Bad MacGyvering ! Questionable Funny Repairs

[socaldmax]

I just remembered this one...

a good friend of mine named Jim used to build custom trimarans and catamarans. Crosses, Horstmans, etc. Years later, I had towed a friend's 45' 5ver trailer nose first into a large shed building, and unhitched. I backed out through the adjoining opening. Later, when I went back to retrieve the trailer, another tenant had parked his motorhome in the other entrance and blocked all access to the trailer. I was stumped.

I was talking to Jim, and mentioned my predicament. He said, "Simple. Just build a skid for the landing gear out of plywood and tow it out from the rear. That's how we launched some of the boats back in the day." Genius! I bought a sheet of 1/2" plywood, and ripped it into 4 1' x 8' strips. In addition, I bought 1"x 2" strips, a box of screws and a small can of bearing grease. I screwed the 1x2" strips onto the edges of the 1' wide plywood and overlapped the strips to make it 2 16' long troughs. I greased up the plywood, placed blocks under the trailer frame, and raised the landing gear, sliding the skids under each landing gear. I lowered the landing gear, hooked up a tow strap to the rear of the trailer and slowly towed it backwards 16' with my truck. This gave me enough room to get my truck in front and hook it up normally. I broke down the plywood skids and used them for firewood that night.

Later on, when the storage lot attendant (who couldn't move the motorhome) asked me how I got the trailer out, I told him I levitated it. LOL


My latest McGyver was this last week. When the axle nut came off of my Wildcat, apparently a brake pad came out of the caliper and got lost. I called every dealer in 2 counties to see if they had any brake pads in stock, no dice. So I took a piece of scrap steel flat bar stock and used a 4" die grinder and a drill press to make a rough approximation of the other brake pad. I put the whole hub assembly back together with all new parts except for the used brake pad up against the brake caliper piston and the redneck brake pad on the opposite side. We took it out for a full week of riding in the rocks and in the sand dunes, and it worked great, completely forgot that it wasn't a real brake pad!

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

I just remembered this one...

a good friend of mine named Jim used to build custom trimarans and catamarans. Crosses, Horstmans, etc. Years later, I had towed a friend's 45' 5ver trailer nose first into a large shed building, and unhitched. I backed out through the adjoining opening. Later, when I went back to retrieve the trailer, another tenant had parked his motorhome in the other entrance and blocked all access to the trailer. I was stumped.

I was talking to Jim, and mentioned my predicament. He said, "Simple. Just build a skid for the landing gear out of plywood and tow it out from the rear. That's how we launched some of the boats back in the day." Genius! I bought a sheet of 1/2" plywood, and ripped it into 4 1' x 8' strips. In addition, I bought 1"x 2" strips, a box of screws and a small can of bearing grease. I screwed the 1x2" strips onto the edges of the 1' wide plywood and overlapped the strips to make it 2 16' long troughs. I greased up the plywood, placed blocks under the trailer frame, and raised the landing gear, sliding the skids under each landing gear. I lowered the landing gear, hooked up a tow strap to the rear of the trailer and slowly towed it backwards 16' with my truck. This gave me enough room to get my truck in front and hook it up normally. I broke down the plywood skids and used them for firewood that night.

Later on, when the storage lot attendant (who couldn't move the motorhome) asked me how I got the trailer out, I told him I levitated it. LOL


My latest McGyver was this last week. When the axle nut came off of my Wildcat, apparently a brake pad came out of the caliper and got lost. I called every dealer in 2 counties to see if they had any brake pads in stock, no dice. So I took a piece of scrap steel flat bar stock and used a 4" die grinder and a drill press to make a rough approximation of the other brake pad. I put the whole hub assembly back together with all new parts except for the used brake pad up against the brake caliper piston and the redneck brake pad on the opposite side. We took it out for a full week of riding in the rocks and in the sand dunes, and it worked great, completely forgot that it wasn't a real brake pad!

Great stuff socal ! You have the gene for sure...

Many a toy fix here... including an engine rebuild of a CR500 at Pete's on the beach...

[ohYes]

I once rigged up a long yellow "Slip and Slide" to divert a massive leak (which was pouring like a faucet into the lobby of the office I was renting) to under the front door. Lucky for the big crack under the door!
Hmmm... this gives me rain water collection ideas.

[boden36]

My friend and I were returning to university in a clapped out EK Holden. We were half way up the road from Port Macquarie to Wauchope which was a steep dirt goat track nad quite isolated. (NSW Australia)
The car stopped and the problem was a perforated diaphragm in the fuel pump. Petrol was pouring out.
Luckily his mum had given us a baked chook to eat on the way, and it was in a plastic bag.
Split the pump and inserted a couple of layers of the plastic on top of the diaphragm.
Was still running fine when we got into town fifty miles later.

Regards,
Richard.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by ohYes

I once rigged up a long yellow "Slip and Slide" to divert a massive leak (which was pouring like a faucet into the lobby of the office I was renting) to under the front door. Lucky for the big crack under the door!
Hmmm... this gives me rain water collection ideas.

Love IT!!!

I'm tad bit curious just how "casual" ... Casual Fridays were at your office if you just happened to have a slip and slide handy....

PS: If you come up with a new start-up business plan, I think you and I would work wonderfully together...

Originally Posted by boden36

My friend and I were returning to university in a clapped out EK Holden. We were half way up the road from Port Macquarie to Wauchope which was a steep dirt goat track nad quite isolated. (NSW Australia)
The car stopped and the problem was a perforated diaphragm in the fuel pump. Petrol was pouring out.
Luckily his mum had given us a baked chook to eat on the way, and it was in a plastic bag.
Split the pump and inserted a couple of layers of the plastic on top of the diaphragm.
Was still running fine when we got into town fifty miles later.

Regards,
Richard.

Richard,

Awesome stuff!!!!

I was down with the clapped out Holden, but you almost lost me on the baked chook???

Plastic bags are definitely required in the MacGyver toolbox!

I would need to take my shoes off to help count how many gaskets I've made from beer 12-pack cartons!

[ohYes]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

Love IT!!!

I'm tad bit curious just how "casual" ... Casual Fridays were at your office if you just happened to have a slip and slide handy....

PS: If you come up with a new start-up business plan, I think you and I would work wonderfully together...

Dude, we think so much alike, it's just plain scary! I see you noticed my new thread. How about affordable graphene watermakers for cruisers?

[bvmbandit]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Had a hydraulic steering hose blow on our Center Console fishing boat a couple of years ago, duct taped an oar to the side of the outboard and used it like a tiller to get home, does that count?
BTW down South we call it something different

LOL You and I must live near each other cause they called it the same thing where I came from...

[susswein]

I was 50 miles down a 4wd road in Baja when my transmission sprung a leak and lost all 14 quarts of transmission fluid. I was able to fix the leak with superglue, and proceeded to fill the transmission with everything oily substance I had, including cooking oil and engine oil. By keeping the transmission in high gear in 4-low I was ble to limp out to la paz. The hardest part was trying to use my broken spanish to explain to the tranny repair shop what the fluid in the transmission was!

[ohYes]

Totally cool, @susswein.
It's starting to sound like the MacGyver brain trust around here!
LOL you wont believe what I just saw. Check this out: ARE YOU A MODERN DAY "MacGyver," ENGINEER, CRASFTSMEN OR INVENTOR? : RealityWanted.com: Reality TV, Game Show, Talk Show, News - All Things Unscripted Social Network Casting Community
3/24 is the deadline and hardly anyone has signed up. Go for it, MacGyvers we'll all go and vote for you!

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by ohYes

Dude, we think so much alike, it's just plain scary! I see you noticed my new thread. How about affordable graphene watermakers for cruisers?

I'm thinkin' the same thing.... Truly... Well... We need to start looking for minions is all I'm gunna say...

Originally Posted by bvmbandit

LOL You and I must live near each other cause they called it the same thing where I came from...

The call it the same thing everywhere....

Originally Posted by susswein

I was 50 miles down a 4wd road in Baja when my transmission sprung a leak and lost all 14 quarts of transmission fluid. I was able to fix the leak with superglue, and proceeded to fill the transmission with everything oily substance I had, including cooking oil and engine oil. By keeping the transmission in high gear in 4-low I was ble to limp out to la paz. The hardest part was trying to use my broken spanish to explain to the tranny repair shop what the fluid in the transmission was!

Ah La Paz.... Many a year of my youth was spent on them parts...

Originally Posted by ohYes

Totally cool, @susswein.
It's starting to sound like the MacGyver brain trust around here!
LOL you wont believe what I just saw. Check this out: ARE YOU A MODERN DAY "MacGyver," ENGINEER, CRASFTSMEN OR INVENTOR? : RealityWanted.com: Reality TV, Game Show, Talk Show, News - All Things Unscripted Social Network Casting Community
3/24 is the deadline and hardly anyone has signed up. Go for it, MacGyvers we'll all go and vote for you!

Gawd... If I had 1/10th the time for this I would think about it.... Similar TV golf appearance many years ago... took up massive amount of time...

Good find though! Hurry People!

[SabreKai]

Sadly I have no photo of this, only of the repair I did to correct it, and that was pretty bad.

I was going to purchase a Grampian 26 up in Parry Sound Ontario, and hired a surveyor to look her over. The weirdest thing he found was a couple of dull sounding spots on his external thumping with a hammer. When he went below to do the interior he made a point of looking inside one locker to see if he could find the cause of the odd sound.

Back in the day, the VDO sumlog was driven by a propeller turning a cable in a tube and the prop unit was mounted by drilling a elongated hole for the cable diameter and 3 for the mounting bolts. When the previous owner decided to move the prop unit, he painted the inside of the locker with polyester resin, put a one foot square piece of Canadian Tire woven roving on the puddle and pressed it down with his hand. That was it for the inside. He then went outside and filled the 4 holes with auto body bondo.

When the surveyor found this he called me to look at it. Here we had a piece of fiber glass cloth, frayed and flapping round on the edges, with a nice hand print in the middle. In the palm of the hand print were the 4 reddish auto body fillers.

As I said , no photo but that will stay in memory forever.

[Wonderinlost]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

To haul out my 34ft cat, I made rollers from pipe and pvc tubing,
and used a winch attached to my bronco's trailer hitch and chocked the wheels.

I also attached the steering from a speedboat to the outboard since the rudders did not work, which a coast guard guy thought was impressive.

In the young and stupid department, my clutch linkage broke on my car in highschool, and we nevertheless had to go out on a saturday night, so i just used the starter motor to leave from a stoplight, went 30-40 miles and back to the beach that night.

:thumbs: ive done that to with the clutch going out. Had a car that blew the syncros going into seccond gear never fixed it just never touched the third peddle once moving. A lot easier in a bigger truck with a low gear tis a funny feeling turning the key and as the motor starts to chug you think something is about to drop out.

I never mcgivered this but this one truck the trans was already going out. You can hear the gears whinning, feel how much play was in the stick. I was in a mid 90's Mack daycab with a golden pooch 9 speed trans and a 427hp mack motor. Mechanics knew any day now the truck would be put down. I was just running sand back and forth. Maybe a 10 mile trip each way. Well instead of just leaving it in first gear and starting the truck I at a dead stop in the quarry just threw it into first. Yeah something would of dropped out sooner or later but she grabbed and away I went. All the loader operators almost rolled out of their seat when I threw my left leg out of the window and said "look ma! No feet"

wondering around with no destionation

[Wonderinlost]

Originally Posted by ohYes

I once rigged up a long yellow "Slip and Slide" to divert a massive leak (which was pouring like a faucet into the lobby of the office I was renting) to under the front door. Lucky for the big crack under the door!
Hmmm... this gives me rain water collection ideas.

Well that reminds me of our back room at home had a nasty leak in it. We stapled up a plastic tarp on 3 sides and on the 4th side in the middle of it we tied a string wirh a deep sea weight for the water to run down into the catch bucket. Had it like that almost 2 years till the sheetrock collapsed. Then it was spring and the roof got torn up and we patched the dozen or so leaks.

wondering around with no destionation

[ohYes]

A few evenings ago, I bat got into my loft. When it was flying around, I remembered that my fishing net with the long pole was at the boat. Finally the bat landed on the fairly high ceiling. Dreading the option of having to spend the night awake watching for the bat, I grabbed one of those mesh laundry baskets that come flat and then spring up. I had A. stand on the pool table to lift the basket overhead to trap it. Then when it started flying around in the basket, A. quickly flipped it over (hoping it wouldn't try to fly down). As soon as I could reach it, I grabbed it and ran all the way to the back door.... eeeeeeeek!!!!
Not really a repair, but kinda MacGyverish.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by SabreKai

Sadly I have no photo of this, only of the repair I did to correct it, and that was pretty bad.

I was going to purchase a Grampian 26 up in Parry Sound Ontario, and hired a surveyor to look her over. The weirdest thing he found was a couple of dull sounding spots on his external thumping with a hammer. When he went below to do the interior he made a point of looking inside one locker to see if he could find the cause of the odd sound.

Back in the day, the VDO sumlog was driven by a propeller turning a cable in a tube and the prop unit was mounted by drilling a elongated hole for the cable diameter and 3 for the mounting bolts. When the previous owner decided to move the prop unit, he painted the inside of the locker with polyester resin, put a one foot square piece of Canadian Tire woven roving on the puddle and pressed it down with his hand. That was it for the inside. He then went outside and filled the 4 holes with auto body bondo.

When the surveyor found this he called me to look at it. Here we had a piece of fiber glass cloth, frayed and flapping round on the edges, with a nice hand print in the middle. In the palm of the hand print were the 4 reddish auto body fillers.

As I said , no photo but that will stay in memory forever.

HA!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO PICTURE REQUIRED... PERFECT MENTAL IMAGE!!!

Many a "Bondo Hall of Fame Uses" in my book... This is a goodn'!
(I called it the can o pink gold before epoxies hit the masses)

Originally Posted by Wonderinlost

Well that reminds me of our back room at home had a nasty leak in it. We stapled up a plastic tarp on 3 sides and on the 4th side in the middle of it we tied a string wirh a deep sea weight for the water to run down into the catch bucket. Had it like that almost 2 years till the sheetrock collapsed. Then it was spring and the roof got torn up and we patched the dozen or so leaks.

wondering around with no destionation

I've seen the catch bucket setup... very impressive!

Originally Posted by ohYes

A few evenings ago, I bat got into my loft. When it was flying around, I remembered that my fishing net with the long pole was at the boat. Finally the bat landed on the fairly high ceiling. Dreading the option of having to spend the night awake watching for the bat, I grabbed one of those mesh laundry baskets that come flat and then spring up. I had A. stand on the pool table to lift the basket overhead to trap it. Then when it started flying around in the basket, A. quickly flipped it over (hoping it wouldn't try to fly down). As soon as I could reach it, I grabbed it and ran all the way to the back door.... eeeeeeeek!!!!
Not really a repair, but kinda MacGyverish.

Agreed.... Not quite MacGuyverish... BUT... Definitely worthy of print for the visual!