Roadside survival. Your tips?

I remember seeing in Red Dawn the truck overheats from blowing a radiator hose or something. The guys all take turns peeing in the radiator to fill it up. 
first- I imagine that would work, though the acidic nature of urine can't possibly be good for any system. So how much cred is there to this?

Second- what's y'all's roadside "make it home" repair tips? I've heard of an egg in the radiator, anyone care to confirm that one?  (Keep AAA out of this, there are areas where I love that have zero cell reception for 50miles or more)
 

The "egg in the radiator", as well as either black peppercorn or crushed corn chips, only works in non-pressurized cooling systems (think Model A or old tractors) as I recall.

My grandfather once melted the teeth off of the rear ring & pinion in his logging truck and threw it in 4WD and made it home on the front axle.

Also have seen a guy break the axle end off of a K5 Blazer, drum and all, so he chained a block of wood to the under side of the axle tube and made it home on paved back roads sliding the chunk of wood along under it.

Someone on here also had a great story about some stage rally guys who had a clutch start slipping. So they drilled a small hole in the bellhousing, then filled their washer bottle with Coca Cola and routed the washer hose up into the hole in the bellhousing. When the clutch would start to slip, they'd hit the washer button and spray Coca Cola up onto the clutch and it would grab again for a while.

_ said:

I remember seeing in Red Dawn the truck overheats from blowing a radiator hose or something. The guys all take turns peeing in the radiator to fill it up. 
first- I imagine that would work, though the acidic nature of urine can't possibly be good for any system. So how much cred is there to this?
 

Well, in an apocalyptic situation like what they portrayed in Red Dawn I imagine you wouldn't be worried about the long term affects on the cooling system.    A bigger question may be how much urine each guy could contribute...a truck's cooling system probably requires a couple gallons of water, so unless they all drank some Big Gulp soft drinks from the convenience store that morning they probably wouldn't be able to refill it.

Also read a pretty good one of a guy with a carbureted car that had the mechanical fuel pump die out in the middle of nowhere. He drained the washer bottle, siphoned some gasoline into the washer bottle using the washer hose, then aimed the washer hose down the carburetor throat. He would hit the washer switch and spray gas down the carburetor throat and it would run for a little while, then when it would stumble and start to stall, he'd hit the washer switch again. Idled the car down the road like that for a few miles (washer bottles usually hold a gallon) until he got to the next town.

Washer pumps, pretty useful little things

In reply to NickD :

"Fuel miles" lol. 

stuart in mn said:

_ said:

I remember seeing in Red Dawn the truck overheats from blowing a radiator hose or something. The guys all take turns peeing in the radiator to fill it up. 
first- I imagine that would work, though the acidic nature of urine can't possibly be good for any system. So how much cred is there to this?
 

Well, in an apocalyptic situation like what they portrayed in Red Dawn I imagine you wouldn't be worried about the long term affects on the cooling system.    A bigger question may be how much urine each guy could contribute...a truck's cooling system probably requires a couple gallons of water, so unless they all drank some Big Gulp soft drinks from the convenience store that morning they probably wouldn't be able to refill it.

 

Yeah, it's like some kinda weird man circle jerk into the radiator. Let's not read into the movie too much... it's the "idea" we are after. 
 

To tell my own, I once had the upper radiator hose pop on my prelude. When duct tape wouldn't hold it, we basically pulled off and waited for the car to cool down. Then start and drive a few more miles until the needle would start to peg. As a poor 16yr old hillbilly, it made for an interesting Friday night. Also, a LONG 30mi drive home. Changed the stuck thermostat when I got home. Drove like a champ. 

When I was in PA last fall, I went to dinner with my Miata and on the way there, the charging light started to flicker. All through dinner I was searching for solutions, and knowing my car's propensity to shake stuff loose, decided to check all my connections. Reach down to check the nut at the alternator and the ring terminal BREAKS OFF IN MY HAND. At 9pm on a Sunday night. Ten miles from my hotel and 250 miles from home. 

So I had a tiny vice grip in my tool kit that I used to clamp what was left of the cable to the stud on the alternator. I don't want the vice grip to bump the intake manifold, so I wrap the vice grip in a shop rag that I brought with me for checking the oil level. That won't stay put in a satisfactory manner, so I zip tie the rag to the vice grips making the vital electrical connection in my charging system. Limped it back to my hotel, then found a a Lowes the next morning and bought wire cutters and a ring terminal, stripped the wire with a pocket knife and then crimped the ring terminal on. 

In reply to NickD :

Macguyver

_ said:

Roadside survival. Your tips?

Don't buy a Volkswagen

4 rolls of electrical tape is far superior to 1 roll of duct tape.

I heard one about a guy with some old tiny European roadster. The throttle linkage randomly fell to pieces because old tiny European roadster. They guy was able to take what was left of the linkage and set it up so that the throttle was at a constant 2/3rds. So he would start it up and essentially launch it, and get going down the road going through the gears. Then, once it got about 10mph over the speed limit, he would cut the ignition switch and put it in neutral and coast until he was doing about thirty, then turn the ignition on and put the transmission back in gear and light the engine off. He'd let the car get up above the speed limit and then start the cycle all over. Traveled something like triple digit mileage home like that.

The ignition switch went bad in my GTV6 and I had to drive an hour holding the key in just the right spot for it to stay running.  What made it interesting is that being a stick I really needed 3 or 4 hands.

So constant work on my MR2 strained my battery terminals, and after a night where I lost power because my alternator plug fell out the next day one of the terminals literally shattered on the battery peg. I wasn't far from home AND at a fire station, but damnit it's my car and I ain't letting someone else touch or fix it- testosterone calling the shots, baby!

Open crappy tool kit, grab vice grip pliers and use them to stabilize the remains of the ring terminal to the battery plug. I'm not getting good contact and I've still got some spaces between the teeth, ring and plug so I search around in the parking lot- I find a small handful of bits of nail or paperclips. I wash them with a flat coke in my hand, rinse with water from a saline flush, and I jam them into the teeth of the pliers. It worked, and let me drive the 5 miles to a parts store where I bought a new terminal for 4 bucks whereupon I crimped the wires with a rock in their parking lot.

I have fixed a hole in heater hose by splicing in a deep socket. I have a friend that did the same thing with a radiator hose by using his hacksaw on a roadside chain link fence top post to aquire a few inches of splice.

Matthew

In reply to matthewmcl :

That fence idea ain't bad

Maybe 30 tears ago my dad had a Renault Encore that ended up in Istanbul, Turkey (long story). He figured it would be the same as the Euro Renault 11, which is plentiful in Turkey. Turned out the Encore and 11 had little in common, so parts were hard to find.

One day, we got stranded with a dead fuel pump in the middle of nowhere on a mountain road between two villages. Got a tractor tow to the one village where the local mechanic pulled the pump ... but he didn't have a replacement. For that we needed to go to the other village, but the tractor guy wasn't willing to tow us.

So, the mechanic filled a 1.5L water bottle with gasoline, drilled a hole into the cap, climbed up onto the fender, and dribbled gas down into the carb controlling flow with his thumb. We drove that way (with the hood open and the guy perched on the fender) for 15 km down a dirt road until we reached the other village.

There, he found another fuel pump, cut-and-pasted the two together, and got us back on the road.

Duke said:

4 rolls of electrical tape is far superior to 1 roll of duct tape.

 

Show your work. Lol. 

Had a blown rear brake line in my 93 Buick Century wagon. Removed old line at master cylinder, inserted brass screw into the fitting with threaded end sticking out where the line would be and head where the flared end would be and drove it home. 

When you are trying to get home on a leaky cooling system, remember to leave the rad cap loose.  No pressure means water stays in longer.

Good one that I saw my brother-in-law do: Blew a rear brake line on their car. He unthreaded that brake line from the EBCM, then inserted the end of a small nail into the line, then rethreaded it into the EBCM. The head of the nail sealed off the fluid from going into the line, so it still had a pedal and wouldn't lose fluid every time you worked the brakes. 

I carry a basic tool kit and a Spot. If one won't get me home the other will let my wife or son know where I am to come get me. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

haha. Some days it feels like y'all trying to troll me. 

i think it was the magazine project 911 that lost the shift linkage and Per got home by duct-taping a combination wrench in place of the missing piece.

It's not really a heroic fix at all, but my brother in law's subaru blew a slave line while on a skiing vacation 3 hours away from home in a blizzard.  With no clutch, we used some foam egg crate mattress toppers and ducttape on his rear and my front bumpers.  I drove his car and he stayed behind me in mine the entire ride home, push-starting it in gear as needed and rev match shifting the entire ride home.  We definitely got some strange looks in traffic, but we got it home to replace the line in a garage and not in a dirt parking lot in the middle of a snowstorm.