Oregon is a BIG and sparsely populated state with lots of road between services, What type of "roadside emergency" repairs have you guys done to make it home or to the next garage?

Fabman and I were discussing my Chevy class C motor homes total electrical failure that left it on the side of the road over night. Wound up after replacing the alternator, it wasnt the problem. It very soon quit again after jump starting about 5 miles down the road. Has A dead short somewhere that is taking all the alt. current and trying to melt a wire in the factory wire harness. Got it home buy finding the offending wire under the dash and cutting it, then bypassed the alt. harness and hooked a wire from the hot post on the back of the alt. to the pos. post of the batt., every thing worked perfectly and got it home 115 miles later without incident!..............Now to find that short!

Fabman had a fantastic story about using a strip of leather belt to replace a broken fan belt, while being MILES from even a gravel road and sucessfully getting it home!

If we share our experiences, maybe some of us might benefit from the knowledge and save our bacon someday!

I am proud to announce that it WAS a GM product that failed me, My Fords have NEVER failed to get me home!

 

Well I got my 68 Grummy from where it was left by the PO, exhaust leak on the front of the engine, behind the Alt. burned the wires off the alt. It was over between Tillamook and Portland. My son lives in Portland, he went out to take a look and gave me a call. I talked him though disconnecting the wires from the alt and hot wiring it, he did not have the key. Put a fresh battery in and drove it in to Portland. I went over and pull the head and fix manifoid gasket, picked up and wiring harness at the You Pull It wrecking yard and drove it over to Prineville, my wife drove it at 40mph all the way over. No more problems. I will write about more of the others that have left me after some others write some here.

 

My turn! My turn!

The one that Dave is talking about was a mining trip my partner and I took a few years ago. We were prospecting at about the 6,500' level of the Elkhorn Mts ( near Baker City Or) 65 miles from the nearest help. My partners Jeep started to overheat so we pulled over to check it out. Fan belt was in shreads............No cell coverage.......Couldn't get anybody on the CB.............Well, I took off my belt and cut about a half inch strip off it, braided it together, put it inplace of the broken fanbelt. We drove the damn thing all the way back to Baker City 65 miles away! He still tells that story when we meet new miners in the mountains..............

Anyway, "Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it"!

 

OK, OK, I get to go again. Bertha, which is my 64 Galaxie, hence my handle, she has a deffiant personalty, and Not allway a good one. About 3years ago the wife and I were going to a car show in Portland to show off a little to the big city boys. I gess I got a little cocky and going down the Portland side of Mt Hood she broke a rocker arm off on #4 and broke the valve spring. MY son from Portland had to tow her into his place. At least it was a ford truck that pulled her in. My son and I pulled the 1 head to replace the valve spring and I used a rocker arm off his buddies pick up adn went home. she ran back to her shop without anymore problems. Bertha and I have had a real love hate thing going on for 36 years now. I do have more on her, but later.

 

OK, heres a couple of short ones, Lost the front U joint on rear driveshaft on my old 84 4x4 Ranger (which I still have) on a deer hunting trip up behind Hills Creek Reservoir. Crawled under, took off the rear U joint and tossed the entire drive shaft and tail shaft in the bed. Jammed a rag into the trans tail housing with a tire iron to pack it tight and prevent leaking, slipped it into 4wheel hi and drove into Oakridge on the front end drive. Replaced the U joint in the NAPA parking lot, returned to hunt.(unsuccessfully)

Lost the starter motor on friends Dakota, on the boat ramp past Mapleton on the Siuslaw river, gentleman in a F150 pulled us off the ramp and offered to run one of us to Florence to get a starter. Wanting to start salmon fishing, we politely declined the offer and took the boat out fishing. 2 hours and 1 chinook later, we thought it might be a good idea to get that Dodge running again, then I thought, why not just run the boat to Florence and skip thumbing a ride?........We got to the docks at Old towne in less than 1/2 hour, and I walked to 101 to a auto parts store, picked up a new starter, ran back up the river stopping at a hot spot with lots of other boats fishing and picked up another Chinook, about 20lbs er. Got back to the ramp parking and replaced the starter.
Moral of the story: Always carry tools when setting out on an adventure (especially if its in a Dodge!)

 

I think the best one that sticks in my mind is I was over hunting between John Day and Long Creek when the fuel line cracked on my chevy p/u. ( ya ya I know a chevy) Dont ban me yet I got at least one of each brand so that makes me Bitrucksual right lol. Anyhow back to the story I had my full selection of tools and spare alternators,starters, fan belts ect but no dang fuel line. So I cut out the split section and put in a straw out of a Mc Donalds cup in line and cinched it down with a couple hose clamps and zip ties and off to John Day to replace the fuel line.

 

Me again, Took Bertha to Tillamook Air Museum for a show last summer. Show was on a Saturday and we were racing in Portland on Sunday. After the races and we were heading home, up on Mt Hood she acted like she was vapor locking. Had to coached her to start and off we went. Made it to Madras and she stopped 3 miles out of town. Coached her up and some what running nad off we went again, at 25-30mph flat out. After babing her all the way to Prineville, the fuel pump gave up 3 miles from the house. I gave up about the same time and called AAA to take her home. I think aome days she realy hates me.

 

That Mcdonalds straw is a great one!, shows real ingenuity. sometimes you have to think outside the box. .......Once used a bent up fish hook to replace broken throttle linkage on 50 hp Mercury outboard.

 

I use to belong to the 4Point Fourwheeler club in Walla Walla about 30 years ago. We were on an outing in the Blue Mountains one Saturday doing some "hill climbing". My best friend had an old military jeep that we had installed a 427 chev in. I was at the top of the hill taking pictures with an old 8mm movie camera ( I know........I'm old) when he came FLYING up the hill. He caught about 20' of air, and came crashing down on the front end first..............Broke both front springs in multipull pieces! We were 20 miles from the nearest hwy.........Nobody could figure out how to get the damn thing home! Soooo, I went looking for some small green saplings about 3" in diameter, cut them to fit, and wired them to what was left of the front end with baling wire ( never leave home without it!) and we drove REAL SLOW to the highway were we could get it on my trailer................Somewhere I've got that old film. I should have the wife look for it. The look on his face when he was wayyy up in the air was priceless!

 

Those are great stories.
I belong to a 4 wheel drive club in the NW Oregon and SW Washington area called Pistons Wild. Most of us in the club all got aquainted off road racing together and all enjoyed the same stuff so we decided to start our own club. Go check us out at www.pistonswild.com and see what we have been up to. Nice to meet all you Oregon guys. This thread just shows how sometimes you have to "mcguyver" it once in a while out here in the wild wild west.

 

well i had an interesting time getting my truck down to albany to see my folks. i was pullin my trailer. and the headlights start blinking on and off in bumper to bumper traffic on I-5 south and i had just replaced all the switches for the lights. when i got to my folks i went to visit my grampa the next day and he said try opening the vent by the floor board on the driver side. WHY? i ask. he says be cause some of the earlier years the switch in the dash gets hot and acts like a heat coil. it heats up loses conection and then cools off and gains contact. HMMM Grampas KRZY. well i cracked the vent just for kicks and havent had a prob since.

 

My car broke on me once. I called dispatch for a lift back to the shop. They sent out a cop car, and took me back to the shop, where I got the tow truck out and went and got my car.

 

Friends and I were out in the desert out of Prineville when we jumped a bar ditch and pulled all the bolts holding the rt front hub to the axle. Striped the bolt holds out. Truck was a 60 F100 4x4. Broke the brake line and pulled the axle out. Hitched back to town to get tools, a tap, and bigger bolts. Get back out there a 2:00am in my buddies 66 F100, with a set of aircraft landing lights on it. Back on the road at 3:00am and head to town without brakes, but on 4 wheels again. Road into Prineville has a 2 mile drop into town, with no brakes, we put the 66 F100 in front of the 60 incase we got going to fast, we had something to bump into. Get to the bottom with no truck problems, but the local police stopped us for drunk driving, said we were tailgating, so they figgered we were drunk. I do not drink. We did get home by 4:00am