Bootstrap Fixes Contest (Ends: October 31, 2009)

[ewcmr2]

Planning for a trip from So-Cal to Lincoln NE and back I bought an extra spare trailer tire. No wheel, just extra tire figuring if we had a blowout we could get the new tire mounted at the next convienient tire shop...



Saturday 4pm see friends truck & trailer on side of I-76 just west of Denver. Stop to help, spend 5 hours of chasing down OBDII scanners/fuel filters/siphon pump/fresh diesel and helping get his fuel system re-primed. (side note, my 12v Cummins is much easier to re-prime than a duramax)



Sunday morning somewhere in eastern Utah a trailer tire blows out. No biggie, install spare and continue on. Foreshadow alert... It's Sunday, we're 5 hours behind, trips almost over, don't bother looking for an open tire shop to mount spare tire on rim.



Sunday 10pm between Baker and Barstow CA another trailer tire blows. Boy I wish we'd looked for a place to get that spare tire mounted...



How to change a trailer tire on the side of the road:

Remove from trailer.

Use trailer landing gear to break bead.

Use large screwdriver, breaker bar, soapy water and hammer to remove bad tire from rim.

Use same screwdriver, breaker bar and soapy water to pry new tire onto rim.

Place ratchet strap around tire (to baloon it out) and air it up.

Remount on trailer, drive home!

 

[RHestand]

Our honeymoon, July, 1975, in our 1969, 911S Porsche.

My new wife and I were coming from Seattle headed to Chicago on I-90, at 2:00AM, in the middle of no-where, S. Dakota.

We had been too late arriving for our previous night's motel reservations, and after several stops, found all the motels were full.

Since we were running a day late for our arrival in Chicago, we decided to drive through the night, with the help of lots of hot coffee, and good conversation.

Of course, with all the coffee, Mother Nature started calling, and as luck would have it, not any places to stop for miles and miles. As an emergency measure, we took a dirt side road off the Interstate a couple of miles, so we could "Stretch our legs admire the beautifull starlit sky". It was very dark, and no human habitation for many miles.

We got back in the car, drove about a hundred feet, it backfired, engine dies, and won't start. She said, "What is wrong?" I get a sick feeling in my stomach, "I don't know. "

The only tools I have with me, are the ones in a small pouch that came with the car, and a flashlight.

I opened the engine lid, and had her crank the engine while I'm looking with the flashlight. Then I see the dist. cap wiggle a little bit, and notice one of the cap's clips is unclipped. After pulling the cap, I see the rotor is broken, and the metal pc. that distributes the fire from the coil to the spark plugs, had broken off the plastic rotor and fell into the bottom of the distributor. I'm thinking, "What the h*** am I going to do now?"

I pull them both out, trial fit them back together, and I'm thinking if I can get these two pcs. glued or taped back together, it might work. Luckily the groove where the metal pc. had been, was still in the plastic pc.

I looked everywhere for tape, band-aids, wire, anything that might work. Nothing. I have my wife empty her purse, and what luck. A small emergency sewing kit with thread!

I put the metal pc. back in the groove, tied about 20 tight wraps of thread around it, put it back in, snap the dist. cap back on, and it fires right up. It runs like new.

My new wife was so impressed that I could fix our car, out in the wilderness, at night, with her little sewing kit. She didn't know me that well yet, mechanically.

It was still running fine all the way to Chicago, the first place I was able to buy a new dist. rotor.

 

[Grizzly]

RHestand, That may just be the best "Bootstrap Fixes" story yet.



george

 

[kenny61]

I just fixed the window regulator in my wifes Jeep with duct tape, tie wraps, and a hose clamp, but I'm, too embaressed to post a picture

 

[FDavid]

When I was in high school me and some freinds were really into BMX bikes. We would spend all our money on them putting on the best parts we could. Anyways on the weekend we would load up our bikes and drive down to the local park to ride and show off in front of the girls (meaning we usually ended up looking like idiots). Well one particular weekend a buddy and I jammed our bikes in the trunk of his volvo and headed down. I remember we were blasting vanilla ice when the light turned green and we jast sat there. No matter how much gas he gave it the engine just sat there idling. After making me push it to the curb, we popped the hood to see what the hell was the matter. Having some tools on board for our bikes we hoped it was something minor we could fix. Sure enough the end of the throttle cable had snapped off. Our first idea was to clamp a pair of vice grips on it. Unfortunatly it didn't work because the vice grips kept getting hung up on a hose coming out of the intake. After watching him kick and cuss at his car for about 10 mintues it hit me. I walked over to his bike and started taking apart the gyro mechanism on the steering (it allows the steering to turn 360 degrees without the cables spinning around and getting hung up). At the end of the cable is a knarp which is like a cable pinch bolt #ad
Bolted it in and it worked like a charm. He even swore it was smoother than the factory piece :-laf He drove the car the following year to college before selling it, with the knarp still on there. We still joke about it to this day

 

[RLHannink]

Out in the dunes (Pismo Beach, CA) in my 75 Ford F100 4by, got a plugged fuel filter from old gas in old cans. Took out the filter (it was mounted by the tank in the rear, also had another one by the engine), and used a 2" length of a Sharpie marker with the ends cut off to reconnect the fuel lines. Still there to this day, hasn't gotten eaten by gas.

 

[WHazelwood]

Last summer we pulled our 5th wheel out west and one of the places we visited was Chaco Canyon, NM. To get into and out of the park you have to travel about 20 miles of washboard dirt road. It didn't matter what speed I tried it was rough. When we left and hit the hard road headed for Albuquerque, NM I noticed the trailer was "dog tracking. I tried to nurse it along till we could get to some civilization and check it out. It didn't take too long and a tire shreded so I had no choice but to stop. I found a broken spring shakle. By jacking the wheel up I could get the shakle to go back where it was supposed to be and the only thing that I had to hold it in place was a small 4" Vice Grip. It held all the way to Albuquerque and the weld shop. The welder crawled under to look at the problem and came out to get his camera. He said "Vice Grip is going to get a picture of that. there's no way that should have held for 10 ft much less 20 miles. Don't leave home with out the Vice Grips.

 

[retirednak]

Back in the early 80's I had a Dodge Magnum GT. I was on the way to Anchorage to take my mom to the airport, a 60 mile trip. It was 2 AM and raining sheets of water and strong winds. We heard a pop and the wipers quit working. After a panic stop and saw the linkage below the wiper cowl area broke, and wondering what I was going to do(no traffic or cell phone) I remembered I had bailing wire in my trunk. So I tied wire to the drivers side wiper and ran it into the drivers window and did the same thing to the passenger side and off to the airport we went,each pulling on the wires to make the wipers work. I didn't have to worry about wipers on the way home since it quit raining. How I wish I still had the Magnum GT!#ad

 

[BigPapa]

A buddy of mine ran off in the ditch leaving work one day in his '67 Fairlane and ground a hole in his fuel tank. The shop foreman sent a man running to the bathroom to get a bar of soap. He rubbed the soap on the hole and it quit leaking. My buddy drove that car for 5 years like that, never leaked a drop, and sold it. Darndest thing I've ever seen.



Scott

 

[Grizzly]

In May of 1999 my wife and I were on our way to Grants Pass, OR to visit my brother and his wife. We were driving the 95 Dodge CTD, DRW with our 11' 3" Lance camper. Both are now sold. We were going through a somewhat small town of Gilroy, California on our way north to Oregon when suddenly we heard a small pop followed by a hiss. I feared a blowout on one of the duallies. We found a safe place and pulled over. I found that the passenger side inside dual wheel was loosing air through the long extended valve stem. The extended valve was securely tied as per the instruction that came with them, but had ruptured under the 80 psi in the tire. I drove to a gas station that had a coin operated air compressor. I pulled off the rear wheel skins so that I could get to the stems easier with my small air pressure gauge when an old man of mid 70's came by driving a bicycle. He was a very nice friendly old guy and talked a mile a minute while I struggled with my small air pressure gauge and the inside wheels. He said that he has a long stem double headed air pressure gauge and offered to go home to get it and return quick as he lived very close by. So he left and in a few minutes returned with the long stem double headed air pressure gauge. That long stem gauge worked like a charm.



He asked where we were from. I told him Albuquerque. He said he had a sister who lives in Albuquerque. He insisted we take the gauge with us in case we should need it again and he would pick it up when he came to Albuquerque to visit his sister, which he said would be in a few months. I tried to buy it from him, but he wouldn't sell it. He talked me into taking it and asked for my phone number so he could call me when in Albuquerque. I asked for his phone number to which he said that he didn't have one.



After we parted and we were on our way, My wife and I got to thinking that we will never see or hear from him again.



Ten and a half years later I still have his tire gauge and still use it. It stays in my truck at all times and it's still a great tool. I think about him every time I use it.

 

[KevinSmith]

Two days ago My idler pully had the bolts let go. It destroyed the belt and I was at the place that I stay while I am @ work. All I had with me was my wrenches, a cordless drill with index, a pair of vicegrips and my underground mining hand tools. (and electrical tape of course, because who doesn't?)

I found that several of the bolts that hold the pully on the idler hub had broken and where left in the holes. I had to remove the radiator and fan shroud to be able to get the fan off and get to the idler hub. To save my coolant I used my empty sandwich bags and taped them over the radiator hoses and used my pie can to catch the majority of the rest of the coolant. I used some grade five bolts from work in the holes that I could get to.

After gaining access to the fan I had no way to hold the pully while I pulled off the fan nut. I ended up using a piece of the broken belt and holding it on the pully with the vicegrips. Once it was wedged against the belt tensioner it was the perfect strapwrench. A couple of yanks and the fan was out of the way. Once I removed the pully again and had access to the idler itself I took the idler off.

I just used the drill and a screwdriver to remove the broken bolts, luckly they weren't locktighted in place.

Installation went quite well, I was a little low on coolant and the grade five bolts made me nervous but I made it back home ok. I just have to top off the coolant in the morning and if I go one bolt at a time I dont think Ill even have to take the belt off when I replace the cheapo bolts.

 

[LHastings]

No Fuel Pump

About 33 years ago one morning I decided to go quail hunting in the sand hills of east New Mexico.

It was about 15 degf that morning the quail were staying close to cover making the hunting easy.

As I was driving from water hole to water hole my 56 Chevy suddenly it died and would not start.

I got out and started checking my engine and determined it was my fuel pump. That was just great!

I was about 15 mile to the nearest ranch house that I remember seeing. All I had was a pair of pliers.

So I started walking to the ranch when I came across two rusty tin cans. It gave me an idea if I could

use these cans to prime my carburator with them. I got my pliers and broke off a piece of barb wire

from a fence. I took my pocket knife and made two some holes in of the cans and wire it to the air

cleaner stem so the holes would align over the carburator barrels. I then managed to get the rubber fuel

line off my fuel pump and filled the second can with gas to use it to transfer gas to the first can. I used chewing gum

to temporary plug the holes while I poured the gas in. I then took off the gum and shut the hood and start the car and

putted down the road until the can ran out of gas. I repeated the process until I made it to ranch house. Luckly the rancher

was home. I call my my wife ( then at that time she was my girlfriend) to go by my house and get my tools and buy me a fuel

pump from the part store and drive them out to me (about 50 mile drive. ) I replaced my fuel pump and drove back to town.

I still have my 56 chevy and still has the same fuel pump that I put on that cold morning.

 

[KHelfrich]

not really a repair on the road but same thing could be applied on the road, I had been riding my dirt bike through a muddy section and gotten stuck and was really hammering on it when i finally got out of the mud my radiator was steaming. i had thought i had just over heated it so i took it easy and cruised back to the truck let it cool and went to add water and it could not fill the rad it kept leaking on the ground. i had ended up taking a stick to the rad and broke a core tube. so i dug out all the fins around the the broken tube smashed the tube flat coated it in JB Kwick and rolled each end on it self to seal the tube. This repair worked great so good that i got new radiators for the bike and they are still sitting on a shelf in my room and this happened over a year ago.





a repair i did on the road that worked but not that great was I had bought a snowmobile and trailer in MI a few years ago and on the way home on an off ramp there was a cloud of smoke from the trailer. I pulled over and found a leaf had broken and the tire got tore up when it hit the deck of the trailer. so to get home i took and extra drop hitch ball mount i had wedged it between the axle and trailer frame and tired it in with some tiedowns it held the trailer up to get it home but at some point the ball mount fell out and just the tie downs were holding everything in lace and keeping the tire from hitting deck. so this fix worked to get me home but somewhere there is a ballmount laying on the road.

 

[Grizzly]

In about 1984, two of my very young kids and I went camping and fishing in the Gila Mountains in New Mexico. I had a 71 Ford F250 and a 10. 5' Travel Queen cab-over-camper. On a late Sunday I decided it was time to leave for home, which would take about 4 hours. All the rest of the campers were gone from the campground. We packed everything up and I went to start the Ford 390 gasser. It wouldn't start and with so much cranking the battery was starting to slow down. I did have tool and I looked for every possible reason why it wouldn't start. I pulled the gas line from the fuel pump to see if I had a stream of gas flowing. I didn't have a stream. I pulled the fuel pump off and set it on a picnic table and opened it up. After much time I found metal shavings in it and cleaned it out, put the fuel pump back together and re-installed it in the engine.



I said many prayers that it would start as there was no one else around in the campground. It cranked very very slow, but suddenly it kicked over.



We quickly got in the truck and drove it home without stopping the engine for anything. The next day I bought two fuel pumps, installed one and kept the other for a spare in the truck at all times along with extra belts, hoses and other parts.

 

[gapayne]

My bootstrap fixes and solutions

About 40 years ago I had a 1968 Lemon yellow Opel station wagon, imported by Buick from Germany. Buick called it Nepal yellow but I thought my name was more descriptive. Narrow and short, it was a great in-town car but it had nearly self-destructed by 30,000 miles. One day while driving in rush hour city traffic the clutch dropped to the floor. I got it out of the intersection and opened the hood. Looking around, I notice that the clutch pedal works by having the cable run through a tube which is held in place against the firewall by an e-clip. Pushing on the clutch pedal causes the cable to slide inside the tube (held in place by the e-clip) and the other end of the cable works the clutch. Think of it as the e-clip is the fulcrum of a lever, pushing on the pedal causes the cable to pull on the clutch fork. However my e-clip was missing so there is no leverage. I don't have a spare e-clip with me, but I do have a paperclip. The e-clip fits into one of many grooves which circle the tube so I pull the clutch pedal back to near normal height and shape the paperclip so it will bind in one of the grooves against the firewall and then wrap a rubber band around it to hold it in place. It worked to get me to a hardware where I bought a couple of e-clips so I would also have a spare.



About the same time I also worked part-time for a bus company which operated GM ToroFlow diesels in school buses. These weren't sold by the factory as diesel school buses. My employer was a GMC dealership and also a bus operator. They ordered the GM chassis with air brakes, added a 200 amp alternator to handle the electrical load and had a school bus body installed. I drove part-time charter work. One of the buses I was frequently assigned developed a tendency to not start. We would jump start it on the lot but I had to be careful on the road. I learned to park on hills. I would nonchalantly load the passengers and when the road was clear release the air brake and when I got enough speed pop the clutch in 2nd and away we went. It didn't take much speed to get it to hit but 1st was too low, it tended to stop the roll. One time while doing a geological tour which took us into a quarry I had to turn it off on a slight uphill. Of course it wouldn't start. Reverse was also too low to start the engine. The group leader asked if he could help. I told him we only needed one or two miles per hour to get it started. He unloaded the group of high school students and everyone pushed. With all that horsepower pushing at the outside it got the engine to turn over and run. As they re-boarded the bus there was some chuckling (as high school kids have always done) so I asked what was funny. Turns out one of the young men was pushing right above where the exhaust comes out at the rear when the engine caught and released a cloud of smoke and soot. He was laughing about it too and I got him a cloth to help clean up. I think they said he disappeared briefly.



Same bus on another trip with two other buses to rural north central Wisconsin for a high school marching band competition over Labor Day had no problem starting, but I realized it was not charging. When we got everyone off for the events a couple of us went to try to get it fixed. Remember this is a custom setup done by my employer. Almost no one else is driving diesels in school buses so almost no one knows how to work on one. I got a truck repair place in Wausau, WI to at least look at it, but it being Labor Day they can't get the parts until after the weekend. At least he charged the battery while he looked into the problem. My big problem is that we have to return 150 miles or so that evening after the band competes. This is in the early 1970's so it is mostly two lane roads, not heavily traveled at that hour. Also, fortunately the weather was mild and I would not need to operate the heater fans, also once the ToroFlow was running it required no electricity so it would run even if the battery ran completely dead. Lights were my only real problem. I talked one of the other drivers into swapping his fully charged battery with mine just before we left (these batteries weighed almost 100 lbs). The bad one had enough left to restart his bus and of course it would continue to charge as we drove. Then I asked the other two to let me run in the middle position of the three buses as we returned. I turned off every electrical draw I could and once we were on the road and out of town I cut the headlights and ran with only marker lights. It also turned out to be around the full moon, so the moon was bright enough to see quite well. I turned the headlights on for the few times a vehicle approached and whenever I needed for safety. Since I had a bus a few hundred feet in front of me and another behind me their lights also helped me see to some extent.



More recently when the plastic handle on the hood release for my 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee broke off I used a vise grip clamped on the end of the cable to open the hood until I could replace the cable. I also used a vise grip to keep a self adjusting air brake from locking up a wheel on a tag axle on an over the road motor coach so I could get everyone home and get it fixed properly at the home terminal. Someone else mentioned a similar solution so I won't go into details.

 

[GHerrmann]

This happened a few monts ago. Was about 20mi. from home driving the CTD when it started smelling like hot oil. Stopped the truck to check it out. I had the well known problem of the transmission cooler line rubbing on the frame. Now this was no small leak, the fluid was squirting out like crazy.



So, got my small tool box out that has some basic tools and hardware in it. rounded up a small hose clamp. well thats a good start. Looking around I spotted the rubber weatherstriping of the bottom of my garage door I had tossed in the back of the truck just a couple of days ago. I cut a small piece of the rubber off and placed it between the cooler line and hose clamp and tightened it up. Started the truck, dropped it in gear, pulled up a few feet and let it idle in gear a bit. Got out and checked for leaks, not a drop!!!

I now heve cut this weatherstripping up and keep it in the tool box along with assorted clamps. I would recomend everyone keep some soft rubber and clamps in your truck tool box.

 

[sheamc]

Almost a Bootstrap

In 1998 I was Kuwait on rotation with my EOD unit. We were stationed at Camp Doha. Many units went out to the ranges(big open desert area) and trained for weeks on end. Whenever ordinance was found we were called to remove or destroy, whichever was safest for the situation. My team got a call one afternoon and we left out in our Humvee. The location was almost two hours out and no road went straight there. I was driving along a two track path at 40-50 when the steering wheel fell in my lap!! The brakes worked well. I got out and looked over what I had. The column was still mostly intact but two bolts and the ears they should have bolted to no longer were connected. With no spare bolts and a job to do we unpacked our response gear and took account. Our only real choice was a spool of 550 cord we kept on hand. I took one long strand and tied it to the outside mirror frame and then to the radio rack. Then I spider-webbed some under the dash to support it for the rest of the journey. We were able to continue on to our job and get things taked care of. The fix lasted through the two hour trip back through the desert at night going back a different way so as to get to pavement sooner(in case we needed assistance). The pictures below should show what we came up with. The next day the mechanics were impressed we hadn't destroyed it with that cobbled up mess.



Shea

 

[BHanna]

I was driving home in a downpour with a few hundred miles to go on a Sunday evening and my wiper motor gave out. No parts stores or shops open of course. I stopped and had some dinner to think about what to do. Best I could come up with was to get some rain-x at the gas station. As long as I was going at highway speed, I could actually see pretty well.

 

[TDRadmin]

And the winner is ... .

We have just printed all of the entries for review. The winner will be posted later today.



Thank you all.



Robin

TDR Admin

 

[TDRadmin]

Best Bootstrap Fixes

Posted for Robert Patton, Editor:



Creative on the road fixes. Thank you to all who responded. Your input goes hand in hand with an article scheduled for the February magazine titled, "X Tips for Use With Your Turbo Diesel Trucks. " (The X will be the number of tips included in the article, once completed. )



It is obvious that the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared" is great advice. As evidenced by your posts, wire, cable, zip ties, JBWeld, electrical tape and vice grips should be included in every Boonie Box tucked into every truck.



It was hard to select one winner, and I postponed making a decision as long as possible. But I can't wait any longer.



The winner is fest3er for his multiple examples of ingenuity. Keep an eye out in Issue 67 (February, 2010) for his tips as well as tips from others which were posted here.



We're also going to give out three runner-up awards of a free one-year subscription to WCaldwell for the great human interest story, to C. D. Day for his yarn-spinning, and ewcmr2 for telling us how to change a tire.



Thank you all!



Robert Patton

Editor, TDR