What roadside repairs have you made to keep your A going

[Jim Brierley]

"Katy" lost a head gasket on a local tour, we limped to the mid-tour stop. A friend asked if I had spare, I did so he says we can change it in 45 minutes, so his wife looks at her watch and says "lets see it". Of course there were a lot of "helpers" there. 45 minutes later Katy fired right up! We didn't even remove the hood! The kicker to this story is the center stud did not feel right so I didn't tighten it very much. When I got home, and not wanting to remove the head again, I removed that stud and found the block was the problem, dang! I found a stud with longer threads, cleaned the hole with lacquer thinner, gooped the threads with JB Weld, screwed the stud in firmly. 2 days later torqued the head and ran it for another year or so until my 4-port was ready to go. Laziness can be a motivator!

[JOHN CT]

On tour on a nice sunny day. I was behind another A stoped at a red light, and all of a sudden the A in front of me let out a LOUD BANG car shook and dust arose around the car from the street then stalled. Of course it was a very busy intersection. We pushed him to the curb. We started on the inspection and found the transmission wasn’t engaging into gear. Removed the floor boards then the inspection cover and found 2 clutch springs let go. We couldn’t do anything on the side of the road for him. A tow truck was called and that’s was the first and only A that we had to tow home.

[woofa.express]

Dave is an expat American living in Victoria Australia and a contributor to this forum. Amongst his A's is his very first motor car which he purchased whilst a college kid. It's LHD which is unusual here because we, once being a British Colony are RHD.
well I last year I was off to Murray Bridge in South Australia for our National Model A meeting. I overnighted at Tooleybuc which is a town on the New South Wales / Victorian boarder. The boarder being the Murray River.
Well an inspection revealed a thrown and frayed fan belt. What a nuisance. We'd need to take a drive back to Swan Hill and purchase a new belt. I figured it would be 11 in the morning I'd resume my journey to Swan Hill.
Well what would you think happened. In drove Dave, he too overnighting at Tooleybuc. Under his seat he carried a spare fan belt. I had never been so glad to see him before. So I take this opportunity to say I'm so grateful and thankyou.
I too carry a spare fan belt now under my seat.

[Ray in La Mesa]

On the way to a Model A friend's funeral the choke arm fell off the shaft , every time we gave it throttle the suction would close the choke. I always carry a few clothes pins for whatever reason. I clipped one to the choke butterfly shaft with choke in the open position and the weight of the clothespin held the choke open. We made it to the funeral just fine.

[shookie]

Coming home from a weekend camping trip, broke fan blade wedged against the radiator [just bent fins], cracked the water pump housing in half, removed water pump and everything else. Taped opening in front of head with duct tape. Drove home 60 miles in 85 degree heat on water in block and battery life.


Driving to the Indianapolis National meet the front wheel bearing froze up and heat distorted the hub. Old timers in the group made shims from coke cans and using new race and bearing drove additional 110 miles to the National.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

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Originally Posted by rfitzpatrick

BRENT
No offense -- but you guys are Nuts!!!
Thanks, really

No offense taken, ...are you are probably correct in your assessment.



One person that I wish was still alive to comment here is the late Ron 'Rainmaker' Cloat. Rainmaker Ron was a master at being able to quickly assess a situation of failure and make a repair to quickly continue on. If y'all have never read the chronicles of one such journey, there are a few pages on Vince's Fordgarage website dedicated to a journey that Ron made out to the Dakotas to retrieve a Fordor Sedan. Well worth the read.

[Chris in WNC]

(reply to post #20 above)

Quote:
Alice & I had the engine out in about 2 hours.

How did you lift the engine?


Repair tent at the national meet had an engine hoist.

[Mike Peters]

Last Sept. the original clutch arm on the bell housing broke enroute to a thresheree. No fixing that on the road without a replacement and proper tools, so flatbed trip back home. Repro clutch arms are much stronger than originals.
Two inner tubes failed enroute to French Lick National Meet three years ago. I carry spare tubes, so fixed on the road. Replaced ALL tubes once in French Lick. Bought a set from Gaslight Auto that are still on the car. Did that in the repair tent. Inner tubes of the 90's and early 2000's were NO good. Better now.
Borg Warner overdrive gave out on the club fall tour last year. Another flatbed trip home. Now have a Mitchel to install.

[Bill Cilker]

4 Model A’s and families left the San Jose CA. area in 2003 for Calgary, Canada and the North West Regional Meet. We had a great time at the meet and met some wonderful people. On the 3rd day of the return trip, one member blew a head gasket. We were in Simacous, British Colombia on a Sunday, when we stopped for lunch and decided to change the head gasket in the restaurant parking lot. We let the engine cool while we had lunch and changed the head gasket in 2 hours, with a small group of on lookers. The head stud between #3 & 4 cylinders got over heated and detempered by the blown head gasket. It would not hold more than 30 lbs. of torque. I was aware enough to figure out why and did not try for more torque in fear of breaking it.

[4port]

Here are a few...

Muffler clamp fell off a car on a tour, no one had a spare clamp, rope or wire to strap up the muffler from dragging the ground. So they tied it up with a bra. How can you drive with all that noise? Don’t ever follow a Model A with the muffler disconnected. Can you run over your own muffler? I can’t remember but someone ran over it.

Then there was the guy that drove a phaeton through a self service carwash, taking a shortcut, and tore the top off.

On a tour in Bandera, Texas I pulled out from a roadside rest break and heard a squeaking noise from the engine. Sounded like the fan had cracked. Pulled over under a shade tree, it was 100* that day, and sure enough it was cracked. I asked someone to stay with me to help pull the hood. We then pulled the upper hose loose, tilted the radiator forward. Pulled the pump and fan and installed another from under the seat. There was a water faucet about 20 feet away in front of a church. What luck. I can now say I stole from the church. Was back on the road in about 20 minutes, pulled out a map, took a short cut, and was first in line to eat at the lunch stop on the tour. Everyone wanted to know how we left last, and got there first.

Have you ever changed a condenser on the side of a major highway with a blistering hot engine with semi’s blowing by? How about dropping that inner condenser screw in the grass? Guess you don’t get out much. I always carry a spare distributor. Now I carry a condenser with alligator clips on each end!

Another time someone had borrowed a roadster from another member to drive on a 1200 mile tour. We were driving about 300 miles to the hotel on the first day. This thing ran out of oil about 50 miles out. All the oil was being blown out of the engine, coming through the hood louvers and spraying down the quarter panel. We raised the hood, and it had a PCV valve connected to a late model oil filler cap by a rubber hose. We pulled all that off, filled it with oil, tied a rag on the filler pipe, and continued on our way. Some how we got split up from this car and something else broke and the car was left on the side of the road a few miles from the hotel. Everyone was asking what happened to that car with all the dirt and oil down the side outside of town. Later they trailered it in.

Then there was another member that stepped out of his car on the side of the road with his 4 speed overdrive transmission shift lever in his hand. Weld broke at top of housing. Vise Grips wouldn’t grab it, too short. I pulled out my National roster, first call was guy in an adjacent town that just happened to have the same transmission. He pulled his shifter housing from his car and brought it to us and installed it. What are the odds?

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by 4port

Here are a few...


Have you ever changed a condenser on the side of a major highway with a blistering hot engine with semi’s blowing by? How about dropping that inner condenser screw in the grass? Guess you don’t get out much. I always carry a spare distributor. Now I carry a condenser with alligator clips on each end!

If the condensor dies, one can easily be installed at the coil. Connect between the terminal with the wire going to the distributor and earth.


Then there was another member that stepped out of his car on the side of the road with his 4 speed overdrive transmission shift lever in his hand. Weld broke at top of housing. Vise Grips wouldn’t grab it, too short. I pulled out my National roster, first call was guy in an adjacent town that just happened to have the same transmission. He pulled his shifter housing from his car and brought it to us and installed it. What are the odds?

Back in 1996, we were on a rally in NZ. There was a guy, his wife and their cat in a Model T of about 1915 as I recall. One day, on a drive, a wheel collapsed in the middel of mow where. He recalled driving past a farm gate not far back so he legged it to the gate, up the drive and knocked. After expleining the situation to the farmer, the farmer asked him to follow him. He wenrt to the woolshed where in a corner, there was an old trailer made with T wheels. "So", said the farmer, "you want a wheel like that!". HIs wife couldn't believe it when hubby returned witha wheel under his arm.
What are the odds?

[eagle]

Not model A but close. My grandfather had a 29 Chrysler. He was getting married to my grandmother, and he did a quick bearing replacement the day before. He forgot to prime the oil pump after putting the engine back together. In the morning he picked up his bride-to-be and they set off for the county seat to be married. A few miles down the road the engine seized. He straddled the ditch, crawled under the car and took off the engine pan, and figured out the problem. He then walked to the nearest neighbor to see if he could borrow a car to get back home. The neighbor just happened to have the same car, and had a new set of bearings for it. Grandpa bought the bearings from the guy, walked back to the car and installed them. He remembered to prime the oil pump this time, and him and grandma set off on their way, and were married as planned. This was in 1935 and they were married until 1987 when grandpa passed. Grandpa used to love to tell the story. He always carried an old pair of "overalls" in case of car trouble.

[daveymc29]

On my way to Texas in 2008, I had the misfortune to developed a backfiring and missing that several folks tried their best to cure for me. We checked every wire connection to make sure it was tight and rebuilt the carburetor and distributor a couple of times as well as replacing intake and exhaust manifold gaskets, re-torquing the head and replacing most anything to do with gas or spark. Had the bride bring me a carb and distributor which were swapped out. When cold I could start the car in the morning and run until it needed gas, then it would hardly pull out of the gas station. I found a sweet spot to get it up to speed by fiddling with the GAV which to a bit of tweaking, but once up to speed it seemed to be okay until I needed gas or stopped for any reason, On the return trip it suddenly began to run fine and gave no trouble for another year or two, then suddenly did the same thing right near home. One guy touched my alternator as we went around the car and the wire moved. I squeezed it with pliers and have had no problem since. I had replaced the alternator without noticing the wire clip to be loose. That one almost had me come home on a hook. Things that have brought me home on a hook were gas filters and radiator plugged. Other than that I have limped home without brakes, no water pump function and the death wobble. Also with no clutch pedal, wouldn't move the clutch. Drove a few miles and replaced the original little arm which had split.

[katy]

How can you drive with all that noise? Don’t ever follow a Model A with the muffler disconnected.

That reminds me of the time I replaced the 351M engine in a Ford Explorer w/a 302, I drove it about 3 or 4 miles to my buddy at the muffler shop to have custom exhaust pipes made. talk about LOUD.

[Clem Clement]

I was maintenance tent chief for two national events. We saw some stuff!!!

Sheared axle shaft

several failed aftermarket dissy lashups(with no instructions to help. In all cases we replaced with Henry's version.

Loose fly wheel teeth

blown head gasket
sour Ign switches.

In our archive is my report on all the failures.

we did have a repop generator pully separate
I had a loose valve seat incert

[Jim Brierley]

Again, Katy and I were driving to AZ. When out in the CA desert she started overheating. Problem was the water pump bushing failed, early V8 pump was leaking copious amounts of water. I cut the fan belt and used it to hold the pump to a position where it leaked only a little. I had enough water to get me back a couple of miles to a gas station/store, bought 2 gallon jugs of water, refilled the one I had and continued on. Thermosyphon kept the temp right at 200*, stopped every 50-60 miles and topped off. Called ahead to a friend, he had a spare pump and purchased a new belt for me. Drove back to Temecula that evening with now problems.

[qstott]

I had a starter lock up in a parking lot. No amount of rocking, tapping or jiggling would help. I keep an original set of tools in a trunk. Simply loosened the started jiggled it and bolted it back on. All the while answering questions about what kind of car, what year, and hearing “ my grandfather had one stories”.

Another time my wife and I had pulled out from a parking lot and i had forgotten to cut the gas on. Just as I was shifting into second, it died. While pushing in the clutch, I turned the gas on. Instead of pressing the starter button I just popped the clutch to crank it while rolling. All was well until I stopped a few feet away at a sign. The stick was in neutral , but the transmission was in second. I pulled into a dollar general lot and stopped. When my wife asked what was I going to do, I said I was going to fix it. She said she was going shopping and asked if I needed anything. Paper towels, I said.
When she came back I had the top plate off. The gear stick had slipped out of sync with the shift forks. I positioned every thing correctly , bolted it all together, wiped my hands and we drove home.

I bought the car from a guy that owned it about 20 years. He drove it a lot and said it had never failed to get him home. He did make s9me roadside repairs, but he never had it towed.

[Gene F]

My drive shaft snapped once, so that was a tow truck. Another time my armoured cable shorted out. Jumped it out so to speak, and then swapped it back at the hotel. My wife twisted it inside, so I did not have to pull the distributor.

[Pete]

I can't recall having ever had to fix anything on the road with my driver but yes, once with the A roadster and it was trackside, not roadside. It was a west coast National race somewhere about the early 2000's at Cottage Grove, Ore. (1/4 dirt track)
Fast heat, second lap, someone bumps and spins me. I bump the fence just hard enough to break the right front steering arm. After getting back to the pits on the hook, a local friend with a model A shop comes over and looks at the arm and says I can have you a new one in about an hour but will have to charge for the material. No sweat. He is back in an hour, we install it and in plenty of time to make the back of the A main. I won the A main.
Model A fokes are the best.

[Jim Brierley]

I lost a head gasket on a local tour some years ago but managed to limp into the lunch stop area. A friend asked if I had a gasket, which I did, he said we can change that in 45 minutes, his wife looked at her watch and said "OK". There were a lot of onlookers, so we took advantage of that, and put them to work. We didn't remove anything except the head, not the hood, rad or pump. 45 minutes later I fired it up! The center stud had stripped, without warning, and wouldn't tighten up properly, so I was gentle with that nut, and eased carefully home. When home I removed that stud, found one with longer threads, carefully cleaned the block with lacquer thinner, put JB weld on the stud and screwed it in place holding it straight with the nut gently on and let it sit for 2 days, then torqued it down. End of problem!