New Thread : what would MacGyver do ?

I thought it was time to have a MacGyver  thread , well really how to fix stuff when you do not have the part  etc .

So post some of the things you have seen made either by you , someone  you know or even YouTube , a blog  or forum , 

People that can do this are the heros  of mechanics , 

Lets see what you got  !  Mullets unite !

Stay safe

My buddy is working on a "mystery" motor , its a 4 cylinder motor made in late 1940s , there are some parts available but not many and you have to order them from Europe , 

This motor has been thru Helll , broken , cracked , rewelded , worn out , but its the original for the car so it needs to be fixed , 

The crankcase was beat out , and no overbore bearings available , What would MacGyver  do ? it needs a line bore  , so he makes a line bore bar ,  bores the crankcase and that comes out nice , 
Next he needs main bearings , he has the old ones , so he knows the size , but he needs oversize now , what would MacGyver do ? 
Time to pour your own babbit main bearings !  Yep , thats what he does , and machines a couple molds to pour the bearings into , and machines them to the correct  outside diameter , drills oiling holes and once  installed in the crankcase line bores them to crank specs.

more later

stay safe.......

yup.. pour babbit..  :-)

Had to make this today to take down a patio cover. This is the second one I have had to do and no windows to protect so five major cuts through a 8x12 wood and it came down. Took me longer to cut it up on teh ground and bring it out to the trash pad.  It was rotted all the way though and not safe to work under or around. So yeah this works to keep me out of the way. 

I temporarily fixed the shift linkage in my SL2 with a ziptie, for about 4 years. 

I fixed a rusted fuel line with three hose clamps and half a dollar bill. Dollar bills are very durable. Lasted for the rest of the time I owned the car. 

In reply to RevRico :

I temporarily fixed the broken tie rod on my wheel horse with hose clamps 4 years ago

I fixed a separated exhaust pipe with a Fosters can and some safety wire. Guys at the muffler shop loved it.

There is no thing so permanent as a temporary repair. 

When Jodi and I were first dating I had an extremely sketchy 20 year old Chevy C-50 rollback we picked up on short notice when my SuperbDuty was stolen. It was an Ex-NYC truck that was left in a field for a while, an absolutely awful truck with a straight 6, too short a wheelbase so the nose was always light, and seats swapped in from a car that were too low so you could hardly see out.  She came with me to pick up a big Olds wagon on the North Shore of Long Island at the top of some steep twisty streets. Halfway down the brake pedal went to the floor.  The right front brake hose had blown.  I pinched it off with vice grips and drove to east end to drop off the car.  Out there we found a part store that had a close enough hose, replaced it in the lot and taught Jodi how to bleed brakes.  Somehow this convinced her that I was the smartest person she'd ever met. 
 

I wrung the splines out of a wire wheel (and bolt-on adapter) on the RR of my '67 TR4A. Splines were too buggered to get the spare on. Bright idea was to jack up the right side, and swap adapters and wheels, front and rear. It got me home, but normal braking would start un-threading the knock-off on the front. I managed by using the hand-brake, for the most part.

This was in 1975 or so.

Wally,

Lots of guys can show a girl a good time.  A lot fewer can show her how to bleed brakes.  I don't have a problem with her analysis.  (That must have been a fun date, BTW!)

Back in 1968 I was on a weekend field trip with three other geology majors to an old mine on a Jeep trail in central Arizona, driving my '63 Corvair Monza.  Packed up to go back to campus Sunday after lunch, hit the key, car started and idled beautifully, no throttle connection.  Turns out the cotter pin in the linkage between the foot pedal and the long shaft that goes back to the engine had broken.  It's under the floor in the tunnel, what to do?  Just run a rope to the throttle linkage and drive by hand, right?  Trouble is, the throttle mechanism back there needs to move toward the back of the car to open the throttle.  so, what is available?  Found a tree limb a couple inches in diameter, shortened it with  a hatchet so it would wedge between the battery and spare tire, across the back of the engine compartment.  Then found a beer can, cut out the ends, and attached it with a couple of square nails from a mining shack, for friction reduction.  No rope, so we all took the laces out of our boots, tied them together, ran them from the throttle linkage, back around the beer can, then forward so I could work the gas with my left hand out the window.  Had to brace the engine cover open with a stick, sort of like a FIAT Abarth.  Drove it 20 miles back to the pavement, found a service station (back when there were service stations) open on a Sunday, where the mechanic ground down a cotter pin to fit.  Still had that fix when I traded it in on  a 2002, my first new car, three years later.

Side note:  One of my great grandfathers was a Scots-Irish immigrant named MacKeever.  This is  one spelling for the original Scottish clan of McIver or McIvor, one of the alternate spellings is MacGyver.  Must have helped that day.

I was on a bike ride 6-8 years ago and got a flat tire in front of this lady's house. She asked if I needed help and then said that her husband (a cyclist himself) would be home soon from a group ride. Low and behold he then shows up home and looks at the tire. He asks if I had a dollar bill on me. I gave him a dollar bill I had in my gear and he did some trick with the folded dollar bill to patch up the flat. I was able to make it 12 miles back home with the tire that way. Don't ask me how it worked but it did.

Boat rather than car related but still mechanical.   One of our summer neighbors has a gorgeous 22 foot Lyman straight inboard from the early 60’s.   I detail it for her a couple of times a summer and so get to borrow it occasionally.   I’d just finished up, grabbed my wife and headed a couple miles down the lake to take my parents out for a ride.

We’d just backed out from their dock, E36 M3 we’re stuck in reverse.   Shut the engine off and find the shift cable has decided to come apart.   I’m mortified because I’ve broken The Good Boat.   

The good news is the transmission is behind the engine but still pretty much in the center of the boat / easy to reach and there’s already a two inch lever of sorts on the side where the cable connects.   Back at the dock we hit up my dads shed full of odds and ends and fab up a wooden shift handle and bolt it on the shift lever.   Bride and I practice our forward /neutral/reverse hand signals and head back to face the consequences with the bride back aft on shift duty.   As we pull into the dock my neighbor sees the engine cover tilted up and meets us at the dock laughing.  “Oh that happens all the time, I’ve got a spare cable in the shed”.  My shift handle is now in the Good Boats tool box, just in case. 

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to RevRico :

I temporarily fixed the broken tie rod on my wheel horse with hose clamps 4 years ago

Same fix, now 10 years old on mine.

Years ago, the rearward most exhaust hanger on my old Toyota pickup finally rusted away. I was on my way home from a round of golf when it began making a horrible noise. I used the leather carry strap from my old golf bag around the pipe, up over the frame and buckled it to the correct height. Worked for weeks until I needed the strap to go play golf again.

Many years ago I was with a friend as an extra service crew for a Mk 2 Escort RS1800 - actually one of the few times I was near the pointy end of the field.

The rally crew pulled into service with the car making bad noises from a cracked exhaust collector  they had smashed on a rock - the crack was on the upper side and not accessible from underneath and since the BDA was very sensitive to exhaust leaks they would have been down a decent number of horsepower. It was only a short service so they immediately went into conference mode with their own service crew discussing whether there was time to pull the exhaust and fix it or live i5 without for the next four stages - meanwhile my mate Gavin MacGyver (not his real name) had got out the welding gear cut a big U in the floor, peeled it back and while I stood by with water and a fire extinguisher proceeded to weld the exhaust. We were just finishing up when the crew, having decided to leave it till later, came over to see what we were doing ... they (or at least the navigator who was a bit like that) were in serious panic mode and wanted to be on the way so the floor went back down with a only few tacks to hold it together.

All was good till a few stages later they encountered a small "f" ford at great speed, the tack welds gave way and the navigator wore a fire hose of cold water in the face. Worse was to come with several more in quick succession   Fortunately no pace notes in those days...

I don't know, call AAA?