Best dead on the road saves, Getting home stories Options

[r_towle]

What are some of your best “getting it home” repairs?
Those side of the road breakdowns you will never forget?

I have a few…
One of the best was when a buddy and I were heading up north to ski country and the throttle cable broke on my vw beetle. I got out, sat sideways on the rear bumper and I was the accelerator while he drove us up off the highway to a gas station….then bike cable and some clamps, fixed.

914 broke the cable at the local autox , about 10-15 miles away.
I tied that sucker off at 3500 rpm’s with my shoelace and drove home
I was given some wide eyes at a few lights and stop signs….but it worked.

[technicalninja]

1973 Super Beetle: transmission stuck in reverse and forth gear due to large driver's thighs that pushed the shift lever to the right in reverse allowing the internal shift fork to get behind the other forks and he engaged 4th gear.

Locks tranny up and car cannot be moved without a roll back truck.
Fat friend (who I sold my Wife's bug to) has no money and is in Marshall Texas near the Louisiana border 200 miles away from me.
Christmas Eve 1989.
Drove 200 miles and ripped that puppy apart in a college parking lot in 3" of snow and it was still coming down.
Removed engine then transmission, popped cover off of tail of transmission, fixed shift fork misalignment. popped it all back together and he drove home for Christmas.

8 hours round trip with 52 minutes of wrenching time, cold as hell, in the snow.

That's the day I said "No more VWs EVER!"

It was the third time he had done this crap requiring powerplant removal/lots of practice. We couldn't figure out why it was doing this till it happened when I was with him in Ft Worth a couple of months later. He knocked it out of reverse again and I got to play with it before he engaged another gear. working the shift lever back next to reverse and popping it back in turned out to be the answer to his problems.

Moral of story. Don't sell cars to your friends unless you want to help them fix it on Christmas Eve in a snowstorm...

[Superhawk996]

name='technicalninja' date='Mar 7 2023, 10:55 PM' post='3063298']
Moral of story. Don't sell cars to your friends unless you want to help them fix it on Christmas Eve in a snowstorm...

Moral of story. Don't sell small foreign cars to your fat friends unless you want to help them fix it on Christmas Eve in a snowstorm...

Fixed it for ya’.

There are just some folks that don’t belong in certain types of cars yet they insist on trying to fit into them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) This goes in all directions: too tall, too short, too skinny, too fat.