Ghetto repairs

[Frank46]

Old chevy S-10 pickup had stainless steel gas line that got some rock damage and started to leak. Small tubing cutter, two hose clamps and about a foot of rubber hose rated for gas. Lasted until pickup went to the great junkyard. Frank

[uncle pete]

1975, I owned a 67 Impala SS. 396 Turbo 400. (Yes you Chevy guys are going to shake your head about this.) Gotta have nice rims and wide tires right? So it's air shocks time. The tires were only a couple of inches too wide for the rear wheel wells. So 100 psi in the air shocks. That works fine till you hit something like a rail crossing at 80 mph and the tires would rub on the body. I knew it had a coil spring rear suspension. Wot to do? Jack the car up till the rear suspension fully extended. About 4 short lengths of 2"x4" (construction grade) inserted between the coils on each side and drop the car back on the ground. Now were talking, The car then had a wicked rake. Looked awesome to the owner at that time. Of course it rode like it had a dead solid suspension. Or lets just say no suspension. Who cares tho, Looks are everything right? I still chuckel about how stupid I was. Wish I had that car now though.

Pete

[darryl]

No pictures, but a couple of permanent 'temporary' repairs I've done- not wanting to spurge over $20 for the Land Cruiser air filter, I got a $5 one and made up my own top and bottom from metal pie pans. It's still on the truck to this day.

In the same vein, I didn't want to splurge $4600 for a new starter when the bendix and solenoid went (well maybe it wasn't that much) so I had the pinion welded to the mating part, then made up an actuator lever so I could kick it in from inside the cab. Now I have three shift levers to deal with, and a dash-mounted push button to kick in the separate high current switch. So I'm still on the original starter for the 'cruiser, and the cobble-up now has over 100,000 miles on it. Gotta watch out for the lever kicking out when the engine fires- that's a finger breaker.

Also changed the carb out when I got tired of 11 mpg. I made up an adapter plate to mount the '67 chevy carb to the toyota manifold, which is a fairly normal looking part, but then I didn't have a vacuum advance mechanism. The original was a vacuum retard mechanism (horrible emission controls back in '74) so I made my own from soldered up brass tubing and double sided pc board material. I have to lube it about twice per oil change interval, but it has worked since I put it on.

Another two 'solutions' that I came up with for the 'cruiser- didn't have an intermittent windshield wiper system, so I mounted a hinge with some microswitches on it down by the left foot. A quick swing of the foot and the wipers activate for one cycle. The next solution is not really ghetto, but I got tired of having the heat either too hot or too cold, so I mounted a thermistor to the dash with some protective screen around it. A homemade circuit then control the fan speed according to cabin temperature. Looks funny, the thermistor sticking out on it's wires, but it works.

Oh, I almost forgot- I needed a map light, especially when the body was all stripped off for summer. I got an old philips shaver and used the body for the light housing, and mounted it on a telescoping antenna. I kept the swivel ball too. So there's this shaver sticking out from the dash- pull it out all the way and then you can turn it and move it all around.

[_Paul_]

Many years ago as a young lad my cronies and I used to "scramble" around on any old two wheel machine we could get cheap, one day my friend Tony Clayton (RIP Tony) and me are riding around the disused railway tracks of Yorkshire on an 1957 LD150 Lambretta the LD has shaft drive and quite a few lumps of ally gear/drive casing stick out a way.....whack hit a rock with the thing which knocks a lump of transmission casing off.....out the gear oil starts pouring.....in the middle of nowhere.....so stop and tip it on it's side walk a mile or two to the nearest village and buy many packs of Gum chewed it all the way back to the LD and plugged the casing hole with it.
I guess we could have rode it home as it was with the hole but as the one crank bearing (and oil seal) is fed from the gear oil might it have trashed the motor.

[aboard_epsilon]

here's one ..

on my car ,one of the tiny plastic clips that hold the door lever shaft onto the handle busted ...about £8 or something to buy ..for something that may have cost 0.001 pence to make.

wasnt paying that ..so improvised



new clip is from an electrical conector block




tell me something ....can someone go to their photobucket album ..and open up a picture and save it to desk top ..in windows7 ..if i do this ..it saves the picture as a distorted narrow strip

same with these relayed pics ..
all the best....markj

[Charles Lessig]

Mazda CPR

The fuel pump in my '73 Mazda RX3 wagon worked poorly when the
silent rubber check valve turned to mush. The engine didn't
get enough gas, especially on hills.

The tank had a vent going to a fume trap. I opened the panel
that covered the fuel pump and connected a long plastic tube
to the vent that I could blow into while driving.

Hill, sputter, sputter, puff, puff, puff, running OK again.

That gave enough pressure to get fuel to the engine and
got me home.

Did that for a week or so until I made a replacement check
valve out of teflon. After that there was always a clicking
sound from the fuel pump.


Push starting a one door Isetta bubble car alone on level ground.

This was done by tying a rope to the clutch pedal using
the front bumper tube as a pulley with the front door partly
open. That way I could push, steer through the side window,
and work the clutch.

When the engine started, disengaged the clutch, holding firmly on
the rope so as not to run over myself and got in by the front door.

[Chester]

tell me something ....can someone go to their photobucket album ..and open up a picture and save it to desk top ..in windows7 ..if i do this ..it saves the picture as a distorted narrow strip

same with these relayed pics ..
all the best....markj

Have also had the same problem...........until someone offers a better solution, just.... open with "paint" and you'll see the picture again.

There are many Mickey Mouse solutions in my past too, got to think about them....

[aboard_epsilon]

i dont know what's happening all my other photos open ...photobucket is adding something to the photo now, that makes it incompatible with windows photo viewer.

it does open with other programs

it's also doctoring the photo so the information about the date that it was taken is altered to today...and not three years ago .

in the past when you downloaded a picture it kept the information of the date it was prosssed on your computer.

another funny thing .....its saves Mcgyver's picture of his mechano drill which is also from photobucket..and displays it ok....and the information on the date taken is there ..

wonder if they have added something to all "old pictures" in photobucket

all the best.markj

[vpt]

I WANT to hear about ALL the off the wall fixes. Like using a bungy cord to replace a fan belt. Yup, cut the steel ends off and tie the two ends together and limp into town 100 miles away.

Sometimes you just have to do what you can do with the stuff at hand... JR

That reminded me! I used my boot string one time to turn the alternator and water pump on my truck to get home, in the dark, 30 miles from home.

Cop stopped me half way and asked what I was doing (driving down the road with no headlights on, just flashers). I explained, he said good luck and sent me on my way. lol Made it home just fine, never over heated and I didn't even have to charge the battery after I put the new belt on.

Same truck I drove around in front wheel drive for a month once...

[vpt]

Only about 3 years ago our battery on our truck died in a boat landing. No one around, no jumper cables, no tools. But we did have a good battery in the boat! I'll tell you what is nice about optima batteries, they can be turned upside down.