trail side repair stories, tips and tricks...anyone got any?

[83 chif]

I was wondering what type of repairs one should be prepared for when heading on an expedition. I know universal joints and driveshafts, but what else? Have any of you run into any unexpected breakages and come up with any cool desperate quick-fix solutions? anyone mind sharing some tricks and tips?

[inthewall]

Broke a throttle cable. I used the hand choke for throttle on my 40

[Basie]

The plug to one of the battery cells got unscrewed and lost. My companion ( a pastor, nothing else ) helped to empty a botle of Merlot or something and trimmed the cork so that it could screw into the cell hole. Nothing spectacular, but I would have been stuck without it. Bad roads and acid spillage.

[mrlocksmith]

Maybe Dan (D'Animal) can write about the repair of his FJ60 EGR hose at least years Surf and Turf after it caught fire and turned into what looked like petrtifed beagle poo.

Mark

[83 chif]

well i'm taking notes for sure, thanks for sharing.

what type of repairs should i be prepared for? what is most likely to break, and how is it fixed?

i'm just trying to learn through other peoples' experiences...

thanks!

[FJ40-GARAGE]

Get some bike patches.....


And liquid metal sticks....


Some more: In my Garage

[joshoisasleep]

Trail fix 1: Driving through San Francisco at night somewhere remote my BJ60's clutch died and I discovered that I'd run out of clutch fluid thanks to a really slow leak somewhere in the system that had taken probably years to empty it (not something I really check the level of, even if I could see through the grime). The solution was that Toyota fortunately used the exact same fluid for brakes as clutch (is this usually the case with vehicles?), so I was able to siphon out enough from the brake cylinder using a disassembled bic pen to keep going.

Trail fix 2: When I was a kid my dad's FJ60's fuel pump went. The fix was just to hold a 2L bottle full of fuel out the window and gravity feed fuel using some adapter hose taken from my toy squirt gun that KFC happened to be giving away that week. Middle of the desert in Australia, and the best bit was we passed another guy in a 60 going the other way holding a bottle out the window!

Trail fix 3: Blew a ball joint on a chevy camper van on a logging road somewhere remote BC. Repaired it with duct tape and rocks. This didn't work at all, and in retrospect was just a stupid idea. Hitch-hiked and came back the next day with a ball joint

[jabxyz]

Originally Posted by joshoisasleep

Trail fix 1: Driving through San Francisco at night somewhere remote my BJ60's clutch died and I discovered that I'd run out of clutch fluid thanks to a really slow leak somewhere in the system that had taken probably years to empty it (not something I really check the level of, even if I could see through the grime). The solution was that Toyota fortunately used the exact same fluid for brakes as clutch (is this usually the case with vehicles?), so I was able to siphon out enough from the brake cylinder using a disassembled bic pen to keep going.

Trail fix 2: When I was a kid my dad's FJ60's fuel pump went. The fix was just to hold a 2L bottle full of fuel out the window and gravity feed fuel using some adapter hose taken from my toy squirt gun that KFC happened to be giving away that week. Middle of the desert in Australia, and the best bit was we passed another guy in a 60 going the other way holding a bottle out the window!

Trail fix 3: Blew a ball joint on a chevy camper van on a logging road somewhere remote BC. Repaired it with duct tape and rocks. This didn't work at all, and in retrospect was just a stupid idea. Hitch-hiked and came back the next day with a ball joint

Trail fix 3: OMG SWEET I know that it didn't work but you get huge points for just trying to Magyver it like that.

[Brian894X4]

My old '89 pick-up had a used long A-arm suspension kit in it. Unfortunately, a flaw in the A-arm design showed up at the 2nd most inopertune time. While at the top of a mountain on a trail and trying to reverse to back out, the upper A-arm snapped into two due to a stress crack near the torsion. Anyone you knows Toyota mini-truck IFS suspensions, knows that the upper A-arm carries all the weight, so that side of the truck collasped to the bump stops. The A-arm also holds the wheel in place. I still had half the A-arm hold the wheel, but that wouldn't last long. There was no way a tow truck could reach me.

I took the fender off, so the tire could turn and crawled down the trail at extremely low speeds as carefully as I could. It was the scariest several miles I've ever driven. At any moment the wheel could have simply fallen off.

Once I got to a paved forest road, as you can see in the pics, I was done for. But at least a tow truck could reach me here.

A month or so later, I did a solid axle conversion on that truck.

I say it was the 2nd most inopertune time, because a few weeks earlier I was off roading in southeastern Oregon. Anyone who knows Oregon, knows that are few places in the lower 48 that are as remote as southeastern Oregon. A breakage like this out there, would have probably bankrupted me, assuming I could have even summoned help at all.

Lesson here is whenever you install aftermarket parts, make sure they are of the highest quality, especially when design failures can leave you stranded.

[Niner]

a couple muffler clamps work great with the High lift jack handle to get you out of the woods when you bend a tie rod

[bull]

keep a bar of motel soap in the glovebox. Great for gas tank leaks. Just scrub the hole and it will stay plugged for a good bit of time. Repeat when needed

[Godwin]

Somehow one of the rear hard brake lines on the FJ40 broke leading to fluid loss of the rear brake circuit and a great reduction in stopping efficiency. I doubled over the broken end of the hard line and crimped it shut using a pair of vise gripes. Refilled the empty master cylinder with water, bled the other rear brake and continued on. I ran this fix for a couple of days until I could get home and make the proper repairs.

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by Godwin

Somehow one of the rear hard brake lines on the FJ40 broke leading to fluid loss of the rear brake circuit and a great reduction in stopping efficiency. I doubled over the broken end of the hard line and crimped it shut using a pair of vise gripes. Refilled the empty master cylinder with water, bled the other rear brake and continued on. I ran this fix for a couple of days until I could get home and make the proper repairs.

I did a similar thing, but used motor oil instead of water.

[Adam R]

Concur on the remoteness of Southeastern Oregon. I ran off a paved road one evening at 50 mph (missed an unbanked 90) and in the two and a half hours it took to extract myslef (I was by myself) nobody came by. I would have called for help via my CB, but the antenna was ripped off my Subaru when I went sliding sideways through some farmers barbed wire fence.

My most creative trail fix was also on this same Subaru. When I was young, we were exploring logging roads in the Cascades and the car was overheating. Being told once that you could remove a thermostat to improve cooling, I proceeded to remove the water pump to access the thermostat. After destroying the gasket 40 miles from the nearest town, I discovered that the T-stat doesn't reside under the water pump. Fortunately, I had two sticks of Wrigley's chewing gum in the glove box and my buddy and I proceeded to chew it until it resembled gasket material. We then used that well chewed gum to make a gasket and re-attach the water pump. 40,000 miles later, that gum-gasket was still working.

Adam

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by Adam R

Concur on the remoteness of Southeastern Oregon. I ran off a paved road one evening at 50 mph (missed an unbanked 90) and in the two and a half hours it took to extract myslef (I was by myself) nobody came by. I would have called for help via my CB, but the antenna was ripped off my Subaru when I went sliding sideways through some farmers barbed wire fence.

My most creative trail fix was also on this same Subaru. When I was young, we were exploring logging roads in the Cascades and the car was overheating. Being told once that you could remove a thermostat to improve cooling, I proceeded to remove the water pump to access the thermostat. After destroying the gasket 40 miles from the nearest town, I discovered that the T-stat doesn't reside under the water pump. Fortunately, I had two sticks of Wrigley's chewing gum in the glove box and my buddy and I proceeded to chew it until it resembled gasket material. We then used that well chewed gum to make a gasket and re-attach the water pump. 40,000 miles later, that gum-gasket was still working.

Adam

Whatever you do, don't use Liquid-Nails for gasket material except in a dire emergency. It will work very well. The problems is the next time you want to remove the part it isn't gonna come off. On the other hand if it is all you got, and your stuck in the middle of nowhere, I'd use it. An engine is allot cheaper than my life.

[Tunnelratt]

#1 Had an old 1959 VW cut up into a Baja, blew out a rear wheel cyl, didnt want to crimp the line so I pulled the line loose and inserted the head of a cut down drywall nail, shaft into the line, put the line back in place, tightened it up, added some fluid, no leak, only three wheels braking but got us home.

#2 Wheeled with a group of guys up into the Panamints, one guy had an early 90's full size Bronco, we noticed gear oil running out of the end of the axle tube, pulled the wheel, bearing was GONE, brakes were destroyed and bent, end of the axle tube was flared from the axle beating it up. We ended up beating tapered wedges of oak firewood into the axle tube to support the axle, extra gear oil kept it lubed, we got it out of the mountains back to Ballarat then on to a flat bed the next weekend for the ride home.

[NLXTACY]

X2 on the bar of soap. punctured the gas tank on my 79 4X Toy Pup. The guy driving behind me threw me a old bar of soap. All I thought was, "um we're in a desert jack ass, there's no place to wash my hands".

As he drove by me, "use it to plug the hole dip$hit!"

Oh to be naive again.

[83 chif]

cool stories and tips, thanks for sharing. so if i remember all these tricks and know how to install uv joints and axle shafts, i should be alright...any other stories??

[TURNMEOVER]

Water putty, ducktape, panty hose, and a tube of rtv. You can temp fix any thing .

[MutleyFJ62]

i guess the best form of repair is to keep up your preventative maintenance and be prepared to think outside the box if you break something.

[billmiranda]

Wow.. not to rain on anyone's parade but,.. why don't these repairs even hold a candle to stuff I see overseas?.. I mean,.. you have stuff tantamount to "I say,.. I had to wait on my latte while I found a shop to repair this and that"... and I see people in Africa, India, Nepal... rebuilding transmissions on the side of the road using rocks as hammers... or battery welding axles... using twine/rope to hold suspensions together.... I think I may have a few pics... I'll see if I can find them.

Carry: Lots of GOOD duct tape, SS Safety wire, stick Welding rods and those cables you can use to weld from multiple batteries (A Oxyacetylene torch can work here and is fairly small), about 15' each of different bulk hose, different size hose clamps (not just for hoses you know), paracord, 4-5 packs JB Weld, and if you are concerned about First aid,.. a GOOD large kit,.. I also include syringes, lidocaine and stuff to stitch myself and others up... Antibiotics and ant-bacterials, Pain-Killers... Water Filter AND iodine pills.. there's more I always have but I'll have to look in my truck to check... The normal stuff,.. water, coolant, oils, grease...
(I know people that carry spare suspension and axle parts and think I don't carry enough!)

Look long and hard at your vehicle,.. how old is it? What can you imagine letting go on it?... Prepare for the absolute worst thing you can imagine... on a true "expedition" it can save your life.
(Melodrama off!)

v/r,

Bill

[joshoisasleep]

Sounds like that battery welding thing would wreck your batteries...?

Not all of us have that much space... I think the point here is tips and tricks for the average person who carries what normal people carry... not a military unit behind enemy lines

OK here's a cool one that is really kind of a desperate fix, but I HAVE seen it in use. And no I have not tested the possibility of performing this without preparation. If you happen to have the right size of hoses and hose clamps to fashion them, you can use your AC pump as an air compressor to reinflate tires.

I'm not sure if you can do this without a tire valve attachment? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the tire valve will let pressure in without being opened? In that case the AC compressor should provide enough power to pump up a tire without a proper seal. The way I saw it done was with a proper air hose attached to the AC pump, and of course the proper way to do it is much more complex, but in THEORY you should be able to do it with just some hose and hose clamps if you remove your tire and hold it into the engine compartment above the compressor. You should DEFINITELY be able to do it if you're in the situation (that I've found myself in) that you have a compressor that has committed suicide which you can salvage the tire valve attachment off of.

[billmiranda]

[quote=joshoisasleep;3607506]Sounds like that battery welding thing would wreck your batteries...?

Not all of us have that much space... I think the point here is tips and tricks for the average person who carries what normal people carry... not a military unit behind enemy lines


1. Google battery welding.. been done for decades... all over the world... on a regular basis.
2. Military unit?... this IS what people carry on expeditions... Having been in the military for over 20 years... you'd be stupid to carry this 'behind enemy lines'.
3. Normal people?.. as there are perhaps .0001% of the world population involved in anything like this... where does the definition of "normal" come into play.

If we are discussing a few days off-road with friends,.. that doesn't really meet the definition of "expedition" now does it?.. then you would not need most of this... but then you'd be close
to gas,.. water,.. and what the heck, hotels.. and restaurants.

To me an "expedition" type trip is at a minimum a few weeks to several months in a self-sustaining mode with only occasional farays into whatever civilization you can find for things like fuel or food if you can't hunt it down.

I've been a few places in this world... as a partial list I've been to: Pakistan, India, Thailand, Laos, Burma, UAE, Egypt, Sudan, Sierra Leone, China, Guyana, Canada, All over Europe-Northern and Eastern... people there that do this either for a living or as a serious hobby would laugh at that attitude and then get irate that either they or emergency rescue services would have to rescue you/recover your body from wherever you broke down, unprepared.

v/r,

Bill

[joshoisasleep]

woah relax, no offense intended. I never really considered myself a normal person anyway. hehe I only said that because I actually carry a lot of what you mentioned above, but seriously even I don't have 15 lengths of each type of hose and try as I might my girlfriend will absolutely NOT let me purchase/carry an acetylene torch or even a small welder... . Sometimes you have to make compromises between what you need, what you want, and what you might need...

That being said, I still have found myself in situations that I was unprepared for, as can happen to even the most prepared person...

[joshoisasleep]

On second thought I just googled battery welding. That's pretty sweet stuff. I saw a pair of small welding glasses down the street yesterday, I think I'll take a walk down and pick them up along with some welding rods...