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Emergency "TIPS AND TRICKS" to get home

Reply #15 – April 13, 2009, 01:29:59 AM

He had an idea (was a long shot, but it worked..) that if we took out the trans bolts and the mains, and undid the clutch linkaeg, the crank and tranny would "see-saw" so that it would allow the front of the crank to hang down enough to let the piston (#1) come out. 
It did, but I didnt have a clear view, I was pushing up on the tail shaft to gain him clearance. my part in it was the tranny bolts, mount, starter, driveshaft and clutch linkage...he did all the hard shiznit.
I never would have thought it would work if I hadnt have been there. We basically took the crank and tranny and moved it down some and tilted it as far as it'd go.
It's definitely not the way to work on stuff, if a jack would've slipped...woulda mashed some:punchballs: lol
I called him a bit ago, and mentioned that night, he said it was the craziest, most ghetto way of getting it done, but his dad told him if he had to come after him one more time late at night cause "that piece of shiznit left him stranded" he was selling it for junk.
He also informed me that I lost 2 of his bellhousing bolts and did I need help on my Tbird!?

Back to topic:
I've had radiator hoses burst on me...took tire patches and hose clamps and duct tape for a temp fix to get home on.

On my '86 Mustang, I had to keep the hood "tied" down with a tail gate cable from a ford truck, I used big sheet metal screws and screwed the grommets down. Was really ugly, but kept the hood shut for 3 days until I was able to get a new front clip on it.

Some other craziness included using headlights from a Lincon Conti duct taped ino position for a coupla weeks on my '92 F-150 after hitting a kamikaze cow on a gravel road. (Kamicowze..?)
Looked...well, stupid, but it allowed me to get to work w/o getting tickets or running over more stuff.

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Emergency "TIPS AND TRICKS" to get home

Reply #16 – April 13, 2009, 05:51:07 AM

btw i've seen a lot of blown engines.. at the race track (oval) everyone sticks around for traffic to leave unless they have a 2 hour trip home.  but if a car is totaled it sticks around the longest usually while its stripped to be towed.  when someone says "The engine grenaded" its entirely possible.  i've seen oilpans that looked like they had been shot with a couple slugs and buckshot.  some have looked like the whole motor was shot with a 50 cal auto.  i've seen the right front combustion chamber, as well as the head blew off in a 15lb chunk.  when a motor drops a valve on a high compression engine around 6500-8000rpm makes a frag grenade out of the rotating assymbly.

when my trans cooler lines were ripped out, and this might be why it got me 20 miles home... but i rolled up some shop towels i use for leaning the car, and i just so happend to have a box of latex gloves that i use around oil and chemicals.  so after i rolled the shop towels i wrapped that in the latex gloves.  then rammed it in the holes with a screw driver.  they were gone when i got home, and its not a suprise.  i was having to rev the engine till i got a pull and would let it pull as far and as hard as it could.  i was basically running home as fast as i could with broken legs.  and yes that transmission lasted half a year with only a trans fluid and filter change and auxilary oil cooler..

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Emergency "TIPS AND TRICKS" to get home

Reply #17 – April 13, 2009, 04:37:31 PM

Cougarcragar I share your feelings on that stupid dogbone cable.

On my old Mustang, the first time the dogbone cable broke it left me stranded (I didn't know better).

The next time it broke, I was driving home from work, so I just shifted and did my best to force it into gear. I replaced it with a 1/4" bolt after that....held up for as long as I drove he car after that (a year or so).

The only time my Bird has actually left me stranded so far was just a couple weeks ago when then serpentine belt broke. I couldn't think of a creative fix for that one and I was still 20 miles from home.

Probably the biggest band-aid type fix I had to do- when I originally built the engine for my car, I had an oil cooler and remote filter mount on it, which I had a lot of problems with leaks on.

One night while working on it, I cracked the filter mount but didn't know it. Driving in to school the next day I noticed the oil pressure was low for some reason, and by the time I got to school I had almost zero oil pressure and couldn't find a place to park! Ended up parking it just as it was starting to tick.

I had to go out on my lunch break and pull the whole remote filter setup out of it, stick the filter directly on the engine, add the 2 quarts of oil I had in the car, and drive (slowly) to the closest place I could and get some more oil for it.

20,000+ miles later, it seems to be pretty much unaffected by that.

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