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.

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...

I had the throttle cable break on my Karman Ghia one night driving home from work. I happened to have about 10 feet of electrical wire. I tied the wire to the throttle on the carburetor. I used my left hand to pull the wire connected to the throttle and my right hand to steer and shift. Fortunately the lid was raised a couple of inches with spacers under the hinges. I went 10 miles on city streets like that. It wasn't too bad.

When I was in high school, I had a 1969 Pontiac Firebird. One day I was coming home from my girlfriend's house, and it started to overheat. I pulled into a convenience store, and opened the hood.

The radiator sprung a leak at the seam on the right hand end tank. I let it cool down while I thought about what to do.

So I went in and bought a pack of Big Red chewing gum. Once the radiator was cool, I chewed up the whole pack of gum, and used it as a sealer paste to "gum" up the leak in the radiator. Then I filled the radiator with water from the hose and left the cap loose so it wouldn't build pressure.

Drove it 45 minutes home like that, and three days to work and back at the local Jack-In-The-Box so I had money to pay to have the radiator fixed. When I finally got it fixed, the guy at the radiator shop cussed me out because he had a really hard time removing the "crap" I used to seal the radiator up.

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. This goes in all directions: too tall, too short, too skinny, too fat.

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. But you can get there.

A small group drove 3 356's to the West Coast Holiday in Bend in 2021. My buddy Pat's car (since sold) was a very original 64 coupe. So original it still had the original accelerator cable connector which broke about 10 miles from our VRBO. We pulled over to the side of the road near a pet daycare that had a home in front that was under construction.

We found some wood and jacked the car up. Using the wood as jack stands Pat proceeded to cobble together the cable with some wire and tape we gathered. The best part was the pic I got. After getting settled at our place, he found some wire coat hangers and made a more secure fix that he left on the car for a year.

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Was in my 914 with my future wife and her girlfriend (sitting on the “middle” seat, heading back from a day at the Brotherhood Winery in NY. Really not suitable to drive But we were young. Driving along I-280( I think) and got lost just above the NJ State prison at dusk when the car just died.
Pulled over to the shoulder of the elevated highway and said in my mildly drunken stupor, “No problem, I know what is the matter.” No clue as to how I guessed, but pulled out the spare oil cap filler O-ring, removed the old one and installed the new one. Car started right up and we found our way home.
The girls were agape with mouths wide open. Big boost to my cred that night!

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.

My first car, '72 914. I bought in 1983/84-ish. Accelerator cable broke. Back roads somewhere between Mission and McAllen TX. There was a long enough piece of cable from the throttle body that I was able to leave the engine cover open and pull on it with my left hand through the driver's side window. Steering and shifting with my right hand. Before the internet. Drove it that way for a couple weeks while waiting for a new cable.

Next to go, a month or so later was the clutch cable. (Should've ordered one when the accelerator cable broke). Learned to shift without it until the new one arrived. Would shift into first before coming to a complete stop.(still do usually).Leave it in first gear when parking. Don't park in a situation where reverse might be needed.

Good times. Memories .

QM

Was driving in town with two friends back when I was young. Tranny locked up in third gear. With several stop lights to negotiate, I had to come to a stop in 3rd, clutch depressed. When the light turned green I had my buddies get out and push the car to get it rolling, 5 - 10 mph. They then had to jump back in the car while I madly slipped the clutch and revved the motor until we got up to speed. Pretty embarrassing, I must say.

Three I've had in my current 914.

1. Like everyone else, I've had a throttle cable break. Fortunately I had a plethora of assorted zip-ties in the front trunk, and was able to put together an adequately snug linkage from the cable nut to the hex bar.

2. My shift rod came apart about a mile from my house. It was stuck in 4th gear and I didn't know enough yet to shift it from the trans console. I was at the bottom of a hill in a neighborhood. Several times, I pushed the car backwards up the hill as far as I could, pulled the handbrake, and then tried to build up enough speed to make it up the next hill in fourth gear. Much to the entertainment of some old guy sitting on his front porch. After a few attempts, I made it.

3. Another shifting woe: I tried to replace shift bushings at home, and had a bitch of a time getting the linkage back together. Destroyed a couple of cone screws trying. Eventually, I went back to the shift console (by then I'd figured out how) and stuck it into 2nd. That worked for a ~4 mile drive to my mechanic, sticking to neighborhood roads as much as possible.

A save of sorts...
Young pup with a '67 911S. Drove up to go skiing, heading home had to put chains on. Of course, one broke a flailed around. Very fortunately it did no quarter panel damage at all. Unfortunately it beat up the heat exchanger pretty good and took out an axle shaft.
Literally coasted to a gas station, called buddies for ride and left car there in the snow. Made it back up with a new axle and with only the jack and hand tools managed to get the new one plugged in. Drove home.

Being an old guy, I must have a few but unable to recall now.

BUT, thanks for all the laughs, not sure if there is a winner, all are great

75 914 2.0. I leave work one day and about two miles down the road my clutch cable snapped. I called my buddy who was a Sheriff and asked him if he could help me get the car back to my work. I started the car in third gear and followed him in his patrol car. As we approached the intersections, he stopped in the middle with his lights on blocking cars as I drove right through!

Just one of my many advantures:

Sandy and I were heading to Hershey in the Alien for a 914 gathering. Driving thru Chicago on the elevated freeway in the far left lane. The freeway is rough as a washed out gravel road. Hit a pot hole. It shook the car so hard the wire to my coil fell off.

I am coasting in the left lane about 75 mph. Can't step on the brakes or slow too fast. No shoulder to my left side.

I saw an opening and cut right across 4 lanes of rush hour traffic right onto an off ramp. I lost too much momentum to make it off the ramp so I pulled over on the narrow shoulder to the right.

My right side tires were touching the concrete barrier and my left side tires were on the white line. I popped the lid. slid up on the trunk from the right side and found the issue. I plugged in the coil as semi trucks were rocketing passed. The wall of wind rocking the car with the force of a derencho. I jump back in and fired that bitch up and got the hell out of there.

That was only one of my mis-adventures in Chicago...

Earlier in the day in the downtown area I was in stop & go traffic. My clutch cable was stretching and the clutch was starting to grab everso slightly..... I was depressing the pedel as hard as I could to the floor. Once again attempting to find a way out of the left lane. When I had the chance I managed to move over and get off the freeway. I ended up in a neighbor I knew I would not be safe in. I started thinking about what I would need to undo the jamb nut and adjust the cable. I spotted a large black topped school yard that was completely fenced with an opening I could drive thru. I drove to the furthest part of the yard from the opening in the fence. I jumped out and pulled my tool bag out and grabbed the two wrenches I always have just for this type of issue. This was the fastest clutch adjustment I ever did. With a clutch that would now release I hunted for the shortest route back to the freeway.

you have b*lls of steel for driving the Kennedy on the inside lane (or Stevenson, whichever). or any lane, kudos!. I was an install tech and on the road in Chicago for quite few years. 80mph+ is the minimum non rush hour. ill admit it would be blast though.



Qm

Gotta say, cables are bad.
Or at least cables need more attention.

Having owned a number of VW's and a couple 914's, clutch cable sagas are almost routine. Pop it out of gear when come to a stop, turn off the engine, put in first and crank it. Rev it up in first, 'crashbox' thru the gears to get up to speed. Next stop, repeat the process.

My first adventure in my -6 was less than a year after I bought it (used). Drove to Dallas for a work assignment, was heading back to the hotel on one of the highways at night and the fan belt broke. Fortunately had the tool kit and a spare belt, but never done it before. Got to an underpass with some light, felt my way around a very warm engine, and got it replaced.

In high school, my girlfriend and I were heading to a movie in my 1960 Karmann Ghia when the car quits running. I coasted off the highway into a subdivision. She is very concerned and keeps asking what are we going to do. I tell her don't worry, put the car in neutral, put on the parking brake, get out of the car and tell her to slide over into the driver's seat so she could turn the key when I told her to (it's on the left). I always kept a toolbox, spare 009 distributer (points set, new capacitor, with the mounting bracket so pre-timed), carb, coil and fuel pump in the trunk. In just a few minutes, I diagnosed no spark, put in the new distributer and we're back on the road. We made the movie in plenty of time.

Another time we were swimming in a quarry and there were a lot of people around so there wasn't a safe place to leave the key. I tied it to my wrist with a piece of leather bootlace, but you know what happened. She is panicky - she wasn't supposed to be swimming there even though this was her idea. I keep telling her to calm down. I knew how to slide the rear quarter window out to gain access to the inside of the car, used a stick to move the door handle and I unlocked the door. What 17-year-old VW mechanic didn't know how to hot wire their car!! I'm her hero!

I taught her how to drive a manual transmission in that car, and sometimes when she was driving it at night, when going through the huge park near our village, the car would occasionally start bucking and coast to a stop. That was a diagnosis of vapor lock which would fix itself "if we waited a bit". When it started happening with some regularity and she started wondering about the reliability of my 14-year-old Ghia, I showed her how I moved the fuel lever to the 45-degree position to shut off the fuel. After that, she would occasionally shut the fuel off when I was driving!

The only car I ever regretted selling.

Leaving Utah Motorsports Campus...

My son and I lost the go pedal. The throttle bell crank shaft worked it's way out of the transmission, bell crank and all! Everything as still intact and dangling from the throttle wire leading to the carbs.

Using tools from the factory tool kit (supplied by Mr. Tom Bliznik ) we screwed it back in. Tightened it up and made it back on to I-80 in time to tangle with a Ferrari on his way into the city. Got the "Nod" as we passed...

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New Year's Day, Pelican Hangover Run. Livermore CA.

An eclectic group of vehicles left the Livermore Porsche dealer for a run to the top of Mt. Hamilton through the backroads. It's at least an hour's drive to the top with zero cell service most of the way. It's a narrow twisty road that is an amazing drive. The view from the top is awesome!

Leading the pack is a Cayman S, followed by yours truly in my turbo 914. Behind me is a full-race Viper. We are flying up the mountain. Making it almost to the top in under 45 minutes. The three of us are a mile or more ahead of the pack driving -full out-...

Just before I reach the top of the mountain and at speed, I hit a hairpin left. At that very moment, my radiator hose splits lengthwise and dumps all my coolant onto the road under my rear wheels.

The car spins out but stays on the pavement. I'm facing the opposite direction now. The Viper behind me has enough gap to stop in time. No injuries occur, no wreck. I'm 10+ miles from civilization on New Year's Day, with no cell service.

I quickly assess the damage, realizing I can make it to the Observatory parking lot 1/4 mile up the road. Here is where I found an 8" long tear in my radiator hose along its length. No road fix is available for this damage. I need a new hose under the car and a tow.

I look down the mountain at San Jose CA and think I can coast down to the bottom. For the most part, this worked. I did have to start the engine 4-5 times to get me over a rise in elevation but I did make it to the bottom eventually and pull into a Wendy's parking lot. I tried my road service and after 3-4 calls they could not find any tow truck available. I finally made my own calls locally. It seems I am 3 counties away from home on New Year's Day and none of the drivers want to drive that far.

I finally find a service that will come get me. I told them it could only be towed on a flatbed. So after being in the Wendy's parking lot for 4 hours, a standard wrecker shows up and tells me he can't tow it and it needs a flatbed truck. Luckily he had the private number of the driver that took the flatbed home and 45 minutes later he was there to take me home.

35 miles and $350 cash later and my car was dropped off in my driveway. A long and expensive New Year's for me.

I did buy 60 feet of Gates hose and split the cost with @Andyrew since we each needed 30 feet.

Fast Forward a couple of years... I'm on the same run with the PCA, going the opposite route. A huge caravan of modern Porsches and me in the 914. Up over the mountain and past the Observatory. I pass the same hairpin turn and... my engine dies. I pull over and it will not restart. One of the PCA members agrees to call my wife when he reaches cell service. Everyone takes off and leaves me alone on the mountain.

While I'm there I diagnose my fuel pump died. I also discovered that if I walked 100 feet away and held my hand in the air, my phone would get enough service to send a text. Was able to make contact with my wife. The dude did call her as well.

Due to the past history on this mountain, I had her SUV set up with my towbar and anything I might need for a road repair. Just in case I needed rescue. After about 3 hours, she made it to my location and I towed myself home with her vehicle.

I will never drive this route again...

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Yet more proof that you cannot turbo a 914.
You have angered the mountain.

i used a string tied to my toe to do the same thing in my squareback.
it was summer and i was wearing thongs.
not those kinda thongs but ..........slaps (yanklish translation).

just ran it down the guts of the interior with the engine lid off.

it was loud and farken smelly. but i made it home.

Many years ago a buddy and I took his 914 on a camping trip to the Ozark Mountains and in the middle of nowhere the clutch tube broke at the firewall. We drove the rest of the trip with vice grips holding the tube in place. This was shortly after an animal darted across the road in the dark and took off the front spoiler - still don’t know what that was

I will keep this to 914 related saves as there have been many others.
I had the accelerator rod to pivot break on highway. Coasted to off ramp. -6 with carbs. Cranked the idle screws up to 3K idle and went back way home. slowly.

Trip to Red Rocks classic last year (same car). Very unusual for area, incredibly heavy rain in Grand Junction which was our overnight stop before heading to Salt lake. Next morning go to start car and it turns slightly and stops. Think, dead battery? try again and will not crank but other electrical systems appear fine, even when trying to crank. Was getting ready to trying to jump start or push start but then think, heavy rain and 50 year old air cleaner system might have allowed water into engine. Pulled plugs crank and a couple cylinder puke water. Yes engine was hydolocked. All good now, car cranks but will not start. Think again that much rain/water was able to get into the engine it probably also got into carbs. so I remove float bowl drains and drain fuel (and water) in hotel parking lot. I try again and Car fires and runs fine and I make it to Salt lake.
Next day drive to PMB for first drive of week and while idling in parking lot getting ready to leave for drive of the day the car dies. Pretty much the worst possible time to have a problem. After other cars leave I can hear fuel pump is not running. Check a couple things and then wiggle fuel pump relay and hear pump start running, car fires and I join the others for the drive.
Later that day after going over several high mountain passes and parking at high elevation car is hard to start and runs bad after idling for short time. Runs fine when driving hard and fast. I make it back to base hotel to trouble shoot and the floats are stuck open probably from water (and what ever else washed into carbs) percolating with hot engine at high elevation. Borrow tools and remove and clean needle valves. Car runs ok and finish the other drives and I make the 8 hour trip back to Denver. Further diagnosis shows most of the accelerator pump nozzles are also plugged and needed cleaning. Rebuild carbs (again) and all is good. These cars do not like being out in heavy rains. Had a great time at RRC despite some minor set backs.

john

Very true