Your "Macgyver" moment.With your own definition.

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Does using a heavy metal rod (think rebar), pliers and the tube of a bicycle frame to fix a bent and twisted brake pedal count? Just finished that, almost exactly back to OEM.

I keep lots of bits and pieces of pipe, tubing, sticks, wood for that kind of fix.
 
Riceburner said:
Does using a heavy metal rod (think rebar), pliers and the tube of a bicycle frame to fix a bent and twisted brake pedal count? Just finished that, almost exactly back to OEM.

I keep lots of bits and pieces of pipe, tubing, sticks, wood for that kind of fix.
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Yes and no. I've seen someone replace a broken shifter with a box wrench, and a broken brake lever with a set of vise-grips.
 
A couple of VW-related moments:

1) Developed a coolant leak, pulled into a gas station.. Turns out that one of the rad hoses burst near the clamp. Borrowed a knife from the gas station, cut off the end, clamped it back on (had a screwdriver in my toolkit) and it held until I picked up a replacement (I figured that if the end is rotten, the rest of it is just waiting to go at the worst possible moment).

2) The throttle cable on my Jetta snapped on me and the dealer didn't stock'em so I was forced to deal with a mechanic. Fortunately, the shop was close to my place. I just routed a length of regular wire through and wrapped it around a piece of 1x2.. Used my hand to control the throttle while I limped the car over to the shop.

3) Another VW cooling system story.. The thermoswitch crapped out on me. Used a piece of wire in lieu of the switch to keep the fan always on, while I went over to crappy tire to get a replacement switch.
 
Made a clutch cable for a friends bike out of a Canadian Trire bicycle brake cable. Lasted a month until the real one arrived.
 
I have uses a "farmers metric wrench" for a shifter on dirt bike in the past
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does making cruise control out of a coat hanger count?
 
I once jacked up my bike using a car jack, pillow and plywood. True story :rolleyes:

Wingboy said:
I would.Make your own thread with your own definition of Macguyver moment if you don't like this one.


You too.
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Ban him for being ignorant :D
 
Vise grips are the best. It's all I had during a bear attack. He held still long enough for me to pinch his paw with them until he cried Uncle and ran off. OK, that's not true...but it could be. They are so handy!!
 
As a 15 year old, left at home, alone with dad's new spiffy Vega sitting in the drive way, I just had to take the new car out GTing around the neighbourhood.
Doing the four wheel drift around a corner, pound it into third gear, and the gas pedal goes to the floor and the engine goes to idle.
YIKES 15 minutes till dad gets home.
Lift the hood (always being petrol-sexual I knew it was a carb/throttle linkage problem).
First problem: Early Chevy Vegas didn't have a wing nut on the aircleaner (Who knew?) THE STUPID THING HAS FOUR 7/16 NUTS!
Went through my pockets, being a 15 year old kid in the early seventies, there wasn't much there BUT being a properly PREPARED 15 year kid in the early seventies I DID have my trusty Brewer's Retail opener (Who else remembers them?) that to my surprise works very well as a 7/16 wrench (5/8 too, we found out later, after extensive testing).
OK I got the aircleaner off, dig in abit, to find a linkage rod has fallen off because a carb clip has broken. HHHMMMMMmmmmm?
Tried a shoe lace. Nope, Too big. Back into my pockets to find a roach clip (I DID say I was a properly equipped 15 year old kid from the seventies didn't I?)
WORKED GREAT. Got home in time not to be found out... and the stupid roach clip was still there six years later when my idiot brother totalled the car in a flaming wreck.
Is that MacGyver enough for ya?
 
bitzz said:
As a 15 year old, left at home, alone with dad's new spiffy Vega sitting in the drive way, I just had to take the new car out GTing around the neighbourhood.
Doing the four wheel drift around a corner, pound it into third gear, and the gas pedal goes to the floor and the engine goes to idle.
YIKES 15 minutes till dad gets home.
Lift the hood (always being petrol-sexual I knew it was a carb/throttle linkage problem).
First problem: Early Chevy Vegas didn't have a wing nut on the aircleaner (Who knew?) THE STUPID THING HAS FOUR 7/16 NUTS!
Went through my pockets, being a 15 year old kid in the early seventies, there wasn't much there BUT being a properly PREPARED 15 year kid in the early seventies I DID have my trusty Brewer's Retail opener (Who else remembers them?) that to my surprise works very well as a 7/16 wrench (5/8 too, we found out later, after extensive testing).
OK I got the aircleaner off, dig in abit, to find a linkage rod has fallen off because a carb clip has broken. HHHMMMMMmmmmm?
Tried a shoe lace. Nope, Too big. Back into my pockets to find a roach clip (I DID say I was a properly equipped 15 year old kid from the seventies didn't I?)
WORKED GREAT. Got home in time not to be found out... and the stupid roach clip was still there six years later when my idiot brother totalled the car in a flaming wreck.
Is that MacGyver enough for ya?
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Extra points if the MacGuyvering caused the flaming wreck.
 
Got a flat tire on my Yamazuki 50 converted-to-a-dirt bike. Ended up cutting the tube off with my Swiss army knife and then got my little brother to ride on the back while holding the rear tire to one side to keep it away from the rim. We made it home riding on the rim. Later I ghost rode it off the escarpment at Kelso.

I once had the oil filler fall out of Honda S65 causing the engine to seize. I fixed it by sanding the piston to "make it fit" and got the bike running again.

I used to wreck 60's small bore bikes for kicks.
 
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bitzz said:
As a 15 year old, left at home, alone with dad's new spiffy Vega sitting in the drive way, I just had to take the new car out GTing around the neighbourhood.
Doing the four wheel drift around a corner, pound it into third gear, and the gas pedal goes to the floor and the engine goes to idle.
YIKES 15 minutes till dad gets home.
Lift the hood (always being petrol-sexual I knew it was a carb/throttle linkage problem).
First problem: Early Chevy Vegas didn't have a wing nut on the aircleaner (Who knew?) THE STUPID THING HAS FOUR 7/16 NUTS!
Went through my pockets, being a 15 year old kid in the early seventies, there wasn't much there BUT being a properly PREPARED 15 year kid in the early seventies I DID have my trusty Brewer's Retail opener (Who else remembers them?) that to my surprise works very well as a 7/16 wrench (5/8 too, we found out later, after extensive testing).
OK I got the aircleaner off, dig in abit, to find a linkage rod has fallen off because a carb clip has broken. HHHMMMMMmmmmm?
Tried a shoe lace. Nope, Too big. Back into my pockets to find a roach clip (I DID say I was a properly equipped 15 year old kid from the seventies didn't I?)
WORKED GREAT. Got home in time not to be found out... and the stupid roach clip was still there six years later when my idiot brother totalled the car in a flaming wreck.
Is that MacGyver enough for ya?
Click to expand...

Great story. Back in the 70's pretty much every car was crap. You either got good at fixing them or you walked a lot. I used to be able to fix the tranny linkage in my Pinto on the side of the road by jacking up the car and crawling under it, removing the rear transmission mount to lower the transmission, reaching up over the transmission to remove the top cover, and then prying the jammed linkage free with a short screwdriver. I then put the whole thing together and was on my way.
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