Yes, I’ve seen those transmissions, obviously a long time ago. They’ve been out of production since about 1964. The “interior convertor” you refer to is actually called a torus. The transmission was called a “Roto-hydramatic” if memory serves. They were pretty awful to work on.
My dear departed grandfather told me one. He was a master machinist for many years. He had a car in the late 40s that threw a rod. He patched over the hole in the block by welding in some sheet steel. A new rod and piston from a junker, and a new bearing and it was fine he tells me. However he traded it in fairly soon after that.
Got home from work on Friday night, filled up with gas, loaded up wife and kids and headed for PA 200 miles away. 20 miles up the road, now away from city, one of the gas tank straps broke, dragging a full tank of gas on the ground.
Cut off a piece of wire from roadside fence, used a punch to make a hole in trunk floor, wired tank strap up through floor using punch as an attachment above hole. Drove the 200 miles without incident. Next day local Olds dealer replaced strap at no charge. What a guy.
'61 Ford rear ended by drunk driver. Main damage was smashed tailight assy. (not just lens) I was stopped by police and given a warning ticket for driving it this way. Unable to find a replacement anywhere in the country, I jury rigged a tailight from an old salvage trailer, and with help from a car stereo bracket, some sheet metal screws and electricians tape, I passed inspection and was back on the road.
1958 Fiat Millecento four door sedan. Driving from bay area to L.A. in late 1960s (Christmas vacation). Late night Highway 101 near Soledad State Prison, generator light comes on. Can sense ignition failing from battery only with headlights on. Limp to truck garage (big rigs) Surprise! they don’t have Fiat replacement parts! They recharge the battery free of charge and let me sleep a few hours in the parking lot. proceed successfully to L.A. next day drafting big rigs to keep load off battery. Fiat offloaded first opportunity.
Several years ago I was riding shotgun with my best buddy in his 1978 Ford Bronco. We were doing some pretty serious 4-wheeling in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Many, many, many, many miles from civilization or help.
We slipped off a rock and managed to gash a 3" hole/slice in the bottom corner of the gas tank. EEEK!!! We were fortunate to have got out of the truck immediately and noticed our precious fuel leaving the tank at an alarming rate. This buddy of mine was quite a wrench and he had plenty of tools and greasy rags floating around in the back of the Bronco. We had one 5g gas can full of fuel and one empty can strapped to the luggage rack. I grabbed a funnel and he grabbed the empty gas can. As quick as we could, we drove the truck up on to top of a couple rocks and got some clearance under the rig. Slipped the empty gas can under the tank and used the funnel to direct as much of the remaining fuel into the gas can as we could.
Saved most of our fuel… now what? 0.0
Grabbed the tool box in the back of the Bronco and took the fuel line off the tank. Used a hammer and flat blade screw driver to cut/slash a 2" hole in the floor board. He had previously used spare vacuum line to re-plumb the windshield washer lines. We removed a couple feet of that vacuum line and got lucky that it would slip inside the existing fuel lines that we had removed from the tank. A few wraps of electrical tape and we had a fairly decent seal between the two different size lines.
I sat in the back seat and held the new “fuel line” inside the 5g gas can. We made a u-turn and limped many, many, many, many miles down the trail at an idle. It was quite a bouncy ride. My hands and the back floor of that Bronco was soaked in gas. After what seamed an eternity, we got back to a main road and got cell phone reception. Called a buddy. Several hours later, he delivered 4 or 5 packages of quick set JB weld and some sand paper. We used a couple pairs of needle nose pliers to try and pull the split metal back together as best we could. Then we “carefully” scuffed the paint and dirt off the bottom of the now empty gas tank and mixed up a giant batch of JB weld. An hour later, we dumped the remaining gas back into the tank and motored to the nearest gas station for a fill-up. The weekend was shot, but we made it home without walking or blowing up the Bronco.
The best one I had was the tensioner pulley bearing in my 96 Eagle Talon was squeaking for a few days and I was trying to get to the weekend so I could fix it. I didn’t make it, so it failed while I was driving the car. I was about 20 miles away from home, no AAA and pretty broke.
My dad had always told me to just throw old belts and spark plugs into the trunk, just in case. I did have a few old belts in my trunk, and I had both a metric and english socket wrench set (each high quality, in that cheap molded plastic set that includes the long and short sockets and the eight and quarter inch drivers.
When I looked at the blown bearing I saw that the bearing was gone but that the nut that used to hold the pulley was still in place. I took the used belts up and found one that might fit.
I found an english socket that I could pound onto the metric nut (which is another old trick to free a stripped nut). I pounded the socket onto the nut and slipped the old belt over the socket. The fit was very tight, but even so I expected that it would just fly right off once I started the engine. That didn’t happen. I drove the car home, and because the bearing failed on a Wednesday, drove the car that way two more days back and forth to work.
I bought an 85 Caprice with a smashed out headlight receptacle. I removed the broken parts, got one from the other side of an 82, installed it upside-down backward and put the headlights in right-side up and aimed them anyway. 18 months later I sold it that way.
Most of youall have me topped by a long shot.
Mine is just “use #721 for a coat hanger”
1968 Dodge van. The kind with the engine house inbetween the front seats.
The shifter cable broke, so while awaiting the parts order to arrive I simply took four coat hangers ( twisted together for push AND pull strength ), fastened them to the transmission lever and rested the far end up in the engine housing.
Each time I needed to shift I would just lift up the housing lid and push or pull the rod to the correct gear by feel.
Of course this ruined the ability for my girlfriend to sit attop the engine housing beside me as she usually did, but that’s ok, we married in 1975 and still are to this day.
How about a used bicycle inner tube wrapped around the clutch pedal and steering column to replace a broken clutch pedal return spring on a 74 Duster?
Shoe strings work
One day I’m in the middle of nowhere and my 1976 Mustang II’s ignition switch wouldn’t turn. Luckily it had a manual transmission and I had some tools. I jumpered power to the ignition on the solenoid, then used a screwdriver across the solenoid to start the car. Then I realized that the steering wheel was locked. I had learned in the past that it was possible to pull a steering wheel without a puller. So I pulled the steering wheel, wedged in an old Radio Shack stereo mounting bracket to keep the lock depressed, and reinstalled the steering wheel. I didn’t have any power to the turn-signals, dash, etc. but I made it home.