Oh No what do I do now.

[croixflats]

Nothing but a click by Steve Foss got me thinking of times where a vehicle failed me and put me in a bad spot mechanically.

Thought it would be interesting to hear some different situations that are a bit out of the norm.

I have 2 that come to mind.

First one: 1974 olds delta 88 going around corner battery shorts out on frame and smoke comes from under dash and I just about lose all steering. Remedy replace stering columb strap battery down.

Second:

Ignition tumblers fail in stearing columb of a 85 Scotsdale pickup so I can not turn keey to start, of course happens in the middle of no where. Remedy pull push rod out of stering columb and run wire to a push button to selanoid to get it started. I never replaced the the stering columb as I always thought it was neat to start the old beast with the push button.

[Mr.Seaguar]

Out on a tiny slough in SD. FIL leaves key turned in vehicle and battery is dead. We pull battery and put it in shack and turn heater on full blast. It was about 80* in the shack for 2 hours. Pickup started like a charm. Didnt even hesitate.

But I have the best luck with cars. Other than leaving lights on or getting stuck, nothing ever happens carwise.

[Steve Foss]

Good solutions in both cases. My '85 Silverado had the same issue with ignition tumblers a couple years ago. Luckily, I was in town at the time. I live in a small town where they won't tow your vehicle if it's parked at the side of the road just because it sits there a day or two.

I had an alternator bracket break on me when I was hunting up in Colorado a bunch of years ago. I lived up there at the time and worked for a gold mine at 10,000 feet. I was driving a '72 F250 Camper Special with a 390 and an automatic tranny, and was able to take some scrap No. 9 wire laying in the bed of the pickup, wrap it around the alternator, fix it to the sidewall and insert an aspen stick in the wire, twisting the stick to tighten the wire so there was enough tension on the alternator belt to charge the battery. I wedged the stick under the starter solenoid on the sidewall to keep the tension on.

I thought it would only have to last until I got back to town, but it ended up lasting for six months, which was how long it took me to be able to afford to have the alternator bracket welded. When you're poor in a small mining town in the Colorado Rockies, you are POOR.

[croixflats]

A stick and wire, classic. Great ingenuity and I can actually picture it.

[Steve Foss]

I'm not a Ford guy in general, but I do confess a certain fondness for placing the starter solenoid on the sidewall, where access was easy and a fellow could use a slip-lock pliers to bypass the solenoid if it failed.

And of course there was the handful of black pepper I threw in the radiator of that same vehicle to seal a few pinhole leaks in the radiator.

After that, I drove that truck for five years and never had a coolant leak/overheat issue the whole time.

Life was simpler then.

[MaskedMallard]

This incident of mine happened when I was working on one car, & parked too close with the other. I'm thinking some Gremlins got out of the one car & migrated into the other.

Well, I finished working on the project car, cleaned up & started to drive home. I got to the gas station, shut off the car (daily driver), filled it up, paid for the gas, & walked back out to start the daily driver. Turned the ignition & just got a massive "DSZSZSZSZ" noise. I pondered my options with the key on, saw that my voltage guage dropped to nothing & then came to life after about 30 seconds. This happened about 3 times, then my senses came about. I popped the hood, grabbed my jumper cables, hooked one end to the Battery & grounded out the other end of the engine.

The Vehicle started & I drove it back home, the 150 miles, replaced the battery grounding cable & I was good to go.

[crothmeier]

My tumblers failed on my pickup AFTER i started it. Was on the way from college back to the apartment, got there and wouldnt shut off. Had to pull the coil wire off and kill it that way, and unhook the battery.

[Whoaru99]

Lower ball joint/control arm broke on a early model Eagle Vision.

I walked home, about a 1/2 block, and called the tow truck.

Sold it the next day.

Pretty much fixed that problem permanently.