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Spin off - best trail fixes/ work arounds.

muddyrover

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Member Number
4567
Messages
52
I’m sure we all have some good ones.

Just last weekend I lost a starter on my Defender 20 miles in on dirt road, 120 miles from home and it was getting late on a Sunday. Chance of someone happening along for a pull start were getting slim.

My wife and kid were with me and were not liking the idea of a hike out with swarms of black and deer flies. I was on a hopelessly flat spot so no chance in bump starting. No way were we going to be able to push start it on the loose ground.

I had plenty of trees around, and I managed to bump start it with the old HS9500i winch and a kinetic strap with the axles locked. That was a first for me.
 
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I also once swapped a trailer tire from my wrong bolt pattern spare ( off by a 1/4”) to the wheel with the blown tire using only a small hand held pick axe, a large screw driver, and my ARB compressor….. all along I70 in Missouri, while towing to Moab.
 
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Nothing major. First two that come to mind:

Had recently bought my '92 Toyota pickup. 4" lift and bald ass 33's. Buddy and I took that thing out blasting around the MO river bottoms around Wooldridge almost daily. Got crazy muddy one week, so around noonish, we take it down a two-track that we know of that leads to a field. This runs along the edge of the Petite Saline creek. Got too slick for the bald tires about half way down. Going back, it slides real bad into and out of the ruts and comes to stop at right before dumping us into the creek. This creek as far more of a river than a creek, by the way. Flows a shit load of water.

We have nothing on hand to try to pull the truck back to the trail. We're maybe 100ft. from the bridge that crosses over the creek and eventually the railroad tracks. About 7 mile walk along the tracks back to Wooldridge to grab my hand winch and some straps. Walk the 7 miles back to truck and get the truck pulled straight again. Think it was about 2300 when we got back in, fired it up and drove back. :lmao:




'nother one was when I was visiting Ukiah, CA. for the first time where my buddy lived. We take my care to this hole in the woods shop, park it and take the family UTV (old school rig that I can't remember the name of) and head out on his family's 1,000-acre ranch. Way the fuck in the middle of nowhere, bombing this thing around, the drive belt pops.

113 dry degrees in the middle of the day, he and I walk back to this shop for a few hours. There was a new belt hanging in there, so he grabs that and we jump in my car. My '95 Cadillac DeVille ended up being the first vehicle he had ever seen take the trails on their ranch that didn't have to make multi-point turns to get through. We get back to the UTV and change the belt. Not much to it.

1900ish, we're on our way back. I'm behind him in my car, windows down, and there so much dust kicking up behind him that I can barely make out where he or the trail are out the entire time.


I can't recall any of my cars or trucks ever breaking down on my while on any trails.
 
I can fix an ARB airline melted in two with a BIC pen and electrical tape.

Have made a 4.0 in a TJ with thrown rod into a 5 cylinder on the Rubicon to drive it out under its own power. Reused the old engine oil by catching it in a trash bag lined food tote box.

Have made a broken lock-rite into a mini spool on the trail with washers and a spool gun trail mig.

Have sloppily put back together blown apart GM IFS to drive it out with balljoints that parted ways. Hammered everything back together and held it together with ratchet straps to get it out on its own.

A metal valve cap from you tire or a coilover will thread onto the brass oil pressure line fitting in the engine block and seal it up if the copper or plastic line breaks. You won’t have an oil pressure gauge but you won’t lose your oil AND not have an oil pressure gauge.

Sockets for hose splices.

A bar of soap really will seal up a small hole in a gas tank.
 
It got him back to camp and onto the trailer.

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I like these discussions, a couple that come to mind…

F-250 blew a tire dead in the middle of Alligator Alley coming back from the Keys. I had a spare tire but it wasn’t on a rim, no big deal as I had a compressor and some pry bars. The blow out tore the back off of the valve stem, so I stuck it though the hole and secured it using a nut and core tool. Seated the bead with ether, aired up, and drove home, it was still holding pressure in the morning.

Same truck, same place, a Super Swamped slung the tread off, still halfway attached but still held air. Somehow with 4 guys and 4 girls in the truck nobody had a knife. Ended up finding a beer bottle on the side of the road, smashing it, and cutting the floppy tread off with that so we could limp it along until someone could meet us with a spare.

Land Rover I had wouldn’t shift out of park one night, realized it was a fault break switch and jumped it with a gum wrapper in about 5 minutes from WTF? to driving home.

Bought another Land Rover with a blown rear diff, would lurch/bang/jump really bad moving at all. Pulled the rear axle shafts (full float 1/4 ton axle), rear driveshaft, locked the CDL, and drove it home. Diffs are drop out 3rd’s, all one ratio and same F/R, it was an easy $100 repair.

Probably forgotten several other decent ones.
 
I fixed a fuel line on my crewcab with a bic pen tube once. got me home 300 miles.
I broke all the wheel studs off the right rear, 2" aluminum adapter and wheel were fine. took the studs out of the wheel adapter, got them back in the 14 bolt with my spare tire that didn't need the spacer, and got 4 nuts to hold with a battery impact( knurls too small to catch). limped it home 200 miles pullling a gooseneck trailer.
 
Gatorgrizz27 said:
Bought another Land Rover with a blown rear diff, would lurch/bang/jump really bad moving at all. Pulled the rear axle shafts (full float 1/4 ton axle), rear driveshaft, locked the CDL, and drove it home. Diffs are drop out 3rd’s, all one ratio and same F/R, it was an easy $100
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Before I went 300M axles front and rear years ago, your post summed up most of my offroad limp out repairs. I had it down to under 20 min to remove a broken front half shaft so as to not destroy the swivel ball on the trail. Not pulling or replacing the broken bits made it a near probability of breaking something in the rear end too, if the front locked up on the road home.


I broke a rear axle and a front ring gear at the same time at a truck pull with my 90 once. Pulled the front driveshaft and drive flanges, locked the cdl and the rear arb and drove 50 miles home on one rear axle shaft.
 
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muddyrover said:
I’m sure we all have some good ones.

Just last weekend I lost a starter on my Defender 20 miles in on dirt roads back in Moose River Plains, 120 miles from home and it was getting late on a Sunday. Chance of someone happening along for a pull start were getting slim.

My wife and kid were with me and were not liking the idea of a hike out with swarms of black and deer flies. I was on a hopelessly flat spot so no chance in bump starting. No way were we going to be able to push start it on the loose ground.

I had plenty of trees around, and I managed to bump start it with the old HS9500i winch and a kinetic strap with the axles locked. That was a first for me.
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I used to winch pull start my samurai with my HS9500i for fun back in the day. Best winch ever. :smokin:
 
Buddies P/S line broke at the flare. We were about middle ways through School Bus at Windrock.
I used some sand stone and cleaned up the pipe. I then used a punch and flared the line back out some. Then installed the line to the pump and let it do the rest. We didn't have P/S fluid. So we had to use motor oil.
His pump was not happy.
 
JR4X said:
A metal valve cap from you tire or a coilover will thread onto the brass oil pressure line fitting in the engine block and seal it up if the copper or plastic line breaks. You won’t have an oil pressure gauge but you won’t lose your oil AND not have an oil pressure gauge.
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very small rock wrapped in plastic bag seals the compression fitting nicely too, just pull the line/olive out and drop your plug into the nut before threading it back on
 
Benny said:
I used to winch pull start my samurai with my HS9500i for fun back in the day. Best winch ever. :smokin:
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Been a good one. I bought it broken for $200 and replaced a planetary. Broke the same planetary years later and welded it. Replaced the motor with a factory Warn a few years ago and repainted and replaced the decals while it was apart.
 
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muddyrover said:
I’m sure we all have some good ones.

Just last weekend I lost a starter on my Defender 20 miles in on dirt road, 120 miles from home and it was getting late on a Sunday. Chance of someone happening along for a pull start were getting slim.

My wife and kid were with me and were not liking the idea of a hike out with swarms of black and deer flies. I was on a hopelessly flat spot so no chance in bump starting. No way were we going to be able to push start it on the loose ground.

I had plenty of trees around, and I managed to bump start it with the old HS9500i winch and a kinetic strap with the axles locked. That was a first for me.
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So you basically slingshotted it? Or the winch pulled fast enough to actually fire it over? Need to add this to the knowledge list for “some day”
 
Got high centered on the driver's side and was winching off at almost a 90* angle and bent the fuck out of my frame. We chained the truck down to a friends trailer and jacked the rear end up and left it overnight. I drove it 4hrs home, welded some angle iron over the crease in the frame and drove/wheeled it for another year before I backhalfed it.
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BigBurt said:
So you basically slingshotted it? Or the winch pulled fast enough to actually fire it over? Need to add this to the knowledge list for “some day”
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I stretched the snatch strap and continued to winch while I released the brakes and popped the clutch. Started first piston stroke. Probably would have started without stretching the strap in the right gear and enough traction. This winch is pretty fast and the 2.5 diesel starts pretty easy.

If you were where there were no anchors you could probably bury your spare and winch off that.


Worst part about it, the starter worked when I got home. Didn't find anything wrong so I will probably be revisiting this procedure in the near future.
 
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muddyrover said:
I stretched the snatch strap and continued to winch while I released the brakes and popped the clutch. Started first piston stroke. Probably would have started without stretching the strap in the right gear and enough traction. This winch is pretty fast and the 2.5 diesel starts pretty easy.

If you were where there were no anchors you could probably bury your spare and winch off that.


Worst part about it, the starter worked when I got home. Didn't find anything wrong so I will probably be revisiting this procedure in the near future.
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Awesome thanks for explaining forgot about the hot diesel part.
 
Lost a steering rag joint while fucking around in little sluice.

Fabricated a new one from a couple pieces of conveyor belting that was my “bed mat”. Ended up being a permanent repair.

Lost a steering u-joint in a D30. The ears were mangled but sill there.. put the shafts in the fire and reformed both shafts with hammer and sockets good enough to work.. axle got replaced with a D44 after that.
 
I was out wheeling in my XJ when I happened to knock a hole in the transmission pan. (skidplates? Who needs those.):homer:

I stood around scratching my head for a while thinkin' and wondering just how bomb proof the AW4 actually is.

I whittled out a plug and hammered it into the hole and hay wired it in place the best I could. I used my spare fluids to very partially fill it and we have just the slightest bit of movement. Well I got nothing else but beer, soda and the cooler melt and there was no way I was using any of that, I did use some nice clean creek water though and had lots of movement.

We get back to paved roads and the tranny is all out of movement again so cooler melt it is. I also topped up the windshield wash and ran that line over to the dipstick and we are on the road again. Every once in a while we would begin to lose momentum so I would hit the washer and pretty quick we're back up to speed.

The next weekend I replaced the pan and flushed the crap out of that thing, then new filter and fluid. That AW4 lasted another couple of years until the XJ was totalled out in front of my house.

I can say yes the AW4 is bomb proof.
 
urjb said:
Lost a steering rag joint while fucking around in little sluice.

Fabricated a new one from a couple pieces of conveyor belting that was my “bed mat”. Ended up being a permanent repair.

Lost a steering u-joint in a D30. The ears were mangled but sill there.. put the shafts in the fire and reformed both shafts with hammer and sockets good enough to work.. axle got replaced with a D44 after that.
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Campfire blacksmithing, fuck yeah :smokin:
 
On a club wheeling trip, early 2000's, guy had a YJ that seemed to break all the time. This particular incident, he somehow broke the clutch slave cylinder line where it flare into the top of the bellhousing. We didn't have anything to fix it correctly, so used a leatherman tool to make the tubing "round" again, then held it with visegrips and used a phillips screwdriver and a hammer to "flare" it again. It leaked a little, but held enough to get him off the trail.

Next time out, same guy spit a u-joint on the rear shaft. We replaced it with a spare, guy reinstalls shaft, and 50' down the trail, it spits it again. After looking a little closer, one of the ears on the rear yoke was broke off, so there wasn't anything to hold the cap in place. We found the spit cap, but all the needles were gone. Cut a plastic water bottle into strips, wrapped around the inside of the cap to fill the gap, installed it on the cross. Used 2 quarters and a couple hose clamps and some duct tape to secure the u-joint into the yoke. Also made it off the trail that time.
 
Slave cylinder? Who needs one of those? I drove from Ocean City, MD to upstate NY with no slave cylinder. Toll booths were a little tricky.
 
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Lawless said:
I was out wheeling in my XJ when I happened to knock a hole in the transmission pan. (skidplates? Who needs those.):homer:

I stood around scratching my head for a while thinkin' and wondering just how bomb proof the AW4 actually is.

I whittled out a plug and hammered it into the hole and hay wired it in place the best I could. I used my spare fluids to very partially fill it and we have just the slightest bit of movement. Well I got nothing else but beer, soda and the cooler melt and there was no way I was using any of that, I did use some nice clean creek water though and had lots of movement.

We get back to paved roads and the tranny is all out of movement again so cooler melt it is. I also topped up the windshield wash and ran that line over to the dipstick and we are on the road again. Every once in a while we would begin to lose momentum so I would hit the washer and pretty quick we're back up to speed.

The next weekend I replaced the pan and flushed the crap out of that thing, then new filter and fluid. That AW4 lasted another couple of years until the XJ was totalled out in front of my house.

I can say yes the AW4 is bomb proof.
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huh nice, I'd heard that water makes the paper fall off the clutches but maybe the guy taking to me was actually full of shit
 
Used my race winch to pull start my Samurai after the starter failed.
I also ripped a lower link mount off my 2000 4runner 350 miles from home in a area with no cell coverage and no ratchet straps. I used a tow strap wrapped around the rear axle to the transmission crossmember and tensioned it with a hammer resting on the gas tank skid, drive home was a bit sketchy.
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Traveling The Naches Pass Trail and developed some small holes in the radiator from some sticks.
I put raw eggs in the radiator and it plugged the small holes.
You could see where the small holes were as it looked like the white of hard-boiled eggs coming out.
That was good enough to finish the weekend on the trail and get home.
 
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