Tell us your best engineering bodges

[Graham S]

Wrigleys chewing gum on a cracked fuel tank on an old 020 , worked perfect for a very long time .

[madmatt]

A Defender 130 I had in the early '90s had a capstan winch at the front which was driven off of the dog drive on the crankshaft gland nut. I rebuilt the engine after a gudgeon pin incident one year but from then one, the gland nut would occasionally come loose which worried me a tad - the thought of the lads miles from home and the pulley coming off was not one I enjoyed. So I took it to an ag engineer mate and said "Can you get your lad to put a spot of weld on it to stop it coming orf" He did that alright - he seamed three faces of the nut! That was never coming apart again! Pity the next owner trying to rebuild that motor!

 

Now that is a proper bodge!

 

Pete,

 

I don't belive you ever for one minute you really expected a spot of weld from that pair!

 

Matt

[raker]

On a landrover theme, the alternator went on my disco just before christmas one year.A new one was far more money than i thought reasonable and to get it for sensible money would have been mail order.Not likely to arrive in the christmas rush.

Went to the scrapper on the offchance there would be a disco to raid.There was a couple.Both stripped out.

As a fallback position i made a note of the output details on the knackered alternator.Checking other cars i could match them but they all had odd connections and different pulleys. I got one for a tenner.Swapped the pulleys and bodged together the connections with crimps.

Its still on there five years later.

[GardenKit]

In the 70,s had a Mk3 Viva and the fuel pump failed. It was combine season on the farm and I was working almost round the clock, no time for repairs.

 

Took the petrol tank off my lawnmower and taped it to a windscreen wiper. Stole the windcreen washer hose and connected tank to carb. Drove it back and forth to work for 2 weeks , journey of 4 miles, just about a tankfull each way.

Decided to repair it one rainy day when I forgot myself and turned on the wipers and covered the car in petrol before the tank flew over the hedge!!

[Le Sanglier]

My flappy thing broke off on the TW so bodged this up, it's actually an improvement!

Could be a keeper.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Le Sanglier

[AlexB]

Accelerator cable on my old Peugeot 405 snapped on a kayaking trip on dartmoor. Just onto the a303. Ended up with a roof rack strap through the window, under the bonnet and drove back to london accelerating by hand.....

[se7enthdevil]

my axminster extractor is a good littkle machine but the strap that holds the lower bag on is crap, a bit of nylon that stretched.

 

the bodge was, i saved one of my old 1/2" bandsaw blades, ground the teeth off and used that instead.

 

 

 

 

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[onyx landscaping/fencing]

welded the end of the boom (between the boom and the head stock) back on the merlo when it was destroyed by some fool repeatedly over loading it and it never brock again also on the same machine welded the out put shaft from the gear box back together as a "get us through the weekend" fix and it lasted till the machine was sold 6 months later! god I feel sorry for what ever fool owns it now it was well abused

[Robbyrasta]

We used to have a big gasgoine (spelling?) slurry tank- 12m dia, 5 or 4 m high-

It was coming to the end of its life, and sprung a leak- the mend was big stack of bricks and a toilet plunger over the hole-

Stayed like it for a few months whilst I emptied the tank

[fergusonforestry]

In the 70,s had a Mk3 Viva and the fuel pump failed. It was combine season on the farm and I was working almost round the clock, no time for repairs.

 

Took the petrol tank off my lawnmower and taped it to a windscreen wiper. Stole the windcreen washer hose and connected tank to carb. Drove it back and forth to work for 2 weeks , journey of 4 miles, just about a tankfull each way.

Decided to repair it one rainy day when I forgot myself and turned on the wipers and covered the car in petrol before the tank flew over the hedge!!

 

:lol: just imagining that tank flying over the hedge

 

 

Accelerator cable on my old Peugeot 405 snapped on a kayaking trip on dartmoor. Just onto the a303. Ended up with a roof rack strap through the window, under the bonnet and drove back to london accelerating by hand.....

 

had similar with me old 110 but with a length of blue polyprop at one point (no power steering) I was accelerating with my teeth!! cos needed both hands on wheel