Emergency roadside repairs.

While visiting cousins in Kansas back in the mid-70s, we drove 15 miles south to check on cattle after an all night thunderstorm. 1971 Ford pickup left us stranded with a bad fuel pump. We were unable to reach the base station with the 2 way radio. As luck would have it, no tool were in the truck.

Left to our only resources, a quart beer bottle and a 30-06 rifle cartridge, we got the truck and the three of us back home safe!

Thank heavens for push on hose fittings. First, pull fuel line off of the pump, fill beer bottle with gas and then use rifle round to plug the line. Disconnected the windshield washer line going to the squirt nozzles and emptied the washer reservoir.

Next step was to pull the fuel supply line off the carburetor and push on the line from the washer reservoir. Now fill the windshield washer with gasoline from the beer bottle and press the windshield washer switch to fill the carburetor.

Cranked right up and just pressed the washer switch frequently to keep engine running. Had to refill the washer reservoir a couple more times, but made it back in less than a half an hour. Not many vehicles made that you could do that to and make it home, counting old and newer.

Beagle

Got a boat home the same way once when the fuel tank sprung a leak. Had a spare can of gas with us, so we emptied a beer bottle (a job which the friend who was with me had considerable expertise in doing), poured gas into that, pulled the line off the tank and poured from the bottle into that, until the carburetor started leaking, then kept repeating while putting the engine along while the other guy emptied another beer bottle and swapped them out to keep one full of fuel from the main can. Wasn't the fastest way of doing it, but it beat rowing, and we managed to keep it from stalling for the whole way back to the dock.

I was once driving across New Mexico in a '57 Mercury when it developed an engine miss. I pulled into a roadside monument, did a bit of trouble shooting, and found the problem to be a bent pushrod. I had recently had the Lincoln/Mercury dealer in Albuquerque set the tappets, and they must have set one too tight.

The roadside monument had a perfectly flat marble top, so I took a hammer and tapped on the pushrod until it rolled smoothly across the monument with no wobble. I replaced it, set the tappet, and went on my way.

When I got rid of the car seven years later, that pushrod was still doing what it was supposed to.

I did something like that to an MG midget. I used a lawn mower gas tank and set it up above the carb and used the motorcycle I was riding to refill the tank a few times so my friend could get home. The fuel line right before the pump had broken so the pump could not pump the fuel to the carb

Went out on Broken Bow Lake in Oklahoma early one morning in a borrowed boat.

It had a little off brand outboard motor, the kind with the tank on top of the motor.

Started smelling gas, looked back and gas was dripping from a split molded hose from the tank to the carb.

I eased the rotten line off, held the split closed and wrapped mono filament fishing line around the line, holding the split together.

Put it back on, no leak!

I doubt if the owner ever replaced it!

Are you saying that you had an "open container" in the vehicle!!?

Had a cdi box on a snowmobile fall off right onto to spinning brake rotor cut the wires real close to the box was able to splice all but one it was to close to the box, what to do? looked at my wifes ear ring which had a small wire I took it and stuck into the short wire and connected the wire to the ear ring and dove ten miles home

Necessity is the mother of invention!

Brilliant!

When I was living in St. George UT in the 90's I would go back to SD to help out my brother with spring planting and fall harvest. He let me take his diesel Isuzu P'up back for the summer one year. I used it in my handyman business and also pulled my Jetski to the local reservoir to cool off when it got blistering hot. One day after cooling off on the jetski I went to get the keys out of my pocket and they were gone. Fortunately the back slider on the truck wasn't latched, so I was able to get in. I was able to unplug the ignition harness and found a piece of baling wire (of course), and thru trial and error finally found the right combination of jumpers to get and keep it running. Used those wires for a week until a set of spare keys were sent from SD. Can't do that today either!

Nice work-arounds, creative thinking. The original post about the 1971 Ford reminded me of driving from Kansas back to Maryland in the mid-80s in a worn-out '74 F100. Very low compression, but I had to somehow make it 1800 miles or so. Truck would start with some effort, but would stall when I put the auto trans into gear. Just didn't want to go. I got under the truck, disconnected the shifter linkage at the transmission, left the column shifter in park so the truck would start, then started it in "Drive" position at the transmission to get a rolling start. My stops weren't very long for the rest of the trip, not much sleep either. Made it home, parked the truck and it never fired up again. Ended up replacing the engine.

Probably was an Elgin outboard motor. gobble

Eagle Dats GOOD...

Lol, I had an 85 f150 with 300-6 in it that died on me on the road. Found the rotor wasn't turning. I had 1 wrench in the truck that just happened to fit the clamp on the distributor. I took the distributor off and found the roll pin through the gear was broke off. I had nothing in the truck, but found an old dinner fork in the ditch. So I broke off one tine and used that for a pin. Made it home fine. Everything was so worn out on that that I ended up changing the distributor out for an older one with points in it. Ran great after that.

I got married back in '75 and our honeymoon took us through the Colorado Rockies. Got into New Mexico on Highway '666' and my '68 Mustang quit running. I had Thermoking's new electronic ignition in place but I also had the old points/condenser in the trunk. Yep, right there in the middle of the Navajo Reservation I switched the failed Thermotronic system for the old set of points. No way to gap OR time it but that Ford started right up (impressing new Wife) and we went on our way. BTW, I still have that Mustang. There doesn't seem to be a wear out to it.

(quoted from post at 20:30:42 03/01/18) Are you saying that you had an "open container" in the vehicle!!?

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I appreciate the humor! But in the 70s it was not illegal to have (or even consume) open 3.2 beer on the highways or other roadways in Kansas. 3.2 beer (called "grocery store beer") was not considered to be alcohol, and I knew many guys who openly drove with open quarts of Coors much of the time. Now strong beer (called "liquor store beer") was a different matter.