hillbilly fix it tips

[77kickinaspen]

i wanted to strt a thread on the topic of what weird unusual fix its have u found.i have found some pretty wqeird odball stuff but wanna hear what others have found aswell .

hillbilly fixes go way back with me to my first car my 73 duster the carb didnt fit the barrel intake it had on the 318 so they just loaded around the base of the carb with rtv to cover all the gaps,same car had bubble gum wrapers for fuses.
moving on to my 3rd car now my aspen i noticed some weird long bolts sticking out the intake manifold and wanted to get the right size so the head of the bolt would be flush with the intake so i start removing all that crap and notice the brake booster hose is connected to a funcky nipple this is what i thought took the cake b4 this it was the bubble gum wrapers.

first pic shows the nipple
the 2nd ur looking at a 2nd arm that once came off the nipple with a screw in the hole with rtv around it .
the 3rd ur looking at is anouther arm that they actually cut off like the one with the screw but this time welded or brazed it closed
the 4th is the inside where u see the used a 5/8screw

what hillbilly fixes have u had ? some ppl should not be able to touch the under hood or any mechical/elec stuff EVER!

 

[bremereric]

Get rid of that hillbilly fix and get you a 3/8"NPT to 3/8" barb brass fitting at le home depot...

 

[77kickinaspen]

dont worry fixed it about 3 weeks ago kept it for a conversation peice tho got a new brass and real power brake hose they had fuel line on there.

 

[mousehousemoparman]

Hillbilly fixes

How about one that I actually did. I had a 96 Dodge Intrepid. When the wife left so did the car. Anyway when the car was built Ma Mopar put the steering rack into collars on both sides of the car. Inside of the collar is a rubber sleeve that is supposed to hold the rack in place. Anyway when you turn the steering wheel the rack moved back and forth in the collars about two inches before the front wheels started to turn. It made corners and curves very interesting. I tried tightening the bolts on the collar, cleaning the rubber and rack, even drilled holes in the collars, tapped them and put in set screws to hold the rack down. None of these worked. You can't buy the rubber sleeves without buying a new rack and adding more rubber or different rubber didn't work either. I ended up removing the rubber sleeves and collars, roughed up the rack metal where the sleeves were, wrapped the rack in two part epoxy Aquastick, put the collars back on with the set screws. After the epoxy set up it worked perfectly. Saved the price of a 400.00 rack. Sometimes hillbilly fixes are not so bad.

 

[77kickinaspen]

heres a new one i just found sunday i and my dad where puting in the new radiator ,flex a lite tranny cooler,new water pump,alum t stat houseing /180 tstat and new upper and loer rad hoses used a mix of water wetter and 50/50 shes running great

but i may have or may not have found the problem to my car issues b4 this . the radiator fins where rotted out so the po decides run it with no tstat full flow then when i get evreything new i was amazed this is the most akwardly fixed up car.

now shes running beutifly and smooth and i dont smell hot antifreeze right when i open my door . lol

thanks for all the help ffmjbo

 

[ramenth]

I think the most interesting I've heard of to date was what my father did. He drove truck for 25 years, put three million miles under his belt in the meantime.

He was heading to the yard in Scranton one night when he took off at a red light just few miles from home. Scranton is about two and half hours away, maybe closer to three hours in the under powered R-model Mack day cab he was driving at the time.

He dropped a u-joint going into the from drive axle when he took off. At about 2:00 in the morning. Being stuck with no tools, no phone (long before the days of popular cell phone use) and nothing more than his wits he reached in the cab and grabbed the fibrous packaging tape the company gave it's drivers. Slammed the driveshaft back into the yoke, wrapped the hole roll of tape around the combination and drove to Scranton. At about 30 mph. Talk about a long trip.

The mechanics at the company were still talking about that when he left to go to a different company twelve years later.

 

[8D5 Gran Fury]

ha,ha,ha...classic Robert!