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Road side fix.....
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busfreak_71
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:41 am    Post subject: Road side fix..... Reply with quote

What is your most unusual, unbelievable, best roadside breakdown stories where you got the car runing again? Dosent have to be a VW, any car will do...
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Cusser
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

(1) Had wire to coil short out and burn ('70 VW), ran wire over the top to get home.
(2) Had distributor stud pull out and get lost ('70 VW with AC), used fender bolt to hold in distributor clam to get home.
(3) Helped guy in middle of desert in summer (Memorial Day) with AC VW whose rear axle nut came loose, had the 36 mm socket and bar with me, and a cotter pin.
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life long VW
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:59 pm    Post subject: gassed in vegas Reply with quote

I was in Vegas in 87 and the fuel pump on my toyota-pu went out. The pump is in the tank. I duct taped a gallon antifreeze bottle to the radio antenna and gravity feed the carb until I could drain the gas tank and make the repairs.
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TeamSpatula
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

About 4 years ago I drove my 67 camper about 300 miles or so down to Charleston SC to visit a friend. She had to work the next day, so I was headed down to the beach to hang out. A few blocks from her house, the shifting got really sloppy...and a few blocks later, absolutely nothing - the shifter just flopped around. I was right in front of one of the huge bridges across the river, intercoastal waterway, or some BIg body of water. Fortunately I was able to pull off to the side of the road on a patch just wide enough for the bus, before it dropped down to the muddy water. I crawled up underneath for a look, and sure enough, the shift coupler was split. That didn't worry me too badly, since I knew I had an extra in the cabinet. However, what was worrying me more and more every second was the greasy breakfast I had eaten at awful house a couple hours before.
I looked through the cabinet for the replacement coupler for a minute, before I realized that I needed to find myself a little private space QUICKLY, which would prove difficult because the road I was beside was pretty busy. I scouted around at some construction going on nearby, and decided to head down to the waterside, and up underneath a pier that was going up. After grabbing the emergency TP from the bus, I slid down the 20 foot embankment and promptly sunk into the nastiest muck I have ever had the misfortune to smell, which promptly went up to almost knee level. Clearly progress wasn't going to be easy, but my sense of urgency helped me move pretty quickly, despite losing a shoe once or twice before I made it the 50 feet or so to where I finally had a little privacy up underneath the new construction.
"Business" time being over, It took me almost half an hour to climb back up the hill to the bus, where much to my dismay, I re-discovered the fact that I would have to pull the tranny loose to get the shift rod far enough back to install the new coupler. Fortunately 2 pairs of vice grips with safety wires to keep them from falling off secured the broken connector well enough get back on the road. Of course, by this time I had drying crusty mud, which smelled more and more of rotten sea life, well up past my knees, and grease & oil up to my elbows, as well as various oil spots dripped down onto my face, shirt, etc. Unfortunately by that time I was late to meet her parents for the first time, and so you can imagine the first impression I made on them when I pulled up into their driveway, parked the bus by the 2 new Lexuses there, and climbed out.
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70 140
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not much of a fix, but still a roadside story.

I was in my "other car" driving home from a weekend away last summer, I passed a beetle with the engine lid open, on the side of the highway. I wasn't in the slow lane, so I didn't get enough of a glimpse, but I decided to get off at the next exit and try to get back, not always an easy task in Northern Ontario. I ended up having to get back on the hwy going north, pass the car again, then exit, get back on the original direction to get to the car, I had driven past it 3 times now. So after this ordeal, I get to the car, a 68 vert, that looked like it was just hanging on to road-worthiness. The owner and his wife had come into some engine problems after taking it out to get dinner, they wondered if I could let them use a cell phone. I told them I knew a little about vw's, but after a quick survey of the cobbled together,way to hot to touch, dirty engine, I decided I wasn't about to start fiddling. I asked them where they lived - two exits up the highway and down the road a little.... Imagine their surprise when I dug around the back of my van and pulled out a type 1 towbar. we hooked the car up, and dropped them off at their house. They wanted to pay me, or at least give me money for gas.. I told them not to worry, and suggested they should get a towbar of there own, as they had a decent looking truck at their place. I don't think the car had many trips left in it though, although I am always surprised by what people drive.

I have a picture of the car somewhere, I will try to dig it up. It had some chevy or ford pattern rusty Cragar SS rims, and some interesting bondo work, topcoated with a wonderful purple color. The white vinyl roof looked like a chia pet, it had so much mildew on it... Hopefully they aren't reading the story Shocked
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LeeE
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had a 73 914. At about 80 mph, late at night, with a stop sign ahead, the accelerator return spring broke. Gas pedal flat on the floor, I stepped on the brake and clutch. With the clutch in, the engine started racing toward redline. Turned off the key to stop the engine, but the headlights also go off when the key is off. Turned the key back on for the lights so I could see, and the engine, still spinning, lit up and started revving to redline again!
I stopped with no problem, hard application of brakes and frantically turning the key on and off for lights, fortunately the road was fairly straight and I had enough room to stop
I checked the engine room for the broken spring but couldn’t find it anywhere, only one small piece was still hooked to the throttle lever, the rest probably went into the fan. So I looked in the glovebox and console for something I might be able to use, found a click-type ballpoint pen, took it apart and carefully stretched the spring to fit. It worked, lasted long enough to get me home.
Just very lucky.

LeeE
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rickee
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sold a golf recently that has a couple of hair bands holding the bonnet latch closed. On the same car got stuck in traffic on the london ring road with a non functioning fan. ended up waiting for a 50 yard gap to open up (or the guy behind to start beeping his horn - whichever came first) then start the car, give it a quick blast of throttle then switch off and roll up to the bumper of the car ahead. made it like that without overheating again to the motorway exit (3 miles in five hours), spun round and shot off round the ring road in the other direction. made it home without needing the fan and fixed it properly the next morning (broken wires going into the thermostat circuit).
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merlin42
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was in college I was driving with my then girlfriend/ now wife, to visit a friend. About a four hour trip. Part way through the car suddenly became very very loud. I pulled into a Friendly's parking lot and took a look at the muffler. About 2 inches of the pipe that extends from the heater box to the muffler was gone, rusted out, kaput. But, there was enough pipe on either side of the break that I realized I could fix it if I had the following: tin snips, a tin can, a screwdriver, and large hose clamps. This being a Suprbeetle I had an insane about of parts and tools stashed in the big trunk. Sure enough I found every thing except some tin. I went into Friendly's and politely asked for a tin can. The girl at the counter went in back to rummage through the garbage and while she was doing that the manager came out and gave me funny looks when I told him I was waiting for a tin can. The girl came out with a mandarin orange container which I enthusiasticly announced was perfect. She rinsed it out, I took it to the car, made the replacement piece of pipe out of it, and clamped it in. It was still on the car when I sold it two years later Very Happy
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drscope
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A long time ago, my room mate and I decided to take a Sunday drive to go visit a racing buddy who liver about 150 miles away. We didn't know if he was home or not, but it was a nice day, we had a full tank of gas in the bug and nothing better to do.

About half way there, we lost a rod bearing in the 63 VW. We were able to limp to the next exit and find a pay phone. (this was in the days before cell phones) We called our friend collect and he was home. So he hooked up the race car trailer to his station wagen and came to our rescue.

Now here's where we made a big mistake. In place of him towing us home to where WE lived, he towed us to where HE lived. Now, we were 3 hours from home with a bad engine and were supposed to be at work the following morning.

Well, we took the car into the garage and took the engine out. Pulled it apart and found a bad crank and rod. No surprises there.

We were stuck for the night. next morning, got up early, called out of work and went into town looking for a 1200 crank and rod. Nobody had one and there were no VW garages in this neck of the woods that we knew of.

Well I got to thinking and we took the crank down to the local welding shop and asked the guy there to weld up the oil holes on the #1 & 3 rod journals. We told him our situation and also let him know we only had $10 between the 3 of us.

Our plan was to put the engine together with just 2 pistons and rods and try to drive it back home. He said it would never work, we thought it would.

He made a bet with us. He charged us $10 to weld up the crank and said if we could drive it into his shop, he would give us our $10 back.

We went back and reassembled the engine with only 2 pistons and rods. Left out the push rods for 1 & 3 also. Put it back in the car and fired it up.

It Ran! Sounded like a John deere tractor, but it ran. It didn't run very well, but it did run. We were able to drive it on the flat, but it just didn't have any power to go uphills.

We had to tow it out of the driveway to get it to the street. Then we set off to the welding shop.

Fortunatly it was almost all down hill to the welding shop and we were able to drive right in. Left the motor running and went in to get the welder and our $10 back.

He didn't believe it, but seeing was believing and we got our money back. As we waved goodbye, we knew we had a problem. It was all up hill to my buddies house and we wern't going to be able to go up hill. So we turned the other way and drove off down the hill at a respectable speed until we could turn a corner and have our friend bring the station wagon down to tow us back to his house.

We took a different route so we wouldn't have to give up the $10.

We knew there was no way this engine was going to take us over 3 mountains to get home, so we left it and borrowed the station wagen to get home.

So we really didn't get it fixed and back home, but it was an adventure. It did run and if we would have had more time to play with the distributor and carb, we might have been able to drive it a little better.
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drscope
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remembered another one. I was on my way home in my 60 beetle in rush hour traffic on the Baltimore Beltway. (If the car is sitting still, why do they call it rush hour?) Traffic is awful, we are going up hill and it's stop and go. It couldn't get any worse for the clutch.

I'm in the middle lane and as things start to move a little I try to get going and the accellerator cable breaks. The end on the rear of the cable broke off. Now I have No way to give it gas, going up hill in stop and go traffic.

I finally make it over to the left shoulder. The only tools I have with me are a pair of tin snips, a hammer, a scratch all and a chalk line.

I layed the rear seat back down, then I took the hammer and scratch all and made a hole in the fire wall. I cut the end off of the chalk line and fed it through the hole in the fire wall and through the cable tube and tied it to the carburator linkage.

Then I was able to pull the chalk line when I needed to go and that would give it gas.

It worked and I made it home, but just about everything in the car was covered with blue chalk.
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Hobbes
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After my transmission raise, the nosecone of the transmission can be seen inside the car. Well, due to some weird vibration over time somehow the bolts came out of the nosecone where it mounted to the new trans mount... anyhow, the transmission pivoted on the rear mount, fucking up the linkages and the engine tilted back and drug the ground. I couldn't move it, so I had my friend get in the back seat, and stand on the nosecone to keep it down and the engine up, so we could make our way to a safer spot to pull over. It worked, after a short bit of squirrely and rough driving we finally found a shoulder. Laughing

I've gone with grade 8 bolts now with locknuts... I think I used regular ones last time.
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volksterii
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm sure everyone has fixed an accelerator cable at one time or another. I broke mine coming home from work. I got to the side of the road with the engine just idling. I found a paper clip somewhere in my bus, straightened it out and I happened to have an extra barrel nut that I fastened the paper clip to the end of the cable and then to the linkage. I went home about 20 miles with no problems.
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Krmnnghia
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh man this was about 10 years ago. I used to live in Oregon and my buddy had picked me up in his 64 Notch S and we drive about 2 hours to a VW show and swap. I forget where it was exactly but it was in the middle of a nowhere. Great crowd and we were asked to park in the "special area" as we were the only Notch there. On our way out of the show about 30 feet past the exit the car just stopped. After a few minutes my buddies fears were confirmed. We had a clog somewhere in the fuel line. Seconds after we busted out the tools the show was closed down and everyone was starting to leave. I lost count around 50 but that is how many people offered to help us. 2 different parts swappers with busses full of junk parts pulled over to help even though we said we think we got it. Ended up needing them as we had to drain the fuel tank to about 1/4 full using a hose the swapper had and a couple gas cans the other swapper had. Pulled the tank and blew out the fuel line and a small chunk of plastic came out. No idea how it got in there but it was now out and we were on our way again.

I was amazed at the amount of people offering their help. A bunch of people told us if we needed a part we could pull it from their used swap horde free of charge. I don't know if you get that kind of support from any other car folk. From that day forward I told myself if I ever saw another AC VW on the side of the road I had an obligation to stop and offer my assistance.

Hot damn I love the VW scene Wink
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frank1380
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I met up with some classmates for a project one Saturday when I was in college. I was pulling out of the parking lot to go back to the dorms when the clutch pedal flops to the floor like a dead trout. My dad had bought me one of those Craftsman socket sets before I left for school and I kept it on the passenger side floorboard. I took the pedals out and the clutch cable had snapped about 3 inches from where it hooks onto the pedal. Fortunately I was pretty close to home. I ended up just killing the motor at stop signs and stop lights and restarting it in gear. I don't remember if I just limped it home in 1st or if I dared shift without it.


After getting the clutch cable fixed, which needed to be done urgently for a hot date, I was leaving lunch with said date and the accelerator pedal does the ol' trout flop to the floor. I was turning right out of the restaurant and was able to get over into the left turn lane that runs down the center of the highway to make some REAL quick fix. I just jammed a rag into the linkage to hold the throttle open and nursed it back home.
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Krmnnghia
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

frank1380 wrote:
I met up with some classmates for a project one Saturday when I was in college. I was pulling out of the parking lot to go back to the dorms when the clutch pedal flops to the floor like a dead trout. My dad had bought me one of those Craftsman socket sets before I left for school and I kept it on the passenger side floorboard. I took the pedals out and the clutch cable had snapped about 3 inches from where it hooks onto the pedal. Fortunately I was pretty close to home. I ended up just killing the motor at stop signs and stop lights and restarting it in gear. I don't remember if I just limped it home in 1st or if I dared shift without it.


After getting the clutch cable fixed, which needed to be done urgently for a hot date, I was leaving lunch with said date and the accelerator pedal does the ol' trout flop to the floor. I was turning right out of the restaurant and was able to get over into the left turn lane that runs down the center of the highway to make some REAL quick fix. I just jammed a rag into the linkage to hold the throttle open and nursed it back home.


Uhhh Hello? What happened with the date? Cool
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frank1380
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krmnnghia wrote:
frank1380 wrote:
I met up with some classmates for a project one Saturday when I was in college. I was pulling out of the parking lot to go back to the dorms when the clutch pedal flops to the floor like a dead trout. My dad had bought me one of those Craftsman socket sets before I left for school and I kept it on the passenger side floorboard. I took the pedals out and the clutch cable had snapped about 3 inches from where it hooks onto the pedal. Fortunately I was pretty close to home. I ended up just killing the motor at stop signs and stop lights and restarting it in gear. I don't remember if I just limped it home in 1st or if I dared shift without it.


After getting the clutch cable fixed, which needed to be done urgently for a hot date, I was leaving lunch with said date and the accelerator pedal does the ol' trout flop to the floor. I was turning right out of the restaurant and was able to get over into the left turn lane that runs down the center of the highway to make some REAL quick fix. I just jammed a rag into the linkage to hold the throttle open and nursed it back home.


Uhhh Hello? What happened with the date? Cool


We've been married for 4 years. Wink
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Krmnnghia
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

frank1380 wrote:
Krmnnghia wrote:
frank1380 wrote:
I met up with some classmates for a project one Saturday when I was in college. I was pulling out of the parking lot to go back to the dorms when the clutch pedal flops to the floor like a dead trout. My dad had bought me one of those Craftsman socket sets before I left for school and I kept it on the passenger side floorboard. I took the pedals out and the clutch cable had snapped about 3 inches from where it hooks onto the pedal. Fortunately I was pretty close to home. I ended up just killing the motor at stop signs and stop lights and restarting it in gear. I don't remember if I just limped it home in 1st or if I dared shift without it.


After getting the clutch cable fixed, which needed to be done urgently for a hot date, I was leaving lunch with said date and the accelerator pedal does the ol' trout flop to the floor. I was turning right out of the restaurant and was able to get over into the left turn lane that runs down the center of the highway to make some REAL quick fix. I just jammed a rag into the linkage to hold the throttle open and nursed it back home.


Uhhh Hello? What happened with the date? Cool


We've been married for 4 years. Wink


Nice! A woman that can deal with you break'n down every once in a while in an ACVW is a woman to keep! Wink
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Ellectronico
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had a 60 rag top bug with dual carbs. while i was coming home from work one night the throttle cable broke( a regular occurrence). I usually carry a spare. This one that broke WAS my spare

What to do?

I found a long piece of speaker wire and some vice grips. I clamped the vice grips to the middle of the Throttle linkage, tied the wire to them, ran the wire down and around something(i cant remember what), then up through the deck lid(i had stand-offs), up over the car, through the rag top, into the cab.

i would pull the wire and it would rev. It worked very well actually. I had to drive it like that for 3 WEEKS until i could make it over to CB Performance for a new one.
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Krmnnghia
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ellectronico wrote:
I had a 60 rag top bug with dual carbs. while i was coming home from work one night the throttle cable broke( a regular occurrence). I usually carry a spare. This one that broke WAS my spare

What to do?

I found a long piece of speaker wire and some vice grips. I clamped the vice grips to the middle of the Throttle linkage, tied the wire to them, ran the wire down and around something(i cant remember what), then up through the deck lid(i had stand-offs), up over the car, through the rag top, into the cab.

i would pull the wire and it would rev. It worked very well actually. I had to drive it like that for 3 WEEKS until i could make it over to CB Performance for a new one.


OMG That is awesome!
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One day while driving my 71 westy on Mount Lemmon near Tucson I noticed my radio getting weaker and weaker - upon examination of my guages I could see dimly the battery light coming on. Finally the bus died. No power.

A quick diagnoses and some quick thinking lead me to believe my voltage regulator had died....and I had no spare - and after calling my insurance company - there was no way a tow truck could make it up the logging road I was on.

So....in comes "original thinking."

Well - the 71 had a generator - and it would pump out amperage - probably too much for the battery IF it had been fresh - but this one was drained to the DREGS. So...

I snipped off some speaker wire (right front) and connected it to the charging post on the generator - and then - uh oh - too short to reach the battery - but not too short to reach the lisence light! So - I wired the generator to the lighting system.

Shocked

Turned the key - and got up to speed downhill - popped the clutch - backfires and barely running - then - turned on the lights.....

vrooooom.

Made it home - but blew out every single light in the bus.

Very Happy
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