Your most succesful inappropriate use of an object

[arcanum]

A buddy of mine showed up and wanted to solder join two heavy wires together. With no proper connector,I discovered that two #10 stranded wires fit well inside a .22 casing. Shot the bullet out and carefully ground off the closed end and the solder flowed well to both wires by heating the casing. Slipped on the heat shrink and it was a pretty good repair.

[kenny61]

[jules083]

I broke the pedal assembly off on my sandrail a few years ago. It turned out I had tack welded the pedals in place then never finished welding. I tied the throttle cable to a stick and used it for a hand throttle. Mind you the motor is behind you, so pushing foreward gives it gas. No luck on the clutch, just gave up and drove without one. Friend riding shotgun ran the cutter brakes, so we had one brake at a time. It made for some interesting downhill sections.

Also, a 10" pipe wrench makes a perfect bottle opener.

[Bumblebee-TGL]

The most inappropriate tool? I had no sensible way to get distilled water into the battery without making a mess every time or being overly tedious about it. One day I was walking through the supermarket and found the perfect tool for the job: A 50 cent baby medicine dropper. The end fits perfectly in the battery fill openings and holds the right amount of water for conveniently topping the battery off.
The lady at the checkout counter said "aww sick baby?" I said "no, sick motorcycle battery." She looked something like this: and is probably still trying to figure that one out.

[DirtyOldMan]

^^^
Thanks, reminds me that one of those baby snot sucker things works great as a carburetor primer after a dog chews the bulb off a Lawn Boy lawn mower.

[tgeliot]

Originally Posted by DirtyOldMan

I cut the end off of a big ham with a sawzall so it would fit in Mom's roasting pot.

This thread is awesome. I just can't believe I can't come up with more stuff in light of all the stuff I've jury rigged over the years.

I'll put on the thinking cap and take a trip down memory lane, mebbe come up with something.

When I was a kid, my dad would buy these incredibly tough turkey legs for $0.19/lb. My mom would cook them for 45 minutes in a pressure cooker (which is a LOT). But she went through all kinds of conniptions getting them down to size to fit the pressure cooker, including one time cutting a frozen one with our radial-arm saw. Yeah, that was a mess!

[geolpilot]

Here are a few. A co-worker was 50 miles into the 4wd beaches on Padre Island, TX with an early 1970s International Travelall. It quit running due to a sunken carb float. He took the float out, took the tail light bulbs out, removed the glass bulbs from the base, slit the float and put two bulbs in it. Put the carb back together and drove it back bucking and jumping, but it did run.

I use a hi lift bumper jack and my pickup bumper to break down my airplane tires. I use a large shop vise to break down motorcycle tires.

I use a hammer and wood chisel along with a vise to open oil filters.

I had a 79 lincoln continental with a broken off shift lever. Apparently they all broke as there were no junk yard parts available. I drove it 20k miles with a pair of vice grips clamped on for a shift lever.

Fixed a flat boat trailer tire many miles down a terrible dirt road on the Mexican coast with band aid ends. Had a brand new patch kit from sears, but the glue tube and never been filled. Broke the tire down by driving the above travelall over it. Pumped it up with a spark plug tire compressor, remember those?

I have a Honduran friend who at age 16 was captain of the family fishing boat. It had a GM 671 on one side and a V871 on the other side. He was hundreds of miles from home when one of the engines threw a rod right through the side of the case. Well, he was limping home on the other engine when the rudder on that side fell off. Called on the radio, but it was going to be many days before anyone could come and get him. Well, he drained the oil out of the blown engine, crawled under it and removed the pan. Removed the bad connecting rod from the crank, jammed the piston up high with a wedge, bound rags and wire around the naked crank journal to hold some oil pressure and put the pan back. Pinched off the injector line going to that cylinder, cut a fishing float to fit the hole in the block and jammed it in place with a 2/4 against the side of the engine room. A GM two stroke has a pressurized crankcase, so the hole had to be sealed. Well, he came home a couple of hundred miles at a bit above idle speed on that blown engine.

I probably know more of these, but that is all that I can think of right now.

[fiep]

not sure anyone can top your Honduran friend's enginuity

SWM TL320 blew the auto deco, permanently fixed it with a hair pin
glad I had long curles back then

rear ended a car with a Gilera RX200, looked like 3 grand damage to the car and a scratch on my fender, well it lost a few degrees in rake, was a very flickable little bike afterwards, a week later on a trip into Italian no-mans-land it developed a slow gas leak, gas had eaten it's way thu a hairline crack in the back bend of the tank, gas ran forward along the seam and tropped onto the hot headpipe, used 1/2 rubber glove, a #5 allen wrench and the broken right side off mirrior mount to seal it off good enouth for the remainder of the long weekend

[Hueychief]

[kenny61]

[urbanXJ]

a blow tourch to heat the cloths iron...stupid thing would not get hot and wife was gone

on a similar note

I tried using the kitchen oven to dry some pants once...hahahaha that didn't turn out very well

[Ricardo Kuhn]

Bicycle tire mat for the doggies.








The doggies love it

[assquatch20]

Originally Posted by urbanXJ

a blow tourch to heat the cloths iron...

Ah, clothes iron to warm food.

[kenny61]

[H96669]

Originally Posted by geolpilot

I had a 79 lincoln continental with a broken off shift lever. Apparently they all broke as there were no junk yard parts available. I drove it 20k miles with a pair of vice grips clamped on for a shift lever.

Them "three on the tree" Ford Pick-ups from the 70's were good for that also. No parts available at the junkyard, they all broke.

So drove around for a while with the Vise Grips, until we could not get any more "grip", left us stranded at an intersection in neutral. Under the truck I go, shift into second and 50 miles back home first through Vancouver rush hour traffic. Not too fast them 302s in second.

We then welded a short rod on what was left inside the steering column. Had to remember about the totally opposed shift pattern,reverse down forward etc... other than that was just fine for weeks until we put a floor shifter in it. Of course that was a "used" part, no instructions so at first we still had an opposed pattern until we switched the rods.

A communal truck that one....had lots of fun teaching some about the "opposed shift pattern".