What were your best "Macgyver fixes"?

[NoTrespassing]

I was having a conversation about emergency transportation fixes the other day and was wondering what other Macgyver fixes others had come up with. I will relate two of mine.

In high school a buddy and I were on a road trip in my early 70's Mercury Comet and the throttle cable broke right inside the firewall. The only tool in the car was a pair of needle nosed pliers. I laid on the floor pulling the cable as by friend drove the car and relayed instructions. It was pretty hilarious and we managed to make it the 10 miles home that way. After finding out is was a dealer part and would take 2 weeks to arrive, I pulled a piece of bailing twine though the firewall and tied a stick to it. I drove it back and forth to school that way for 2 weeks until the cable arrived.

Another quick story about a Macgyver fix; While trying to back out of a bar parking parking lot in my 71 Bronco, the clutch pedal made a loud bang and went to the floor board. Upon inspection I realized the pin holding the linkage to the pedal was gone. I couldn't find the pin or cotter key so I took my key ring apart and looped it through both holes in the linkage and pedal and drove it home.

OK, what crazy Macgyver stories do you all have?

Kevin

 

[WranglerX]

I have VW Dune Buggy, Meyers Manx style... Throttle cable broke one day... So I pulled it out of tube in chassis, tied it to carb linkage and ran it forward, uses left hand (over shoulder) to operate throttle and right to steer and shift gears....

Real fear was if I left it beside road and hiked into town to get parts it would not be there when I got back...

Dale

 

[Inspector507]

I too had a throttle cable break on me. Ended up taking my shoelaces off, tying them together. Ran one end through the firewall and tied it to throttle linkage. The other end I pulled on to make it go. That was scary.

 

[Navvet]

Had an alternator belt break (back in the 70's) while out on a date, convinced her to give up her pantyhose to use as a temp fix. Got us through the night,

 

[not2old]

Can't call this a MacGyver fix as it happened in the 60's before he was around. Driving a 62 Volvo, a wire on the generator broke off and it quit charging. While trying to reattach it, the stud was turning and I knew that wasn't good so I installed a small alligator clip on the wire and and used that to reattach it. Drove like that for several years until the generator needed other work. It would fall off occasionally and I would just stop the put it back on.

 

[Jstpssng]

I was headed into the woods with my '84 F150 when it suddenly quit. Before somebody came along to give me a ride I determined that the distributer wasn't turning, so I pulled it out and found that the roll pin holding the gear to the shaft had worn through.
There was no auto parts or hardware store nearby so I got hold of a nail that was just the right size, rounded it over on each end and put it back together. That nail was still in place when I sold the truck.

 

[jmc]

It was the original release of Mash in Ft Wayne, back when you wore a coat/tie to see a movie. Front lot was full so we parked my 68 Camaro behind the theater where it was darker and less traffic. Afterward, I did not even get out of the parking space before I heard and felt the most awful racket in the rear.... Anybody?



Turns out, someone had tried stealing my mags- removed 4 lug-nuts on the first wheel but gave up on the locking lug-nut. (Must have been his first rodeo) Jacked it up, removed one lug-nut each from the other three wheels, and limped home with 4 lugs per wheel.

Probably wore those same clothes to church in the morning.

 

[PandDLong]

All of the throttle cable breaks reminded me of my non-Mcyver fix for that problem. I turned up the idle on my 4x4 with a standard transmission and proceeded to travel the 4 miles home at a slow speed. There was a long steep hill enroute and I had to drop it into low range. I was traveling at the speed of a slow jog, so I jumped out and pretended to be pushing it up the hill. Got a lot of looks of amazement as cars drove by.

 

[joecoin]

I had a 1995 full size Chevy van with a wheelchair lift. The motor for the lift went bad and a replacement was $1000.

I took a spark plug socket on a cordless drill and spun the motor shaft up and down. I had to build up the shaft with duct tape, so that's a true McGyver.

Ran it that way for several months.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Is there a first prize gift?
In 1982 I bought a new VW diesel rabbit pickup truck. Way away from home the fuel filter sprang a major leak and it shut off.
Late at night, nothing around except wife and I passed a Wendy's and a convenience store. The Wendy's was closing but I went around back and a kitchen worker gave a 5 gallon pickle bucket. Across road at convenience store I bought 5 gallons of kerosene. I put this in bed of truck, then removed the windshield washer hoses, and emptied the reservoir. I filled it with kerosene and all that tubing was enough to run from bucket to washer pump, out to injector pump. It worked. I would drive along, when it stumbled I ran washer pump. It made it all the way home, the truck cut off in driveway. The bucket was completely empty but it got us home.