cheapneasycrndog

So I haven't seen any threads about rigs breaking down and the ingenius fix to get them home. Anyone care to share?

I was trail riding and took a stick straight through my radiator... Luckily had some JB weld and used the now useless copper core material to make a patch! I had very very little faith in the claims people made on the package of JB weld but it held for a few months!

Robert m

iTrader: (2)

nothing too bad... my exhaust cracked and then broke in half at the collector while driving the mojave trail 2 years ago. my buddies dad found some old wire from a wire fence that was laying down and brought it too me. i used it and a hose clamp to pull the exhaust back together and finished the trail all the way into laughlin and then drove the 3 hours home.
in the second pic you can see where the collector broke. the 2 black lines should be touching.

cheapneasycrndog

That's a great one! I don't know if I would have thought of that, good thing you carry hose clamps...

MudHippy

I don't have any pics. But I once used a piece of rope to hold my idler arm together so I could drive home from the trail. The shaft snapped at the bottom, leaving a just tiny stub sticking out of the "arm" part. I was able to secure it tightly enough to the housing to keep the shaft stub stuck up in there, with some rope that's standard equipment in my "bag o' tricks". Which allowed me to steer well enough to get 'er home. It severely limited my turning radius though, but I managed it none-the-less. Basically, one sharp corner(taken to sharply) and I'd have been ditch bound. Since that rope only had "so much" stretch to it, and I could only tie it "so tight". As such, if I'd applied too much steering angle then the arm would have "popped out of socket"(rope would have snapped or slipped).

The time my 2" lift blocks fell apart 2/3 of the way up a gnarly hillclimb was a fiasco and a half requiring some clever ingenuity. But since I had to run to town to get what I needed, I can't exactly call it a trail fix. Suffice to say, it didn't get done in a very "inside the box" way. As in, I didn't just go and buy new lift blocks. The rear driveshaft was busted, and my u-bolts were twisted beyond repair(as well as being too long for anything but 2" lift blocks). Long story short, had a buddy(who was there when it happened in his 87 PU) drag 'er back down to the bottom of the hill for me, then give me a lift into town, bought some stock length u-bolts, went back up there(next day) and pulled the rear driveshaft + rear shocks, put it all back together(rear axle back on) with the new u-bolts, drove 'er home in FWD. All of which during a torrential rain storm, and taking me a full 24 hour day to complete. The clever part being the use of "U" shaped u-bolts(that's all I could find in the rush), and my makeshift u-bolt flip kit. I had to use the stock bottom plate for the square type u-bolts on top of the springs. Worked as I'd expected it would though.

Funny thing is, the one time I SERIOUSLY wrecked out on the trail didn't even require a fix. She was busted all to hell. But after winching 'er back onto the trail, I drove 'er back down to the trailer. In an unbelievable state of disarray(but still driveable as was). There's a thread on that story with all the details.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Bingle

Had the loose "tail" on the inside of my chains rip the drivers side front brake soft line while out snow wheelin. Tried to pinch it with vise grips but the upper part of the soft line was leaking as well. Dug into my bag of misc nuts and bolts that's always in the tool box and found an old exhaust manifold stud (random). Unscrewed the hard line from the master cyl "splitter block" and the stud was same size and thread and held pressure.
Drove from Skykomish to Lynnwood (where I used to live) with a pretty heavy pull towards the ditch every time I hit the brakes. Lots of following distance and downshifting got me home though!

James Woods

iTrader: (1)

Not a Trail fix I guess, but back when I had my 1963 Nova, I was driving to work when my crap inline fuel pump gave out. Stranded on the side of the highway, I had to get to work so I siphoned some fuel out and put it in my washer bottle, removed the rubber hose off the metal washer line and put it down into the carb, everytime the car would start to stumble some I would just give it a squirt and keep on going, lasted me to and from work until I could stick my other fuel pump on that " I had been meaning to find time to install. "

donomite49

when i had my 79 and had ridden through the fireroads between Elsinore and
Laguna Niguel, i had just got into town after sunset when the tranny side of the rear driveshaft fell off in traffic.

i locked the hubs and limped it into a parking lot with the driveshaft flopping. walked to an auto parts store, bought a 14mm wrench and pulled the driveshaft, threw it in the bed and drove about an hour home in front wheel drive.

BMcEL

James that's a good one lol. Peter's idea?

Mine's not very exciting, but...the fan exploded, took the hoses out and put a few holes in my brand new radiator. Used electrical tape & zip ties to seal up the hoses, and an egg in the rad. Neither the hoses or the rad leaked a drop on my way home. I replaced the hoses right away but the egg held that radiator together for almost three years before my fan pulley bracket gave and destroyed it.

cheapneasycrndog

I've always heard that an egg would seal up a radiator but never thought it was true! that's awesome that you got that to work!

donomite49

black pepper is a good stop leak too.
never heard about the egg trick, learn all kinds of stuff on yt.

swampfox

This is not a trail fix but it might count. I had a fan blade come off my 70 chevy with a 250 6cyl and auto .I was an hour from home with a load of house hold stuff on the back. The fan blade hit the battery and cut a gash in it also cut the clamp on the post. It also cut the trans cooling line into on its way to denting my nice straight hood.The water pump broke completely at the bearing but it didn't leak . To get it going I pulled the broken fan blade an threw as far as I could ,filed the broken trans line into and repaired it with a couple of clamps and part of the hose for the pcv . Plugged the hole in the battery with bubble gum. Put the battery cable on with vice gripes remove the belts and drove it another mile to get safely off the road. I was lucky enough to get parts on a Sunday . It ended up messing the harmonic balancer up and the flex plate cracked after that from the motor being out of balance before getting it stopped. And to add insult to injury I got the worst case of seed ticks that I have ever had unloading the truck.

James Woods

iTrader: (1)

I came up with it when I was stuck in a box after following a trail of candy.

BMcEL

Hahaha. Last time we got started on Family Guy the thread got deleted...with that said;

93Xtra-Cab

Oh ho ho! It's funny because chickens can't ride motorcycles!







Ok, no more.