Funny story. Got a call today from an OnRamp single-mom client stranded because the shift cable on the Toyota Sienna we gave her broke (common failure) and she was stuck in reverse. The good news is that when a cable breaks you can actually shift the transaxle manually by grabbing the shift lever on the front of the transmission. Only problem is that it's just inches from the front cylinder bank exhaust manifold, so it was crazy hot since she'd been driving for a while when this happened. Way too hot to grab by hand. Fortunately, I happened to be out in my '85 911, and while it is not usually the best car from which to do emergency roadside assistance, it turns out that the fan belt wrench in an air-cooled 911 is the PERFECT size and shape to manually shift a minivan transaxle! I shifted the van into drive and got it to a local mechanic without a tow bill.
So, I suppose the moral is to keep those old 911's and their odd tool pouches out on the road. Who knows what you can fix in a pinch!
