I listened to a story on Selected Shorts in which 4 nuns were driving an old Mercury Villager someone had donated to the Church when its serpentine belt broke. They replaced it with their nylon stockings. Would this work, even for a mile?
maybe for the old V-belts many years ago, but not on the new serpentine ones
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Older than Villagers?
Have heard a similar story before, but it involved an old maintenance guy at work in the parking lot. No idea if it’s fact or fiction. Now that I think about it I’m wondering where a maintenance guy at a recycling plant got the nylon stocking to do that in the first place…
But, yeah, I think it would work for a little while if you twisted the nylon on itself to make a single “rope” and could get the nylon tight enough on the pulleys.
Would have to be a really long legged gal’s nylons for a serpentine belt.
I have never seen it done. but heard it was done back in the 50’s and 60’s
vehicles.
It would definitely work for an old time v-belt, I’ve done it. Don’t know if it would work for a flat serpentine belt.
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Hmmm…where’d you get them nylons, ol’ boy?
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If I remember correctly, Mythbuster did a show on it and it did not work for a serpentine belt.
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I think they have a new show now called Motor Mythbusters on the Motortrend channel.
I do not think it would stay on without the grooved pulleys (V) to hold it.
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Yeah they do. Watched it once. I like cars, and I liked the original Mythbusters, but Motor Mythbusters didn’t do much for me…at least not the episode I watched where they put urine in a radiator. “Will it work?” Well, yeah, pee is 90 something percent water. But 
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Well let’s clarify. The nuns I encountered would not be wearing what you would call standard like nylons or panty hose. They would be wearing those heavier compression type stockings worn on long flights. Not sure what kind of knot would work.
From the lady I had dinner with. It was her car, a 1962 Chrysler New Yorker.
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Would depend on how far they have to go.
If not to far, the only thing that would really need to work is the water pump.
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I doubt it would work with no “v” to keep the stocking on the various pulleys.
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They were rationed during the war. Sometimes people keep habits past their usefulness. Donald Berwick wrote about evaluating the processes at an English hospital. They kept track of everyone who bicycled to work, had years of records; they didn’t know why. Eventually he figured out that people who bicycled to work during the war got an extra food ration because they were saving gas.
They twined 8 together.
These were modern nuns, not the black & whites. They wouldn’t have driven a Mercury Villager around either.