Bodge JobsIf you can't fix it with a hammer and a roll of duck tape, it's not worth fixing at all, my old mate said minutes before that nasty business with the hammer and a roll of duck tape. Tell us of McGyver-like repairs and whether they were a brilliant success or a health and safety nightmare.
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Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 11:58)
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No duct tape here... Narrated to me by my father, who is one of the best mechanics I've ever known - the real life MacGyver. Think Joginder Singh in a pick-up or bakkie (whatever you call it)
He gets a call from one of his friends who are stranded with 3 other white-collar, bean-counter or lawyer types in a rural part of Kenya. By rural - I mean on the moon, except for the atmosphere, the already potholed tarmac and fuck-off to DR Congo jungle on both sides.
They get a puncture - the car is jacked and all the wheel nuts are off. The problem is they couldnt get the wheel off the hub. The wheel hub had expanded in the hot weather, trapping the rim on place.
Their efforts at pulling the wheel off are mightily jeopardised by the fact that
a) they are well into their 50s
b) don't have much experience changing a burst tyre
So the lawyer, H, calls up dad. Who asks him all the basic questions, etc...
Dad: have you got any water ?
H: No we just finished the last bottle... its 40 C out here
Dad: How many guys are you altogether.
H: four
Dad: nothing to it then... just line up and piss on the rim of the wheel!
H: Sorry - what?
Dad: Where are my manners? All of you ought to PISS ON THE FUCKING WHEEL - shouldnt be that difficult...
At this point H puts the cellphone on loudspeaker and asks dad to repeat what he said for all to hear.
Bewildered expressions and protests everywhere, but if they were to go on they had to do it. And it was getting dark.
It paid off, the wheel came off and the rest is not worthy of being mentioned here.
It became a great story at parties whenever they got together.
(, Mon 14 Mar 2011, 8:57, 4 replies)
Many a frozen water pipehas been thawed out using the same method!
(, Mon 14 Mar 2011, 9:13, closed)
Hopeit doesn't come to that here. :)
(, Mon 14 Mar 2011, 9:16, closed)
How did that work?Surely piss is also around 40 C. Or was it to do with evaporative cooling? If so, wouldn't cooling the wheel rim be counter-productive if it was the hub that had expanded?
(, Mon 14 Mar 2011, 12:11, closed)
I was in the same position, (except I was on the M56)Called my dad, he said take all the nuts off the wheel, drop the car, drive forward about a foot, jack it up again and it should come off fine. And it did.
(, Mon 14 Mar 2011, 15:13, closed)
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