posted
Ok, so my jeep was obviously mad at me for something, and it my alternator decided to crap out... but first it decided to deep fry my battery, blow all of my circuits, and drive a stake through the heart of my starter... well luckily it didn't do this on the highway, it did it in my high schools parking lot.
Well, I can fix anything (this is my theory, and i've yet to be proven wrong) so i popped my jeep into neutral and had a few of the football players, who were hanging around waiting for practice, roll my jeep into the shade. I then walked a mile down the road to the junk yard that my wrecked jeep ended up at and purchased parts of my old jeep back (plus a new battery and a crap load of circuits).
So when all was said and done, I had spent 5 hours under the hood/under the entire vehicle and talked to 2 security guards, 5 janitors (who don't know anything about cars) and an assistant principal.
Does anybody have a car repair story to top that one?
Edit: grrr darn spell check and it's words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, and mean different things...
[ August 11, 2005, 03:06 PM: Message edited by: J T Stryker ]
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Well, mine can't top that. (however, I do know how to spell Principal right)
Back when I was married, we were once on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota, in a 15 passenger piece-of-crap van, loaded with people. It threw a U-joint just outside of Valentine, Nebraska (I think it was around there), basically in the middle of nowhere, albeit it was a small town.
We were caravaning with two other vehicles.
But this was a Sunday, and nothing anywhere in small towns is open on Sunday.
We got pulled into this little gas station type of place and a young man came out (even though I believe it was closed at the time). We explained our problem. He was LESS than helpful. Basically telling us it "too bad, so sad". We were more than a little put out.
Then my husband (now ex-husband) pulled a handful of change out of his pocket to buy a pop from the machine. Within that handful of change was his AA medallion, which he always carried with him. (In Alcoholics Anonymous, you get a medallion at each year of sobriety).
This snotty guy saw that and immediately became gleeful! He said "You're in AA too? I just got my first month sober in!" and preceded to rattle on and on and was very excited and animated. Then he became very friendly and said "let's look in back here in the supply closet and see if we have anything that will help you."
All the parts were old and dusty and probably hadn't be re-stocked in years, but my husband found one (from like an old Desoto or whatever) that was the right size U-joint to work in the van. He fixed it (he was a mechanic) and we were back on the road.
posted
I remember my father making a trip back from New Mexico several years ago in one of his old jeeps, I forget which one (he has a '49 Willys pickup and a '60 Willys wagon). It was late at night and he was in the area right near the Arizona border where the grades are absolutely horrible (I've heard most towing companies refuse to tow out of that area because of the grades) when he started having problems with his transmission. All sorts of fun ensued finding rocks or road trash big enough enough to block the tires with on the ridiculous grade in the middle of the night in the middle of a sandy desert. The story wouldn't be nearly as funny had the problem not been something laughably simple - he was stuck in the middle of nowhere for want of a cotter pin. He wracked his brains trying to think of something from which he could fashion a make-shift cotter pin. Wire - nope. Paperclip - nope. Safety pin - yes! He had a safety pin holding closed one of the pockets of the grease monkey overalls he was wearing. So, in true McGuyver style, he was able to make it back home with a safety pin keeping everything going. Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Ahh, my Grandfather had a true McGuyver style fix a few years back. He lives in colorado, and he was trying to take his old International Scout through rocky pass. He hit a rock and popped a tire while he was on about a 35 degree slope, headed up the side of a mountain. The grade was so steep that he couldn't get a jack to stay upright and lift the vehicle. So he decided to use the winch on the front of the scout. he tossed it over a large tree limb and reattached it to the from of the scout... He lifted the front end off the ground high enough that he could stand and repair the tire.
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Tailpipe support rusted through & broke while I was on the Dan Ryan, so the pipe was dragging. I pulled over, let the car cool down, fastened it back in place with a scrunchi, and went on my merry way.
(not exactly MacGuyver -- more Mrs. McGillicutty)
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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J T Stryker's MacGuyver story should include the always pertinent "Never, ever do this."
I had to replace an alternator about 90 miles from nowhere once, on a gravel road. That was quite fun and or entertaining, and I wound up just being thankful I hadn't gotten used to using electic or pneumatic tools to work on cars.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
One of my college buddy's parents bought him a 78 diesel station wagon, which we used strictly for road tripping. We took it from Butte, MT to Salt Lake City for spring break (we flew from SLC to South Padre, Texas). Prior to leaving, we replaced the thermostat, starter, and a battery (diesels have two). On the way to SLC, we broke down at about 3 am Thursday morning in Idaho, 30 miles from Pocatello. It was the thermostat. Luckily, some random old guy wearing coveralls pulled over and we just jammed the thermostat in the open position so we'd stop overheating.
Problem solved. I should mention that we were in real danger of missing our flight, and there were eight of us very underdressed for 3am in Idaho. Of the eight, 6 of us were engineering students, and we figured anything that came up we could handle. Till the way back.
9 days in South Padre, filled with a lot of alcohol and precious little sleep (not to mention 8 guys in one hotel room), left us all pretty brain dead. We're beat, and heading back from SLC to Butte. We all have school the next day, and senior year engineering students can't afford to miss class. So less than an hour out of Salt Lake, we start smoking. We pull into a restaurant parking lot at about 9:45 pm. It's a busted radiator hose. I go find a phone book, and a map, and figure out where we are. There's an Autozone about 3 miles away that closes at 10. We hitch a ride, me and another friend. We get there at ten after ten, and the lights are off. There's one guy visible, mopping.
I start knocking at the door, and the mop guy waves me off. I keep knocking. After it becomes apparent I'm not leaving, he goes and gets the manager. Through the door I explain our predicament. He says no go, the register's closed and the safe is too. I convince him to a least look for the part (which we didn't have a number for, just a description), and I promise to pay cash.
He goes off to look for an unbelievably long time, and comes back with a hose that we think may work. I buy the house and a flathead screwdriver, cash, and we go back and put it on. In the dark. We ride back to Montana slowly, with sixteen eyes on the temp gauge. But we made it, and I was widely recognized as the man.
That story isn't as mechanically impressive as the other JT, but still, it was supremely dramatic.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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If I ever see an auto accident, I always pull over and see if help is needed. (I'm a nurse and a doer of mitzvos) Anyway, I once rendered first aide and bandaged up an accident victim at the side of the road with a tee shirt, a bottle of Poland Spring, and some sanitary napkins. Of couse, I always keep some latex gloves and an Ambu bag in the back of the car "just in case". But I am the MacGuyver of nurses.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
This isn't a breakdown story, it's more like a nervous breakdown car story: About 9 weeks ago my station wagon had to have it's crankshaft replaced. $3000 and 5 weeks off the road. About a week after getting it back my 23 year old son got rear ended in our second car, badly enough to get whiplash and a fairly serious concussion. After some toing and froing with the insurance company they said they wanted to write it off. So we needed to replace it. We went and bought a new car, in anticipation of the write-off cheque from the insurance. After about 3 days I contacted the insurance to ask them when we would see the cheque and when they would pick up the car. Oh, we're not writing it off, they said, we're going to repair it! So, arguments started, but short story, it was repaired. So now we had 3 cars, and an overdraft that we had needed the write-off cheque to cover. Then, while the rearending was being repaired, some clown pulled out of a parallel park without signalling and u-turned right across the bow of my new car, crunch! His fault entirely, a car that we'd had for less than 2 weeks! Then, my son and his older brother were driving the now crankshaft-repaired wagon over the Auckland harbour bridge when the engine caught fire! They managed to get it off the bridge and get the fire department before too much damage was done, but there's more than enough. The insurance company then tells me that it probably won't be covered even though I have full cover because it was probably an electrical fire, and that's excluded. Then we found out after some mechanical investigation that the fire was caused by the fact that the dipstick had not been pushed in properly the last time I checked the oil, and over a period of 3 or 4 days oil sprayed out and soaked the hood insulation and eventually ignited. I felt like an idiot, especially since I almost NEVER check the oil on my cars, but the mechanic had said, after the crankshaft repair, "Check the oil every week!", so I did. They've ok'd the cover on that basis, but I still feel like an idiot, and the assessor's told me that if the engine is shot then it'll be write off. (Deja vu all over again!) THAT's a hard luck break down story.
Posts: 867 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
yes my father has much better ones, and you've heard at least one of them (my next landmark will be about it). Which junkyard was the old jeep at? I looked for it last time i was at JB Salvage (as a child one of my favorite hobbies was looking for pretty wire at junk yards while my father bought used car parts for some project or another)
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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