My boss once sent me from Brisbane to the Gold Coast on a sales drive. My clutch cable broke and I bubba'd a fix to get me through it and home. I went to the local hardware store and bought a replacement garage door cable kit; about 5m of 5mm gal steel cable and some clamp connectors. One end of the cable I attached to the handbrake base and the other end to the clutch throw lever on the gearbox, fed throught the firewall hole. The change gear I'd push the cable, pulling it taught enough to work the clutch. Thankfully, no traffic stop by curiouz fuzz. I got home, and to a wrecking yard to get a genuine replacement. It's not stupid if it works. I still miss that 1974 Toyota....all up weight abot 800kg and a suprisingle zippy slant four. A Ford ate it one day in a rearender at the lights, and it ended its days as a runabout on a friend's bush property. We could pack eleven folks into with their long guns and prowl for pigs, possums and roos.
I worked a boat rental concession at a lake in California when I was a teenager in the 70's. We had an old Ford pickup we used to go and fill the boat gas cans every day. Someone had tried to steal the truck and had broken the shifter yoke on the steering column. The owner of the concession was too cheap to fix it. Standard ops was to start the truck with the hood open, go out, grab the linkage, put it in gear, slam the hood, and jump back into a now-moving truck. It was quite the trick! The I came along. I ran old outboard pull cords through the firewall. They were tied to the linkage and run in such a way that pulling one cord would pull it from Park to Low, and the other from Low to Park. They worked GREAT. Hell; the cords already even had HANDLES on them! When I moved on from that job the truck was STILL set up that way! For the record, my nickname at my current job is "MacGyver." ...Poverty is a GREAT teacher...
My boss once sent me from Brisbane to the Gold Coast on a sales drive. My clutch cable broke and I bubba'd a fix to get me through it and home. I went to the local hardware store and bought a replacement garage door cable kit; about 5m of 5mm gal steel cable and some clamp connectors. One end of the cable I attached to the handbrake base and the other end to the clutch throw lever on the gearbox, fed throught the firewall hole. The change gear I'd push the cable, pulling it taught enough to work the clutch. Thankfully, no traffic stop by curiouz fuzz. I got home, and to a wrecking yard to get a genuine replacement. It's not stupid if it works. I still miss that 1974 Toyota....all up weight abot 800kg and a suprisingle zippy slant four. A Ford ate it one day in a rearender at the lights, and it ended its days as a runabout on a friend's bush property. We could pack eleven folks into with their long guns and prowl for pigs, possums and roos.
ReplyDeleteStefan v.
I agree. It may not be as pretty as the original, but if it gets you home, that's what counts.
DeleteI worked a boat rental concession at a lake in California when I was a teenager in the 70's. We had an old Ford pickup we used to go and fill the boat gas cans every day. Someone had tried to steal the truck and had broken the shifter yoke on the steering column. The owner of the concession was too cheap to fix it. Standard ops was to start the truck with the hood open, go out, grab the linkage, put it in gear, slam the hood, and jump back into a now-moving truck. It was quite the trick! The I came along. I ran old outboard pull cords through the firewall. They were tied to the linkage and run in such a way that pulling one cord would pull it from Park to Low, and the other from Low to Park. They worked GREAT. Hell; the cords already even had HANDLES on them! When I moved on from that job the truck was STILL set up that way! For the record, my nickname at my current job is "MacGyver." ...Poverty is a GREAT teacher...
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