Thread: Breakdowns on the road w/o correct tools to fix

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A couple of years ago I was driving my 37 when I punched the trottle and the pedal stayed on the floor without any RPM's. Throttle cable had broken and I didn't have any wire,string,etc. to fix so all I could do was to open my idle speed adjustment as far as it would go and procedded to drive about 20 miles at around 10-15mph and going up a hill at about 3. Not bad going down as I could get it up to about 40. A trip that should have taken 15 minutes took me over an hr. Now I carry just about everything imaginable that I would need in case of any breakdowns.

Another time I was rodding my 41 ford truck and since I had to much engine for the stock rear I heard something snap. Didn't have any gear except reverse(also lost my tranny) and drove backwards for about 2 miles at night. Now that was alot of fun Headlight heading the wrong way, having to stop everytime a car came up behing me as they thought I was in the wrong lane. Didn't even have a flaslight and as I found out the next day, my linkeage had come loose and I could have easly adjusted it if I only had some light.

I carry a complete fix it package, my AAA card!!!!

me too. got a roadside assistance program thru allstate, might need it W/ The Chevy, but the Ford, if the throttle cable brakes. I'm going to use the fast idle cam for like drag racing ( staging, ). choke is gone anyway, so I'll rig it with a choke knob, if I broke down, I could turn the screw all the way in, and use the choke knob as the throttle. might not be able to go WOT, but, would work.

i broke a clutch cable on my harley once and used a pair of vise grips to clamp the cable to the pedal of my jockey shifter . rode it home about 500 miles that way
another time i busted the shifter handle off my 68 at the strip and made a shifter out of a broomstick and a piece of speaker wire lucky it was an automatic , amazing what you learn from watching Mcgiver

A friend and I were going one state over to his parents house for Thanksgiving. He recently put a body lift on his pickup and he had to weld in an extension for his shifter. We were a couple hours out of town in the middle of the desert when he went to downshift for a hill. He looked over at me and was like "Oh shit dude!" I said "what's up", thinking he heard a noise in the motor or something. He handed me the shifter and we looked at each other for a minute like what the hell are we gonna do now. We coasted over on the shoulder and started to check it out. Luckily it broke right where the extension was half-ass welded in and there was about an inch and a half still sticking up. We rooted around in the bed of the truck and came up with a deepwell 9/16 socket and a 6" extension. I plugged them together and slid it down over what was left of the shifter handle and away we went. A couple more hours to his house and all the way back home. We'd keep laughing every so often when one of us would look down at that socket and extension sticking up out of the floor. I still call it his Craftsman short throw shifter!

Back in my VW days in the 70's my buddy and I were going up to see a friend who lived about 30 miles away. Driving up the highway all of a sudden the throttle cable broke-as they're prone to do on Vdubs. There we were on the side of the road. The cable snapped up near the accelerator pedal, but the cable had sucked itself back into the tunnel. We had no tools and couldn't find anything to McGiver. I hadn't put the hood back on after the latest engine rebuild so my buddy got the bright idea to stand on the rear bumper and operate the carb linkage by hand while I drove and shifted. We drove all the way back to town like that! Crazy SOB ran the throttle wide open most of the way back! You should've seen the looks of some of the folks as we flew by with that maniac standing on the rear bumper and hanging onto the drip rail with one hand .

Originally Posted by flh4speed

i broke a clutch cable on my harley once and used a pair of vise grips to clamp the cable to the pedal of my jockey shifter . rode it home about 500 miles that way
another time i busted the shifter handle off my 68 at the strip and made a shifter out of a broomstick and a piece of speaker wire lucky it was an automatic , amazing what you learn from watching Mcgiver

i broke the jockey handle off shifting into fourth going through a tunnel on the PA turnpike about 300 miles from home. low on gas at about 1:30am. I managed to fill the tank with the engine running but I stalled trying to get her moving. That was a long night...........

A friend of mine used to fly down to Florida every Spring and pickup his Dad, who spent the winters here, and drive him and his car back to Pennsylvania for him.

One year a rainstorm came up and the wipers quit working, so my friend ran a small rope around the wiper arms and ran the ends in through the vent windows on either side. For hours they drove along, and his Dad would pull the wiper blades one direction, and then my friend would pull them back the other way. They kept up this back and forth pulling until the rain stopped.

I would have loved to have a video of that one.

Don


Don

I spent 4 days in Wamsutter Wyoming with my son when we lost a u joint in my 51 Frazer. The reason it took so long was because it took 2 days to find one. Then Fed Ex couldn't find Wamsutter. The actual repair only took about an hour (after I told them how to do it)!

I can say that it was an expensive breakdown, but well worth it considering I got to spend some quality time with my son!!!!!

I've been to Wyoming a few times and have spent alot of time in Cody. Where is Wamsutter? Wyoming is nice with alot a open straight roads where you can really push your vehicle.

Wamsutter is between Rock Springs and Rawlings on I-80. Its 75 miles in either direction!