Reparing cars along the roadway,

[LeRoy DeVol]

I have been driving for 60 years and have owned 40 cars & trucks. In all those years i have broke down many times but have never been towed! There are 4 times i can't forget. When i was 17 i had a 36 Plymouth and the clutch plate came apart. I was in a farm area with fences everywhere. I broke away a piece of wood from a fence post,  broke it into small pieces , loosened the bolts on the pressure plate, drove the wood between the clutch plate and the flywheel & Tightened the bolts. I started the car in first gear, shifted into second gear & drove home. The biggest breakdown was when i was 21 and i had a 47 Cad. and i was
27 miles from Needles Calif. i was going down a hwy. doing about 100 m.p.h. when i lost the 3 rear rod bearings. I was in the middle of a dust storm. I pulled over into a sandy area, made a hole in the sand, removed the pan, found the bad bearings & hitched a ride to Needles where i found the 3 bearings and oil for the car. I got a ride back to my car, installed the bearings & drove home. When i was 23 i had a 41 Cad. and again i was in farm land ( back in the 50's there was a lot of farms ) when my flange to my differential broke. I got a ride, found a flange at a junk yard and went back and installed it. The 4 th time and by far not the last time, in my 41 Cad. ( and in farm land ) i was drove into this area as i was drunk and the driver took the keys & locked me in my car. I took a piece of wire from a fence, jumper-ed the coil & with a 50 cent piece i jumped the solenoid to start the car and drove home. I hope this wasn't to boring, but it was my life as i remember it. 

Lee DeVol

[waterzap]

Interesting post. Very clever ways to get the cars running.

In terms of new cars. I just read about a BMW that refused to start. The sensor in the seat was bad, so the car did not think anyone was in the driver seat. An Audi that refused to start because the sensor in the fuel tank did not think there was enough gasoline in there. By the way, my car does the same without a sensor in the tank. No fuel, no start. Sneaky GM engineers must have hid that sensor.

I fear the only roadside repair you soon will be able to do is dial AAA.

[INTMD8]

Well done, those are ambitious roadside fixes!

The one I recall was when my 89 4Runner had shorted the wiring to the fuel pump. To get home I emptied the washer reservoir and filled it back up with gasoline and connected the hose to ported vacuum on the throttle body.

All it took was one press of the button to prime it and then it ran perfect at cruise just drawing the fuel out via engine vacuum.

[LeRoy DeVol]

Waldo, It's funny you should mention AAA in your post as i have recently signed up with them for the first time. I hope i won't need there services, but at 76 you never know.

Lee DeVol

[LeRoy DeVol]

Your story about feeding the fuel from a overflow tank to your engine reminded me of a problem i had with a 1968 G M C pickup.
I was on the Harbor freeway when my fuel pump failed. I took a 1 gallon can i had & soldered a 3/8" copper tube into the bottom, Next i siphoned gas into the can, I tapped the can to my windshield and fed that into my carburetor. For every problem we had with older cars there seem to be a fix that would get us home. I feel sorry for people with new cars as you have to have a computer to check the computer to check the computer to even know what is wrong.

Lee DeVol   

[Jay Friedman]

I’ve driven my ’49 on lots of long trips and only broke down once.  In 1993, on my way to the Grand National in Lancaster, PA, after a gas stop in VA the car wouldn’t start, the battery was low and the ammeter strangely seemed to have melted.  I limped into Lynchburg and felt relieved when I saw an auto parts store with a '56 Lincoln parked in front. 

The store’s proprietor owned the Lincoln and said I’d come to the right place.  His Lincoln's mechanic happened to be there and the two of them examined my car.  Sure enough, when the mechanic removed the band at the back of the generator, it was covered with melted lead, signi¬fying a failed armature.  He told us not to worry as the best auto-electric shop in the area was just around the corner, where I immediately drove.

The shop owner had lots of old starters and generators lying around, and soon found a 6 volt Oldsmobile generator which he said had the same armature as mine.  After exchanging the armatures, he noticed the gen’s pulley’s painted was flaking, which he said could hurt us at the GN.  He fixed this with a spray can, then tested the generator, mounted it back on the car and found all was well.  The bill was only $71 and only 3 hours had passed since the car broke down, so I felt I had gotten away lightly.  The GN was great and the car’s third place in the 48-49 Primary Class was due in part, no doubt, to its newly painted generator pulley!

[LeRoy DeVol]

The one thing people need to know about new cars with fuel pumps in the fuel tank.Fuel pump failure is the #1 thing that go's wrong. The big problem is with the high price of gas people don't fill up there tank. When you run your tank to low to much of the time your pump runs hot & will fail more often. The rule of thumb is to fill up when the gauge is at 1/4 full. In the long run not having your pump fail is much cheaper then money you might save by waiting for the price of gas to drop.

Lee DeVol

[JVA]

I have only suffered one irrevocable breakdown - cruising along a rural road at about 60mph in my Saab 900T, the car suddenly lost powered. I coasted onto the side of the road, and spent a good thirty minutes trying to find a problem. I found nothing, and with the battery running out of juice I caved in and called a tow truck. When it dropped us both off at home, I was so disgusted with the situation (including missing a date with a very attractive girl) I went inside and left it alone in the garage. The next morning, I went out to try and figure out why it wouldn't start but I never got the chance. Even with a half-dead battery it started right up and idled perfectly. I had that car for another couple years and never once did it have another problem - I never figured out why it left me stranded.

OTOH, in May of 2010 I got on a plane from Sacramento, CA to Denver, CO to pick up my 1967 Fleetwood, sight unseen. A friend in Denver had given it a once over, but it was essentially a black box. A very large black box. Since the plan was to drive the 43 year old Cadillac 1400 miles back home, I had shipped a 100lb box of tools and fluids and such to the FedEx depot in Denver and ordered up a AAA Platinum membership. Getting stranded in the middle of nowhere was not on my to-do list! After making sure the car was as-described (that is, running), I signed the paperwork, handed over the cash, and drove the Fleetwood to the FedEx depot to pick up my emergency supplies.

I set out of Denver on I70, across the Rockies. It handled the mountains with ease, which set a great tone for the start of the journey. Unfortunately, on Day 2 as we climbed up the Utah high desert, the old beastie started losing power and knocking like crazy. I used as light a foot as possible and eased her up a particularly long, nasty stretch of road until I found a safe place to pull over - all the while my mind racing with possibly failure scenarios and running down the list of tools I might need to address them. I sat there and listened to it idle for a few moments, and it didn't sound good.




I popped the hood, and while the engine was cooling down a little I unloaded my giant box from the trunk, put on some coveralls, and found my nomex mechanics gloves. I was feeling pretty positive that I could handle whatever was in front of me and got to work. After a some preliminary tests and a thorough investigation I found the problem. Stupid vacuum hose from the carb to the distributor had split and fallen off. :lol: I trimmed it back, hooked it up, and started the car. Like magic, the idle was back to rock-solid. I took another look around the engine bay to see if any other rubber bits were getting ready to betray me, but it all looked great. Satisfied, I closed the hood just in time for the beast to puke steaming hot coolant all over my foot - high temps at high altitude, you know.

The rest of the journey was without incident, including Zion National Park, Las Vegas, Barstow, and central California. Everyone said I was crazy for even trying the drive, but an enormous box full of tools in the trunk ensured I would never need one of them.

[Quentin Hall]

G'day Leroy, Reading your first post reminded me of the thill of reading Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" in preparation for my Boston to LA trek in a 57 Biarritz in 1992. Nevertheless 3 months,17 000 miles and only  two flats and a broken exhaust flange gasket doesn't really put me in the "epic roadside fixes in a Cadillac".
However I do recall borrowing my Mum's 74 VW Microbus at 18 and driving to a mid Queensland farm to go feral pig shooting and driving over the  cattle grid at the farm entry and the throttle cable snapped. Luckily the Kombi has an internal engine compartment lid and my mate Chiko was able to hand operate the carby from there, so I'd just call out "GO!" or "BACK OFF!!!"and he would. Sadly we had to turn down the radio to a sensible level so he could hear my calls. Worked so well that we decided to do a round trip down to Byron Bay on the NSW coast to go surfing/girl watching.  We made it home a week later. Three mates and twenty guns and 5000 rounds( those were the days).

[52Cadillac]

Very ingenious fixes Lee.
Ive written previously of my recent mishaps. Im from SC, currently in Texas visiting my folks. On the way here my 52 Caddy decided to start running really hot. Stopped at gas station, popped hood and discovered the power steering pulley split in two. Well that was my only belt. It never occurred to me there should be two belts when I bought the car. The previous owner rigged a single belt system. Rolled in a shop and fixed it.   However........
We stop in Shreveport for the night and the next am no start. Discovered the bolt connection on the solenoid was broken off on inside. Let me see the guy who put the belt on said a wire going to starter was loose, and he would tighten it. Delayed for about 6 hours. We were lucky to find a local shop with a 52 solenoid, and rebuilt the starter. Put her on and off we went.   However......
We were in Texas heading toward Dallas when I told my Gal that nasty smell was a yellawood plant. A very short time later I see smoke coming from under dash. Pulled over quickly, and sorted a shorted wire. Lucky again it could have been a lot worse. THP Sgt only wanted to know how much did that cost me(Caddy). Saturday we leave in the Caddy for our return trip.
Mike

[62droptop]

when one drives an old british car, one quickly becomes a master at roadside fixes to get back home
not uncommon to use shoe string for a throttle cable wiper linkage just to nave a couple

always seemed to get home sans tow truck though