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Apr 17, 2021 18:50:44 GMT
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what was the biggest repair job you have done on your car away from home?
for me, in the late80s I was on holiday in north wales in my mini to stop at mum and dads caravan, the front hub bearing failed, so I got a used one "off the shelf" from a scrap yard, and fitted it in the campsite, after begging and borrowing tools from my dad and other campers, so it literally was a "field repair"
over to you's
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,777
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Apr 17, 2021 20:07:36 GMT
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Back in the late 60's 2 friends and I went on holiday to Scarborough on our scooters (2 Li's & a TV) back then it was the place to go in the summer (for a Mod) we got about 30 miles from Whitley Bay when the TV blew it's head gasket in the curse word rain. :' We pushed it into a bus shelter and stripped the head off, removed the head gasket and refitted the head sealing it with red Hermatite. That got us to our overnight campsite in Whitley Bay. Next day went set off and got to about 20 miles from Scarborough when my friends Li (TV engine) ground to a halt, sounded liked it had seized. Another roadside strip down revealed that the cooling fan on the flywheel and become slack and was jamming the engine, we removed the fan and limped down to our Scarborough campsite. Next day we found a bike shop and managed to buy a head gasket and a second hand flywheel. Rebuilt both engines on the campsite and got them running OK. The rest of the holiday was relatively uneventful (as far as the scooters were concerned) and the trip home went smoothly. The funny thing was before we left it was my scooter (Series 1 Li 150 with a TV 175 engine) that we were worried about, it was a pig to start first thing in the day, usually involved much kicking and pushing up and down the road, however after the first breakdown it started first time every time and never missed a beat in the 10 days we were away, covering over 550 miles
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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logicaluk
Posted a lot
Every days a school day round here
Posts: 1,296
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Apr 17, 2021 20:13:00 GMT
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I blew a core plug after a some spirited driving at the North Yorkshire Triumph Weekend, in a special bodied herald 1200, pulled into the campsite with steam blowing, spoke to the site owner who directed me to a local old school garage, but the work shop was closed, they were however happy to sell me the core plug for £1, along with tube of red hylomar. The problem was the 4 into 1 manifold which the core plug was behind could only be taken off with either the engine out (normally a 30 minute job in the workshop) or getting the car 2 ft in the air, nether possible so a spark plug socket was used to press it in place with tent pegs wedged in between the manifold pipes to hold it there. The car drove the 60 miles home with the rad cap off with no issue. Dan
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Jonny69
Part of things
Posts: 799
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Apr 17, 2021 20:24:34 GMT
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1995 in 6th form, mates first car which was a mint early mk1 1.1 Fiesta. Driving through Forest Hill in south London after we’d been to Maplin (one of the only Maplin stores you could actually visit back then) and he went to change gear and the clutch cable snapped. We rolled to a stop on double yellows opposite a motor factors. By chance they unexpectedly had a new cable on the shelf. Couldn’t work out how to hook the last bit of the cable on after about an hour of fiddling and then realised we were right next to a Ford specialist garage. Asked in there and they were like yeah you just need to xxx and then yyy and it clicks straight on, which it did and we were back on our way and both back home in time for dinner! Can’t think of many others where the story was as good that didn’t just involve a load of zip ties except maybe the time my Anglia caught fire at a builders merchants in North London and burned through the fuel line between my Webers. I ‘made’ a new fuel line out of gaffer tape and managed to drive back across London to the SE burbs with a slightly charred car and a shortened burned out throttle cable which only reached about 25% throttle. I was working in TV at the time and the stuff I made earlier in the day were some of the props for this episode of Big Bigger Biggest: edit: 36:19 cap on the underwater missile launcher was probably that same roll of gaffer tape The producer was livid though
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Last Edit: Apr 17, 2021 20:50:08 GMT by Jonny69
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,818
Club RR Member Number: 40
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big repairs out and aboutjamesd1972
@jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member 40
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Apr 17, 2021 20:34:46 GMT
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Clutch slave cylinder on my mini clubman estate in the middle of Melton Mowbray high street. On the way home from Nottingham to Hertfordshire and went the 'scenic' route for a change to find gears getting progressively harder to get. Not that hard in itself but finding a parts shop was difficult. IIRC the Rover Dealer I walked to initially wanted £60 or some god awful amount so had to ask random people in the street if they knew where there was a motor factors (remember them ?). Some kind soul did and gave me a lift there and back and some other kind person stuck their foot down on the brake a few times to bleed it. Did get some funny looks as the the Mini had a one piece bonnet which was abandoned next to the car on the pavement the whole time. Would have been cheaper / easier to call the RAC but where's the fun in that ? James It was like this before I crashed it, replaced the whole front end with a white one piece bonnet (which never got painted) and 12" wheels and disk brakes
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Last Edit: Apr 17, 2021 20:36:54 GMT by jamesd1972
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big repairs out and aboutjohnthesparky
@johnthesparky
Club Retro Rides Member 6
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Apr 17, 2021 20:43:29 GMT
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Going to college day release, travelling from MK to Northampton. Used to do half a day on a Tuesday, so left work at 12 and had lunch break at college before class.
Front wheel bearing died on my beetle, near Blisworth, hitched a lift to Northampton, to the spares place, from memory on the Wellingborough Road. Bought wheel bearings, hitched back and swapped on the side of the road and was 10 minutes late to class.
Lecturer didn’t believe me, so had to show him receipt and old bearing in the footwell, then he let me off (and didn’t report me to work)
Not sure fixing was that amazing... but can’t imagine being able to hitch a lift nowadays (even less so right now)
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Apr 17, 2021 21:04:57 GMT
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Early 80's on holiday in Norfolkshire, holed the piston on my RD250 (two stroke bike)borrowed my mates bike rode into Norwich and bought a new piston from Tinklers Yamaha. Fitted using the bike tool kit, the spark plug socket fitted the head bolts, head gaskets were copper so re-used, base gaskets didn't tear so re-used. I was a skint teenager but it got me home although I got done for speeding near Kessingland doing 39 in a 30 on the emptiest main road ever! Before borrowing my mates bike, another mate was taking me there on the back of his Suzuki GT550 and we picked up a 4" coach bolt through the rear tyre, went in through the tread and came out the sidewall. It was very very exciting. A kind farmer allowed my mate to park the bike up at his and then gave us a lift back to our camp site. Oh how I miss my youthful adventures
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Needs a bigger hammer mate.......
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Apr 17, 2021 23:51:41 GMT
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After an ill fated attempt to tow a Rover 800 with a Skoda Favorit, I had to abandon all at the side of the road, call for someone to come get us (my fiancee's mother, cringe-worthingly) and get brought back the next day (about 1-1.5 hours away) so I could change the radiator at the roadside.
Also used to have a Suzuki RG125 that I would regularly have to re-fit the chain on by moonlight as it had a penchant for throwing it off every fortnight or so. I just carried the spanners for the tensioners and got used to doing it by feel.
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Paul
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,899
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Can’t match many of the above, but I did have to make the loooong walk from Brighton seafront to Halfords for some fuel hose to fit to the camper van - ours was cracked a peeing petrol all over the engine bay. Seem to recall having appropriate tools onboard and just reused the jubilees...tended to travel well tooled up in that thing.
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Clutch slave cylinder on my mini clubman estate in the middle of Melton Mowbray high street. On the way home from Nottingham to Hertfordshire and went the 'scenic' route for a change to find gears getting progressively harder to get. Not that hard in itself but finding a parts shop was difficult. IIRC the Rover Dealer I walked to initially wanted £60 or some god awful amount so had to ask random people in the street if they knew where there was a motor factors (remember them ?). Some kind soul did and gave me a lift there and back and some other kind person stuck their foot down on the brake a few times to bleed it. Did get some funny looks as the the Mini had a one piece bonnet which was abandoned next to the car on the pavement the whole time. Would have been cheaper / easier to call the RAC but where's the fun in that ? James It was like this before I crashed it, replaced the whole front end with a white one piece bonnet (which never got painted) and 12" wheels and disk brakes Why did some kind soul press the brake down to bleed the clutch 😉👍🏼
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In my university days a friend had an Austin A30, for which he had paid the princely sum of £5. It came with its original 803cc A series and over three years went through an 850, 948, 998, 1098 and finally 1275. We had a large selection of final drive ratios as well and could change a differential in about 30 minutes. One day we had been to collect one of these larger engines and were pottering along the M1 with it warm and comfortable wrapped in an old blanket in the boot*. We had all our tools with us as we had had to remove it from its original vehicle. We saw an A40 on the hard shoulder with older lady next to it looking rather forlorn, so as was common in those days we stopped to offer assistance. Her clutch had been slipping for some time but lacking mechanical sympathy she had kept on driving until a slight incline had finally brought her to a stop. So, old lady into A30 passenger seat, tow rope onto the A40 and me behind the wheel and off to the next services. Send old lady off into the services for a cup of tea whilst we set to to jack it up, pop off the gearbox and transfer the old clutch from the 'new' engine and pop the gearbox back on. I doubt it took much more than an hour. When we handed the A40 back she turned to us and asked - very deadpan - 'Do tell, do you always have a spare engine in the boot?' Game old bird! Then there's the repair to my MG1100 rusted bulkhead with a fence post, coachbolts and a handdrill done in a French campsite. And too many more inventive get you home bodges to mention!
*Can't remember now if the engine was in the boot and the tools on the backseat or visa versa. I do recall taking the backseat out before we left!
Waits for the Temptress's slave to tell us of MUCH more adventurous escapades at the side of the road!
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Last Edit: Apr 18, 2021 7:48:33 GMT by theoldman
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,818
Club RR Member Number: 40
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big repairs out and aboutjamesd1972
@jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member 40
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Clutch slave cylinder on my mini clubman estate in the middle of Melton Mowbray high street. On the way home from Nottingham to Hertfordshire and went the 'scenic' route for a change to find gears getting progressively harder to get. Not that hard in itself but finding a parts shop was difficult. IIRC the Rover Dealer I walked to initially wanted £60 or some god awful amount so had to ask random people in the street if they knew where there was a motor factors (remember them ?). Some kind soul did and gave me a lift there and back and some other kind person stuck their foot down on the brake a few times to bleed it. Did get some funny looks as the the Mini had a one piece bonnet which was abandoned next to the car on the pavement the whole time. Would have been cheaper / easier to call the RAC but where's the fun in that ? James It was like this before I crashed it, replaced the whole front end with a white one piece bonnet (which never got painted) and 12" wheels and disk brakes Why did some kind soul press the brake down to bleed the clutch 😉👍🏼 You knew what I meant ! 🤭
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shin2chin
Part of things
Making curse word cars slightly better
Posts: 820
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Apr 18, 2021 10:49:43 GMT
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1st holiday camping in my old 110 defender and clutch started feeling a bit strange. Made it to Norfolk and to our campsite just for the pedal to hit the floor and not return. Diagnosed a clutch slave which I luckily had in my extensive breakdown stash. Changed over and bled it whilst my wife read her book.
My 1st mk2 golf in the middle of Coventry city centre broke its accelerator cable at the pedal. Much swearing upside down in the footwell with an electrical wire connector and a bit of cable had me on my way and I made it back home.
Good times before I could afford breakdown cover and didn't have 2 kids moaning in the car.
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1977 PORSCHE 2.0na 924 1974 VW Beetle 1600
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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Apr 18, 2021 11:43:21 GMT
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When my brother was using my 106 gti he broke down at a busy roundabout with a snapped throttle cable. I went to have a look and not having any tools or part with me I had to improvise. I open the boot and pulled the speaker wires off the 6x9s. Tied one end to what was left of the cable at the throttle body and a big loop on the other side. Drove it home on hand throttle and I didn't hang around either
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Last Edit: Apr 18, 2021 22:18:04 GMT by gte86
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Apr 18, 2021 15:16:02 GMT
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Back in the early 70's a few of us went to Skegness for the weekend. No preparation, just a tent. Took my ratty Morris 1000 and a mates ratty minivan. The mini decided that it's head gasket was now optional, ended up doing a head gasket in the street. The whole trip was somewhat exiting, me and a mate walking into a pub that was wall to wall skinheads, us being long haired hippy types. Also slept in the cars on the second night and got woken by two patrol cars full of burly coppers looking for a murderer! The claw hammer took some explaining...
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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Apr 18, 2021 17:50:33 GMT
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Why did some kind soul press the brake down to bleed the clutch 😉👍🏼 You knew what I meant ! 🤭 That’s right I did which was why I had liked your original post, as you’ve no doubt seen & why I gave a 👍🏼 when I typed the reply. Evidently it wasn’t quite taken in the light hearted manner it was intended. I’ll get my coat
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,510
Member is Online
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Apr 18, 2021 17:51:58 GMT
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Yeah, that time you tow your trailer tent on holiday to the Netherlands, discover on arrival that the tow bar/chassis legs are not going to be up to towing home again. So desperately manage to make contact with a R-R friend who lives about 100 miles away in Germany. Wife and daughter get to go for a local bike while I drive over to a different country and spend several hours welding it all solid enough again. Forever grateful to Oldbus! As some people may have seen, those temporary repairs lasted a while but its taken this long to get to properly sorting all of this out again.
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable.
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,818
Club RR Member Number: 40
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big repairs out and aboutjamesd1972
@jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member 40
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Apr 18, 2021 18:02:09 GMT
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You knew what I meant ! 🤭 That’s right I did which was why I had liked your original post, as you’ve no doubt seen & why I gave a 👍🏼 when I typed the reply. Evidently it wasn’t quite taken in the light hearted manner it was intended. I’ll get my coat Sorry ! Completely got the light hearted response - something lost in translation in my reply ! Rubbish at the whole 👍👍👍Just got my 13yr old to show me how to do it ! (Windows key and . at the same time by all accounts ) My coat is on as well. James
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Apr 18, 2021 18:17:53 GMT
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Not one I can claim, but my mate went on holiday in what was then a fairly old Avenger (this would be about 85) The gearbox decided to stop providing drive, so he took it out with the hand tools he had & only a scissor jack. Found one in a scrap yard which he also had to remove from the car there, as you did back then. He then took it on the bus back to his car & fitted it 🙈 All before mobile phones, google etc etc 😀
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big repairs out and aboutMercdan68
@forddan68
Club Retro Rides Member 68
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Apr 18, 2021 20:22:50 GMT
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Snapped throttle cable on the twin 40s on my old mk1 cortina on the way back from Chelsea cruise in the late 80s My mate Tony and me rigged up some cable and he controlled the throttle back home to Kent , a right laugh that was ! It happened quite a few times after that too I dunno if it was my set up or just a thing with the 40s set up
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Last Edit: Apr 18, 2021 20:23:25 GMT by Mercdan68
Fraud owners club member 1999 Jaguar s type 1993 ford escort
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