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.

[Superhawk996]

Broken clutch cable - not too much of a problem but trying to rev match the engine and the transmission is bound to make a few grinding noises that makes everyone think you have no idea how to drive that funky little sports car.

Getting though the small towns with stop lights. Trying to coast and time it so you don’t hit the red light . . . But fail. Starting the car in 1st gear - bucking and lurching to drive away on green.

There is no elegant way. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) But you can get there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[914rrr]

Broken clutch cable - not too much of a problem but trying to rev match the engine and the transmission is bound to make a few grinding noises that makes everyone think you have no idea how to drive that funky little sports car.

Getting though the small towns with stop lights. Trying to coast and time it so you don’t hit the red light . . . But fail. Starting the car in 1st gear - bucking and lurching to drive away on green.

There is no elegant way. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) But you can get there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Had the exact situation driving my 914 back 4+ hours to KY from VW show in MO with my then girlfriend / future wife.

(One of our) best stories was my wife, dog and I picking up a 914 4+ hours away in S FL with a friends' sketchy boat trailer to car trailer conversion. Trailer literally felt apart piece by piece in S FL morning rush hour traffic with our newly purchased, sorta drivable 914 on it. Rolled 914 off and I had my wife follow me (and lost her) while she tried to drive the randomly crab-walking, part dropping trailer off the interstate through a neighborhood to a large parking lot to asses the damage. Called my friend to inform him I would leave his POS trailer on the side of the road if he didn't come and fix it. He drove down 4+ hours with his flux core MIG, found a Home Depot that reluctantly agreed to let us use their power outlet, blew up said outlet before the repair was complete and it was closing time anyway. It's now late at night and we limped the trailer to a several other locations to beg for an outlet to plug in the MIG. Found a convenience store worker that agreed (only because he likely didn't understand what we were really asking to do), plugged into his ice chest outlet, proceeded to make the entire store's lights pulse on and off while finishing the welds, freaked out worker yelling at us, trying to ignore and/or placate said freaked out worker, etc. (Sorta) completed welds enough to get the 914 back on the trailer and back home 30+ hours from time of departure.