Strangest repairs?

OK, I know that folks out there have seen some strange "repairs" over the years. So what have you seen?

Here is mine. Had a car come in that the owner tells me had a leak in the vacuum system. He tells me his kid tried to repair it. I pop the hood and find EVERY line under the hood coated with some type of bed-liner spray. Seems the kid figured that if it was a leak the coating would get sucked in and it would stop.

I'll say one thing that SH^& was tough to get loose! I hooked up the smoker to it and found the leaks, One through the brake booster and the other was behind the dash on the heater controls.

Reply to
Steve W.
Loading thread data ...

broken stub axle, rf wheel

Reply to
Nicholas

"Steve W." wrote in news:g2ejmj$gkd$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org:

I'm just a driveway grease monkey, but I've seen a few bizarre things. Check this out:

formatting link
This was a neighbor's '95 Aerostar. Needless to say, the brake pads were down to the steel. She said it had "just started" making a grinding noise. Yeah, right.

Is there an automotive smoke machine priced for the DIY market?

Reply to
Tegger

cardboard box used with bondo to build a new rocker panel. pop and beer cans used to fix exhaust pipes.

I've used a keyring instead of the proper clip to hold the shift cable on a TH350 transmission. (still holding!)

78 Volare. Headlight switch had off, on, on. Park lights and headlights were all jumpered together, sorta, and the whole thing eventually shorted out and melted. Almost caught the whole damn car on fire.

But, my favorite is my buddy's 78 Dodge truck. Too cheap to change the starter or fix the wiring, so he carried a big screwdriver that he had to use about 1/3 of the time to start the truck by jumpering the terminals. He did this for about 2 years. Now, that's lazy.

Ray

Reply to
ray

Broken choke cable? No prob.

60's Bug, owner wrapped the engine in plastic sheet to keep it warm until lunchtime. OOPs, forgot about it. I don't think it ever ran again after that.

One ol' boy didn't have a latch or hinges on his pickup hood. "I don't go fast enough or far enough for it to matter." Until the police car behind him would speed up whenever he did, (creeping down the frontage road.) That hood took the light bar off the cops car. Seems the cop wanted to know: "What is the deal?" He was late for work, but managed to find some baling wire before the trip home.

Reply to
DoTell

I witnessed something similar one morning on my paper route - Was about to pull away from stuffing a paper into a box when I glanced at my rearview just in time to see some idiot in a rice-mobile turn out of a side-street behind me. Turning out of the side-street wasn't all that idiotic, but the fact that he had the car redlined (judging by the engine scream) and that he had to be doing 50+ by the time he went past me (in a 35 zone, no less) earned him the label. I let him blow by, pull out to head for my next stop, and ahead, I see the shape of his car suddenly change - It looked like it suddenly got a *LOT* taller, but he was far enough ahead by then that I couldn't really see any details. Almost as quick, it "got short" again, and immediately, he's weaving all over the road, and I can hear the sound of tires screaming as he locks the brakes and finally drags it onto the shoulder and stops. Stuff a couple more boxes as I'm getting closer, and as I go trundling by at about 15 MPH (Had another paper to deliver just past where he landed, so I was getting ready to stop), I can't help but do a (Read this in your best "Nelson" voice") HA-HAH! :)

Dunno the exact how or why, but it looked like his hood had come unlatched, popped, and the wind of his speed (I'd guesstimate 70+ at the moment he "got big") grabbed it and slammed it wide open, and then some, breaking at least one of the hinges, smashing out his windshield, and folding the hood back almost flat over the roof, where it apparently hit with enough force to smash out his sunroof, blow out both of the rear side windows and spiderweb his back glass quite nicely.

Needless to say, I was *HIGHLY* amused... A clear case of "for once, Stupid is painful" :)

Reply to
Don Bruder

I've done quite a few of 'em over the years.

One that comes to mind is a '77 Jeep CJ-7 with the original 258 6 banger. Apparently, there was a bad motor mount and when I applied some torque, it caused the fan to hit the radiator and take a good sized arc out of the inboard part of the coils.

I was pretty close to the middle of nowhere at the time, but managed to break off each sliced section of the radiator core and sort of roll up each end with a pair of needle nosed pliers and then crimp them shut. Probably about 8 - 10 of them in all. When I was finished, there was a hole that I could easily put my fist through right smack in the middle of the rad. A quick re-fill from a handy near-by creek and I was able to drive the remaining 200 miles or so to a place where I could get another core and some new mounts.

-- TomO

Reply to
TomO

You win. I can't even come close to that.

Reply to
Steve

One repair I've used repeatedly is to fashion battery boxes out of wood. Sometimes all that is needed is a piece on the bottom. Now it's faily acid proof, the original problem. Funny thing is I've had this repair fail inspection. So I just keep going back to the inspection station till one of the inspectores passes it, or he doesn't notice.

Many years ago I was sent to help a BMW car broken down. The guy said it would idle but not accelerate, he didn't want a tow, if I could make it go. Looking at the throttle linkage I noticed it had two cables, one was the throttle and the other seemed to go to the exhaust system. So it had connection to the gas pedal but the second cable was broken. When he stepped on the gas the throttle would open but the second, always thought it was an expansion chamber, would not move. There were exposed ends to the broken cable. I usually carry the universal battery terminal repairs and using the part that goes to the wire, I cut off the part to the battery post, I was able to connect the broken ends to the broken cable. It worked. I gave him instructions to not use hard preasure on the throttle and not try to make the car go faster than it wanted. I also told him to make sure that he pointed out this repair to the dealer mechanic so I would get some kind of Karmic credit for it. Of course anybody who later replaced the broken cable would find my repair.

The guy didn't like my price. I charged him $25. It was about 20 years ago. As far as I know it's still working or this car died for other reason's.

Once saw an early 60's Plymouth with over a hundred hose clamps holding the exhaust system on. It worked, sort of.

'74 Ford LTD II, broken points, not bad, the rubbing block came off. Tied points together with piece of thin copper wire. Could not rev over 1500 rpm because the wire would break and I'd have to do it again. Made it only several miles, this was in the city, before I got tired of this so I left the car and walked home. I was drunk that night.

disston friend of Bill Wilson, almost 11 years

Reply to
disston

Summer of 1984.......Hold down wingnut for the Air Cleaner cover on a 67 Galaxie.

As the owner was driving, the wingnut that holds the air cleaner cover on fell off and somehow slid forward, then got caught between the radiator shroud and the fan blade.

When the car was coming down the hill near the Amaco I used to work at it sounded like somebody shooting a sub machine gun. The fan blade tips were rat-a tat tapping the cover. To top it off the guy was dong almost

50mph coming down the hill.... As the guy pulled in the the mechanics & attendants were running over to the car, waving our arms, yelling "Shut It OFF"!!

We didn't know what the hell was going on. Soon as we opened the hood and saw where the air cleaner was we knew what the problem was. and we had a good laugh & story to tell later on.

The threaded shaft going into the center of the carb rotated down a few turns barely leaving enough thread sticking up to tighten the wingnut down. Vibration caused it to loosen and fall off.

h
Reply to
Harry Face

MY FIRST CARBURETOR REBUILD: (1938 Pontiac 6 Cyl)

I took the carb completely apart and installed new parts and gaskets from a rebuild kit. I had a leftover kit part that looked like a tiny plumb bob. I didn't remember seeing one when I took the carb apart. There were other extra parts because the kit covered several carb models, so I concluded that it was for some other carb. I bolted the carb in the car.

The car ran a little rough. I drove downtown, picked up some pals, and stopped at a coffee shop, where I smelled gasoline. I discovered that everything under the hood was covered with gasoline. I don't know why a spark hadn't set it off and blown the car to bits.

Of course everyone here knows the extra part was the float bowl needle valve poppet, and that without it the fuel squirted out of the bowl vent and doused the engine with gasoline.

Rodan.

Reply to
Rodan

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.