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When people ask me what its like using a 40 year old car as a daily driver, I often joke that the best part is that it can be fixed with rubber bands and bits of wire found on the side of the road. Last night, sixty miles from home in bumper to bumper traffic the engine revved up wildly between shifts. Blipping the accellerator pedal didn't slow down the runaway revving.
The car was kept in gear as much as possible and pulled over. Suspicions were that the front SU piston was stuck open again. Three turns into removing the first filter bolt I noticed that the return spring was MIA. Hmmm, what to do? A large roll of drawings from work was in the back seat with a beefy rubber band holding them in a cylindrical form. Pulled one end over the top of the throttle shaft end and the other around a filter bolt.
Ran great 25 miles to the next parts store where a generic throttle return spring was found. Moral of story - throw a few rubber bands in the tool kit. Maybe a real return spring might come in handy too.
Joe M in WV
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All of these stories only confirm my standard reply to those who don't understand
(Volvos, or old cars on general,..). Say what you will, a carburated Volvo will ALWAYS get you home, by hook or crook, spit and baling wire. Doesn't EVERYONE carry a 10 foot length of fuel hose in their car?
In the spare tire well of my '68 wagon lives a complete spare distributor, a new fuel pump, a new water pump, spare radiator and heater hoses, fan belts, various hose clamps, 10 feet of electrical wire w/ spare connectors, etc, etc. Doesn't really take that much space, or weigh much. I like to think that it's BECAUSE I have all this that I haven't needed to use them! Merry holidays
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Had to share my volvo story from 20 yrs ago. My room mate, girlfried, (later to be wife) and I, were driving back to South Dakota after hearing Bob Dylan and the Greatful Dead in Minneapolis. The 1971 142 lost ignition about 4 am and coasted to a stop in the middle of no where.
Using a bic lighter I found that the points had slipped closed but the screw would not hold the points open (stripped threads) .... didn't have any screws and only a few hand tools.
After leaving the concert I had stopped at a gas station and purchased some gum... assuming the passenegers would fall asleep and I would need something to help keep me awake. We were litteraly "dancing in the streets" after I placed the gum I was chewing under the points, gapped it by eye, snugged the screw as tight as possible and continued on the trail. The gum stayed in place for several years.
God was watching out for me before I knew he existed (I wasn't someone whoever bought gum).
Mike in Minnesota
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Since most rubber bands are natural rubber they need to be kept in the dark
(lose 50% of their strength in daylight in a week) and away from oil. So
if you put them in your toolbox, maybe a pill box, medicine bottle, etc would
be a good thing to keep them in.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!
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Great fix. I also carry a few tie-wraps, wire and tape in the kit.
Your story reminds me of something that happened last fall. Got a lot of water in the fuel tank / system of my '70 145. So much that the car wouldn’t run. Fortunately, it died at work and I could keep it there for a few days while I tried figuring out the problem. Decided to just tow it the 12 miles home where it would be easier to fix in the garage.
I don’t have AAA so I had to figure out how to tow it the 12 miles home. After dealing with U-Haul to try to get a tow dolly, begging to borrow someones pick-up to drag the dolly, having U-Haul close early so I couldn’t get the dolly, I decided to just have it towed by a local towing service. After making the arrangements to have it towed for about $180, (ugh, that’s a lot but at this point I didn’t care) the towing guy’s boss called me and told me the first guy I spoke with was wrong, and it would be about $270 to tow, I nearly choked! “No thanks, I’ll take care of it myself.” SOB sounded surprised that I didn’t take him up on his offer. “You’ll never get anyone to tow it any cheaper.” He didn’t realize I’ve got Scottish blood.
Got out my 2 gallon lawnmower gas can, length of hose, primer bulb for an outboard motor. Stuck the gas can on the passenger floor, routed the hose to the fuel pump. Drained the contaminated fuel from the carbs and line. Primed the pump, started the car and drove it home. The whole process couldn’t have taken more than a half hour.
People at work just shook their heads. Somehow I don’t think this repair would have been that easy with something like their newer cars.
--
Tom - '60 544, '68 220S, '70 145S, '72 144E (formerly my driver, now parting out), '86 745T
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I had to do pretty much the same thing once in a snow-storm in an old diesel Landcruiser. It just started sputtering and died on a country backroad.
Luckily I knew straight away what the problem was as I had to fix a different section of rusted out fuel line about a month previous. Even the smallest hole lets in too much air and throws the whole injection out causing stalls, poor running, no running etc. I had a pretty short piece of fuel hose in the back and a plastic gas can so just ran the hose from the motor to the can and placed it on the top of the manifold. Luckily Diesel isn't quite as flammable as gas and it was winter.
Then of course there's a bunch of 240's out there with 2 healthy fuel pumps...and some limping around with only one. Heck, I was about 1200 miles from home, in Alabama when one of mine went. With enough tweaking and bypassing she took me home again with one but not really gracefully.
It's amazing how many parts seem superflous at times. Sometimes a rubber band is good enough...maybe not forever but for the moment of desperation perfectly acceptable.
Happy Holidays
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Excellent story! That's thinking laterally eh?
Of course I am assuming the No Smoking Light was on.....?
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Holy Cr@p! That's an awesome story! You out-MacGyver'd MacGyver.
Incidently, I did the U-haul thing to get my Amazon home last month. The 67 Amazon is not in their omputer system and they wanted to rate it the same as the 5000 lbs 164! It took me a bit of convincing to get them accept that my car was only 2,200 and well under the 3,500 lbs towing capacity of my 945's Class II hitch.
Excepting gasoline and the time it took me to go get her, it only cost me $50.00 to get my crippled car home.
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Just tell Uhaul you are towing an 88' 240 sedan.
I don't know what the implications would be if something
was to happen, like an accident or some other mishap, but
this is what i have done everytime since I first encountered
the "Uhaul dilemna".
Volvo 240 and class 3 hitch is my standard answer!
cheers,
Karl
--
66' 122 2-door, 66' 122 4-door, 67' 122 wagon, 78' 244 sedan, 88' 240 wagon, 91' 240 wagon
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What a great story Joe. Here’s a picture of the unit I have just added to my “don’t leave home without it” list.
Cheers,
Barry
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