Epic 'get you home' breakdown bodges

Just been out in my mk1 golf with my 4 year old daughter, and the dreaded 'clutch cable mount pulling through the bulkhead' scenario reared its ugly head, leaving me with a three inch square hole in the bulkhead and no clutch pedal. These things never happen when im on my own, only ever with the kids! lol
After some headscratching, and over the noise of my daughter asking if we were staying there forever, I eventually pressed into service a metal pattress box with one of the cable knockouts pushed out.....fed the end of the cable through and pushed the rubber mount into the hole, and the rest of the box bridged the hole in the bulkhead.....sorted! 20 minutes later im sat at home with a cuppa typing this and in a quarter of the time the AA take to say 'where can we tow you to sir?'

so, what A-Team style bodgery have you all done to avoid a ride on the big yellow taxi? and did it get you home?

 

Did that with the throttle cable on an xr2 once.....made for an interesting time at roundabouts lol

 

I recently discovered a tinware screw is the same thread as the air bypass screw in a Weber twin 40 IDF which, while it doens't make the engine run particularly smoothly, does stop your engine bay filling up petrol vapour

 

My old man's mk1 escort broke down on the way to Cambridge once just after a Mway junction, points had gone, he repaired them with an old paper clip found in the rear foot well, reversed 400yds back to the junction & exited the Mway to buy some new ones at the nearest garage. As he was so flustered at reversing on the Mway he went the wrong way round the roundabout at the end of the slip road narrowly missing a six wheeler - needless to say he was glared at by the truck driver!

 

If the bit of wire rusts through and that little grubscrew falls out of your rear gear linkage leaving you with no gears, take one of the bolts out that holds the dashboard in at the sides and file it to a bit of a point, it'll go in and get you home

 

Joined a load of cable ties together to make a temp fan belt on the passat

 

Radiator fan switched packed up on the T25, took the plug off and bridged it with a paperclip. Pop the end fuse out at the end of the journey to turn the fan off. Took a while to warm up but drove around like that for about 6 months a while back

 

Had an old peogot before,had to carry a big bar to pull the calipers off the discs through the rim,they kept on dragging all the time,when it was time to scrap her i blew the engine outside the scrappy! Haha! Bang smoke...

 

Who was it that used a sponge as an accelerator hinge?

 

A friend of mine broke the indicator stalk on his beetle and figuring right was more important than left... took the left hand bulbs out and indicated right by pulling out the hazard switch

 

Mk 1 1600 XL Capri back in 1981, the drivers side wiper spindle stripped and we came down from Bristol to Plymouth in a snow storm, with me in the passenger seat with the window open pulling a bit of string attached to the wiper which had a bungee on it attached to the drivers wing mirror. I pulled and it sprang back (sort of) giving about 6 or 7 inches of clear screen for the driver to look through!

 

many years ago in a bay panel ,it was a length of string out of the drivers window and tied to the throttle linkage after the accelerator cable snapped,I just had to be careful not to tug it to hard when turning left

 

I had an automatic renault Fuego and the black box controlling the gear changes stopped working.
The renault garage wanted millions of pounds for a new black box but one of the mechanics explained that all it did was sense gearbox oil pressure and change gear based on that.
I got a three position dashboard switch and wired it from the gearbox socket up and out the bonnet, black taped it to the wing and into the car via the passenger window. I then black taped the switch to the top of the gear selector in the car.
I just needed to select D to get the car moving and then whenever I wanted I changed gear just by switching the switch.
I drove about like that for over 6 months. It was so cool I considered fitting it properly.

 

A 1990 1.3 ford escort. The throttle linkage in the carb broke so couldn't even pull the accelerator cable to make it go. Wedged a bit of card in the butterfly at about 3500 revs and drove 30 miles home dropping the revs at the lights and in traffic by flicking the ignition on/off and about 40 in 4th.

 

Driving home with the engine at a constant "thrash the boobies off it, thousand" revs, to avoid the carb overflowing and weeing petrol over the engine!

 

So Keanu Reeves played you in 'Speed', the hollywood version then? lol

 

He wishes. I let Blanch from the Golden Girls do it. We're very similar facially