jumper cables, I'm just that good, I can lay down a bead with the painted coated coat hanger that would rival most constant argon environment stainless nuclear plant pros!

My wife took a pic of me when I was laying down a test bead to see if I had those cheap china coat hangers or the good american made ones. I found the china ones splatter to much.