Tips and Tricks

When I 1st left school, A mate and I went for a tour around outback Qld. We had an XC falcon ute and put 2 spares on board.

Only prob was the spares were off an XY falcon so the hub dia on the rim was smaller then the hub on the ute.

It took us 6 hours of filing with a rat tail file but we eventually got one to fit.

It fitted well with no vibration and got us out of trouble and able to get a town.

Cheers Wilko

Out bush hunting with my Dad when I was young, Distinctly remeber Dad and his mate filling the flat tyre with grass and an old blanket,we had blown a tyre and the spare copped a stake as well hense the repair job. Slow trip home but it got us the 80Klms with out any damage to to the rim. 40K/hr top speed and dodgy tyre fitted to the rear of the vehicle. had the old nissan in 4wd as the rear lost traction on some of the hills.

Back in the early 70's, the Vic alps took its toll twice on my Fiat Sports.
Once, the rotor arm on the distributor arced over after I fitted a high-energy ingnition system and I was caught out up in the mountains with no spark. I scraped out the burnt section, put araldite over the arc track and there it remained for the next 20 years.
On another occasion in the mountains, I put a rock thru the fuel tank. Did a temp fix with a plug of wood, tape and putty, which got me into town. I later fixed it with a decent dob of araldite poked up into the hole. To keep the araldite in place while it set, I stuck a band-aid over it. On the next service, the mech commented on the bandaid, as it looked like that was all that was used to fix the tank. The araldite stayed there for about 15 years before I found a cheap replacement tank from a wrecker.
Sold the old girl after 34 years (sob!)
Gerry

SDG.

Had the pleasure to be involved in a fix on the CSR in 2008.
See picks and blog.

Pretty sure it was our old fj40, certain the fuel tank was under the drivers seat, memory is failing as it was 30 years or more ago, somehow we holed the tank and fixed it with soap.
It certainly sealed well, I think dad left it there for a few months.

back in about 2003 I was travelling on the private Hamersley Rail road (with a permit) from Karatha to Tom Price, I stopped to photograph the huge Iron Ore train, reputed to be the longest train in the world, as it was passing and looked down at the oil leaking out under the front of the vehicle.
It was coming out from a hole in my sump.
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I had thrown up a stone into the sump, right beside the sump plug, it was still stuck there when I looked.
I had spare sump plug washers, but no way of welding up the hole in the sump if I removed the stone, the oil would all be gone in a few minutes anyway and I was many hours from anywhere with no properties on the private railway road.

A young Aboriginal kid in a 4wd ute come and stopped to see what was wrong, when I showed him, he said not to worry about it as he will put some "metal putty" in the hole around the stone, it would be set solid in less than an hour.
He even offered me some oil to refill the sump, I said I had oil, he would not even take any money for the "metal putty" he used and left after he had climbed underneath the sump and fixed everything for me, took him all of 5 minutes and saved me hours.

The "metal putty" and the stone stayed in place for at least another year before I removed the sump and had the hole welded closed.

Maîneÿ . . .

i used to drive overland safari trucks thru east and central africa about 15 years ago
we were in the western corridor of the serengeti n.p in tanzania,its the remote part that tourists dont normally use,but we had just crossed lake victoria from uganda and its like coming in the back door but about 2 days drive from even the smallest of village,anyway here we were,20 backpackers from all over the world in the back and the engine siezed, [no racq in africa]we carried loads of spares because we had to be totally self sufficient,so set about looking into it,pulled the head off to find that we had dropped no"4 inlet valve and it had destroyed the piston, bore and the head,we were totally on our own, hadnt seen anyone except for the normal serengeti animals,zebra,wildabeast,lions hyenas etc etc
i decided to take out the piston all together ,and i cut up a tin can into a long strip
and along with some rubber to help seal, i wrapped it around and around the journal on the crackshaft,then put as many hose clamps as i could on it,it doesnt have to completly seal just stop the oil pressure from dumping,we put the sump head and all other bits back on,ran the injector line for that cylinder into a drink bottle,we crossed our fingers,and by now the batteries were flat,so my backpackers set about push starting my now 5 cylinder 11 ton bedford 4wd truck,and bugger me but she started and ran, didnt idle to well but with revs up you could hardly notice,we had to stop every so often to empty the catch bottle,we then continued on our way and it stayed like that till we got back to mombasa kenya,about 3000 kms.
the whole process took about 2 days and we didnt see another person,
man that was an experience,not just the fix but being out there with all those animals,we had crews of rock gatherers and throwers to keep the hyenas away they would circle us,and just stare making the odd sounding laugh that there known for,,,,,,,,,SORRY FOR BEING SUCH A LONG STORY,there is so much more to it,,,maybe we should have a section for camping stories,
hope you like
dave

After recently splitting a CV joint rubber boot I'm now a dab hand with canvas, gaffer tape and cable ties. Worked a treat.

An old remedy ,but tried & true. I fixed the hole in the fuel tank of my diesel 504
by blending the dust off the tyre rim with soap to make a putty & it worked fine.
Didnt even have to drain the tank. When I got home I removed the patch, put in
a tek & patched over it with the same stuff...lasted another 300k. Wouldnt fix the
blown piston, but I suppose 532k wasnt a bad effort.
Many years before that I had a very tired motor in a 403 Peugeot & no money to
fix. I connected a piece of plastic hose from the oil filler cap on the tappet cover
to the air intake hose betwwen the filter & carby...reduced the crank case pressure so that it no longer blew the oil out...lasted another year or so.
....oldbaz.