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baconsdozen
Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 12:41 pm Post subject: The biggest bodge. |
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Over the years I've worked on thousands of cars,my own and other peoples. I was thinking about the bodges I've seen and the ones that for some reason or another stick in my mind. The most complex was a marinised diesel engine that had been persuaded into a vauxhall cresta,the heat exchanger had been plumbed into the original radiator and the pipe that originally fed the water cooled exhaust re routed to return water to the rad via the heater.
I also worked on a broads boat which had almost the same transplant carried out in reverse. A diesel and four speed box had been fitted surrounded by all sorts of pipes and copper tubes. It still had a clutch worked by a lever and you could change gear going up river. Reverse was far too low geared to do much to slow the contraption down though,a many bumps,dents and scrapes on the bow proved testimony too. _________________ Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired). |
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Rick Site Admin
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22458 Location: UK
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emmerson
Joined: 30 Sep 2008 Posts: 1268 Location: South East Wales
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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I thought I'd told this tale previously, but can't find it, so here goes again!
1952 phase 1 Vanguard ran a big end en route from Glasgow to Whitehaven, at the cafe on Beattock Summit, in about 1960. Four of us boys in it, all apprentice mechanics, so we had plenty of tools with us. We gathered up all the empty cans from the cafe rubbish bins, drained the oil and removed the sump. #four bigend was well shot, so I removed my Army surplus belt, cut a piece to size, wrapped it round the crankshaft, put the sump back, oil in and drove the rest of the way home! It lasted another week before I gathered enough money to buy a set of shells!
I wonder if today's young drivers will be telling tales like this in 50 odd years time? |
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christine lowery
Joined: 30 Sep 2009 Posts: 496 Location: wallsend tyne and wear
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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not a car one we were enroute fro Newcastle to Harrogate via kettlewell in north Yorkshire when my mates 1926 BSA's rocker box came loose stripping the threads
the bikes owner reseated the rockerbox and cut a length of wire from a fence and rapped it round the engine twisting it to tighten down the rockers onto the engine it worked perfectly for the next 200 miles
chris |
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mikeC
Joined: 31 Jul 2009 Posts: 1776 Location: Market Warsop, Nottinghamshire
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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The best 'permanent' bodge (rather than a temporary emergency repair) I've come across was on (in) an Austin Seven engine.
You may know that the crankshaft is located in ball and roller bearings rather than white metalled housings. Back in the mid 1960s I broke the crank in my Seven and needed a replacement engine pretty quickly to keep me mobile. A suitable engine was found and installed, and that kept me on the road for a year or more; when I finally stripped the engine down for a full overhaul, I was somewhat surprised to find the rear main bearing was a solid lump of wood! It was beautifully machined, and very hard, and seemed to be quite up to the job! I suspect it was probably a war-time bodge which somebody had resorted to in desperation, but it appeared to be the least worn component in that engine! |
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Churchill Johnson
Joined: 11 Jan 2011 Posts: 359 Location: Rayleigh Essex
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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Year's ago three car load's of my family were coming back from Cornwall into Essex and my son driving a Vauxhall Chevette had his exhaust pipe break we pulled into a layby on a small country road and i searched the ditch and long grass and found a rusty length of old exhaust pipe which had been thrown away or come off another person's car and i used this to repair his one using some wire to hold it in place, with this it got back home a repair i very much doubt could be done on modern car's.. |
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Penman
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4765 Location: Swindon, Wilts.
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Mike
My father made his own lathe and the Headstock was a soild piece of oak with an oil hole drilled down to the hole for the steel shaft carrying the chuck or face plate, I assume the oil caused the wood to keep swelling thus taking up any wear. Of course that is rotatingg only with no reciprocation but then
I suppose the mains don't get quite the same hammering as a big end would and the oil in the engine would have the same effect as above and the heat might have hardened the wood as well..
The lathe must have been 20 years old when he sold it to a workmate. _________________ Bristols should always come in pairs.
Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10 |
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Ray White
Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 6342 Location: Derby
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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This tale may be apocryphal but there are hundreds of true Austin 7 stories that beggar belief. I once read about someone who had a king pin snap in his Austin Seven. Apparently he broke down outside the cottage of an old lady who invited him in for a cup of tea. While warming himself by open fire, he noticed the poker. 1/2" round bar...ideal!
After a little fettling, the said poker was cut and installed as a makeshift king pin and the chap was on his way.
Hopefully the kind lady was given a new poker. |
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peter scott
Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7124 Location: Edinburgh
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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I think this is the most stupid bodge that I've come across.
(Yes, the wheel has been carefully welded to the hub!)
Peter
_________________ http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon
Last edited by peter scott on Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Ray White
Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 6342 Location: Derby
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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That is most definitely an "end of life" bodge. Perhaps the car was intended for "banger" racing? |
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peter scott
Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7124 Location: Edinburgh
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 12:04 am Post subject: |
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Ray White wrote: | That is most definitely an "end of life" bodge. Perhaps the car was intended for "banger" racing? |
The general condition of it would suggest that it never hit the track.
_________________ http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon
Last edited by peter scott on Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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baconsdozen
Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:27 am Post subject: |
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That bodge on the wheel has to be one of the most ludicrous repairs I've seen.
I remember reading about a main bearing being replace by a strip cut from a shoe on a desert crossing and a car having its lost brake fluid replaced by Kia Orq orange juice,I suppose desperation truly is the mother of invention. _________________ Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired). |
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Rusty
Joined: 10 Feb 2009 Posts: 204 Location: Bunbury, Western Australia
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:28 am Post subject: |
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I know of an instance in our "outback" where a group of "brothers", had a big end go on the old slant 6 valiant they were driving, and using the station tools they pulled the motor, cleaned up the crankshaft with a file and some fairly rough emery used to grind shearing gear and then proceeded to install a new bearing made out of roofing lead ! It not only worked quite well but 12 months later after continual use it was still driving around on the dodgy repair. Don't know how long it lasted but more than 12 months. |
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baconsdozen
Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:24 am Post subject: |
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I remember springing a radiator leak in an old Morris 1000,we had some water on board but nothing to plug the leak. We saw some chickens scratching around and found some eggs half covered in weeds at the base of a wall. When the car had cooled a bit we filled the rad and broke the eggs over the rad,they must have been there years,the smell was awful,but soon got much worse as they didn't slow the leak and the foul mixture soon boiled again. _________________ Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired). |
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peter scott
Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7124 Location: Edinburgh
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 11:19 am Post subject: |
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Talking of chickens..
_________________ http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon
Last edited by peter scott on Sat Oct 26, 2019 8:57 am; edited 2 times in total |
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