Your favorite Macgyver moments\tricks - Page 19

PFFOG · 01-10-2010, 09:09 PM

Hell I could spend a week listing all the Jerry rigging I have done. MC related the best was probably using the cold start (high idle) cable on my R11RS to replace my broken throttle cable on the side of the road in VT, using my swiss army knife and leatherman. Synced the throttle bodies by ear, and was off and running in 30 minutes. Fix was so good I rode it that way for 2 weeks after I got the new cable.

I have been called McGiver, mister wizard, and when I was a service manager in an auto dealership many moons ago, the mechanics started to call me god.

Trust · 01-13-2010, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PFFOG

Hell I could spend a week listing all the Jerry rigging I have done...

Let's hear 'em!

capeklr · 01-14-2010, 12:52 PM

Riding home from school on my dad's 78 Honda XL 250 I decided to take the long way and do some trail riding on the way.
Well as luck would have it the throttle cable breaks.
The bike had two cables, push and pull. The pull one broke, so after a bit of fiddling on the carb I managed to swop the two cables around and was back on the road again with a throttle working the wrong way around.
Arriving at school the next morning I got some strange looks when I was reving the bike " the wrong way ".

Hitting the brakes suddenly was a bit of a proplem because it tended to open the throttle instead of closing it.

Drove the bike a week like that till I got the new cable.

PFFOG · 01-18-2010, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trust

Let's hear 'em!

Early one, I was about 14 and we had a small farm operation. We worked some land my uncle owned, and when we had to spray the crops we would have to fill the 300gal tank from a garden hose, taking a lot of time. There was a creek on the edge of the property, but a gas powered pump was probably $400 (a lot of $$$in 1969). So looking for a solution, we had an old lawnmower with a vertical shaft engine, and on the scrap heap was an old sump pump. I fabricated a shaft by welding various bits together to match the pump chamber to the motor. Then I mounted the motor on some 4x4 wood risers on a piece of plywood, and the pump chamber on the other side. I then took an old tractor innertube we used for swimming and laced it to the plywood. So now all we had to do was fire up the briggs and stranton, and float the platform into the creek and instead of 5 gal/min out of a garden hose, had probably closer to 40 gal a minute, saving a lot of time.

motorang · 01-22-2010, 04:28 AM

Hi there,
In 1999 I had a jammed wheel roller bearing on my MZ combination one day in the Swiss mountains, remote a place as it can be (we did some free camping there, unofficially). The roller bearings cage had been gone, the balls went flying and I was not able to do another meter.

When I took the wheel off, the inner ring was still stuck on the axle, and I was not able to remove the outer ring from the brake drum without it. So I put everything back together, did put the balls back in and used some wayside moss as a spacer to keep the balls in place.

To remove the bearing, heat needed to be applied. I put the wheel on my trusty petrol stove and heated it up until the moss started to burn, then removed the bearing with a stone (read: hammer) and a screwdriver (read: punch). Then did put in the (luckily) available spare bearing (as one size fits all on an MZ combination).

The combination was fixed before breakfast, and that coffee was well earned.

There is some footage available (scanned from slides so apologies for size and quality):

Andy from Austria
http://motorang.com

utopia · 01-27-2010, 01:33 PM

Last fall a friend of mine and one of his friends bought a pair of used '05 KTM 525SX bikes. So we go riding at the dunes at St. Anthony, ID and I find out that the one bike has been having issues with starting sometimes and would mysteriously just quit running from time to time. So this guy's bike stalls and doesn't start from time to time during the day. I was somewhat annoyed that he would even go riding out there when he knew the bike was unreliable. So finally we are way out there and is stalls for good and there is no starting it. There was no way you could ever push or tow a bike out of where we were. So I just ride around while they are messing with it and they decide to try and tow it out. So I watch the fiasco and of course it doesn't work and the towee is just getting blasted with sand...it was kind of funny watching it. After letting them struggle with it for awhile, it was getting dark and the temperature was falling so I was ready to get the hell out of there and I figured I would try and do something.

So I go switch the CDI's and sure enough the one from the good bike worked on the non-runner and as I was holding the one from the non-runner, I realized that if I held the wire in a certain direction the bike would fire. So we switched them back and I zip tied the wire tight against the side of the box and it fired and ran fine getting us back just at dark. I don't know much about electrical components and I think it was just dumb luck that I figured that out, but I was the hero of the day and got some free beer out of it after the ride.

Poolside · 01-27-2010, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motorang

then removed the bearing with a stone (read: hammer) and a screwdriver (read: punch)

Nice one! A Macgyver in its purest form.

s10rat · 01-28-2010, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motorang

the moss started to burn,

Andy from Austria
http://motorang.com

looks like that moss would have given you a good high...

SilkMoneyLove · 01-31-2010, 09:08 AM

I bypassed the fuel filter an a 99 VW Beetle TDI with a bic pen. Cut the ends off, pull out the pen part and clip the ends of the incoming and outgoing lines to each end of the pen.

Wifes car would not start after being parked in a bad part of Baltimore (is there a good part?) for school. She called and said "car won't start, puddle of diesel by the wheel" I thought "well, the fuel filter is there, maybe a hose popped off or something" grabbed some tools and a tow strap and headed up there.

The cheap filter has a plastic plug on the bottom and it had cracked and leaked. Diesel fuel line is under pressure, why have a plastic plug? The nice filters have a brass plug, but anyhow, I had to cut the ends off the pen to get the right diameter to fit inside the line and the clips held it tight all the way home (about 25 miles).

I am sure it is no good to have unfiltered diesel going directly into the engine, but leaving it overnight to get broken into or parted was worse.

B.Curvin · 02-02-2010, 10:44 AM

Sort of Macgyverish. My second vehicle (at 17) was a 78 Subaru Brat, with the seats in the back.

I absolutely hammered that thing off road and it wouldn't die. 4 feet of air on a regular

basis and all sorts of stupidity. I was way poor, so 13" used tires from my local

shop were the order of the day. I had already put on the spare but I was dumb

enough to keep on wheelin. Of course I got another flat. I came up with a brilliant

solution. I had three guys with me, one of them was 6'5" and weighed about 325#.

I swapped the flat from the rear onto the right front. I had him sit on the bed

rail right next to the tailgate on the drivers side with the other two at his feet.

Braking was precarious, but it was enough weight to keep the right front off

the ground and drive 20 miles back to get two more used tires.

We went back to wheeling.

Sucks2drive · 02-03-2010, 11:56 AM

I had an Austin Allegro 1750 sport .. ( please don't

) if you don't know what they are good!, nah, seriously, here......... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Allegro

UGLY, ain't in it...... but due to the Hydrolastic suspension, it was so smooth n comfortable, it was beyond belief. Well the Previous Owner had fitted an alectric fuel pump and it broke down one night about 190 miles from home... I had my girlfriend use a piece of speaker wire ( robbed from the stereo) to ground the pump so it would work, she had to sit there and 'stroke' the wire briefly on a screw on the inside of the glovebox, all 190 miles home. if she kept the wire on the screw a fraction too long it would blow the fuse.... we went through 8 fuses on the way home.

god i was glad to get home.

Karen said her wrist felt like she had given an elephant a Hand-job........

Nailhead · 02-10-2010, 06:09 AM

I had a diesel G Wagen once that I loved to take camping as far off the beaten track as I could go.

On one late fall trip to the Maze in Utah, the battery started to fail at the Doll House-- about as far off the highway as you can get around there. The morning of my departure, I got a jump start from a buddy and got going on the two-day trip out-- all the while wondering how I was going to be able to get it started the next morning while traveling alone.

On the way out I arrived at a solution: when I got stopped for the night, I lit a campfire & added a liberal pile of charcoal briquets to it. Just before turning in, I shoveled a big glowing pile of coals under the engine, and wrapped the tarp from the army trailer I was towing around the front of the truck between the bumper & the ground. I added a few rocks around the lower edge of the tarp, drank a big glass of water so I would be sure to get up in the middle of the night to start & warm up the truck, and crashed.

In the morning that thing didn't want to start, but by God it did, and I was on my way to the best truck stop breakfast I can remember.

Oh yeah: I have no idea 20 years later why I didn't just leave it idling. Probably low on fuel.

Zerk · 02-12-2010, 05:25 PM

Knew someone who used pet flea and tick shampoo, to get rid of the crabs.

Sucks2drive · 02-12-2010, 08:01 PM

The starter on my KZ1000P started to act up today. Just 'whirred' and would not start. So I stripped the case off and found the Bolt that holds the rotor to the crank, had come undone, not possessing a way to hold the rotor ( IE the proper tools) I devised a holder.

I think I got it tight enough...... check the Hammer handle and screwdriver shaft in second pic!

Poolside · 02-12-2010, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OGW

Sometimes sacrifices must be made! Good thing you didn't pop off a magnet. Maybe next time wrap the strap around the ring gear and tie it off to the frame.

01-31-2010, 09:08 AM	#279
SilkMoneyLove Studly Adventurer Joined: Nov 2007 Location: Minneapolis Oddometer: 853	These are great I bypassed the fuel filter an a 99 VW Beetle TDI with a bic pen. Cut the ends off, pull out the pen part and clip the ends of the incoming and outgoing lines to each end of the pen. Wifes car would not start after being parked in a bad part of Baltimore (is there a good part?) for school. She called and said "car won't start, puddle of diesel by the wheel" I thought "well, the fuel filter is there, maybe a hose popped off or something" grabbed some tools and a tow strap and headed up there. The cheap filter has a plastic plug on the bottom and it had cracked and leaked. Diesel fuel line is under pressure, why have a plastic plug? The nice filters have a brass plug, but anyhow, I had to cut the ends off the pen to get the right diameter to fit inside the line and the clips held it tight all the way home (about 25 miles). I am sure it is no good to have unfiltered diesel going directly into the engine, but leaving it overnight to get broken into or parted was worse.

02-02-2010, 10:44 AM	#280
B.Curvin Feral Chia tamer Joined: Feb 2004 Location: Left of the dial. Canton, NC Oddometer: 2,597	Sort of Macgyverish. My second vehicle (at 17) was a 78 Subaru Brat, with the seats in the back. I absolutely hammered that thing off road and it wouldn't die. 4 feet of air on a regular basis and all sorts of stupidity. I was way poor, so 13" used tires from my local shop were the order of the day. I had already put on the spare but I was dumb enough to keep on wheelin. Of course I got another flat. I came up with a brilliant solution. I had three guys with me, one of them was 6'5" and weighed about 325#. I swapped the flat from the rear onto the right front. I had him sit on the bed rail right next to the tailgate on the drivers side with the other two at his feet. Braking was precarious, but it was enough weight to keep the right front off the ground and drive 20 miles back to get two more used tires. We went back to wheeling. __________________ Mutt'n the custard. On the outside with my back turned.

02-10-2010, 06:09 AM	#282
Nailhead Painting by numbers Joined: Apr 2003 Location: Glendo, WY- Pop. 230 Oddometer: 5,383	I had a diesel G Wagen once that I loved to take camping as far off the beaten track as I could go. On one late fall trip to the Maze in Utah, the battery started to fail at the Doll House-- about as far off the highway as you can get around there. The morning of my departure, I got a jump start from a buddy and got going on the two-day trip out-- all the while wondering how I was going to be able to get it started the next morning while traveling alone. On the way out I arrived at a solution: when I got stopped for the night, I lit a campfire & added a liberal pile of charcoal briquets to it. Just before turning in, I shoveled a big glowing pile of coals under the engine, and wrapped the tarp from the army trailer I was towing around the front of the truck between the bumper & the ground. I added a few rocks around the lower edge of the tarp, drank a big glass of water so I would be sure to get up in the middle of the night to start & warm up the truck, and crashed. In the morning that thing didn't want to start, but by God it did, and I was on my way to the best truck stop breakfast I can remember. Oh yeah: I have no idea 20 years later why I didn't just leave it idling. Probably low on fuel. __________________ -Chris '04 GS Adv- A fond memory '07 990 Adventure- still bonding... How hard can it be? - Jeremy Clarkson Nailhead screwed with this post 02-10-2010 at 06:17 AM

02-12-2010, 05:25 PM	#283
Zerk DILLIGAF Joined: Jan 2010 Location: Straight jacket memories, and sedative highs Oddometer: 3,074	Knew someone who used pet flea and tick shampoo, to get rid of the crabs. __________________ Berserker In my travelling heart, there's an urge to see foreign lands and alien birds, hear stories that no ones heard-D.A.D. Helmets are like rubbers, you know you should wear one, but its so much better when you don't-Me.

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01-10-2010, 09:09 PM	#271
PFFOG Richard Alps-aholic Joined: Aug 2005 Location: Western NY, further from NYC than 6 entire states Oddometer: 1,145	Hell I could spend a week listing all the Jerry rigging I have done. MC related the best was probably using the cold start (high idle) cable on my R11RS to replace my broken throttle cable on the side of the road in VT, using my swiss army knife and leatherman. Synced the throttle bodies by ear, and was off and running in 30 minutes. Fix was so good I rode it that way for 2 weeks after I got the new cable. I have been called McGiver, mister wizard, and when I was a service manager in an auto dealership many moons ago, the mechanics started to call me god.

01-14-2010, 12:52 PM	#273
capeklr Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2009 Location: Cape Town Oddometer: 235	Riding home from school on my dad's 78 Honda XL 250 I decided to take the long way and do some trail riding on the way. Well as luck would have it the throttle cable breaks. The bike had two cables, push and pull. The pull one broke, so after a bit of fiddling on the carb I managed to swop the two cables around and was back on the road again with a throttle working the wrong way around. Arriving at school the next morning I got some strange looks when I was reving the bike " the wrong way ". Hitting the brakes suddenly was a bit of a proplem because it tended to open the throttle instead of closing it. Drove the bike a week like that till I got the new cable.

01-22-2010, 04:28 AM	#275
motorang Adventurer Joined: Nov 2009 Oddometer: 19	Hi there, In 1999 I had a jammed wheel roller bearing on my MZ combination one day in the Swiss mountains, remote a place as it can be (we did some free camping there, unofficially). The roller bearings cage had been gone, the balls went flying and I was not able to do another meter. When I took the wheel off, the inner ring was still stuck on the axle, and I was not able to remove the outer ring from the brake drum without it. So I put everything back together, did put the balls back in and used some wayside moss as a spacer to keep the balls in place. To remove the bearing, heat needed to be applied. I put the wheel on my trusty petrol stove and heated it up until the moss started to burn, then removed the bearing with a stone (read: hammer) and a screwdriver (read: punch). Then did put in the (luckily) available spare bearing (as one size fits all on an MZ combination). The combination was fixed before breakfast, and that coffee was well earned. There is some footage available (scanned from slides so apologies for size and quality): Andy from Austria http://motorang.com

01-27-2010, 01:33 PM	#276
utopia Adventurer Joined: Apr 2008 Location: Jackson, WY Oddometer: 53	Last fall a friend of mine and one of his friends bought a pair of used '05 KTM 525SX bikes. So we go riding at the dunes at St. Anthony, ID and I find out that the one bike has been having issues with starting sometimes and would mysteriously just quit running from time to time. So this guy's bike stalls and doesn't start from time to time during the day. I was somewhat annoyed that he would even go riding out there when he knew the bike was unreliable. So finally we are way out there and is stalls for good and there is no starting it. There was no way you could ever push or tow a bike out of where we were. So I just ride around while they are messing with it and they decide to try and tow it out. So I watch the fiasco and of course it doesn't work and the towee is just getting blasted with sand...it was kind of funny watching it. After letting them struggle with it for awhile, it was getting dark and the temperature was falling so I was ready to get the hell out of there and I figured I would try and do something. So I go switch the CDI's and sure enough the one from the good bike worked on the non-runner and as I was holding the one from the non-runner, I realized that if I held the wire in a certain direction the bike would fire. So we switched them back and I zip tied the wire tight against the side of the box and it fired and ran fine getting us back just at dark. I don't know much about electrical components and I think it was just dumb luck that I figured that out, but I was the hero of the day and got some free beer out of it after the ride.

02-03-2010, 11:56 AM	#281
Sucks2drive Banned Joined: Sep 2007 Location: Los Angeles, USA Oddometer: 3,479	I had an Austin Allegro 1750 sport .. ( please don't ) if you don't know what they are good!, nah, seriously, here......... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Allegro UGLY, ain't in it...... but due to the Hydrolastic suspension, it was so smooth n comfortable, it was beyond belief. Well the Previous Owner had fitted an alectric fuel pump and it broke down one night about 190 miles from home... I had my girlfriend use a piece of speaker wire ( robbed from the stereo) to ground the pump so it would work, she had to sit there and 'stroke' the wire briefly on a screw on the inside of the glovebox, all 190 miles home. if she kept the wire on the screw a fraction too long it would blow the fuse.... we went through 8 fuses on the way home. god i was glad to get home. Karen said her wrist felt like she had given an elephant a Hand-job........

02-12-2010, 08:01 PM	#284
Sucks2drive Banned Joined: Sep 2007 Location: Los Angeles, USA Oddometer: 3,479	The starter on my KZ1000P started to act up today. Just 'whirred' and would not start. So I stripped the case off and found the Bolt that holds the rotor to the crank, had come undone, not possessing a way to hold the rotor ( IE the proper tools) I devised a holder. I think I got it tight enough...... check the Hammer handle and screwdriver shaft in second pic!