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Prompted by showthread.php?p=112855#post112855

What are some of the memorable (for the wrong reasons!) major repairs you have done / been involved with away from home?

My two faves are

MY at night at Beachport drives into, not over a dune - bit tricky at night to judge the angle. Does radiator / lower support / grill well and truly in. 1 hour hard 4WDing from blacktop over dunes and beach. One car sent back for brazing kit, the rest set about some front end 'repairs'. With a snatch strap, a log & some rocks car is mobile again 4 hours later. Arrive back at camp 0200!

The other is a Brumby going off to WA fully laden and towing a trailer. Engine dies monday AM out of Ceduna in Feb. Phone call to adelaide, engine on a pallet is dispatched. The truckie (very reluctantly) stops by the stranded car in the middle of nowhere, more or less pushes the pallet off the tray. Engine is swapped using a tree, rope and a quad bike and car is mobile Tues PM. All in +42C heat

Dud engine is collected on return trip for the changeover!

Sven

You'll have to wait for a couple of reply's from Ricksta - shattered DOJ, and busted steering come to mind from the days of his old green MY.

lol....love the roadside engine changeover!

Here's my busted balljoint story from ages ago;
showthread.php?t=4583

Changed the clutch in the middle of bush years ago, un-accessible for tow truck, too difficult to tow it out due rough terrains, found nice hard ground and replaced the clutch but lucky it was high enough to access under the car (not subaru)
Cheers
AP

AndrewT,

hardcore!

Sidcrome...true eh? 'Can't handa man a greater spanner [or socket]'

Had a similar fate at Gemenii Downs. Arrived late, everyone was in camp - go for a quick squirt along the top track me thinks. BJ lets go at 70kkph. Fortunately another member coming up had a spare. 300kms on the blacktop at 70kph is a LONG trip as front end was out so far out of whack.

Excellent work!

Sven

Up in the riverland on private property on a weekend my Brumby decided its EJ22 sucked. Started getting worse and worse til it was only running on 2 bangers. Couldn't figure it out. Turns out timing belts and mud aren't a good combo. Slipped the right cam 6 teeth out. Pulled the lot apart, compressed the tensioner using a jack and another guys tow bar on his GQ Patrol. Put it back together and drove home.

A bit later got stuck at a mates place after the engine "seized". Wouldn't turn over, engine would turn back and forward but not all the way around. Pulled a sparky out and petrol everywhere. Noticed a wet look around the intake TB, pulled it off and petrol pured out. Turns out cold petrol in a full brumby tank on a 40degree day with no charcol canister means you get two 3 pistons full of petrol, intake filled to the top with petrol and 9litres of oil/petrol in the sump. Had to tow it home with that one..


None Subaru

Out past Boardertown in an old quarry about 20km off the main hwy my Brothers alternator bearing died. Because it was on a diesel 4runner the alternator is also the vacuum pump for brakes. And without the belt for the alternator the water pump would not work. So we ended up driving 5km at a time stopping to oil the pulley bearing. Using a a calbe tie or something to dribble it down and feed in behind the pulley. We unplugged the alternator to keep load off of it too so no power and it was getting dark. Ended up driving all the way down to Naracorte that night with no lights.

And ages ago, when I first had my Brumby, we were heading up to the Flinders Rangers when about an hour out of Adelaide my brothers turbo Telstar 2.2's alternator finally died and his battery went flat. With a mate I headed back to the Northern U-pull-it yard in Elizabeth. They had a 2.2 non turbo with an alternator and no other 626's or Telstars! We pulled it and on the side of the hwy put it in my brothers Telstar. That car was the hardest car I've worked on for engine bay space, harder then my brothers X1/9's (and those are fiats!). Got it going and was only 2 hours late. I have a good photo of that somewhere on my computer, hand on a tick

Long time ago mum told me she had a call from someone who was relaying a message that came in from a fire tower on Mt Coree out the back of Canberra on the border. My little brother was broken down somewhere out ther no number to call back to or any idea what was up. So I've piled me tools and testers and spare battery and spare Mazda 1300 ( amazing non 4WD jalopy) tune up bits into my lowered Ford and ripped out there as far as the tar would allow and then some, honking my horn, cooeeing like an idiot - had no idea exactly where he was. I go back home and get another brother organised to get out there in the go anywhere 2WD F100. We get to just short of the top and just spotted the stranded one rolled back off the road. In low light we find there is no spark and then woofa - all we did was tighten the coil bracket and she ran. No idea why but this is the second time I have fixed a car this way. That's electrics for you. The little bugger had not a care about him as he'd been feeding on Outward Bound supply packs he'd found u there !! We were the ones that hadn't eaten .

Not so remote but worth a tale. Dads HQ 202 Traumatic developed a tick, sounded like hydraulic lifters going. Mechanic looks at it Wednesday and says bring her in tomorrow. Uhuh, thats mums shopping day, so booked in for Monday. Well, Sunday morning Dad is off somewhere and the old Q is making a bit more of a racket is he backs up the drive, thinks to meself. Now Dad is never late for lunch especially on Sundays. He was today. Arrived home on foot having walked about 5 km..Says it blew smoke then bang, stopped.
That smoke was steam, and as per usual with red six it was a leg thrown, number five just missed the starter, somehow caused the new radiator to suck in and destroy itself. Not aware of the hole in the block, I prepared the Q for its drive home. Ripped out plugs five and six, removed rocker cover to remove five and sixes rockers and pushrods and got it running like a chaff cutter but was driveable and got it home. That afternoon was spent chasing up the buttermilk trail with sand and cement dust for consideration of the other road users.

Then my Pops VF Valiant on a 300km trip to sell it after his expiry date came up. The old Val had not done a long trip for many a year. After about 20km of highway speeds temp gauge shoots up. Stop at nearest servo, scab up all the 2l milk bottles I could manage and filled them for top ups. There was no leak, maybe the cap was beyond its best. Every few k's my brother following would flash his lights to say "steam", stop and top up. In the end thought stuff it and just drove it the rest of the way sitting on hot. Didn't miss a beat. Musta near run on no water. Did not enjoy that drive on bloody cross plies (google them if you youngster) they'd just let the old Val drift halfway across a highway lane on a bend - RIIPPP . Once home much testing and flushing came up with no answer and the problem never showed around town. Sold it to a guy who came to look at it, arrived in a taxi- good sign the taxi left! , wiped his greased finger on the carpet door trim so just as well he bought it. Never saw AFZ038 again

I've never had any major repairs on the road, only minor ones with previous cars. My VG Valiant had a habit of dropping out the neutral start switch due to the shifter linkage (previous owner switched from column to floor shift and mis-aligned the shifter position) - not a big job to slide under the car and refit switch when the exhaust is cold but when the car had been running for a while it got plenty hot. Neutral start switch would fall out between the two exhaust pipes, so my arm would have to wind between the two pipes, then take a 90 degree twist into the transmission tunnel to fit a 3 pin connector the size of a 5 cent coin. Eventually I wised up and put an override/kill switch on the cable so I could set it to full disconnect, correct operation, or override switch.
Valiant's always break the throttle cables, I had one go overtaking a (ahem) slower traveller - one moment, 80 km/h, and then coasting slowly down the road wondering where the power went. I was 5 minutes from home, made it by increasing the idle on the carby, got as far as the slight incline into my street and had to hop out again to increase the idle a bit higher. Then run back to the car, jump in and roll slowly up the last bit into the drive. One of my dad's Valiants (a VE) had the throttle cable go between Seymour and Melbourne - nice winding road at the time (still a good drive). He re-routed the broken cable from carb over the bonnet into the drivers side vent window and drove it home using hand-throttle control.
My first Valiant - also a VG - blew all three forward bands in the transmission. I took off from the lights 10 minutes from home, hit 80 km/h and 3rd gear goes bang, jumps to 2nd goes bang straight after. I pull over, and then slowly take off in 1st. Make my way up the rest of the long hill very slowly, come down the other side into a side road and 1st gear starts to go. I end up at the bottom of the street, can't go forward up the hill so drive past, then reverse up the hill and along the street about 50 houses at 10pm, into the driveway and shut it down. I had a local mechanic replace the box with another unit, and about a month later take a left sliplane and the indicator stalk that normally faces due east twists into my lap - the entire box had seperated from the engine and slid backwards and right. Towed it home, replaced the torque converter, and bolted it all back together...

Dean.