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Post Your Strange Trail fixes That Work!

Gas tank leak:
Use an ordinary bar of soap rubbed generously over the spot of the leak.

How about posting any you have used to get you out of the rough and back to where you can fix it right. This might make a good sticky thread also.

Not sure if this qualifies as a trail rated fix,but when my diesel pickup's gas tank decided to start leaking recently,I tried various products to seal it without much success..................I read a long time ago in an old book my dad gave me about car repair that bar soap isn't easily dissolved by gas or diesel,and makes a good temporary stop leak for fuel tank leaks...so I tried rubbing some into the leak..it slowed the constant drip,drip,drip,into an ocasional drip about once every 30 seconds or so...it helped,but wasn't a complete cure--the next day though,it was dripping more slowly...the soap had congealed and was working better..............................................................................................................................................................................................................When I told a friend about my tank leaking,he said "stick a magnet on the leaky spot"...I had done that before on a vehicle with a rusty gas tank that kept clogging fuel filters,it keeps the rust in one spot,and keeps it from being sucked into the fuel inlet and sent on to the filter ....he said "the leak was probably due to water and rust in your tank--putting the magnet there will attract all the silty red rust in the tank,and make it "clot" and at least slow the leak down some...............................................................................................................I got a junk speaker and pried the magnet off it,a good sized one off a subwoofer that fried I had ,and I stuck it on the tank at the leaky area...drove the truck back and forth in the yard to get the fuel sloshing around,and sure enough,it now barely weeps enough to dampen the bottom of the tank....might not last long,but its better than watching 4 buck a gallon fuel getting wasted,dripping on the ground and polluting...I couldn't use the old self tapping screw and rubber washer trick due to the leak being right on the corner of the tank,I've used that method before with good sucess...

Sometimes old timers are right and K.I.S.S. :thumb:
 
I broke 2 exhaust hangers at the dunes. The driver side pipe was resting on my axle lol. I walked around and asked if anybody had any wire. Guy gave me 2 metal coat hangers. Damn things more solid now than when i had the welded hanger on it lol. So a handful of metal coat/shirt hangers shall now be in the back of the blazer with my other tools.

I did the same thing with a piece of extension cord. I'm embarrassed to say how long it served as a hanger.
 
my buddies dadge dropped the driver side tortion bar while on the trail. we ended up stuffing a bottle jack in between the upper A-arm and the shock mount to keep the front end up so he could turn till we got off the trail... then he remembered he had a spare tire that was smaller so we swapped that on and he drove it home! also used a shoe lace as a fan belt another day.
 
More of a lake fix, not a trail fix but...

We were out on canyon lake late one night, and the boat started acting up. Like it had a clogged fuel filter/line. So we checked that and all was well. Then i took the lid off the motor, and noticed gas everywhere. The motor has a fuel pump on the front of the block, so when i started the motor, i could see the plastic elbow gping from the pump into the fuek rail had a hair line rupture in it. I cut a piece of fuel line half an inch long, split it open, wrapped it around the rupture, and used a hose clamp to secure it in place..... TO THIS DAY, that fix is still holding..... the plastic elbow that ruptured is part of the $280 fuel pump.... lol
 
quick gasket

i have found due to a broken axle shaft. that electrical tape twisted together like a rope will work as a silicon seal for the diff cover. it leaked a little but drove for about a week after till i could seal it up.
 
Shredded tire tread

I once peeled the tread off my K10's rear tire while barreling down a section of rural highway. I had just put my spare on a few miles previously, so it wasn't any help. The inner wall of the tire was still holding air, so I proceeded to drive toward the nearest tire shop. As the tread (still attached) was swinging around and damaging the truck, I grabbed a bungee cord and used it to hold the rubber together. The tire survived the (slow) drive to the tire shop quite nicely. :)

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My brother and I slid off a dirt road on a turn out in the west desert of Utah. The back right tire was in soft dirt just spinning. The front left tire was in the air spinning. We buried the spare tire across the road to use as an anchor. We wrapped the strap off a ratchet strap around the front tire and hooked it to the buried spare tire. We put the truck in drive and the tire acted as it's own winch by wrapping the strap tighter until it pulled us out.
Took longer to bury the spare tire than it did to get the truck back on the road.
 
Why I don't have access to this picture? :(

Need to be a member for pics.



For gas leaks: I keep a tube of seal-all in my truck kit its a good glue and it dosen't drake down in gas. I've punched holes in tanks to drain them and resealed them with seal-all.
 
You can also take a bar of (real not fluffy) soap and push it across the leak.
 
Me and some friends went on a little trail ride one morning. Things got pretty hairy towards the top, and I ended up breaking the frame of my CJ5 right behind the steering box, and ripping the front leaf spring mount off. I trailered the Jeep there so getting home wasnt an issue, but I still had to get back down the trail. After a few very creative attemps at a fix, I decided to wrap the winch cable around the whole mess, and tighten the hell out of it. It was just enough to hold things together and get me back down. The steering was questionable at best, but it worked.

I had a hell of a time getting the winch to back off, but that was in the comfort of my own driveway so it didnt matter.
 
I had a side post terminal get loose and when it finally bounced off the arc melted up the threads. So I got the terminal wedged in there and taped it to the battery to get me home. It was the ground so I wasn't too worried about it shorting anything out.
 
Nothing too crazy, but today on the river my fan belt came off (serpentine). So I got out and put it back on. Started the engine and it threw it right off. So I started looking, and I saw the power steering pump pulley was coming off. Took a hammer, to beat it back on, and it wasn't very tight for an interference fit. Not a hundred feet after I took off, it tossed the belt and the pulley. Tried putting it back on, and swedging the shaft, but I didn't have a chisel, just a screw driver. Took off and chucked the pulley again. Then I got to thinking about the install tool.

The next step was to steal some random fender washers, and regular washers off a couple of 3/8" bolts that use to hold my battery box in place. Then I tightened a 3/8" bolt into the end of the shaft with the fender washers to hold the pulley from coming off. Made it off the river, and the half hour drive home with no problems.

Martin
 
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My buddy punctured his diff cover rock crawling.

We used a tire plug to stop the leak.

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I've seen a car on the lift at my friends shop that was there for an oil change--it had a piece of vacuum hose sticking out of the oil pan,with a sheet metal screw in the end of it...:confused:

Evidently something or someone put a hole in the oil pan ,it was cast aluminum ,so welding or brazing was not a option (plus it was in a bad spot to get a MIG nozzle near,or a torch!)---so whoever found the damage shoved a hunk of rubber hose in the hole,then tightened the screw into it to expand it...

When my friend went to remove the drain plug,it took a breaker bar and a lot of grunt to break it loose--he was afraid of breaking the oil pan off!--but it finally broke free...since the hole in the pan looked "drilled" rather than an "accidental" one,we assume whoever went to change the oil the last time just drilled a hole in the pan when they couldn't get the drain plug out,and used the hose & screw to plug it!..:doah:.

He showed the owner what he found,and suggested he drill the hole larger,like 1/2",so he could use one of those rubber expansion plugs for stripped out oil pan drain plug holes on it instead...the guy said "do whatever you can"--it would be a 2 day job to pull the engine on that car and replace the pan!...
 
Not really a trail fix but summer after high school buddies and I were (insert your young and dumb story here) and lost a fuel pump on our old sub. I managged to siphon some fuel out and drain the washer tank and reroute the washer hose into the vent on top of the carb. Got us 15 miles home, however we did get a little cocky and stopped for beer and the washer pump ended up giving out on us about 100 feet short of our driveway. I count it a win
 
I forgot about this thread. At KOH this year my throttle cable snapped at the firewall. I had to figure out some way to fix it since I was a few miles from camp at 1AM the night before the race. I used some 16 gauge wire, tied a knot around the ferrule at the firewall and tied another knot after slipping it through the part that snaps into the pedal.
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Here is a shot with the repaired cable next to what the old one looked like (bottom) and the redesigned replacement from Chevy (top). The new one doesn't the ferrule at the firewall probably because it caused the cable to break like mine.
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I ended up driving it like that for the next few days since I didn't want to have to leave the lakebed to try to find a replacement. It worked great other than it didn't quite let the throttle plate close all the way and it wouldn't quite get me full throttle, but it was fine for just cruising around.
 

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