What Was Your Most Ingenious Repair On The Road?

[Capt._Chaos]

Many of us had to improvise and do some weird things to get a truck running after having mechanical or electrical problems.

What have you done to get a truck up and running in a situation where help was not to be found anywhere?

I've had a few adventures, but I'll explain one from about a month ago...

I was in Houston, and had just picked up a load going back to San Antonio. As I was heading west on I-10, I heard a lot of unusual noise from my truck's driveline.

After parking on the shoulder, I got out and noticed that my air suspension on the axles would not inflate, causing the noise. I then went to a Costco parking lot and parked the truck so I could safely crawl under the truck and see what was wrong. I had blown an air bag. :angry:

Knowing the International dealer in Houston was 20 miles away from where I was, I didn't want to drive the truck back to get my part, and I knew a cab fare during rush hour would be outrageous. While thinking about how I would get my part, I saw an Enterprise Rent-A-Car out of the corner of my eye.

Within two hours, I had rented a car, fetched my part, went back, returned the car, and had the new air bag installed. :classic:

[dljtruck]

The one that sticks in my mind of the many was .....suddenly smelling a littlte anti-freeze...pulled over to check...found a leaking hose running to my heater core.the valve was kind frozen so i cut the hose in the place where the leak was ,packed a c cell battery in hose and clamped it down,made to the shop for repairs! ;)

[Bikerboy]

I haven't done this repair yet. But another driver told me if you ever blow and brake pot and don't want to wait for repairs on the road. Just carry a caging bolt and cage the brake , or just back it right off. Then take 2 quarters and pinch of the air line with vice grips, using the quarters to protect the line. Then drive to the first shop you can find and get it fixed right.

Don't ever get caught at a scale or anything while doin this! big fine!

But it's ok for a short distance, safer than a mecanic crawling under the truck on the road. One brake not working isn't gonna make that big of difference on stopping power. But just to be safe don't drive too fast.

[Jimbo]

I had a coolant level sensor go bad one time, and had to pull the plug off of it, and stick a paper clip in it. Got the truck home from Toledo, Oh. to levittown, PA. The boss thanked me for the savings of a road service call, but his dad was not happy at all. He ddn't like me messing around under the hood. The next time I had a problem, I just called road service.

[Big_Dave]

I haven't done this repair yet. But another driver told me if you ever blow and brake pot and don't want to wait for repairs on the road. Just carry a caging bolt and cage the brake , or just back it right off. Then take 2 quarters and pinch of the air line with vice grips, using the quarters to protect the line. Then drive to the first shop you can find and get it fixed right.

Don't ever get caught at a scale or anything while doin this! big fine!

But it's ok for a short distance, safer than a mecanic crawling under the truck on the road. One brake not working isn't gonna make that big of difference on stopping power. But just to be safe don't drive too fast.
The DOT will allow 10% of your brakes to be out of adjustment. That means 1 pair of brake shoes. But I agree, don't let the DOT catch you running down the road like this.

I blew a pancake one time down on I-20 in Alabama. If I had known at the time what happened, I could've caged the brake, unhooked the air lines and put plugs on the lines. But since I've never had that happen before, I didn't know what to do. :wtf:

I carry a full assortment of brass plugs, along with other 'nice to have' pieces and parts for 'jerry rigging' roadside repairs.

[allikat]

I had a leaky heater core in the cab, the workshop had pulled the pipes off it and clamped them closed, but done a shite job of it. I pulled one pipe off completely, and put the other one onto the other joint as a complete bypass. Using only what junk I had in the cab. :ninja: :brucelee:

A few years ago (15) I was pullin out of Atl for Tpa. south of Macon, truck started hoppin, skippin scared the crap out of me..Got slowed down and looked around (middle of night of course).

Found drive shaft from front rear to back rear hanging like a banana..Well (edited), now what do I do? The bearing shaft all but fell out of front rear..Got BIG hammer and took rear shaft off, duct tapped a piece of cardboard over big hole on back of front rear.. Filled with motor oil first as it was almost out of oil..

Stopped twice to refill with oil (what a mess) and made it to Tpa. 3 hours late but alot cheaper than a tow ....

Sure glad DOT did'nt catch me dumpin oil like that!!

[truckerdale]

:yikes: :yikes: :classic: ....

WOW .. could I tell some stories ... but the best one has to be this ... southbound on hiway 97 out of ORE into CA .. probably had 15-20 miles to go to get into Weed, CA ... all of a sudden ... tremendus vibration in steering whell, it's dark, isn't anything around 'cept maybe night critters, slide on over to the shoulder .. start looking .. nothing out of whack in the front .. starting to get real confused now .. well might as well check the whole tractor out .. well darn .. under the front driver is a small puddle of oil .. me thinks this is bad .. looked some more .. the locking nut that keeps the yoke on the input shaft is gone .. ooppss (fuss n cuss) .. little more looking and what do I see .. that nut is laying between the left side frame rail and the hose and wiring harness eeeyyyaaa ... peen it couple times .. put it back on as best I could .. couple drivers stopped helped out with a chisel to get the nut fairly tight .. they stayed with me till the 76 truckstop in Redding, CA .. got that nut real tight there and bought them two fellers an all they could eat dinner .. got some more but that be it for now .. the good ole days :) :)

Duct taped a blown turbo hose and just the other day put a super glue patch on an air line with a hole in it.

Both ad hoc repairs got us to deliveries and to a freightliner for "real" repair.

[Uncle Truck]

While sitting in a parking lot shut down, (Middle of nowhere, of course ;) ) I went to start the engine, and click-click-click- nothing. Battery voltage was fine, starter was shot. I remembered someone telling me that you can often get one last shot out of a dead starter motor by giving it a swift rap on the outside with a wrench. I was skeptical, but it worked! I kept the engine running until I could get a new starter put on :chase:

UT

[Truckdobe]

Chewing gum and duct tape.... Brake regulator making LOTS of noise (years ago on co. junk), plugged with chewing gum, it worked from IN to GA.

Air bag on sleeper leaking, dirt lot, getting ready to cross into CA, not with audible air leak.... Duct tape!! I carry spare air bags, made it to a nice, level, paved parking area in CA and changed the bag.

After losing a set of duals (again on co. junk) years ago, we don't leave home without necessary equip to chain up an axle. Boy was that a fiasco!!

[Capt._Chaos]

I thought his one needed to be "resurrected". :p

[Rob]

I'll ad a rather "fantastic" reply to this thread:

A buddy of mine had the engine for his KW rebuilt at a dealership in St. Louis, Mo, (1693TA Caterpillar). After reinstallation into the chassis and on it's first outing hauling logs, the engine without warning suddenly slung #2 cylinder rod out the side of the block making a nice window for inspection of the crankcase innards. This truck has a small AC generator and the tool box contained a reciprocating saw so the large end of the connecting rod that remained was cut off just at the bottom of the piston, then the piston was shoved up into the top of the bore and "siliconed" into place to stay put. A piece of tin was then cut and siliconed into place to cover the hole in the block, a gallon of oil dumped in and after a couple of hours of sitting, the truck was driven, (easily and missing on one cylinder of course) a little over 100 miles home. We then pulled the engine and the original rebuilder, (with the owner's concurrence) decided to install a fresh reman 3406B, at no charge including towing. All is well with the truck after 40,000 plus trouble free miles.

I have the complete engine for spare parts as I have another in a truck.

Rob

[snoope]

Right time to restart this.......
My poor NEW Mack got upset with me yesterday......Working with the pipe crew and parked off road,I turned to square the truck up for driving up and over the shoulder ( the loader op supposedly built me a ramp ;) :harhar: ).this worked well until the Mack rears( good old Camelback springs) bottomed when the rear axle came road side...they ( j&j) build in a safety cable for "Dump bucket return" and the tubing tried to argue with my driveshaft......tubing lost and wrapped around the shaft..poor State Trooper thought shots were fired ;) :D :D ....... I called the shop and was told to sit still or grab the spare.NOT...grabbed a BFH and a "Cut saw"......20 minutes later "Safety device" is missing BUT "Snoopes office" is back on road .......a few "Mods" on Sunday and until the "Shop" sees it in 8000 miles for service NO ONE will ever know ;) :D :D


Snoope back quiet

[beastr123]

late 70's, northern canada, winter road to a minesite 150 miles off the pavement. I broke a spring leaf on the rear and it began to turn, cutting the tire. I jacked the frame to unload the spring, hammered the spring back into place, used barbed wire from an old fenceline to wrap the spring. i then used my bowsaw(must carry equiptment for flatdeckers and heavyhaulers) to cut a small tree for a block. i then blocked the frame to the spring making it solid suspension. this got me up to the minesite, and back home to shop with no service callout

[SpotsCat]

This is another little trick I learned from Roadservice, so I won't take credit for it, I'll just pass it on.

Stopped at the Colorado scale in Cortez one afternoon, and had to run in to show them my registration, insurance, etc... I forgot to shut the truck off, and when I came out, the truck had shut itself off. I turned the key off, waited a few seconds and tried to restart it, but it wouldn't crank. Tried the same proceedure a couple of more times, and still no luck.

Called Roadservice, and learned this --

In the battery box, there are three fuses wired into the harness. Remove the fuses, wait about 10-15 minutes, reinstall the fuses, and the truck will start.

Know how sometimes your home computer goes flakey, and you've got to power it down and re-boot it? Same thing with the DDEC.

The most ingenoius repair I can take credit for is this...

We carry spare tires on the back of the cabs. Lots of times water and dirt will collect in the inside of the tire casing. I took a 1-1/2" drill bit and drilled a hole in the bottom of the tire to let the water out, and now I don't have a problem with water collecting inside the tire... :D

[Sandman]

Running across W. Va. several years ago I had a flex pipe (exhaust line) break apart. Hot exhaust from the blown flex had melted a large air line, so now I had two things to fix. I didn't have anything to properly fix the flex pipe with at the time, so I concentrated on re-routing the air lines so they wouldn't get melted from exhaust. Taking bits and pieces of hose, tubing and assorted junk in my tool box I got all the bundled air lines re-routed to a safe location, and managed to put a few clamps on the flex pipe so that it wasn't leaking quite so badly. This piece of flex pipe was just behind the cab, going to the second stack. Made it down into Charleston and got a proper piece of flex pipe and a piece of stainless steel to make a heat shield for the air lines. Took me an hour to get the new flex pipe on, but finally got it. Total cost of repairs: about $30.00 and three hours total. Still made my delivery on time. :)

[GmManDan]

Running across W. Va. several years ago I had a flex pipe (exhaust line) break apart. Hot exhaust from the blown flex had melted a large air line, so now I had two things to fix. I didn't have anything to properly fix the flex pipe with at the time, so I concentrated on re-routing the air lines so they wouldn't get melted from exhaust. Taking bits and pieces of hose, tubing and assorted junk in my tool box I got all the bundled air lines re-routed to a safe location, and managed to put a few clamps on the flex pipe so that it wasn't leaking quite so badly. This piece of flex pipe was just behind the cab, going to the second stack. Made it down into Charleston and got a proper piece of flex pipe and a piece of stainless steel to make a heat shield for the air lines. Took me an hour to get the new flex pipe on, but finally got it. Total cost of repairs: about $30.00 and three hours total. Still made my delivery on time. :)

I had that same issue about a year ago what I did was cut an alumium pepsi can and use a coat hanger to hold it on their it made it the 100 miles back to the shop.

[Trucktool]

I haven't done this repair yet. But another driver told me if you ever blow and brake pot and don't want to wait for repairs on the road. Just carry a caging bolt and cage the brake , or just back it right off. Then take 2 quarters and pinch of the air line with vice grips, using the quarters to protect the line. Then drive to the first shop you can find and get it fixed right.

Don't ever get caught at a scale or anything while doin this! big fine!

But it's ok for a short distance, safer than a mecanic crawling under the truck on the road. One brake not working isn't gonna make that big of difference on stopping power. But just to be safe don't drive too fast.


By "caging" your brake chamber, you have only disabled the spring side of the chamber (emergency/park brake)... your "service" (or foot brake) is still functional.

Also, rather than clamping the hose with vise grips, remove the air hose from the fitting, and drop something small/flat (like a dime) into the fitting opening, and re-install the hose (undectable without a brake operational check). This won't work if your emergency side uses nylon tubing instead of rubber hose. You still have to cage the spring if it's on the emergency side. If your service side is leaking, you can do the same without caging... but, you lose your foot brake on that wheel-end.

EITHER roadside repair is ONLY intended to get you to the shop without financing a roadside service call.

P.s. - how do you tell if your leak is on the "service" or "emergency" side of the spring brake chamber? 1. Release your brakes; does it leak now? YES? Emergency side leak. 2. If NO, then apply your foot brake; does it only start leaking now? YES? Then, you have a service side leak.

[BeetleBailey]

broke an air line off a brake chamber on I 55 in La. on my way to houston one morning. used a 3/8 drive extension as an ez-out to remove the threads from the chamber then put the air line back on with the remaining threads on the fitting with a little teflon tape to seal it.
Foxie was boot scooting across I 20 one night when a gator sneaked up on her an bit off the cross over line at the right tank. got stoped at the rest area [got lucky it was less than a mile to it] an I cralled under shut off the vaulve the ran around an stuck me finger in the fitting at the tank while another driver found me a stick. After a little whittling I shoved the stick in the fitting an stopped the leak.

[William]

Ran across a driver that had run out of fuel on I-5 in Oregon. He had a empty gallon jug to use for a container but no siphon hose. We took off one of his air lines and used this for a siphon hose. It worked good enough for us to put enough fuel in his truck to get it to a truckstop.
Another time the front drive axle broke. I limped to a local shop where they pulled both shafts out of the front axle and then cut and drill some plywood to fit over the holes where the shafts went. After that I kicked in the interlock and went back to Houston so the bossman could fix it himself.

[BeetleBailey]

well lets see . broke a glad hand off once and had to reroute the air to get the brakes to release then limp and crawl to a shop for the parts [no trailer brakes just one airline] , broke an air line on the trailer at the tank had to use a 3/8 extension as an ezout and put the old line back in with the remaining threads.blew a pop-off vaulve out of an air tank on the tractor once had to use solder and a bolt to patch the old vaulve together to get to a shop. by passed the brake service line going to the trailer to get the brakes to release by running a line from the air tank to the vaulve where the service lines hooked upto the truck.Most trucks have 2 low air warning sensors if the low air warning quits find out which sensor is bad and simply unhook it. Works long enough to get to a parts store.Thats just a few of the patch jobs I've preformed in the last 22 years.:5_2_2[1]:

[Pipeman]

well lets see . broke a glad hand off once and had to reroute the air to get the brakes to release then limp and crawl to a shop for the parts [no trailer brakes just one airline] , broke an air line on the trailer at the tank had to use a 3/8 extension as an ezout and put the old line back in with the remaining threads.blew a pop-off vaulve out of an air tank on the tractor once had to use solder and a bolt to patch the old vaulve together to get to a shop. by passed the brake service line going to the trailer to get the brakes to release by running a line from the air tank to the vaulve where the service lines hooked upto the truck.Most trucks have 2 low air warning sensors if the low air warning quits find out which sensor is bad and simply unhook it. Works long enough to get to a parts store.Thats just a few of the patch jobs I've preformed in the last 22 years.:5_2_2[1]:If you take the (Red) Supply Line and hook it up to the (Blue) Application glad hand and turn on the air, your brakes will release.

[BeetleBailey]

P.B on the trailer I was pulling the glad hands were user specific. You know the blue only worked on the applacacion side ect. and the supply line got riped off sending the glad hand and most of the line into the weeds. so I had to reroute the system to make it work. I am not the brightest bulb on the christmas tree but I can figure out how to make emergency road side patches most of the time.

[Joethemechanic]

I used a Malboro 100 and a railroad flare to "fix" a rate cutter's truck one time. :)

[inor_sultanov]

Once upon a time not so long ago a had a little jorney with my friend fron Nizniy Novgorod (central Russia) to Novosibirsk (Siberia) about 2500 km.
So near the Omsk (Siberia) coolant pump begined to leak. My fried purchased a new coolant pump which was delievered from Moscow area to Omsk.
So we stopped near Omsk at the truck-stop unmoving for about 2 days, waiting for new pump & replacing that on road.

This How it's (me) looked:

http://s19.radikal.ru/i192/1005/6d/22b28f4a725ft.jpg (http://radikal.ru/F/s19.radikal.ru/i192/1005/6d/22b28f4a725f.jpg.html)

[h11way]

I needed to change one of the rear air bags on the trailer.The shop's jack would'nt lift the trailer up high enough,so we backed the trailer up to the edge of a ditch,the axle dropped down and made removing the air bag easy,
Duc tape and a hose clamp will fix an airline leak if you do not have a quick connect.
used to run a jumper wire from the tractor to the trailer if the lites were'nt working.
I tried to go to far before fueling,I was in site of the truckstop so I poured a gal. of water and 1/2 gal of fuel cond. in each side,made it to the truckstop.:23_11_60:

[Kranky 1]

[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]
I tried to go to far before fueling,I was in site of the truckstop so I poured a gal. of water and 1/2 gal of fuel cond. in each side,made it to the truckstop.:23_11_60:

I don't think so.

.

[Randg1]

I don't think so.

.

Kinda hard to S-it a bunch of old s-iters ain't it?:36_21_1[1]:

[h11way]

The reason it will work is is the draw pipe is 4 inches from the bottom of the tank,the water is heavier than the fuel,the level of the fuel comes up enough to run without sucking air,beats the hell out of walking.I have heard of drivers pizzing in the tanks,I could care less what you think.Highway

[Kranky 1]

Anybody that puts water or any other foreign sustance into a fuel tank for any reason deserves to be fired on the spot.

.

[RSTrans]

I agree Kranky.

I have four repairs that have stuck out over the years.

Repair #1

During my behind the wheel test for my CDL I had a valve go bad on the trailer and it started leaking like there was no tomorrow. The DMV Instructor was freaking out and with my quick thinking I took and popped the glad hand rubber out of the service glad hand and placed a quarter in it to block the flow then put the rubber back and hooked it back up. I never told her what I did and she passed me on the spot.

Repair #2

A buddy of mine ran out of air in his transfer box. Instead of using his head and hooking back up his trailer he just hooked up his airlines. He charged the trailer and it rolled forward in to the truck breaking the lines and destroying the valved in the drawbar. With some quick thinking I re-routed the air so that we could get his trailer hooked back up and his front brakes to stay unlocked so that he could get back to the yard.

Repair #3

I had a fitting break off of a service can on the steer axle of my dump truck. I took a bolt from an exhaust clamp and used a socket and ratchet to thread it in to stop the leak then took a couple of rags to tie it to the frame out of the way. I was able to drive the truck to dump the load and then get back to the shop. The boss was too lazy to drive the 10 miles to where I was at to bring me an ez-out and new fitting to repair the break.

Repair #4

On a jobsite I managed to catch a nail that was in a piece of a pallet that was burried in the dirt. I pulled the piece of wood off the tire and it started to leak immediately. I found a screw and screwed it in to the tire making a temporary plug. I topped off the tire with air, finished my day and took the tire to the shop on the way home. The tire guys patched it and x-rayed the tire to make sure there was no damage. It worked just fine for a temporary fix.

I have since used that trick on equipment tires while on jobs to get through the day so that I didn't have to call out a tire guy or hold up the job because of a nail.

Lesson learned in this is to always carry an ez-out and fittings, but also an assortment of bolts and screws as you never know when you may need one.

[h11way]

Since I DON'T WORK FOR YOU I'M NOT TO WORRIED ABOUT IT.
:gassy[1]:

[Joethemechanic]

Since I DON'T WORK FOR YOU I'M NOT TO WORRIED ABOUT IT.
:gassy[1]:


Why the water? If you had a gallon of fuel conditioner, why didn't you just use that? That should have gotten you about 4 miles. Hell I'd even use motor oil if it was some kind of emergency,,,,,,,,,,

But water? Damn that is "F"ed up.

This is why people don't want drivers touching trucks