My auto box started paying up all of a sudden in the week, changing gear at the wrong time and no kickdown at all.
Obviously like most of us i was thinkng the worst, but raised the bonnet and had a poke nose to see if anything obvious was wrong.
ATF changed only weeks ago, and level spot on and clean.
Got hold of the throttle linkage (a proper cable, not many of those now in new i should imagine) and operated, by mistake i'd clasped the gearbox cable which runs off the same linage and low and behold it didn't do anything.
So peeled back the rubber bellows and there was the cable snapped from its connector...phew!!!
So, rattled the old head for a while, and thought if i use one of those screw type terminal connectors i could bodge the thing until a new cable is available.
Got some large 30A ones, filed the cable connector down until it fitted and hey presto a repair that will do for now.
Incidentally, the push on sprung connector had partially seized so wasn't pulling straight and obviously strained the cable...my error should have kept it lubricated...bad neglect.;)
I'm sure that you could buy repair kits for cable ends years ago, the accessory shop lads looked agog at me when i mentioned it.
What other bits and pieces should we keep handy for odd eventualities?
Don't mention stockings for fan belts...wrong forum.;)
|
GB,
Yes you are perfectly correct in saying that we could once make such repairs to cables road side.
You still can via tiny.cc/OrEf7 for motorcycles though. Half way down the page you will see the kit.
|
for motorcycles though. Half way down the page you willsee the kit.
Thanks Tron, i was sure i remembered them, wouldn't have done me any good by the looks of it though as the auto cable is connected by a ball and socket, and i'd doubt if the right size would be available.
I suppose all these temp repairs will be a bodge of some sort, i remember securing a load sensing valve on a truck trailer in place by using several pieces of cut up truck innertube (make good large elastic bands for trailer number plates and a variety of other uses...worth keeping one around).
The truck mechanics assured me the bodge repair was far stronger than the original fitting.
(as an aside the load sensor it seems had been adrift for several days, but none of the other drivers had noticed there were negligible trailer brakes... scary stuff but not surprising these days)
|
|
|
|
Many years ago i had occasion to scrap a washing machine, at the back i noticed a plate held on with self-tappers, so i thought that i might as well keep them. Needless to say i ended up stripping it of loads of assorted nuts and bolts, brackets, and various assorted bits of metal and plastic, and a small quantity of hoses, which all ended up in the garden shed.
Over the next few years a surprising amount of these bits and pieces ended up on various cars.
|
My garden shed has one shelf entirely devoted to Nescafe jars filled with such bits and bobs - it is indeed how remarkably often they come in handy.
Needed a tap washer midweek and found one jar with about 25 in of various sizes...:-)
|
|
|
|
I have done a few bodges from bits I had over my GCSE electronics 10 years ago! On my first car the temperature gauge didn't work, I had discovered the wire had been cut, so I joined a crocodile lead onto the old wire and clipped the crocidle onto top of the temperature sensor on the termostate, it worked perfectly!
I also used terminal block to repair a damaged wire to the TPS and wrapped it in lots of insulation tape, this was quite dodgy and I would never attempt it on any of the circuits which carry on proper current.
That Fiesta was probably the only car I will ever own that was simple to work on.
Incidently I wonder if these bodge jobs will have any implications with the insurance?
|
Incidently I wonder if these bodge jobs will have any implications with the insurance?
Only when it catches fire.
|
|
Years ago in Zambia I stopped miles from town to help a group of people in a Volkswagen Beetle with a broken throttle cable. The cable was a bowden type with a stiff single centre strand. The driver was the wife of the owner, who had 'mended, the cable so many times that the centre strand was too short. The pinching screw that attached the strand to the throttle lever was trapping the very end, and the end kept slipping through, and of course, no throttle. I spliced the cable, utilising the interior of a 'chocolate block' terminal and a length of 2.5 mmsq electrical copper cable between the broken end and the throttle lever. That left no space for the return spring, so I requisitioned the flip-flop sandal of the lady passenger and rolled it up under the throttle pedal (organ pedal type). I followed them from Mwambashi into Kitwe to make sure that they got home.
|
>>my error should have kept it lubricated...bad neglect.;)
ATF is the specified lubricant for these GB (assuming it's a W124 fault).
|
On my Cavalier, you would be driving along, and all of a sudden the temp guage would stop working, and "Rest" on the pin in the off position.
at the top of the engine bay right next to the thermo, was a little blue cable that had a spade connenctor, that sat on top of the sender unit.
It was a lose fit, so raiding my toolbox found a ideal replacment one, with a tighter fit - never a issue again.
I always wonder if i took it to a garage somewhere, and be greeted with a lot of head shaking and "its going to be expensive" speak :-)
|
Hein Gericke motorcycle shops have them in stock and they saved my bacon on more than one occasion. (quite a lot of branches around the country.
www.hein-gericke.co.uk/shop/product_info.php/cPath...2
|
|
|
|
GB said:
>So, rattled the old head for a while, and thought if i use one of those screw type terminal connectors..
My garage door cable has been spliced with a chocolate block for the last five years.
I bought a replacement the day after it broke but still haven't fitted it.
stan10 said:
>Many years ago i had occasion to scrap a washing machine..
Before I throw any household item away I strip it of small things that "might come in handy". Screws, nut & bolts. hose clips and washers etc. etc. The missus calls them "jars of junk" but they have saved me loads of dosh and hours and hours of hassle. It's a trait I inherited from my dad.
Stuartli said:
My garden shed has one shelf entirely devoted to Nescafe jars filled with such bits and bobs..
Fix the lids of some jars to the underside of the shelf and you get extra space.
Kevin...
|
Working on road rescua and recovery for many years, bodges were often the only way to get folk back on the road. I became an expert at it. Tie wraps, choc block connectors, bowden cable, clothes pegs, solderless nipples...all sorts of stuff. Once got an old Chevette back on song by hammering a piece of tree branch into the corroded inlet manifold so the fuel mixture didn't escape.
When visiting a scrappie for something I always stocked up on small bore piping, clips and long sections of wiring loom pulled out of sills...another 50p on the bill. Spark plugs taken from cars I'd serviced were cleaned and used to get other cars going. One of the most useful parts was the small bore piping fitted to Ladas for the vacuum and carbs systems. This was about 6mm bore and made of soft rubber with no 'memory'. I still use a length as my brake bleeder 'cos it goes where I want it to !
Ted
|
|
|
>>Fix the lids of some jars to the underside of the shelf and you get extra space.>>
Yes, an old trick. However, the plastic tops might split with a nail through them and, more importantly in this instance, each shelf is only approximately one-and-a-half times the height of the jars apart themselves...:-)
|
|
|
|
