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field repairs

skyking

skyking

Lifer
Had a bit of drama in the mountains Friday. I hit an unexpected huge rut in the road while towing the 10,000 pound travel trailer. truck bottomed out like never before, and a projecting part cut the right rear hard brake line and started dumping fluid. I was going down a 5% winding grade and started losing pedal fast. I applied trailer brakes, limped on down into a little town where nobody had brake fluid or tools.
I unhooked the trailer, finished cutting through the line with a pair of pliers, and folded it over and hammered it shut with a hatchet. Leak stopped, 3 out of 4 truck brakes restored. I scooped fluid from the reservoir that had plenty to the one that was low, pumped them up and had a good pedal. hooked the trailer up and got it to the campground. Saturday I took the truck to a nearby NAPA that had a generic line and the wrench I needed. Bent up new line, added fluid, bled the brakes out in the street. Bedded line with zip ties and silicone.
:whiste:
 
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I once limped a toyota pickup 50kms out of the bush with a buddy sitting on the fender spraying fuel into the carb with a windex bottle when the fuel pump died. Also a few years later on a different toyota pickup we fashioned a clutch line out of a bic pen with lots of duct tape and jb weld when the stock one blew open on us while camping one weekend. Its always good when you find a way to keep going even without spare parts, tows out of the bush are not cheap, ever.
 
Rifter said:
I once limped a toyota pickup 50kms out of the bush with a buddy sitting on the fender spraying fuel into the carb with a windex bottle when the fuel pump died. .
Click to expand...

I call that drive by shooting(spraying flamables into the throttle body).
Never had to go more than 50 yards though.
 
Good to hear you did not have issues while going down that grade...:thumbsup:

Pretty sure you know that in a pinch you can use plain water in the brakes and do your repairs and flush later...?
 
yeah, I had enough to wet the master OK though. I have excellent trailer brakes and controller, an exhaust brake and the ditches looked downright friendly so no worries 😛
 
That's a good one.


I've had a couple... Clutch slipping ~2 days from home - laid the bike on its side, pulled the plates and friction discs out and rubbed them on the asphalt, rinsed with extra oil, ran for another 10k miles.

Another one, clutch cable broke up at tail of the dragon. I cut the cable where it came out of the trans and tied it to a screwdriver. I had to reach down to use the clutch and it was wonky starting out but otherwise ok.

I've had some weird car ones too... With a friend who had a bad connector on the distributor, I used a stick pin pushed in the connector to hold it together until we got home. He drove it like that for years.
 
Nothing as clever as what you guys have done 🙂 My pontoon boat sprung a leak in a fuel line once and I patched it up with rubber glove from the medical kit and a rubber band and wire I scrounged up. It got me a few hundred yards to the dock.
 
skyking said:
Had a bit of drama in the mountains Friday. I hit an unexpected huge rut in the road while towing the 10,000 pound travel trailer. truck bottomed out like never before, and a projecting part cut the right rear hard brake line and started dumping fluid. I was going down a 5% winding grade and started loosing pedal fast. I applied trailer brakes, limped on down into a little town where nobody had brake fluid or tools.
I unhooked the trailer, finished cutting through the line with a pair of pliers, and folded it over and hammered it shut with a hatchet. Leak stopped, 3 out of 4 truck brakes restored. I scooped fluid from the reservoir that had plenty to the one that was low, pumped them up and had a good pedal. hooked the trailer up and got it to the campground. Saturday I took the truck to a nearby NAPA that had a generic line and the wrench I needed. Bent up new line, added fluid, bled the brakes out in the street. Bedded line with zip ties and silicone.
:whiste:
Click to expand...
When the zombies come guys like you will be valuable.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
That's a good one.


I've had a couple... Clutch slipping ~2 days from home - laid the bike on its side, pulled the plates and friction discs out and rubbed them on the asphalt, rinsed with extra oil, ran for another 10k miles.

Another one, clutch cable broke up at tail of the dragon. I cut the cable where it came out of the trans and tied it to a screwdriver. I had to reach down to use the clutch and it was wonky starting out but otherwise ok.

I've had some weird car ones too... With a friend who had a bad connector on the distributor, I used a stick pin pushed in the connector to hold it together until we got home. He drove it like that for years.
Click to expand...
Fun when you find those kind of repairs as a second owner🙂
I had a car for a year or so, and found that one of the fenders was partially held on by a vice grip.
 
I added vinegar to a almost dead battery before. Cells were about empty. Topped them all off... And it actually started the car. Go figure. Worked though. Car was a 1984 Ford LTD II. Back in 1996
 
skyking said:
Fun when you find those kind of repairs as a second owner🙂
I had a car for a year or so, and found that one of the fenders was partially held on by a vice grip.
Click to expand...


Definitely... I've found some crazy stuff like that too.. Probably the best one was a rear cush drive (basically rubber bumpers that are between the rear sprocket and wheel to help cushion the driveline on a motorcycle) that someone had replaced with pieces of innertube, aluminum cans, and expanding foam insulation.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
Definitely... I've found some crazy stuff like that too.. Probably the best one was a rear cush drive (basically rubber bumpers that are between the rear sprocket and wheel to help cushion the driveline on a motorcycle) that someone had replaced with pieces of innertube, aluminum cans, and expanding foam insulation.
Click to expand...

Cush bushings. I had to replace them on my old honda dirtbike and they are not cheap or easy to get out.
 
This guy has you beat, if it's true

http://www.automotto.com/frenchman-converts-broken-citroen-2cv-car-wacky-wheeler.html

2cv_converted_into_bike_zr37n.jpg
 
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