Most of you know by now that I sometimes might have a very, very slight tendency to come up with "creative" ways to get a vehicle back on the road.

Sometimes my work amazes myself.  Like the time I repaired the rear universal joint on my Chevy truck drive shaft with the piston from a bus wheel cylinder . . . say what you want about that one, but it got me from 40 miles south of the Georgia/Florida state line to just north of Macon.  It also got me from the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service to civilization and cell phone service.  Since Joy had to make two round trips in one day to rescue me (one to come get me and the drive shaft so I could repair it CORRECTLY and another to take me back to install it), it was pretty significant that I got about two and half hours closer to home.

With Kyle’s help, on the way to Birmingham last year we figured out that a lug bolt will suffice for an oil drain plug if you use the proper seals with it . . . the proper seals are usually used to seal the air connections between a tractor and trailer . . . two of them and lug bolt and 3 quarts of oil later and your back on the interstate . . . hopefully before the EPA shows up and makes you clean up the oil slick you created when you drain plug fell out.  But that's not what I want to talk to you about.

There is a problem with patching stuff and rigging stuff so it will work.  Sometimes it works TOO well.  Several months ago I was on my way home from Mainly Foreign.  I took the back roads for a change of scenery.  In "downtown" Chickamauga THE light (there's only one light in "downtown" Chickamauga) turned red.  Stepped on the clutch pedal . . . something snapped . . . Homer kept right on going . . .

Luckily, my dad had made me learn to drive without a clutch (in the same truck that I did my drive shaft repair on 30 something years later).  I drove over to Kyle’s.  I knew between the two of us and my parts bus that's at his place we could get Homer back on the road.  It wasn't the clutch cable that broke like I had suspected.  It was the pin that holds it to the pedal lever.  I ended up cutting a short piece out of a toggle bolt and putting a self-locking nut on both ends.  I had to take the clutch cable loose on the clutch end, pull it through the front, hook it to the pedals and then put it all together.  It worked fine, BUT it should have been a temporary fix until I could get a new cable and pin.  The pin had worn down thin and snapped, and the hole it went through in the pedal was about to break through too.  The cable also hung up in the bowden tube like it was frayed . . . but I kept working with it and finally got it to work.  At this point I have no doubt that it will work for a day or two until I can get a new cable and pin.  That was at least 6 months ago.  
I ordered a cable and pin last night.  It broke in the parking lot at work yesterday evening.  The parts set me back less than $10.  I'll probably end up paying twice that for the "expedited, next day" shipping.  Until it gets here, Homer is sitting.   #-o
 
There is nothing wrong with using your ingenuity and whatever is available to patch or rig something when you’re in a bind . . . just take the time to FIX IT as soon as possible.