There, I fixed it.

[cale]

I'm proud to be a Full Sized Jeep owner.

I drive a 6,000 pound steel vehicle that drinks fuel and leaks oil a little. Nobody else understands it, but I wouldn't be caught dead in a new, plastic SUV with its hidden engine and magical push-button faux wheel drive. I like my solid front axle, my no-frills Holley carburetor, and tires that get me out of mud and snow, even though they are loud on the pavement.

"Aren't you scared that thing's going to leave you stranded? It's 30 years old!"

No. I'm not. Because I'm not your average guy. When the apocalypse comes, I'll be the guy that can MacGuyver the fuel out of the underground tanks at gas stations. You'll be the stranded idiot in the Kia Sportage.

So, be proud of your trail fixes and roadside patches. Be proud of the quick thinking and crafty repairs that got your truck to limp home or crawl off the trail. Post pictures up here, because we're the kind of people that will get a kick out of it.

Here are a couple of mine, and I'm proud to say there will be more to follow as I drive my old Jeep more and more and keep on fixing whatever breaks.


Burned a hole in a spark plug wire out in the middle of nowhere with no spare. It kept grounding on EVERYTHING.


This hose and zip-tie insulator kept me running on all 8 cylinders for the remaining 250 miles of my journey:


A leaking 4x4 dash selector meant my front axle was always engaged. I temporarily replaced it with a straw from a Kool-Aid Jammer and some vacuum tube:


Let's see your redneck repairs.

[Tad]

Originally Posted by cale

...
Let's see your redneck repairs.

Gonna have to pass.
It would wipe out too much bandwidth here.

[moorman.robert]

That's great! I too would like to see more pix of that type of fixes.

[Ristow]

I drive a 6,000 pound steel vehicle that drinks fuel and leaks oil a little

a suburban?

[cale]

I have fat children.

[snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by cale

I have fat children.

I wonder why?
Could it be Daddy makes his kids drink gallons of KoolAid just to fix his Jeepy. I was always partial to CapriSun myself.....

[cale]

Originally Posted by snuffleupagus

I wonder why?
Could it be Daddy makes his kids drink gallons of KoolAid just to fix his Jeepy. I was always partial to CapriSun myself.....

For vacuum fitting fabrication purposes, I don't think it matters. The straws are the same size.

[fulsizjeep]

2 words: Little Debbies

[crazyspoons]

My custom gas tank I used to get the 83 home:



Also, I'm missing the picture of my sunroof before I fixed it. I pulled it out and covered the hole with a few pounds of foil-flex tape.... actually held up for a few months.

[cale]

That's really nice!

[crazyspoons]

It did help me realize my belts were being eatin alive

[FSJunkie]

Other than zip ties and electrical tape holding the wiring together, I haven't done many redneck fixes that were permenant. The greatest redneck fixes were by the PO, each of which I had to fix.

Here's the first one. He installed a coolant recovery bottle and mounted it using a welded hinge bolted to a piece of plywood, and finally the bottle to the plywood. It has now been replaced with a properly mounted bottle. Here is what it looked like when I first got the car:



The other big redneck solution was for the dealer installed oil pressure guage and ammeter. This guage cluster was hastilly installed under the dash just to the left of the Air Conditioner, and the dealer just slapped it in, and didn't wire it up very well. The wires were frayed and on the brink of shorting out (which they did), plus the ammeter guage carries all the electricity the vehicle uses, so there was lots of electrical power avalible for when a short should occur. To make matters even worse, the fitting on the back of the oil guage leaked a little, so the PO wrapped the fitting with a piece of polyester cloth! Polyester is flamable enough on its own, but soak it in oil and set it next to ready to short electrical wires. Naturally, one day the wires did short, knocking out much of my dash electricals and almost set the cloth alight, fortunately it just smoldered, but matters could have been much worse. Nothing quite like the smell of fried wiring.

You can see the 2 guage cluster under the dash and next to the A/C unit in this pic. The tan colored wad just under the cluster is the cloth "wick". Fortunately, the interior looks much better than this now, anain, this was when I first got the car:

[crazyspoons]

Wow. That thing was a ticking time bomb. Did the PO have something against you or somethin? .. Maybe an ex-lover? A kid you picked on in grade school?

[FSJunkie]

Originally Posted by crazyspoons

Wow. That thing was a ticking time bomb. Did the PO have something against you or somethin? .. Maybe an ex-lover? A kid you picked on in grade school?

Try my Grandfather. He meant well.

[jaber]

OK, I'll play...





The following was the condition I received the truck in...









I cant find the one of the leaf stack they tried to weld together...

[snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by cale

For vacuum fitting fabrication purposes, I don't think it matters. The straws are the same size.

No......Not always!!!
Mine were blue.....

[crazyspoons]

Jaber, that PO stuff is pretty rough, except the window latch. Looks a little more solid than my tired stock one

[Dirt Wag]

The original post reminds me of the time I traced a misfire to a plug wire arcing to a heater hose ----- never seen that before. A carefully placed zip tie held the wire away from everything.

[cale]

Originally Posted by Dirt Wag

The original post reminds me of the time I traced a misfire to a plug wire arcing to a heater hose...

Wow, it probably wouldn't have been long before it burned a pin-hole in your hose. Some engines needs a steam cleaning anyway.


The Gatorade bottle up there is a classic!

[jaber]

Originally Posted by crazyspoons

Jaber, that PO stuff is pretty rough, except the window latch. Looks a little more solid than my tired stock one

No, the window latch was mine, I needed to lock it up and this was what I thought about. I like it so much, I have another one to do. This truck was abused very bad before I got it, but I basically got it for free, and it ran...