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The jury rigged repair thread
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Posted by: MadScientistMatt

I'm starting a thread to post true stories of crazy jury rigged auto repairs that you've either done yourself or seen.

Craziest I've done myself has to be redneck rust repairs in the floor of my Dart. Take an old flannel rag, work some epoxy into it, and use it to patch holes. Believe it or not, it's held up better than some commercial rust blocking products I put on other spots of the floor.

Worst I've seen may have been when I was investigating why my Spitfire's wiring had caught fire. The previous owner had rewired parts of the electrical system with transparent lamp cord, and he'd spliced wires together by tying their bare ends together without any insulation over them! It's bad enough to see wires in a car merely twisted together and covered with electrical tape or twist-on caps, but he didn't cover them with anything. No wonder it caught fire!

Posted by: DeckSetter

I patched a hole in the ZX's wheelwell with a chunk of rubber floormat and a full tube of acrylic window caulk.

......didn't work so well. Next time, trying silicone.....

Posted by: No Rice Allowed

Not To get off topic, But What is the difference between something "Jury Rigged" or "Jerry Built??" Sometimes I've heard the two combined and called "Jerry Rigged.."

Posted by: MadScientistMatt

NRA, the Word Detective has an explanation of the difference between jury rigged and jerry built.

Posted by: StoneFox

worst ive done...I made a throttle cable bracket out of an aluminum stop sign.

I used to work in an auto parts store so ive seen alot of bad ones. The two worst that come to mind right now are, A guy bought a junk yard alternator that had a V belt pully and put it on a serpentine belt car, Instead of replacing the pully he used a green lawn mower V belt in place of the serpentine belt
The other one a guy used a wire coat hanger as his positive battery cable, He twisted one end around the positive cable that was already there, and the other end ran down to his starter.

Posted by: Slow Nova

I don't have any stories worth mentioning, but this same topic was on a fishing website I frequent, and here's a couple of the better responses:

"Patched a hole in a oil pan on a dodge dart up in the mountains with JB weld and beer cans, lasted another 4 years."

"Anne and I were coming back from Santa Barbara in an old VW. The clips that hold the brushes against the generator both failed. Drove a pencil into each one till they made contact.
Every 40 miles they would wear down to the point where there was no contact. Headlights would start to go first. Anne would then turn on a flashlight and we would pull over and hammer them in further and take off for another 40 miles.
Repeat 9 times from Santa Barbara to Sacramento."

Posted by: Jay 46

I was 17 years old and had just rescued my mom with a dead Battery. She was driving a 1977 Pinto Wagon. The one they made for a few short years with the panel sides and a little moon window towards the back. I figured she left the lites on and killed it. She was on her way to work so I let her drive my 67 stang and I was going to pull the pinto into the shop and check the charging system just in case. Well as usual on the oregon coast it started raining so wipers on. Windshield started fogging defrost on. 10 seconds later car dies. Its an automatic so no spit sputter OH CRAP turn things off it just dies and now were coasting. Pulled over got the cables out stood on the small space between the car and fog line in the pouring rain for 30 minutes. Hiway 101 is not the best road to pull over and jump someone so I understood why noone stopped this is 1977 no cellphones, nada. I soon realised that my only help was probably going to be my mom 7 hrs from this point. So I sloshed back and closed the hood preparing for a 3 mile walk home. I started up the road and as I did I looked down and there was a short piece of 3/8 nylon rope about 6 foot long. Suddenly I had an idea, you can pullrope start a lawnmower why not a car. There was still enough juice in the battery to turn the red dummy lights on, so without accessories operating there should be enough juice to fire it, if I can get the motor turning fast enough. Hey I thought if nothing else at least the physical exersion would get me warmed up for the walk. I opened the hood, cut the fan belt, wrapped my rope around the balancer. I got up on the fender, wrapped the loose end around my hand bent my knees so I was going to do a sqaut lift slow then give it the yank and jump backwards. which I did, it started then died. I had been there long enough that the engine cooled and I didnt kick the throttle to activate the choke. So, try number two. She starts up and I drove it home. With a heck of a story. of course noone ever believed. 20 years later I showed them how it was done and earned a little pullrope respect on a Toyota corolla. I didnt even cut the fan belt. So if you ever leave your lights on and you are stranded with a to low to start battery look around for a little rope ( not recommend for anything other than a 4 cylinder)

Posted by: skeezix

I used a can of spray foam to fill rust holes then shaved it flat when dry. I used some aluminum tape to cover it and put a coat of rock gaurd over top of that, to get my old 79 gmc to pass inspection.

I really liked the "pull-start" story tho'.

Posted by: Jr88TC

Went to Auto Store, Bought different radator hose for different cars and turcks. Also bought a small piece of 2 1/4" muffler pipe. When home, finished routing turbo outlet to intercooler piping.

see below

Posted by: rodslinger

This is something I did back in high school. It involved a 1988 Dodge Shadow ES Turbo...

It all started driving to my uncles house when as usual, it blew a head gasket. This was a common problem for these cars. During the rebuild my uncle and I decided to mod the engine a little. Things like ported head, exhaust, different turbo, etc...

Well all went well during assembly except for one thing. We had punched out the casting plug on the intake manifold and forgot about it. At this point the manifold is in the car and we don't have enough clearance between it and the strut tower to hammer in another. So we grab the next best thing... One of those neoprene expansion plugs that seal up when you tighten the nut. Fit perfect and the car is now able to run.

Fast forward to three months later. I'm traveling down I-85 at about midnight when I lean in the gas a little while playing around. I'm probably somewhere near Commerce, GA. Well I hear a pop sound and now the car is accellerating without me even touching the gas. The "temporary" neoprene plug we used in the manifold decided to eject and now I have a 2-1/2 inch hole in the intake manifold sucking air.

Needless to say the car acted like it was WOT but fortunately wouldn't build boost because of the hole. The computer was aksi was cutting fuel at 4000rmps as I guess it saw the RPM's climb with no throttle signal and low MAP voltage. So the 80 something mile trip back to Atlanta was done without me even touching the gas and the car accelerating up to 80 then dropping back to 65 when the ECU would kick everything on again. Fun ride....

I fixed the freeze plug properly that weekend.

Posted by: DeckSetter

These stories are AWESOME......

This past summer I plumbed in an intercooler with 2" PVC. Worked!

Also, I currently have one CV boot held on the passenger side axle of my van with zip ties instead of the steel band.

Posted by: John

We were driving back from the Englishtown Swap meet in the red 'vette (Chevette) and we were loaded with crap we picked up on the cheap. While driving back down the Turnpike, we heard a clunk in the front end and then a slight shimmy started. We hit a good bump and heard a metallic chink and a clunk again as whatever it was fell out and impacted the floorboards after bouncing off of the road surface.

We figured we hit something in the road and kept going. The next big bump, the driver's side of the car laid down on the road and didn't come back up.

Alright, we got a problem now.

Get out, look under the car. What? The lower A-arm bolt that attaches the A-arm to the chassis fell out? How the fuck does that happen?!?! Shit. What do we do? Fucking look for it! IT'S 6 GODDAMN MILES BACK!

FUCK!

Alright, what do we got? A few minutes of rummaging turns up some cotter pins, a long screw driver, some speaker wire, pliers and a hammer. We pull out the jack and jack up the front end. I'm holding the wheel straight and my friend pounds the screw driver into the hole sto hold the A-arm in place. We then take the speaker wire and lash the screw driver into place and twist the end of the wire with a cotter pin. Thefix ended up holding so well that he forgot about it until 4 months later. He had the car in at the Pep Boys we worked at for an alignment. The mechanic come sto the parts counter and says "Dude, I think I found the problem." So he goes out and looks and comes back in laughing like an idiot.

He holds up the screw driver and says "Remember this?" to which I started laughing too. Then we had to explain the story to everyone who was there. One of the other guys says "What are you going to do with the screw driver? Frame it?" To which my friend says "Fuck no, I'm taking it backto SEARS and getting a new one!"

SEARS took it back and the guy didn't even ask what happened to it.

Posted by: TNT

The two that I can recall doing off the top of my head.

Repaired a bullet hole in the gas tank of a motorcycle by JB Welding a penny in.

I broke a belt on the way home from a concert with a date. Middle of nowhere, days before everyone had cellphones. I ended up using her pantyhose as a temporary belt to get us back into town.

Posted by: 1LowCav

great stories! None that I've done myself, but when I worked at Autozone I saw an S10 or some other small truck where the door latch was broke so the guy had attached a barrel bolt with sheet metal screws to the outside. He also used a padlock on the outside. And of course I've seen battery cables held on with bailing wire, and the usual bungee cord hood/trunk latch.

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