I think the boiled battery idea would work. I have heard of car batteries "going dead" in the cold, but then when they are heated up they begin to work again. When the juices are too cold the ions can't move around and create a good circuit.

 

You can buy a device called a "chuffer" to put into a spark plug hole to provide compressed air. Some more information:
- http://www.barneymc.com/Toy_root/tec...or/chuffer.htm

Other good one is welding with a couple of 12v batteries in series:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri....shtml#Welding

 

I had a battery die on me one morning. I then walked to school.

During the day it was nice and sunny so the car warmed up a bit and when I got home the car started right up.

 

i've used my farm jack (beefier version of hi-lift) some chain and heavy straps as a winch before.

bailing wire spark plug wire (be carfull of routing and touching)

 

Temporarily fixed my snapped idler arm with heavy nylon rope, good enough to get the 15 miles home. There was about 1/2" or so left of the shaft on the arm where it broke. I was able to keep it tight enough to keep the stub in the housing preventing it from falling out. The real trick was allowing the arm to rotate. I actually can't remember exactly how I tied that off.

Another time after my lift blocks fell apart and consequently caused my rear driveshaft to break, I figured out how to get my truck off the mountain under it's own power. I went to the auto parts store and got the U shaped u-bolts, to replace the squared style that lift blocks require. I had to do a u-bolt flip(used the stock axle perches), which left me no where to mount my shocks. I drove home in front wheel drive, minus the rear driveshaft, 2 2" lift blocks so no rear lift, and no shocks for lack of mounts in the right place.

 

I gotta say this is the kind of thing that separates the men from the boys. Only a well seasoned & experienced wheeler would have the competence, knowledge, and gumption to do this. Check out the story Rob tells. Freakin' ingenious for sure. That's mind bending smart. I put in a couple of vids if you are having trouble visualizing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=135zkGk2fak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY4cKc4FKSM

 

I read a thread on here or pirate about the electric fuel pump failing and they fixed it by using a CO2 tank and a taped fitting in the gas cap. They compressed the gas tank to 15 lb psi to force the fuel to the engine. I thought that was really something to come up with

 

i carry a tire tube with me so if i can't seat the bead after i break it i just throw the tube in it.

a friend once lost the fuel pump and filled the washer resevoir with gas, plumbed it to the carb and pushed the washer button. it ran, just not very good. i think we saw it Four Wheeler.

 

I had this honda with a rusted out fuel filler neck. On a roda trip in the middle of nowhere it slowly died. I found the fuel filter was clogged and we were in teh middle of nowhere. Took out the fuel filter and replaced it with a bic pen casing.

 

Yeah snapping up a boomerang into brake pads and jamming that in the calipers was funny

And using a fairly thick bent branch as a leaf spring was awesome lol

 

Not hardcore at all but I had my mechanical fuel pump go out on me on a trip from Montana to Arizona a couple weeks ago. Back-road highway with no cell service. I pulled the fuel pump to see if it was my no-fuel-getting-to-the-carb issue, and noticed the lever that goes into the cylinder head wasn't moving the plunger which moves the diaphram and pumps fuel. The plunger has like a nail head on it, and a couple washers sit on that and that's what the lever sits against to move the plunger. Apparently both washers had sheared off so the lever wasn't catching it to move it. Anyway I searched around my truck for a while and finally cut some unused electrical wire off the bumper, looped it around the nail-head part of the plunger and twisted it down tight with pliers. It was enough to catch the lever on. Got me to the next town, where it went out again..finally ate through the wire. Did it again...that got me to a hotel for the night, and to the parts store the next morning.

I guess you'd only probably understand what I'm talking about if you've looked close at your mechanical fuel pump. I'm still fairly new to doing everything to my truck, so I have to say, even though it wasn't very hardcore, after being on the side of the road for 2 hours, pretty much screwed, about 700 miles from home and about 700 miles from my destination, no cell service and a failed fuel pump, and suddenly back on the road again headed towards the next town...I started feeling pretty good about myself.

 

oh yeah ive done it too, tire flew atleast 150' in the air, I was the star of the trailer park that night. Everybody hoisted me up on there shoulders and paraded me around, beer was flowin it was a wonderful sight!!!!!

 

My brother in law is in the Army and is warping up his second tour in Iraq. During his first tour he drove on convoys frequently and of course things would always break. His unit always kept a 4x4 block on their trucks that were cut to the correct length so when they would get a flat, the would place one end up against the axle, and the over would be shoved into the sand. Put the truck in drive and roll forward slightly until the 4x4 was vertical. This was the quickest way to change a flat during combat situations.
I believe one end of the 4x4 was notched some to allow it to stay on the axle better.

 

guy at a tire shop told me hes seen split rims pop and through it through the ceiling.

 

Not real ingenious but once my battery tray broke and my battery shifted over and broke my crappy battery wire going to the fuse block. I used a junk extension cord from some crap I had in the back of the truck and re wired it.

 

where can i actually get something like that from? I think it would be awesome to have.

 

A friend and I needed about 20 extra feet of line in order to get out of a mud pit so we found a tree that had recently fallen in a storm cut it to the length we need, drilled holes in the ends and ran the line through it and hooked to the truck. Yea, the truck pulling had to put up with the extra weight of the tree but we got the length we needed and the truck out of the mud.

 

For the re seating the bead of tires I have used a rachet motorcycle strap to push the center out and then hit it with air. Seems safer then fire, starting fluid and rubber.

 

NICE TIP!!!

 

I use a 4x4 with a hole drilled at each end with a length of rope looped through each end as a push bar when bumpers are impractical...one loop tied through the front "eye" (or draped over the hook if you can keep the vehicles close together) and loop the other end over a hitch, tow tab or whatever...works well when you can't pull...