What's your favorite redneck trail fix?

macox49

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Nov 6, 2016
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94
Location
Le Roy, West Virginia, United States
I have 2. the first one is dental floss.one time in a old chevy truck the rotor button in the distributor the little tab broke off in the biggest mud hole .the old lady had some dental floss in her purse,wrapped it around little tab and drove on to the house. a couple years later we broke the alternator belt and again my wife to the rescue she had panty hose on under her jeans cause it was cold out.streached them babies around the pullies and drove home and to work the next day.....
 
I have 2. the first one is dental floss.one time in a old chevy truck the rotor button in the distributor the little tab broke off in the biggest mud hole .the old lady had some dental floss in her purse,wrapped it around little tab and drove on to the house. a couple years later we broke the alternator belt and again my wife to the rescue she had panty hose on under her jeans cause it was cold out.streached them babies around the pullies and drove home and to work the next day.....

Haha, that's awesome!

This is going to be a great topic, and one I don't think I've seen yet!

Can't wait to hear the responses.
 
Screw driver into a carburetor of a 72' Chevy pickup. It was winter time and my carb choke butterfly broke and got stuck closed. I Jammed a common screw driver into the butterfly to keep it partly open. I was able to nurse it the mile or so to work where one of the mechanics helped me get it fixed.
 
In high school my buddy and I were cruising around in his Dodge Dart when the steering wheel came off. We had jury rigged a "cool" Grant GT wheel, which was popular then. The only way to get home was to clamp a vise grip he had in the trunk to the steering shaft. Pretty bad ass rollin with a vise grip "steering wheel.":b1::D

Not really a trail fix but pretty redneckish:D
 
Fuel pump failed. Filled a gallon milk jug with gas, stuck a rubber hose into it and after syphoningenough gas to fill the hose hooked it onto the intake line to the carb. Passenger held the jug on the windshield frame (top was off) all the way to the trail head.
 
Let's bring this back to life.

Yesterday, one of the guys was walking up the trail and noticed a very clean poly race on the ground. We quickly figured out that it belonged to a JKS front track bar on one of the Jeeps in our group. It was missing the lower race, washer and retainer clip. A quick run back down the hill and we found the washer and clip near where the race was found.

We had enough tools to make the repair, including a snap ring pliers, but no press to squeeze the races and insert the retainer clip. After several failed ideas that included putting a jack between two trees, we ended up with a bottle jack, a beam style bumper, a length of steel and four soft shackles to make a "shop" press.

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This contraption worked and we finished the day.
 
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My favorite is a Warn small hub conversion broke the stub shaft inside the spindle. That split the spindle inside the area where the spindle nuts ride and blew up both spindle nuts. That left nothing to retain the bearings. We pulled it apart, cleaned the grease off the threads, shoved the spindle nut washer on as tight as it would got, wrapped baling wire around the threads, got it fairly tight and then coated it all with some 5 minute JB Weld. It lasted long enough to finish the trail in JV and get the rig back to camp.
 
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Not trail worthy fix but...….. I had a Land Rover Discovery 2. We were in Gatlinburg (4 hours from home, on New Years eve) and the front drive shaft U Joint broke. Being that it is full time 4WD and the way the transfer case transfers torque, the vehicle will not drive without a drive shaft in either the front or rear. Being a Land Rover local parts stores or even the driveline shop did not have the carrier in stock. I had them put in a U joint and drove back to the cabin very slow (Thumping all the way). Up all night thinking and praying how am I going to get home tomorrow. I came up with stuffing the carrier around the U joint with duck tape. I wadded up little pieces of tape and stuffed it in with a screwdriver. Was able to do almost 60mph then the vibes would start to come in. Made it home though and came up with yet another use for duct tape.

Next day, ordered a Tom Woods drive shaft. It was cheaper than OEM and came in just few days latter. Not long after, traded in the Land Rover for a Dodge 1500.
 
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Had a buddies Willy's break the front spindle assembly bouncing through some rocks. We removed the entire wheel/brake and threw it in the back. Then cut a log into a giant "ski" and secured it under the axle with a chain and drove to the trailhead on his own power where we loaded it on a trailer.
 
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An old gmc pickup I drove in high school shreded the serpentine belt. We fashioned a new belt out of a couple of white tshirts and got home 5 miles later!
 
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I was on my way to school on the freeway on the far left lane when the throttle cable broke on my dads YJ. I barley was able to make to the emergency right shoulder. Figured out it was the throttle cable looked around my dads jeep to see what I can use I found an old battery terminal tied it to the throttle cable and off I went. 5min fix I made it to school on time and took me all the way home. I had also found a small adjustable crescent wrench on the floor 2 days prior and left it on my dads jeep and it was useful. Thank god for free tools 🛠 it was also my birthday 😂
I call it a Mickey Mouse fix.

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Had a guy's cross member rip from the frame that held the lower links to his 4 link setup. The only way to get it off the trail was to fix it, so we used his winch to get the axle lined back up and hooked 3 car batteries in a series together and used jumper cables and a welding rod to weld it back together.
 
Had the centering bolt on my rear leaf spring on my YJ broke so the spring would not stay centered. I used 2 ratchet straps one forward and one backwards till we could get off the trail. I now never go off road w/o a few ratchet straps
 
I had the center pin on my xj rear leaf springs break out in the back country around Cle Elum wa, started driving sideways when I saw something was wrong. Found rather problem and cinched it down with a ratchet strap made it to town for a bolt and made it the hundred miles home to get some new centeringnpins
 
Use to own and old IH Scott II and carried a long handle 1 1/4" open end wrench. When the starter would not work I'd quickly get my wrench and jumpstart it at the starter — saved me 80 buck for beer!! Even got my wife trained on how to do just in case she was making a run and it acted up — hell, didn't want no warm beer after all.