Roadside survival. Your tips?

NickD said:

Someone on here also had a great story about some stage rally guys who had a clutch start slipping. So they drilled a small hole in the bellhousing, then filled their washer bottle with Coca Cola and routed the washer hose up into the hole in the bellhousing. When the clutch would start to slip, they'd hit the washer button and spray Coca Cola up onto the clutch and it would grab again for a while.

The Neon team in the Car and Driver Superfour Challenge in 2003 did that. Rerouted the washer pump to the bellhousing to deal with an overheating clutch.

I once drove home in a Land Rover with the rear brake hydraulics closed off with vice-grips. Single line system.

Better - I once drove down the Moab Rim trail in a Jeep that had a blown front brake line. Clamped it off with vice-grips. The rear brakes had been swapped out with discs so they basically didn't work. So it was all up to the left front wheel and engine braking. For the really sketchy spots, we strapped it to another Jeep and lowered it down. 

_ said:

I remember seeing in Red Dawn the truck overheats from blowing a radiator hose or something. The guys all take turns peeing in the radiator to fill it up. 
first- I imagine that would work, though the acidic nature of urine can't possibly be good for any system. So how much cred is there to this?

Second- what's y'all's roadside "make it home" repair tips? I've heard of an egg in the radiator, anyone care to confirm that one?  (Keep AAA out of this, there are areas where I love that have zero cell reception for 50miles or more)
 

Wait?  Eveyrone doesn't pee in their coolant system?  I've been marking my cars as MINE this way for years..... 

No heroic fixes here.  I did have a 5.0 Mustang that overheated spark boxes like crazy.   The Ford duraspark II.......  I used to keep 2 or 3 of them in the car and on ice swapping them out to make longer trips. 

I've removed the radiator cap for a small leak but when I had the stuck closed thermostat I put the heater on full blast and rolled the windows down to drive the 30 miles home. 

I have turned a headlight switch into an ignition switch to get rolling. Again with the old Land Rover.

_ said:

I remember seeing in Red Dawn the truck overheats from blowing a radiator hose or something. The guys all take turns peeing in the radiator to fill it up. 
first- I imagine that would work, though the acidic nature of urine can't possibly be good for any system. So how much cred is there to this?

Second- what's y'all's roadside "make it home" repair tips? I've heard of an egg in the radiator, anyone care to confirm that one?  (Keep AAA out of this, there are areas where I love that have zero cell reception for 50miles or more)
 

I used to drink iced tea by the gallon.

It works just fine as coolant.

I have used bits and pieces found on the side of the road to boogerfix a transmission.  The gear that drives the governor stripped (again), so the trans was stuck in 1st gear.  I popped the governor cover off and used some bits of wire I found on the side of the road to jam the governor as far open as I could.  It wasn't enough to give me 3rd gear,  but it was enough for nd, and I could at least maintain 50-55mph in 2nd at happy-there's-no-tach RPM.

U joint broke on Jeep Cherokee on drive shaft to the rear end.  Dropped the drive shaft on the side of the road and made it home with a front wheel drive Jeep.

Black pepper works on radiator leaks in an Acura Integra, well enough to get home from Swabbies on the river anyway.

_ said:

stuart in mn said:

_ said:

I remember seeing in Red Dawn the truck overheats from blowing a radiator hose or something. The guys all take turns peeing in the radiator to fill it up. 
first- I imagine that would work, though the acidic nature of urine can't possibly be good for any system. So how much cred is there to this?
 

Well, in an apocalyptic situation like what they portrayed in Red Dawn I imagine you wouldn't be worried about the long term affects on the cooling system.    A bigger question may be how much urine each guy could contribute...a truck's cooling system probably requires a couple gallons of water, so unless they all drank some Big Gulp soft drinks from the convenience store that morning they probably wouldn't be able to refill it.

 

Yeah, it's like some kinda weird man circle jerk into the radiator. Let's not read into the movie too much... it's the "idea" we are after. 
 

To tell my own, I once had the upper radiator hose pop on my prelude. When duct tape wouldn't hold it, we basically pulled off and waited for the car to cool down. Then start and drive a few more miles until the needle would start to peg. As a poor 16yr old hillbilly, it made for an interesting Friday night. Also, a LONG 30mi drive home. Changed the stuck thermostat when I got home. Drove like a champ. 

I had the mother of all air pockets in my Quantum once, about 40mi from home.  Effectively no cooling system, no water in the engine.  Engine would get really hot.  What I did was aircool the engine internally.  Helped that there is no such thing as flat ground in Ohio.

Run it uphill as fast as I dared while keeping an eye on the temp gauge.  Then on the downhill, shut the ignition off while keeping the throttle floored.  This pumped air through the inside of the engine and would cool the temp back down to normal as the car slowed from 75ish to 50ish.  Then turn the key back on and accelerate up the next hill and do it all over again, for 40 miles.

Got me home just fine.

I got the idea from General Motors, who uses this strategy to keep overheating vehicles alive long enough for the driver to get somewhere safe to shut down.  They shut off fuel to half the cylinders and run on the other bank, and switch every few seconds. An engine running on half the cylinders makes so little power that it's going to be running at or near WOT so plenty of air moves through.  IIRC they go into this protection mode at about 268F.

Keith Tanner said:

I have turned a headlight switch into an ignition switch to get rolling. Again with the old Land Rover.

EvanB drove his Miata for many years with the fuel pump relay bypassed with an ATC fuse.  Awful nice of Mazda's supplier to use the same terminal pitch on the relay as ATC fuses.. and for putting the power-in and switched-power-out terminals next to each other... and for Mazda to run ignition switched power to the relay instead of battery power.

Really it's almost like they deliberately engineered it so that when your fuel pump relay fails on day one of a two day rallycross, some guy with a BMW from DC region can give you a fuse and you can continue the next day.

_ said:

In reply to Toyman01 :

haha. Some days it feels like y'all trying to troll me. 

No seriously, I carry a Spot. Emergency satellite beacon. I spend a lot of time well outside of cell coverage and pretty much off of a map in the woods. A Spot can send SOS to the rescue squad if you wad something up in the middle of nowhere. It can also send a message to your wife or family that you are broken down, stuck, or have some other problem and need them to come get you. It sends them a GPS location and a map. 

https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/

NickD said:

When I was in PA last fall, I went to dinner with my Miata and on the way there, the charging light started to flicker. All through dinner I was searching for solutions, and knowing my car's propensity to shake stuff loose, decided to check all my connections. Reach down to check the nut at the alternator and the ring terminal BREAKS OFF IN MY HAND. At 9pm on a Sunday night. Ten miles from my hotel and 250 miles from home. 

So I had a tiny vice grip in my tool kit that I used to clamp what was left of the cable to the stud on the alternator. I don't want the vice grip to bump the intake manifold, so I wrap the vice grip in a shop rag that I brought with me for checking the oil level. That won't stay put in a satisfactory manner, so I zip tie the rag to the vice grips making the vital electrical connection in my charging system. Limped it back to my hotel, then found a a Lowes the next morning and bought wire cutters and a ring terminal, stripped the wire with a pocket knife and then crimped the ring terminal on. 

Seems like a bit more effort than necessary. Strip the wire ,wrap o n stud , install but and fix properly when alternator goes tits up

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I was pulling an 8 horse trailer with a full load of race horses. The truck was a brand new 1980 one ton Chevy with a few hundred miles on it. 

The positive wire from the battery was rubbing on one of the transmission cooler lines, wore through the insulation, and started shorting out. Each time, it would cut off the cruise control. Then, tiny drops of transmission fluid began to hit the windshield.

I had about a hundred and twenty miles to go, I was crossing through southern Illinois farm country, with no hope of getting it repaired on a Saturday afternoon, and those horses had started getting really anxious whenever we were stopped for more than a few minutes.

One of the fillies was kicking the back of her stall, two of the colts were determined to start a fight, and I had one groom with me and nowhere to unload.

I took the first exit, found a tiny town where  the Napa was open, and figured out what had happened. I bought transmission fluid, electrical tape, duct tape, fuel hose, zip ties, and some fuel hose clamps.

Without the engine running, the transmission cooler line was barely dripping. I wiped it down, and wrapped it tightly in the electrical tape. I cut a slit in the hose, slipped it over that section of the transmission line, and wrapped it tightly in more electrical tape, then duct tape.

The first two hose clamps were butted right next to each other over the hole, with two more hose clamps on each end of the repair, six in total.

I did a similar multi-layer repair on the battery cable, except I used zip ties instead of hose clamps. The remainder of the trip went without incident.

The trainer that was driving the truck after I turned it back over to him didn't bother to get it repaired for the next few months, and it didn't even lose any transmission fluid.

I had a inner cv joint lose its bolts and separate on my 78 Fiesta S. Always carry a coil of wire with me so I wired it together running wire through the bolt holes and drove a few miles to nearest Ford dealer. 

Years ago there was a show called "bush mechanics" or something like that. It had people in the outback doing all kinds of things to keep cars running. All kinds of Rube Goldberg stuff. I think you can find it on Youtube. 

Driving through Iowa's Loess Hills late at night in my 84 Impala (former police car).  Elderly aunt riding shot gun, narrow dark roads and no moon. I pull turn signal lever back for high beams and get total darkness. Slowly pull over as eyes adjust to the darkness. No flashlight, I open door and go for the high/low switch on the lower steering column. Remove connector, find a paper clip and use it to connect hot wire to high beams. My aunt was impressed.

Running NJ Pine Barrens fire trails in my 68 Scout.  Attempted to ford a small pond. Half way across right side tires discover a hole. Right side gas tank takes on water because of non sealing cap. Engine stalls before I am out of pond. Get towed out, remove drain plug from gas tank and drain water until gas is coming out. Remove sediment bulb from fuel pump and crank engine until water is out of pump. Loosen float chamber on Holley carb and crank engine until gas is coming out. Start engine and head for home. Drained transmission, transfer case and differentials the next day.

I flew with sister in a Piper Archer to visit relatives.  When we went to leave it would not start because the starter would not engage. Neither of use where interested in prop starting.

 In looking at the end of the starter at the front of the engine (the ring gear is where the propellor mounts) I could see the housing of the starter where the shaft rode was oblong and loose.  I found a business card, folded it up and crammed it into the housing to fill the gap.  It started, we got home.

Fixed a plane with a business card.  I should probably get a t shirt made...

In reply to NickD 

 LOLOLOL that was me. We got a 323gtx to finish the event with a dead clutch by doing this silly stunt. The clutch would slip, I'd hit the wiper switch, the soda would carbonize and add just enough friction to keep going. made the badly slipping friction surfaces juuuust anough sticker to do the job.  The inside of the bellhousing and everything involved therein was Not Pretty when it came time to put the new clutch in..

Was driving my old 83 GTI across northern Ohio in a snowstorm when the wiper linkage broke. I took one of the laces out of my boot, tied it to the driver side wiper arm, ran it in the window and across the dash, out the passenger window, and tied it to the passenger wiper. Drove probably 100 miles steering with my left hand and pulling the wipers left and right by the lace with my right hand.

In reply to _ :

We tore the steering box off the frame in a CJ-8 very far from home off-road.

We tied the box back in place with a pair of ratchet straps and made it all the way home where my buddy promptly ordered the frame reinforcement kit.

I read a pair of pantyhose will make a decent temporary accessory/fan belt in a pinch.

In reply to aircooled :

Backyard fixes are not recommended when traveling several thousand feet in the air. Not sure if you knew that or not!

As the kids say: "NOPE".

I've been infected with the Prius virus lately so I'm watching videos on nomadic life (living in a Prius) and looks like you can survive pretty well in one!

Im a family man so I'm not planning to live in one but it's hard not to be enamored by the technology 

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Ok. I need to you start a thread about this and document. Or a YouTube channel. I know someone else probably has, but we need a GRMer to do it. And I thought #Convertiblelife was interesting. #priusliving. 

In reply to _ :

I don't have a Prius at the moment but I'm seriously considering one. Saving ~$1,100 a year on just gas never mind the very low maintenance cost... it's pretty tempting.
 

There's regular people living in their Priuses along with some engineers. One thing I saw said you can run the air conditioning all night on the battery alone with the ICE kicking on for 5 min a few times over the course of a night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSWevUqWjD8

In reply to _ :

A friend of mine has lived in her Prius (by choice) off and on for something like 5 years now.   Apparently there is a whole community of "tiny campers" who love them.   

The main thing I've learned from this thread is to carry an extra washer bottle and pump, and a ton of electrical tape.

My wife and I were heading from Vermont to Northern Jersey in our 05 Astro van with our 3 dogs to pick up our new rescue dog. Weather took a turn and we got to Jersey okay. Waiting in the parking lot for the rescue volunteer to arrive I got out and saw fluid under the driver side of the front bumper. At first I thought coolant. Touch it. Nope. Brake fluid. berkeley! Great! Weather getting worse, dog not here yet, wife and dogs getting impatient, and we have a 4-5 hour return trip to make with an unknown dog! Turns out the brake line that goes under the radiator to the passenger side had burst as a result of being rusty. I go into the convenience store/truck stop and buy a large bottle of brake fluid, zip ties, shop rags, rubber gloves, a razor and a vice grip. I traced the line back to under the battery tray where I had room to "cut" the line with the vice grips. Then I folded the line over on itself a few times and pinched it shut with the vice grips as hard as I could. I zip tied the VG so it wouldn't fall or vibrate off, topped up the fluid, and checked everything. The dog arrived, met our pack, they all got along and we headed home in a horrible winter storm at night on the NY Thruway back to Vermont. What a day that was.

Had an 88 Alfa Spider. Was driving home from the dealership and dropping off the kid that worked in the washer bay. All of a sudden loss of power and the throttle goes to the floor. Pop the hood to find the threaded end of the throttle linkage had come undone and disappeared. Looking thru the collection of junk I had in the car I found a butterfly paper clip, some zip ties and wire. Was able to get the throttle working again. To which the kid says, "You MacGiver-ed that!"

See that wire in the pic? That was always kept in any A1 VW I owned. Best roadside repair tool. Still have the original in my tool box.

In reply to vwcorvette :

That reminds me of when I blew a brake line at work and had to crawl underneath to find the leak. I ended up pounding the line shut with my 3lb sledgehammer and drive home with rear brakes later replacing that section with a custom-bent piece I made.