A thread on roadside repairs could be good this time of year. Trot out your best roadside heroics. What worked or didn't. One of the best I've heard was a guy in an IronButt rally that burned out his clutch in a mudhole, pulled the clutch and shimmed it with the bottoms of coffee cans, made it to the next checkpoint, and came in second on a 15,000mi rally. Cool.
Roadside Repairs
- Thread starter bpatton
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Andy Molnar - owner and maker of current Molnar Manx race bikes in England, was at an NCNOC rally in '82 or '83. On the Saturday ride he bent a pushrod on his Domi 88 in the high Sierra (Ebbitts Pass). Pulled the head with this tool kit and straighten the pushrod with a rock. Then rode back to the rally site.
Here's Andy's quarters back then.
Here's Andy's quarters back then.
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I had the wires on my commando alternator break & the battery went flat & left me stranded.
My wife used one of her hair pins to push in where the wire goes & twisted the other end around the broken wires.
It lasted a few months untill I got it repaired by an auto electrician. I'm still using the same alternator 20 years later.
Good thing I had my wife on the back.
My wife used one of her hair pins to push in where the wire goes & twisted the other end around the broken wires.
It lasted a few months untill I got it repaired by an auto electrician. I'm still using the same alternator 20 years later.
Good thing I had my wife on the back.
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Distributor on C15, retaining clamp sheared allowing Distributor to spin, feed wire wrapped around it and broke.
It was daylight so opened headlamp and removed wire and used it to extend feed wire back to normal length, took bungy cord and wrapped it arround Distributor with the 2 ends on frame. Roughly timed bike and set off, had to stop every 2/3 miles to reset timing but it got me home via spares shop for new retaining clamp which was fitted later that day.
It was daylight so opened headlamp and removed wire and used it to extend feed wire back to normal length, took bungy cord and wrapped it arround Distributor with the 2 ends on frame. Roughly timed bike and set off, had to stop every 2/3 miles to reset timing but it got me home via spares shop for new retaining clamp which was fitted later that day.
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Nothing very dramatic for me. The worst I can think of is when I was on a camping trip on my '73 850 years ago. The exhaust nuts came loose and I didn't have anything with me to tighten them. I had those tab washers fitted though and that those would do. Of course the nuts rattled around and stripped out the threads in the head. I got it to a gas station, borrowed a pipe wrench, and was able to cross-thread the nuts into place good enough to make it home. The head went out for repair when I got back.
A couple of years ago at the Torrey rally someone was selling an "Amal drain plug kit". It seems his drain plugs fell out somewhere out on the road so he whittled a couple of plugs from a stick and held the plugs in place with bailing wire. I thought that was pretty clever. Apparently it got him back to camp, too.
Debby
A couple of years ago at the Torrey rally someone was selling an "Amal drain plug kit". It seems his drain plugs fell out somewhere out on the road so he whittled a couple of plugs from a stick and held the plugs in place with bailing wire. I thought that was pretty clever. Apparently it got him back to camp, too.
Debby
I was on a bridge when the center stand spring broke on my Fastback, I slowed down and held the stand up with my left foot until I got off the bridge, stopped on the side of the road looking for a solution, I found an old auto alternator belt which I hooked on the stand's tang. This held the stand high enough to get me to a store where I purchased a bungee cord to hold the stand more securely until I replaced it with the proper part.
In another thread I told about getting a flat and riding on the rim for a few Km to a garage where I could get a tube, but the worse decision I ever made was getting a flat about 2 Km after leaving work. I had already rode about 10 Km with a flat on the front with my Yamaha RD400 by sitting way back on the seat and not using the brakes if at all possible. On my Fastback, the flat was on the back so I positionned myself as far forwards as I could and continued on my way home, for the first two Km, everything was fine, the bike tracked correctly and the tire stayed on the rim, then the tire started to flop from side to side, I was then past the point of no return so I continued sometimes sideways and finally made it home. The tire had ripped the speedo cable off and broken the speedo drive gearbox which was probably more expensive in the end than calling for someone to bail me out
Jean
In another thread I told about getting a flat and riding on the rim for a few Km to a garage where I could get a tube, but the worse decision I ever made was getting a flat about 2 Km after leaving work. I had already rode about 10 Km with a flat on the front with my Yamaha RD400 by sitting way back on the seat and not using the brakes if at all possible. On my Fastback, the flat was on the back so I positionned myself as far forwards as I could and continued on my way home, for the first two Km, everything was fine, the bike tracked correctly and the tire stayed on the rim, then the tire started to flop from side to side, I was then past the point of no return so I continued sometimes sideways and finally made it home. The tire had ripped the speedo cable off and broken the speedo drive gearbox which was probably more expensive in the end than calling for someone to bail me out
Jean
One I mentioned on an earlier thread but it's simple and saved me a 2 mile push. The retaining clip came out of my master link and the chain was spit out onto the pavement on a hi-way. I walked back and found the chain and the master link but no end plate or circlip to hold it together. After stewing on the side of the road a bit I started refitting what I had. I adjusted the tension so tight on the chain the tension held the 1/2 master link in place while I rode at about 50mph about 2 miles to a metric bike shop where I purchased a new master link. It was seeming to hold so well I almost tried to go all the way home but thankfully common sense prevailed.
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In the 60's I was riding home alone from the East of Scotland and in the middle of nowhere when the bike developed an intermittent electrical short 
. After blowing the spare fuse and not being a smoker (no silver paper) I just settled down by the road side in hope, but with little chance of passing help. After God knows how many hours, well it seemed like that, I spotted a pencil over grown in the road side. :idea: It's got a graphite core I thinks, it's got to pass current ( must have taken some notice at school). I quickly fitted a piece of the pencil into the fuse holder and the bike started first kick. Great, now for civilisation before the short burns out the wiring. After quite a few miles and stopping at a junction, clouds of smoke started to pour out of the side panel, and then stopped just as quickly, importantly the bike kept running.The pencil wood had suddenly got rather hot :idea: using the leaking smoke technic 8) I quickly found the short to be on the rear brake light and did the final 120 miles without the brake light and with a pencil fuse.
There's others, a split tank and chewing gum, a holed piston and a self tapper.
Man! the innocents of youth.
All the best for the New Year and may all your problems be solved.
Safe Riding .
Cash
. After blowing the spare fuse and not being a smoker (no silver paper) I just settled down by the road side in hope, but with little chance of passing help. After God knows how many hours, well it seemed like that, I spotted a pencil over grown in the road side. :idea: It's got a graphite core I thinks, it's got to pass current ( must have taken some notice at school). I quickly fitted a piece of the pencil into the fuse holder and the bike started first kick. Great, now for civilisation before the short burns out the wiring. After quite a few miles and stopping at a junction, clouds of smoke started to pour out of the side panel, and then stopped just as quickly, importantly the bike kept running.The pencil wood had suddenly got rather hot :idea: using the leaking smoke technic 8) I quickly found the short to be on the rear brake light and did the final 120 miles without the brake light and with a pencil fuse.There's others, a split tank and chewing gum, a holed piston and a self tapper.
Man! the innocents of youth.
All the best for the New Year and may all your problems be solved.
Safe Riding .
Cash
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I had a T140 float bowl fall off whilst overtaking a Jag on the Heads of the Valleys road in South Wales about 25 years ago...
I pulled over to find the float and needle had gone, but the bowl was held by the fuel pipe, so that was a start.
I blocked off the cross-feed pipe between the carbs with some rag and refitted the empty bowl using a screw from each carb top.
It was then a matter of turning the tap on until the carb was full. It was suprising how far the bike would go on a bowlful of fuel - maybe a couple of miles or more.
Riding through Cardiff City centre was OK provided I remembered to keep turning that tap!
Much less technically demanding was my '89 900SS going onto one cylinder on the motorway...I pulled onto the hard shoulder to limp to the next junction, which was only a mile away.
Whilst 'chugging' along the hard shoulder I looked at the speedo...I was still doing 80 :shock:
A coil wire had come off - which was easy, but I couldn't help wondering how fast I'd been going originally, because that ride on the hard shoulder felt like walking pace :roll:
I pulled over to find the float and needle had gone, but the bowl was held by the fuel pipe, so that was a start.
I blocked off the cross-feed pipe between the carbs with some rag and refitted the empty bowl using a screw from each carb top.
It was then a matter of turning the tap on until the carb was full. It was suprising how far the bike would go on a bowlful of fuel - maybe a couple of miles or more.
Riding through Cardiff City centre was OK provided I remembered to keep turning that tap!
Much less technically demanding was my '89 900SS going onto one cylinder on the motorway...I pulled onto the hard shoulder to limp to the next junction, which was only a mile away.
Whilst 'chugging' along the hard shoulder I looked at the speedo...I was still doing 80 :shock:
A coil wire had come off - which was easy, but I couldn't help wondering how fast I'd been going originally, because that ride on the hard shoulder felt like walking pace :roll:
New Year's greetings to all. My one lighthearted roadside repair occurred very shortly after purchasing the bike in 1978. Without knowing much about the bike's mechanical workings, I took off from my hometown in NW Pennsylvania for a 500 mi. roundtrip to central PA (ahhh, the ignorance of youth!!) About 100 miles from home in Cook's Forest I was heading down a long grade when the bike just died. Searching everywhere for the problem, I noticed my rear brake wires had been dangling and rubbing against the rear tire. I splinted them back together and.....still nothing. Somewhat by mistake I found the fuse holder next to the battery...looked inside an discovered the burned out fuse. It took me about 15 minutes to find a discarded aluminum gum wrapper on the side of the road (when littering was prevalent)....twisted it into a fuse shape and diameter....inserted and she fired right up.
I broke a clutch cable about 30 miles from home but luckily not to far from a friend who was a plumber. We made a mold by drilling a hole in a piece of wood, cut a slot for the cable to lay in and filled it with silver solder. Cleaned it up with a file & it worked fine until I got a new cable.
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- Jul 26, 2008
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Not on a motorcycle..... But....
When i was younger i jumped a frieght train from Minneapolis, MN to St. Cloud, MN. It was supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour ride but when the train didn't stop and kept heading north i found myself getting near the canadian border (8 hour train ride, no food, water or rest). I made the decision to jump off the train at full speed to avoid going accross the border into canada. When i landed i broke my ankle on impact.
The closest city was two miles away. They didnt have a greyhound buss station or anyway for me to get back to minneapolis so i ended up walking 13 miles (on the broken ankle) to Moorehead MN. In order for me to get my leg and foot in a cast and get back home i had to flag down a cop, tell him my story and explain that i would hop another train unless i could find a way home. He arrested me, but me in a cell for a couple hours (finally got some water and sleep) then had the salvation army buy me a bus ticket back to the hospital near my house (10 hour bus ride).
Sorry it's not about my commando, as i read the post's i just laughed about this memory and had to share.
Happy New Year!
When i was younger i jumped a frieght train from Minneapolis, MN to St. Cloud, MN. It was supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour ride but when the train didn't stop and kept heading north i found myself getting near the canadian border (8 hour train ride, no food, water or rest). I made the decision to jump off the train at full speed to avoid going accross the border into canada. When i landed i broke my ankle on impact.
The closest city was two miles away. They didnt have a greyhound buss station or anyway for me to get back to minneapolis so i ended up walking 13 miles (on the broken ankle) to Moorehead MN. In order for me to get my leg and foot in a cast and get back home i had to flag down a cop, tell him my story and explain that i would hop another train unless i could find a way home. He arrested me, but me in a cell for a couple hours (finally got some water and sleep) then had the salvation army buy me a bus ticket back to the hospital near my house (10 hour bus ride).
Sorry it's not about my commando, as i read the post's i just laughed about this memory and had to share.
Happy New Year!
jsouthard said:
Joe, your story reminds me about several repairs I've made on freight trains enroute. More than once I pulled barbed wire or used zip ties to tie up air hoses. Once, we were stopped with air trouble and it had to be 10 below wind chill. The vent valve had stuck open and the trainmaster was nearby in his nice, warm truck. I shivered as as I asked if he had anything that would repair it. He handed me a brand new snap-on socket wrench. I hammered the hell out of the valve which fixed it and return the now battered wrench to him, after which he proceeded to cuss me out. I told him they were guaranteed against mechanical defects, if not cosmetic damage, and should be good for a lifetime. Good times. Glad to have an indoor job now.
Hey Joe, for a while I thought we'd met. Your story of the train going way up north made me feel like we were on the same train until you got off at the border. I rode it all the way to the dew line. 3 Americans had hopped the same freight and I feared for my life the whole time. These guys were true desperadoes and they were also mutants (as in really big people) Man did they stink too. When the train reached the destination in some little rail yard in the frozen north and the rail-yard guys discovered us they realized we were LOST. They knew we would be really stranded up there (or else they were as afraid of these 3 seemingly very dangerous characters as I was). They radioed the loci that had just departed for the return trip (the one we came up on) as there were no others coming or going for 24 hrs. That train stopped and the rail workers gave us a ride on their yard loci up to it and 24 hrs. later I was right back where I had been the day before.
I rode the rods 1/2 way across Canada twice back then and I have to say thanks slupdawg to all the workers who always offered us help anyway they could. They always informed us of the schedules, highballs and the bulls in times of need.
As the story goes, I went on to own a Norton 5 years later.
I rode the rods 1/2 way across Canada twice back then and I have to say thanks slupdawg to all the workers who always offered us help anyway they could. They always informed us of the schedules, highballs and the bulls in times of need.
As the story goes, I went on to own a Norton 5 years later.
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I guess my hardest roadside repair was not too bad. About 25 years ago my wife and I headed for the Lake of the Pines Rally . Around 1000 miles each way. About 150 miles from our destination the clutch lever snapped back to the grip and stayed. Clutch cable? No the center of the diaphram spring had broken out leaving no way to relaease the clutch. So we rode the rest of the way to the rally with no clutch. Ended up crashing in the mud as we rode into the campground and found they had just had a major rainstorm. Of course no one had a clutch spring to sell but one guy had a complete commando in pieces in the back of his truck. And there was a spring with the compressor still attached. Couldn't talk him into selling the spring only so I ended up buying the whole bike. I installed the spring and rode back home to return next weekend with the car and trailer to pick up the rest of the bike. Got a speeding ticket in New Mexico in the car. No big deal, just send in a pile of money and the story is over. Until about three years later I get pulled over for an expired license tag. No sweat, it's right here in the glove box, except they have a bench warrent for my arrest for failing to pay a tick in New Mexico three years ealier. Off to jail we go. I had a canceled check showing the ticket had been paid but I had to retain a lawyer from out of state to get it taken care of. That got really expensive.
My wife remembers sliding in the mud and scooping her faceshield full to the point she couldn't breath. I have done that trip solo since. James
My wife remembers sliding in the mud and scooping her faceshield full to the point she couldn't breath. I have done that trip solo since. James
Here is a neat repair if you loose the drain plug from the float bowl.I used a spare plug.It tightened nicely in with of coarse the wrong pitch,but did not leak.Just needed to replace the float bowl when I got back.Took some pics but have never posted any. I will find out how. Put a plug wire from it when I got home and took another pic. and then told my buddies it was a prototype triple.
Bruce
Bruce
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- May 31, 2009
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I may be young, but I think I have a couple to add to this thread. (which is a hell of a fun post, by the way...)
I had a royal enfield a couple years back and it gave me nothing but trouble. I ended up selling it after the third motor overhaul and more money into it than I paid. One time I was cruising on the PA turnpike (interestingly enough, on my way to a enfield dealer to get parts) and when I got off the exit went to downshift for the turn, and found that my gear shift lever had decided to take a hike somewhere between Harrisburg and Lancaster. I was stuck in 4th, pulled in the clutch and drifted off to the shoulder. Sitting at idle with the clutch in, I sized up my situation and remembered that the enfield has a neutral finder off the gear box. I reached down and adjusted it all the way out so if I hit it, it went to 1st rather than neutral. So I took off in first, and to shift, I had to reach down to the gear box and gently pull up the neutral finder and it would change to 2nd, 3rd, etc. Rode around like that for probably 500 miles till I got a new shifter. =)
Kicked my triumph till I thought I was going to have a heart attack and sat there sweating and cursing...saw a homeless guy and paid him $5 to bump start me =)
Was kicking that damned enfield and it backfired and shot the carb right off of it! Might have made it into orbit and still be there if it hadn't been for the throttle cable keeping it by the bike. Dried the spilled fuel with my shirt and Jerry rigged the boot with a coat hanger and plyers, and she started right up.
Broke this adjuster thingy on the clutch and it went missing. I knew I should have fixed it, but it had stayed in place forever and had forgotten about it until it was gone and found I couldn't use my clutch. Took a #2 pencil and broke it off and stuffed it down in there and found it kinda worked. Broke off several pieces and found one the right length for the adjustment I needed and worked fine. =)
Blasting up 15 when something didn't seem right, pulled off and found that one of my mufflers was gone! rode the wrong way on the highway back about 2 miles and found the muffler luckily in the grass, scrapped up, but otherwise not crushed. Got back on the road holding the muffler in one hand and trying to ride with the other, figured out quick that wasn't going to work. Eyed up the bike and thought I could figure out a way to put it back on or I could pull off the other one and leave them on the side of the road and come back for them... Ended up figuring out a way to mount it using license plate bracket and the bolts from the license and the chain guard.
Ahh....this is bringing back so many memories! I dunno how many times I have fixed wires and shorts and fuses with tape, paper clips, fabric, soda cans, misc springs, everything!
I had a royal enfield a couple years back and it gave me nothing but trouble. I ended up selling it after the third motor overhaul and more money into it than I paid. One time I was cruising on the PA turnpike (interestingly enough, on my way to a enfield dealer to get parts) and when I got off the exit went to downshift for the turn, and found that my gear shift lever had decided to take a hike somewhere between Harrisburg and Lancaster. I was stuck in 4th, pulled in the clutch and drifted off to the shoulder. Sitting at idle with the clutch in, I sized up my situation and remembered that the enfield has a neutral finder off the gear box. I reached down and adjusted it all the way out so if I hit it, it went to 1st rather than neutral. So I took off in first, and to shift, I had to reach down to the gear box and gently pull up the neutral finder and it would change to 2nd, 3rd, etc. Rode around like that for probably 500 miles till I got a new shifter. =)
Kicked my triumph till I thought I was going to have a heart attack and sat there sweating and cursing...saw a homeless guy and paid him $5 to bump start me =)
Was kicking that damned enfield and it backfired and shot the carb right off of it! Might have made it into orbit and still be there if it hadn't been for the throttle cable keeping it by the bike. Dried the spilled fuel with my shirt and Jerry rigged the boot with a coat hanger and plyers, and she started right up.
Broke this adjuster thingy on the clutch and it went missing. I knew I should have fixed it, but it had stayed in place forever and had forgotten about it until it was gone and found I couldn't use my clutch. Took a #2 pencil and broke it off and stuffed it down in there and found it kinda worked. Broke off several pieces and found one the right length for the adjustment I needed and worked fine. =)
Blasting up 15 when something didn't seem right, pulled off and found that one of my mufflers was gone! rode the wrong way on the highway back about 2 miles and found the muffler luckily in the grass, scrapped up, but otherwise not crushed. Got back on the road holding the muffler in one hand and trying to ride with the other, figured out quick that wasn't going to work. Eyed up the bike and thought I could figure out a way to put it back on or I could pull off the other one and leave them on the side of the road and come back for them... Ended up figuring out a way to mount it using license plate bracket and the bolts from the license and the chain guard.
Ahh....this is bringing back so many memories! I dunno how many times I have fixed wires and shorts and fuses with tape, paper clips, fabric, soda cans, misc springs, everything!
I've had the usuals like points etc, pretty easy to fix once you find it. On a twin I've limped home on one several times, but how about a stupid one?
On my old Commando I had fitted a non standard tap system from something unidentified I had around when my tap leaked. I was riding to the store in SF one day when she started to sputter and I reached under to select reserve. The other cylinder caught again and off I went, I figured I'd get fuel next time out. I stopped at the store and made it about a quarter mile and died in an intersection. By then I'd forgotten about the fuel tap change.
I would kick and it would fire up, catch nicely and just as I pulled out it would die. I pushed it out of the intersection and pulled off the points cover first. The points looked ok so I pulled the plugs and I had fire. By then somebody on a Triumph had stopped to see if he could help, and although he was not very mechanical the sympathy helped. I was just about to change a condenser (she had single coil and condenser at that point if I recall) when I looked at the fuel tap and saw I had it half way between positions. I switched it to full reserve and off I went somewhat embarrassed with myself.
On my old Commando I had fitted a non standard tap system from something unidentified I had around when my tap leaked. I was riding to the store in SF one day when she started to sputter and I reached under to select reserve. The other cylinder caught again and off I went, I figured I'd get fuel next time out. I stopped at the store and made it about a quarter mile and died in an intersection. By then I'd forgotten about the fuel tap change.
I would kick and it would fire up, catch nicely and just as I pulled out it would die. I pushed it out of the intersection and pulled off the points cover first. The points looked ok so I pulled the plugs and I had fire. By then somebody on a Triumph had stopped to see if he could help, and although he was not very mechanical the sympathy helped. I was just about to change a condenser (she had single coil and condenser at that point if I recall) when I looked at the fuel tap and saw I had it half way between positions. I switched it to full reserve and off I went somewhat embarrassed with myself.
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