Real Life Roadkill-type Stories

[SpeedThrills]

Ther Roadkill guys always tell us to go out and get a car and do something with it. Mostly, they road trip, and they road trip junk. As has been mentioned mannnnny times, they have a support crew and lots of $$$$$$$. It's not a big deal to them to break down.

Aside from the obvious safety issues when/if you break down on the road (the highway is the most dangerous place you can be aside from a battlefield), it's going to be a real pain when/if it breaks.

My wife and I are recently retired and have been doing some traveling in our '07 Accord. It's in really good shape, but I can't help but think about the problems that could occur. I'm considering getting something (or using my '87 Mustang LX 5.0) older to road trip with.

I guess we should have AAA. Are they the best? You still have to deal with unknown shops for anything you can't fix yourself.

Please relate stories of your own road trips, successful, or otherwise, and tell us how it went. Knock on wood, at age 65, I've never had a serious issue far from home.

EDIT: I did have to get towed home from the track once. Broke an axle. It was expensive, but was no disaster. I bought a trailer not long after that. lol

 

[273]

Had an old Suzuki Samurai and the throttle cable broke 3 hours from my house, used a shoe lace to tie the throttle where I wanted it. But after awhile it started to slack a bit and couldn’t do highway speeds so I pull over to redo it and the hood latch cable broke, so I had to take the through towns and back road route with a tied up throttle, got home

 

[qkcuda]

Last year travelling to Carlisle the car kept wanting to stall out while cruising. I had installed an electric fuel pump, just to prime the carb when the car sat for a week or so. It had a momentary switch only, tucked way under the dash. I ended up having to keep reaching down and pushing the switch to refill the carb, eventually every 30 seconds or so. When we got to Carlisle my buddy and I ended up wiring up a toggle switch in the hotel parking lot and it got me back home (8 hour drive). When I got home I found the culprit, a worn out pump pushrod. I just finished a proper wiring job with a relay for this year's trip, and bought a spare fuel pump. The year before it was a voltage regulator that pegged and almost boiled the battery. This year, who knows???

 

[S'cuder]

Early '90s, in the beeper era before I had a cell phone. Heading west into Buffalo on I-90 about 5:30 AM in a Mack Midliner six wheeler. 0°F.
The truck started losing power and I started to smell raw diesel at the same time. I pulled over, checked it out and found a rubber fuel hose with a good sized split in it. I could sit and freeze, hoping for someone to stop and help, or get busy. I cut out the bad section of hose. I pulled the guts out of a Bic pen and jammed the tube part into each end of the hose. I taped it up with vinyl electrical tape and was on my way. I got the 25 or so miles to the Pennzoil warehouse which was my destination. That was low pressure mechanical injection. It would never work on a modern, high pressure electronic injection diesel.

 

[barbee6043]

Old cars, any car can break down as we all know, but new purchases are always suspect. Things that have broke on me over the years in old Mopars on the road? (Starters in 454 Chevy pickups..many), but... Mopar alternators, starters, carbs, fusible links, ballast resistors (1) , ECU, wiring issues, ignition, out of gas, TIRES! But..Life is an adventure .

 

[diymirage]

Musta been 15 years ago and the wife had a thing in Philadelphia so we made a road trip out of it

Did an oil change on the VW we had at the time and even put new brakes all around

We made it there just fine, had a blast and headed home

About 75 miles east of Pittsburgh, while on the highway I tapped the brakes, and nothing happened

Tapped it again and the pedal went right to the floor

I pulled over, looked underneath as best I could, expecting to see a trail of brake fluid but I saw nothing concerning

Got back in, fired it back up and after about a dozen or so pumps, the brake pedal came back up and started working again

I pretty much babied her the rest of the roughly 500 miles home and as soon as I got home I get her up on jackstands

Didn't see anything up front, so i checked the back and I had to do a double take

It turned out I must not have tightened the caliper bolts on one of the rear brakes

The caliper had come off completely, the pads were long gone but somehow the caliper had gotten hung up on the carrier and the piston had actually clamped it on the carrier

That must have been when the pedal came back up

Wish I had taken a picture back then, but I didn't have a camera on my phone

 

[65TerrorCuda]

Had an old Suzuki Samurai and the throttle cable broke 3 hours from my house, used a shoe lace to tie the throttle where I wanted it. But after awhile it started to slack a bit and couldn’t do highway speeds so I pull over to redo it and the hood latch cable broke, so I had to take the through towns and back road route with a tied up throttle, got home

Oh geez, I broke that cable too on my 87 tintop. Was ready to run in the mountains but instead ran entire way home, just about 1 1/2 hours. Sore knees, ankles, feet

 

[TrailBeast]

OMG how many times I ended up in a Roadkill type situation.
Here’s one.

Keeping it short, I threw the driveshaft out of my dads 58 Ford pickup on a backroad while he was at work.
One cap disappeared.
Only 2 tools could be found in the truck, a 5/8 short socket and a 1/2 wrench.
Drove it home before he got off work.
5/8 socket as a temporary cap and exactly the size wrench to do it.

 

[SpeedThrills]

Seems I've been very lucky.

The inventive ways you guys have gotten out of trouble is impressive.

I always carry (besides basic tools) a jump box, a code puller gizmo, duct tape, wire ties and vice grips.

I'm going to research companies like AAA and others. The only people I know of that have used AAA, used them for flats and jumps. I can handle that. I guess the problem would be; if you have a big issue and get towed to a shop, you have to trust the shop and have a hotel nearby.

We're in Chicago right now. We went from Jersey to Virginia for a few days, then to Kentucky for a bit, then came here to visit my step-daughter for the Fourth. The Accord has run perfectly, and gets about 30 mpg. It has 151,000 miles on it. All put on it by us except for about 16,000. It's been road tripped before. Most recently to Florida in February. I have always done all of the maintenance. I just can't help but think about the mess if it let us down sometime.
If I try the Mustang, I bought it new (87), and it's in pretty good shape at 105,000 miles. It currently is a street/strip car and will need some changes. It sits too much and I'd like to use it for something. My Duster is street/strip, and one of them is enough.

 

[barbee6043]

Driving old classics, that UNLESS you have rebuilt every single thing, is like any used car...hope for the best but expect the worse! Like I drove my old Dusters all those miles to work so many years, and always ran on used $25 tires, never blew a tire or had a flat...ever! But they weren't 10 years old either!

 

[rumblefish360]

Nearly my entire car life has been rusty rat box roadkill kind of cars since I was most always a broke fella focused on the family and making a buck. The wife always had the best car I could afford and told her never worry about me. You have the good car to rescue me should it arise. And it has!

The worst part was I had her car! She drove through the night from Long Island New York to Maryland. She left during an ice storm and arrived just after day break with a borrowed car and trailer to trolley her car home. Then the rescue car gave up loosing her of 4 cylinders and blowing smoke like CRAZY!

We pulled over where I-95 crosses with US-1. Found an auto parts store where I repaired her car. (Alternator.) Loaded the rescue vehicle onto the trolley and the ride home was basically uneventful. Save the cops blocking the Brooklyn Bridge to raid a van with a couple of guys in turbines. This was just after the first World Trade Center bombing. So, to be honest, I felt bad for those guys if they were innocent. LOTS OF COPS! Stopped everyone. The cop that got out of the car in front of us looked like an easy 6’10” terminator and built, at least as bad *** as Arnold.
We were completely caught by surprise and started to freak out ourselves. It’s kind of unnerving when a cop stands up out of his car, and the height of the roof of the car is at his naval.

Another time, I was tired of traveling SLOW oh so SLOW behind granny and gramps below the limit speed. When the opportunity struck, I missed the gas in my small block four-speed Cuda. I got around them, made a right turn, spun some more tires, BOOOOM!!!

And my driveshaft was now bouncing on the floor. Luckily and unbelievably, this all happened right in front of security Dodge of Amityville, where I just walked in with the joint with a guy, giggled and said no problem, and handed me one. Roadside fix! And it was simply amazing that I actually had a small ratchet set with me.

Driving my first car (‘67 Impala) loaded with friends on a road trip to and from northern New Jersey, in 95* heat, the water pump finally gave up on Staten Island New York. While I was walking aimlessly to find an auto parts store, a phone call was set out to the other car waaayyyy ahead of us. They made the return trip with tools, started to take the water pump off in order to make this deal quicker.

Well, the two friends, whom I live to death, were very heavily intoxicated on mescaline and smoking weed and drinking beer.
They tried very hard but end up ******* up the radiator badly where it would not hold water. I thought great! I have a brand new water pump and no radiator to fill it with. We sat for hours baking of the sun.

Along comes this trucker. His deep southern accent was telling us he was from South Carolina. Once we told him the problem, he says,” what y’all need is some bubblegum! Not any kind of bubblegum you need Wrigleys. Not hubba Bubba, not bubble licious, not bazooka Joe, Wrigleys!”

I’ll be honest, I got a bit mad and said I’m not in the mood for games and jokes this is serious. I’m 90 miles from home stuck and I don’t know what to do! He said follow me. So, over to his Peterbilt he points out all the Wrigleys gum stuck in the radiator, stopping his radiator leaks. I looked at him and I said.” you have got to be shitting me! That really works!” he just smiled and says I hope y’all got some money for gum just chew the sugar out of it. Stick it in there let it sit for an hour or two and you will get home.

May the Lord Almighty bless that trucker!
That southern redneck trick work better than a charm!
And it lasted till I got rid of the car years later.

The stories could go on and on.