6speedmanual Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 For listing all the ways you have repaired stuff (not just cars) using unconventional means.... (please also provide info on effectiveness and durability of the repair!) Public Liability Warning: None of these are to be taken as a recommendation. Any attempt to replicate is entirely at your own risk!!!!! Here's a 'starter'.... Failed starter solenoid? Use wheel brace to short circuit the solenoid terminals to operate starter motor. Very effective (and dodgy ) Required for about two days until new started fitted. Mended a whistling hole in a windscreen pillar (brand new Rover Metro with missed body sealing operation!) using chewing gum. Funny thing was my friend whose car it was refused to take part in the repair process because he "didn't like chewing gum" - thought it a disgusting habit! I'm sure there are many stories involving string, araldite chewing gum etc.... *arrowdown* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markiebabes Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Peter I had a similar problem with the starter ❗ one night on the way back from a meet stopped car and had the "k" klick of death ☹️ no spare wire to be had to bridge but had a spare throttle cable 😬 this was used to bridge from battery to solenoid worked a treat 😬 looking forward to hearing more 😬 Edited by - markiebabes on 5 Oct 2011 10:10:05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Thought this was about lady gardening. How disappointing ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markiebabes Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 *nono* you need the "Bejazzled" thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 You can see a couple of my inputs in the starter thread to this one... 😳 Not repeating them here. But, another was replacing the contact points on an electric pump while at Le Mans back in the '80's with a manual switch and long wires... The passenger had to flick the switch back and forth continuously to make the pump work... and when overtaking had to flick the switch very, very quickly 😬 😬 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6speedmanual Posted October 5, 2011 Author Share Posted October 5, 2011 Nice one Eugene. I can just imaging you yelling "Faster! Faster!" as your passenger pumps away! 😳 Talking of points... I once found my car running worse and worse and eventually wouldn't restart after refuelling. Had to reset the ignition points using a piece of card as a feeler and table knife borrowed from the Little Chef to loosen and retighten the screw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 “You only need two tools in life – WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support Team Shaun_E Posted October 5, 2011 Support Team Share Posted October 5, 2011 1. The bolt holding my crank position sensor in place disappeared at a hillclimb about 5 years ago. I finally replaced the zip tie used to secure it at the beginning of this year! 2. Following a small electrical fire on the start line of the Manx classic a few years ago we replaced the main engine loom power feed with a bit of cooker cable purchased from a tiny hardware store in Port Erin and secured it with chocolate block connectors. This remained in place for a couple of years before I had the car rewired. I still carry some cooker cable in my spares kit 😬. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakeandlizzy Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 as the village idiot I have two: 1.) Zip tied injectors into place on Jenveys -- works fine instead of using brackets. 2.) Not a bodge, but sufficiently dangerous enough to offend: http://www.drhornsby.com/pics/Misc/P1060329.jpg http://www.drhornsby.com/pics/Misc/P1060329.jpg Edited by - jakeandlizzy on 5 Oct 2011 11:14:31 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted October 5, 2011 Member Share Posted October 5, 2011 We were once driving round Iceland (the country) in a Freelander with a trailer tent. The campsite was full on the evening of the National Day: it's a local tradition to camp with crates of beer on that day. A storm blew up. I've never seen so many tents rolling across a field, chased by, and possibly containing, inebriated Vikings. Our awning detached from its frame. My daughter climbed on the tent roof, and reattached the awning with Micropore medical paper tape: the stuff you use with people who are allergic to plasters. It lasted another week driving round the North of Iceland! She's now a nurse, and uses the tape for what it's intended. Duct tape's little brother. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierson Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 I once had to 'mend' a constantly-blowing wiper fuse on an Austin Metro in the pouring rain on the A.12 by folding and then wedging the tin foil case from a Mr. Kipling's exceedingly good individual apple pie into the fuse holder. I realise that there would have been a very good reason for a constantly-blowing fuse but that same very good reason wasn't good enough to avoid the need to actually see where I was going... Pierson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 using my Caterham I towed another one to the pub using half a roll of duct tape for rope 😬 we didnt have to go to the pub, but where he broke down there was a pub a mile down the road so we thought we might as well have a pint whilst waiting for the flatbed also held a mates injectors on with tie wraps to get off the French motorway and made a throttle cable with a length of farmers twine to hand operate the throttle and get home. replaced a mates broken floor whilst 300miles from home with a tea tray nicked from the cafe we just had lunch at. shorted the fuel pump inertia switch with a twix wrapper, only lasted 10 seconds so then we bought a pack of apple pies and used the foils ..... after we ate the pies ... put out an ignition fire in the loom by pissing on it 😬 replaced a broken throttle pedal with a tent peg , again 300miles from home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Cockburn Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Driving through London years ago in a Mini Cooper it suddenly spluttered and cut out in the middle of a junction, investigation revealled the nut holding the wires to the contact points had fell off and obviously dropped into the distributor, amazingly the nuts holding the speaker grille to the rear parcel shelf were the same thread, fixed in seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James_Russell Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Throttle cable on my mate's Skoda snapped. I had a bass guitar and amplifier in the boot; I replaced the cable with the bass string and secured it with the earth pin out of the amplifier's electrical plug! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prangerman Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 In the early 80s I had a hand me down well used green Renault 16. Having spent most of its life on the German North Sea coast, it was a little rusty to say the least. Taking a sharp corner one evening the offside rear door lock parted company from the door frame and the door swung open. A piece of string held it shut till I got home, and I replaced it with an almost matching green garden plant rubber tie which I attached around the top of the window frame and looped it through the grab handle. The near side door needed the same treatment. The car passed several MOTs in that condition until it finally was no longer for this world. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 I have used the (then) girlfriend's panty hose as a fanbelt on a Ford Falcon when it decided to split apart on a country drive. She was less than impressed Duct tape to hold up the exhaust on the seven and several other cars. And when I was attending university at nights in Sydney many years ago, I used a tampon from the glovebox (it was my GF's...honest!) to stop a persistent nosebleed while driving home late at night. Just my luck I was pulled over by the cops for a random breath alcohol test... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ. Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Like Dave Jackson, i've driven home using string for the throttle. The cable broke as it went through the bulkhead on a Citroen BX 16V. I moved the rest of the cable so it rested on the wing and left the bonnet on the emergency catch, and operated the throttle through the window. Glad the Police didn't spot me. On a Lotus Elan, the alarm/ignition switch in the glove box failed leaving us stranded. I prized the stereo out using my finger nails and brute force, and rewired the ignition wire using the the connector block used for the speaker cables and my Swiss penknife. Duncan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Coat hanger nicked from the B&B we were staying in to fix a broken rear exhaust mount on the 7 when on way 'op-norf'. I'm sure I'm not alone with this one!!! 😬 😬 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted October 5, 2011 Member Share Posted October 5, 2011 So we're converging on: * WD40 * Duct tape * A multitool * Native wit. What else? Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 I once lashed up a wiper mech with a tyrap, and then sold the car somne while later to a mate. He knew about the bodge. The Tyrap broke on him, he worked out that if he rigged a monowiper from the other side it would cover the bit of the screen needed for the MoT. The tester shook his head, looked in the manual and said "well, it's in the rules" so it passed. 😬 Better, a mate had an old Mini. His fanbelt went and the pulley was shagged. He rigged the dynamo as a motor (which tells you how long ago it was and how old the car) and made a wire loop to run the water pump. This worked OK until the wire broke a few miles from home. He ignored it and kept his foot down, by the time he made it home there was a small fire under the bonnet which he had to extinguish before effecting repairs. My best isn't really a bodge at all, I had a dead alternator on the 7. I traced it to a cracked brush. Couldn't buy new brushes to fit, or anything close. Bought a regulator/brush kit for some obscene sum here in France, fitted it. Job done. Sod me if a year later (exactly) as I was coming home from Le Mans (again) the bastard threw a wobbly again. This time I checked the brushes were OK, my money was on the renewed reg having gone sick. I swapped the good brushes onto the old reg and reassembled it, job done. It ran for another 2-3 years, the new owner (Fishy Dave of this parish) replaced the alternator along with a pile of other stuff while trying to track down an elusive electrical fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Coat hanger, cable ties and Araldite - really important for good bodges, especailly Araldite as it has the added benefit of winding people up too 😬 😬 😬 Couldn't resist! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Cable ties are my favourite. They are indispensable. Actually, come to think, my old Astra has the gearchange mech held together with cable ties. A mate who's had a few Astras said at least 2 of his were the same. It seems to be a better engineering solution than the original Opel mechanism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Quoting Eugene: Coat hanger, cable ties and Araldite - really important for good bodges, especailly Araldite as it has the added benefit of winding people up too 😬 😬 😬 Couldn't resist! 😬 Aye, it does. We can grin about it now, you got away with it. Still bloody daft though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Daft it may be, worth all the fun it caused here - yup 😬 😬 😬 (I know, I know, that's not really nice - but it amused me for a while...) As I said, I don't take anything personally at all - especially when the work performed can't be inspected - the actual fix was technically and mechanically perfect - the original wear was minimal, but would probably have failed the MOT... dangerous? - never, but that's the problem of taking a post at face value, without finding out more of the actual situation. Had the actual thread been replaced with Araldite, that would have been a totally different situation - and I never said that. But to be honest I deliberately didn't expand on the reality of the bodge... why spoil a good story with the truth??? Oh, and that reminds me of another bodge... On the way to Le Mans one year we split the sump on a railway crossing in the middle of nowhere. Lost all the oil, but shut off the engine before any damage. Sent the co-pilot off to find more oil while I tried to find a solution to the split sump. with no tools... Found a local farm house and managed to 'borrow' a hammer (avek vou un ammer???) This allowed me to bent the sump back into shape... but how to seal the final gap? Ah! Cleaned all the oil from the sump and then filled the gap with soap, as that is impervious to oil, held in place with duck tape... 😬 😬 😬 Then covered the lot in fibre-glass from a nice Jag owner at Le Mans, before then driving 3000 miles arounf Europe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil B Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 SWMBO fixed the broken rear silencer mount on her Midget years ago with a pair of pretty pollies, good girl had been paying attention to the then advertising campaign! Similar failure on 7 was fixed using a crepe bandage from a first aid kit as no zipties available. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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