Post Your Strange Trail fixes That Work!

[supersize75k5]

1) broke a centering pin...loosened up u-bolts, then used two come alongs to recenter the axle and hold it in place, cranked down the u-bolts and continued wheelin


2) soap bar for a hole in a gas tank...never tried this one

 

[Hossbaby50]

Using 3 batteries for welding is the key if you are welding on anything heavy like axle tubes, knuckles, etc. 2 batteries is good but 3 batteries is better. I usually carry 3/16" 6013 rod in my truck just for this reason. It has worked for several people I know to get them home (ask 70Jimmy ).

My welding instructor told me to run 3/16" rod you need to have about 30 volts to get good burn so 2 batteries aren't the best bet unless you are using thinner rod like 1/8" rod.

Harley

 

[tRustyK5]

A little late, but finally stickied.

Rene

 

[82355]

If you snap an axle shaft in a locked 12 bolt, and drop onto the backing plate, strap a log to the leaf spring and drive out. Like this guy did down at Tuttle. I have more pictures of this.

Martin

 

[74kay5]

My buddy used to have a Yota and he got a small leak in the radiator while offroading. He pulled a banana peal from the back of the truck bed and smashed it up against the hole and it began to melt over it as the truck idled. I have no idea how the hell he came up with that but he actually drove the rest of the trail, and back home, and even refused to do a proper fix for a while after that.

 

[70jimmy]

Yep Hossbaby50 and everybody else on the run saved my bacon on Old Chinaman's Gulch. The Steering arm which was welded (Bad JUJU) broke loose from the knuckle. 3 batteries and a wheeling trip back to a tow rig and Hossbaby using 3 batteries after cleaning the parts up with an angle grinder run off of B to C's rig equipped with a power inverter welded the steering arm back on, I wheeled it back off the trail then drove it about 200 miles home.

It was later learned that this must have fried Fred2mihi's battery as it needed replaced after the run.

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170248&highlight=ocg

 

[chriskayer]

well sorry I don't have any pics, you kinda need to see this to appreciate it. After tearing off three links on the front end of my buddys blazer. We decided in order to get it down to where the tow could pick us up we would wrap every single strap/tiedown/rope we had around the joints where the links connect to the axles. It ended up working pretty good. Something to consider when you think your hopes of getting home that night are shot.

 

[imiceman44]

My experince with batteries as welders is limited..but I didn't find amperage control a problem..just pull the rod away ,and let the weld cool if its getting too hot!..I had no troubles,in fact,the batteries weakened so fast I hardly got what I was welding finished before they were about dead!...

Another "getcha home" trick is to use a pair of panty hose as a fan belt!--getting your girlfriend or wife to remove them is the hardest part!..tie them tight around the pulleys,and keep the revs below 2500 rpm,and you'll get home OK..

I've used a peice of tailpipe to splice a ruptured radiator hose up with 2 hose clamps once,when it blew miles from home!--and one time when a heater hose popped,I used a tree branch to plug it up so I could get home!..

Also used a peice of my radio antenna as a temporary gas line,when a rubber fuel line rubbed a hole in itself on the air cleaner!...my friend used a ball point pen(with the "guts" removed!) when his truck had a similar dilema!

Wire Ties make decent emergency hose clamps--I try to keep some and a roll of duct tape with me wherever I go!..but REAL clamps are much better,and dont cost much...

I used a couple of muffler clamps to put my "rag joint" on the steering shaft back together on one truck I had,when it broke on a snowy sunday--got me the 3 miles home,but I wouldn't reccomend this for on road use!--it fell apart again just as I turned into my driveway!..

When my rag joint broke I used bailing wire, just make a lose web from one side to the other at least 8-10 layers, if you make it tight they will break when you turn, if you make them lose they will flex like the rag joint.
Also when that happened it happened because the steering box broke off the frame and fell out, I used a couple of 2" wide ratchet straps around the box to the other side frame rail, started to drive then went back and tightened some more, and kept tightening every few miles until it stayed tight, I drove it from the Rubicon trail out and all the way to Sacramento, then about a week until I had time to fix the frame.

 

[imiceman44]

OK anyone else how about a broke spring?? Tire tricks there has to be more "hillbilly" fixes.

depends where the spring broke.
if the main leaf broke , we used a few chains to keep the axle located, one from the back and one from the front, and then ratchet strapped a spare shaft to the spring. a log could do if you have no long steel pieces around.

 

[down4thakrown]

Alot of electrical tape wraped tight around small hole in radiator hose is a good fix...
For a small hole or tear in a tread of tire take chewed gum and a screw or two to slow down the leak....
Front wheel drive will get you home...unless front is locked then atleast it will get you to road side.....
if ignition module thats mounted to colume...remember purple wire is starter and i think irc pink wire is ignition......? but if anything you can run wire straight from batt to ignition....

 

[Speedo]

I was going out hunting and when I arrived in camp a friends rig had a power steering pressure hose failure, it had ruptured close to the crimped fitting at the box. I used a hacksaw to cut the crimp collar off the fitting and cut the hose past the rupture. The remaining hose was long enough to slide over the fitting. I carry cable clamps with me but nothing large enough to fit over the pressure hose without skiving. After skiving the hose I put the cable clamp on the hose and the fix lasted the rest of the season and back to the trailhead without leaking a drop.

Gus

 

[himdarling44]

Used a piece of garden hose and two clamps to fix a leaky transmission line.

 

[DR]

this might be a given but I recently got a hole poked on my radiator about two hours from pavement. It was only one row so I just reached in with a pare of needle nose pliars and smashed the row closed on both sides of the hole. Kinda grabbed and ripped in two then smashed and rolled the ends closed. It still leaked a little but not bad enough to park me.

 

[dbreid]

Distributor Rotor Fix

Here's a paste of a thread I made about my favorite Trail fix a while ago. The original post is here:

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237650

________________
All,
I just got back from a trip to the Shaver Lake area in California with three of my friends with Toyotas, and I have a good story of a trail fix to relate.

We were doing the Coyote Lake trail, which was pretty fun. It was a nice day, and we were on our way back (it is an out and back trail). I was following my friend Nate in his half tubed Toyota, and he went over an obstacle with two boulders set up with kind of a "v" space between them and a dropoff after it. I had gone through this the other way already, so I was confident of making it, even if I scraped it. I didn't exactly get my drivers tire where I wanted it, and it slid a little on the rock, because of the soft silty gravel on top. Either way, it was somewhat driever error, and I came down off the obstacle with my rockers on either rock (no big deal) and I sort of landed hard forward and down.

The truck immediately died. I was a little embarassed, because I normally don't stall the truck, but it wouldn't fire again when I tried. I jumped out, popped the hood, and sprayed a little starting fluid in to see if it would catch. No love. Then I took a closer look, because I figured something else had to be wrong, and we noticed that the cap on the distributor was half popped off!!! Turns out that in coming down off the obstacle a little hard, I must have simultaneously pushed the cab forward and the engine back, and the firewall bumped the cap off in the back!

Holy crap!

I took the cap off, and almost cired. The rotor itself was broken into 5 parts...

1.) The main plastic part
2.) The little plastic "ear" that is normally part of the plastic rotor.
3.) The long, bent shiny part that touches the center of the cap.
4.) The bent black metal piece that conducts to the 8 points on the cap.
5.) The little insulator (which we never found).

I fished them all out, and we set about fashioning the following trail fix! Now, before the pictures, I want to be clear that this was by no means all my doing. I had help from my friend Nate (he had epoxy, and was the gluing mastermind, and the one who thought we should try to fix it in the first place!), and my friend John (who collaborated with me to drill holes - he had the tiny drillbits and the good idea!). Between the four of us (me, John, Tom, and Nate), we fashioned what you see below. It took a little while, because we wanted the epoxy to set a little, and we worked slowly and carefully.

Note the epoxy (white) the screws we used to hold the metal straps in place, the zip tie around the whole thing to help the epoxy cure correctly, and the screw to hold the zip tie from slipping. We also used pieces of zip ties to "buttress" the break, and wrapped electrical tape around the phillips head screws before we installed it in the distributor.

Anyway, we installed it, and after a couple mminutes of taking bets, IT ACTUALLY STARTED AND RAN!! We were shocked! It didn't run really all that well, to tell you the truth, but it ran! It idled just about perfectly, but as soon as you gave it power, and the RPM's started to rise under load, it would begin to miss, and backfire.

I drove it out of the trail (about an hour or more on "real" trail) then onto about 6 miles of dirt road type trails, and then 1.5 miles on the road, and then another miles down a dirt road to the campsite. The trail itself was tough, because I had to sort of play with the clutch a lot to keep it running and getting power. As soon as I throttled up, it would choke and backfire, but without the gas, it was hard to use the right gear. I would up driving a lot of the trail with the tranny in second, and the transfer case (Lomax 205) in low. The hardest part was on the pavement. I couldn't get it over about 18mph up those steep grades, and I wound up driving it in first (transfer case in HI) with the pedal halfway down, just kinda lurching along on the few strokes of the random piston that would fire correctly. The backfires were semi-frightening, and my girlfriend (who was awesome and patient through all of this foolishness) rode much of the way with her fingers in her ears.

I hitched a ride with Tom to Napa in the morning and I bought a new rotor, cap, wires and plugs, and redid them all, and we were back on the trail for real!

I'd like to thank my friends for their help. Without good friends with creative minds and skills, it would have been a long, long walk to Napa after sleeping in the truck.

Oh, and lastly, I am doing new body mounts and Engine mounts before the next trip.

-Dan
_________________________________

Update: I did replace the motor mounts, the crossmember, etc. All fixed up correctly now! And I also always carry a spare cap and rotor...

 

[moneypit_K5]

how about when you rip your steering box off the frame. I used a come along to winch it down to the other side of the frame and keep wheeling...

severed fuel line?? hollow ink pen tube works well as a bridge.

I threw a driveline in a pickup once and had a burb driveline out there. u joint was too small on the axle side, so I shimmed it out with two nickles.

ripped my transfer case off my transmission, used a come along to keep it together till we got to road.

Once we ripped both knuckles off a 10 bolt front, so it had no tires on the front, but the truck had a winch. we backed another truck to it and winched it up close on the bumper and towed it out.

Ahhh come alongs are good.

 

[white trash]

dixie cup over the output shaft with duct tape. drove 35 miles home in front wheel drive.

Random wire off the side of the construction site rigged up to the throttle bracket. very fun drive home when you have to pull the gas peedal, shift and steer with the same hand... (had my beer in the other)

tree branch, and 100plus zipties. makes for a very very very temporary driveshaft. (i made it 3/4 of a mile before the limb gave up)

 

[Burbdood 74]

I was backing off of a fishing access trail one night about 2 or 3 in the a.m. when I backed right into a rock in the trail. The damn rock was big enough to put a 1" crack in my transfer case, (NP 208). My friend and I just happened to have some bubble gum with us. We looked at the little dribble of ATF coming out of it and then we started chewing and chomping on the gum. After we chewed about 5 or 6 pieces, I crawled underneath and smeared the gum over the crack and it held up until I got home.

The sad thing is, I had to practically chisel the gum off of the oily case 2 days later so you can imagine what it does to your teeth.

 

[CHEVYDADDY]

I just got this over the weekend from a guy while I was having coffee during a break from heavy fog. I did check this and it seems like it is true!

If your 1982- 1995 Chevy/GMC Truck has the check engine come light come on. Here is to you how to figure out what your truck is telling you. It isn’t hard and only will require a piece of paper, a paper clip and a pen. Yes, it is that simple. Ready? Let’s begin.

On every vehicle you have a diagnostic port underneath the steering wheel column. If you get down you will see little pins sticking out of them, it is almost as though something is meant to slide on. Well there is such a tool but you left yours at home. Make sure your truck is off with key out of ignition. Take the paper clip and open it up. Make the paper clip into the shape of a U with a quarter inch separating the ends apart. While looking at the Diagnostic port, you will see some openings all the way across the top and bottom. The TOP row all the way to the RIGHT. We will use the TOP RIGHT TWO OPENINGS (sorry for the large print, I just want to make sure some people insert the paper clip into the correct holes).

Insert one side of the paper clip into the hole to the top and to the farthest right. The other paper clip should be inserted to the hole directly to the left. So it would be the second to the right. Now, Sit in your trucks seat and get your pen and paper. Be ready to write some numbers. Only do this next step when you are ready. You might want to get a friend to read the code while you write them down. The code will come out like Morse code in a way.

After turning the key the check engine light will Blink "1-2" When I tell you a number, I mean it will blink as so. For 1-2 (which is the beginning code, it is just letting you know that the computer is working and the trouble codes are being brought up) it will blink like this

" 1 " " 1-1" <---12. see it? Now if you were to have a trouble code of....
" 1-1-1-"____"1-1-1-1-1"____________ that would be a trouble code of 35. Get it? Then it will pause for a bit longer and throw out "1-1-1-"____"1-1-1-1-1"_____________. Easy eh!

Here is a list to a few web pages that have GM Trouble Codes.
http://www.troublecodes.net/GM/
http://www.tradervar.com/GM_Codes.htm
*** I would print a sheet and keep in your glove box or inside your tool box taped to lid.***
Once you get the codes, Unhook the battery for about a minute, and then hook it up to get the computer back online. If any new codes appear, the computer will remember it. Now you can fix it and get going again.

A paper clip is the cool way to do it but most automotive stores have a dummy key that fits in this spot also small and thin so easy to keep in the glove box or tape to the bottom of the switch its self.

Also really the same little clip or key works on ANY OB1 reader. The Ob1 reader it a rectangle as the OB2 is round on the coners and a bit smaller then the OB1.

 

[GMC1977]

I used monkey snot (weatherstrip adhesive) to hold my rotor cap together. Held up til i got to the Orielys parking lot, about 15 miles from where i was. had to sit for an hour to wait for the glue to dry. I had my transfer case skidplate fall off in the mud, took two hours to find then held it on with about 15 zipties i found in my buddies glovebox. worked til i got home. Plenty of other ones. Some too embarrasing to ever speak of again.

 

[mudrunnr]

dead battery plus chainsaw equals homeward bound...

I read about this as a kid.then finally i got to put it to practice...i started my truck with a chainsaw!!! my girlfriend thot i lost my mind.we were out gettin wood and usin the wench and ran the battery down and we were high on the mountain with no way out but to walk and i remembered what i read when i was a teenager and took the blade off the saw and the belt off the alternater and connected the belt to the drive gear for the chain and spun the thing till it charged the battery enough to start the truck! my girlfriend was amazed and i was glad we didnt have to walk down the mountain.--------p.s. make sure the key is in the running position before you spin the alternater