Old Timer's Cures

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Stopped by a friend's house after a show yesterday - when we went into his barn he pointed out an "old timer's cure" for gas boiling in the gas line on his '41 110. There were a half dozen or so clothspins on the gas line! :eek: This to create more surface area for heat to dissapate - just like a finned head or brake drum. He believes it has helped him on hot days, and the tip came from an "old timer" in his club. I can see the concept making sense but wood is not the best conductor of heat - who knows...

Anyway, I thought a thread about unusual "old timer", "old School" "old wives tales" type cures would be interesting.

Anyone else got an unconventional cure to a problem? Does it work?

I know Model A guys have some interesting stuff - what about the rest of us?

Edited September 12, 2011 by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)

[CarlLaFong]

The theory that the clothespins act as heat sinks has been around forever. I feel that it is patent nonsense. Any benefit that would be gained would be a result of the wooden pins insulating the fuel line and keeping it from getting hot

[Bleach]

I used to wrap aluminum foil loosely in a few layers on problem fuel lines and it worked really well.

[Shop Rat]

My dad was born in 1916. He talked about how vehicle owners to save money would cut a slit in the sidewall of a tire that wouldn't hold air anymore and pack sawdust as tight as they could get it into the tire and then glue the slit closed. He said it made for a rough ride :eek: but they got a lot more wear out of the tires that way.

[R Walling]

Damn! I thought this thread was about Cures

For Old Timer's

[Guest De Soto Frank]

Here's one - black pepper to stop a leaky radiator / cracked water jacket.

[Bleach]

Sawdust in manual transmission to cure noisy bearings/gears.

[Dave@Moon]

Wipers not working? Rain-X not invented yet? Can't get new blades because of wartime rubber ratinaing? Flat broke and caught in the rain?

Cut a potato in 1/2 and rub it on the glass. The starches will cause water to sheet off evenly, making for much better (but not perfect) visibility in the rain.

[Shop Rat]

Sawdust in manual transmission to cure noisy bearings/gears.

I remembered that my dad mentioned that they put sawdust in some other part of the car but couldn't remember it. This is what he had told me about. He said crooked car dealers did this to sell vehicles with transmissions that had gotten noisy. Thanks for reminding me on this one.

[Dave@Moon]

Here's one - black pepper to stop a leaky radiator / cracked water jacket.

I'm told this works with eggs, too (stopping minor leaks temporarily that is, although the pepper's good on eggs as well).

[Rusty_OToole]

Have heard of using Carnation milk to plug rad leaks, also oatmeal.

Hmm oatmeal, milk, eggs, pepper, pretty soon we can have breakfast.

[Guest billybird]

I've heard of rubbing a raw onion on the windshield at night in the winter to keep frost from sticking to it. Don't know about the smell though.

[pacerman]

I sold cars at a "low-rent" used car lot while I was in college and a common cure for a leaky automatic transmission was to add about a pint of brake fluid. As I recall we did not offer a warranty on some of our cars. Another cure for the perception that a car was worn out was to turn the speedometer back a few thousand miles. It's amazing what that did for perceived value. Disclaimer: I only observed this procedure. I did not participate and if anyone I knew came onto the lot I steered them away from certain cars.

[Guest Al Brass]

My next door neighbour was a WW2 vet and talked of extreme vapor locking problems with jeeps and trucks in the desert during the war. He said they used to slice of an orange, slit the slices and place them on the fuel lines. This cured the problem for 1/2 a day when they would repat the process.

In more recent times, a quart or so of diesel added to a tank of gas works very well. It does smell a little though.

Al

[Amphicar BUYER]

Ginger (powdered) is a known temp fix for a leaking radiator. It gets into the hole, accumulates and expands to fill it... for a while.

I knew a guy that bought a Model A years ago at auction and on the way home after about 3 miles, the posterboard main bearings failed. Hummm?

[Restorer32]

Local guy, now deceased, lost a rod bearing on his '29 Packard while on tour. He replaced the bearing with a piece of leather and managed to limp home.

[caddyshack]

Tore apart a T engine years ago and found two crankshaft rod bearings

with some type of wood used as shims. Possibly birch bark. Heaven knows how long it ran like that.

[Restorer32]

Did some work on a car that came out of another shop. No idea who did it but someone in the recent past had made a lower steering box bearing out of hard maple and installed it.

[Restorer32]

A windshield washer canister, if glass, can be filled with gasoline and with the hose rerouted the spray nozzles can be relocated to function as nifty primers if the car just won't start without a shot of gas in the carb.

[Bill Harmatuk]

When I was about 16 years old I witnessed first hand, a mechanic at the Esso station I worked at....... sprinkle Ajax or Comet powdered cleaner, (abrasives), into the carburetor of a 55 Ford, to get the rings to seat after an overhaul and the customer complaining about his car smoking and using oil.

Don't ask me if it worked or not.

Bill H

[Bill Harmatuk]

The owner of a car lot told his mechanic to dump

two or three cans of STP into the oil of/for a knocking motor in a car.

Saw that remedy at a used car lot were I grew up. The car lot is still in business today.

I NEVER bought anything from them.

What I heard and saw spoke volumes for the car lot and owner reputation.

Bill H

[Shop Rat]

The local Model T club built what they called a "Clown Car" and it had sections of rusty barbed wire as spark plug wires. Ran great!

And we all know about using one of the old tin cans and some baling wire to fix a broken tail pipe.

[Bill Harmatuk]

Heard of this one.

The motor in a 40 Ford truck starts knocking in the middle of no were.

Drain the oil and keep the oil.

Drop the connecting rod or main bearing cap that is causing the knock.

Cut a piece of your leather belt to fit.

Soak in oil.

Place in/on the worn babbet bearing cap.

Tighten it up.

Replace oil pan.

Put oil back in the motor.

It'll get ya home.

Bill H

[Restorer32]

I have also heard of the AJAX trick to seat rings.

[28 Chrysler]

I took apart a rear end of a 1937 Chev PU that had about a half of an inner tube cut into 3/8"X1/2" chunks (to keep it from clunking or something)

[Guest billybird]

I remember years ago J.C. Whitney sold engine overhaul pellets. Any one else remember these?

[Chris Bamford]

In 1995, my late Dad and I were driving through the Canadian Rockies in my '24 T Speedster when we pounded out the #1 Rod babbitt on a long hill (oops). Fortunately the crank was undamaged. Dropped the inspection cover, wrapped a strip of oily leather belt around the journal (complete with oil hole aligned with the dipper) and set off gingerly for home.

We had to retighten the rod once on the way but gradually picked up speed and confidence as we drove along. That leather bearing got us the 300 miles home and I left it in for another year and a half before I had to open up the engine for something else and changed out the rod at the same time.

Local guy, now deceased, lost a rod bearing on his '29 Packard while on tour. He replaced the bearing with a piece of leather and managed to limp home.

[Dave Mellor NJ]

I was a navy electrician in Norfolk. We had just got back from a Med cruise and needed some parts from town. A fellow sparky and I set out in a 70 Chevy pickup which was assigned to the ship whenever we were in port. after a few miles we noticed the engine was overheating and the battery was discharging. We stopped and looked unde the hood,somebody needed the generator and had stolen it,cutting the belt. We were stranded. we looked around and found some avis strap,very strong and easy to cut, very common to tie loose stuff on pallets. We tied it as tight as we could around the crank and fan pulleys and it got us back to the motor pool,the battery having enough juice.

[Guest greg walsh]

I knew of a guy in the army who had a 62 Chevy that knocked so bad he put 90 weight gear oil in his crankcase.

[Bleach]

The '67 CDV that I had years ago, the engine was so worn out that I ran 50wt racing oil in it. That quieted it almost completely except for a rod knock that it had that would only manifest itself when the engine was fully warmed up. Even then it only sounded like noisy lifter. I continued to drive it that way for many years until California started requiring bi-annual emissions inspections. It was too worn out to pass so I regrettably sold it with a full disclosure that the engine needed a rebuild.

[Guest 37pac]

a common trick on the old steam engins for a overheated bearing was to apply a mixture of salad oil and gunpower to the bearing.

[Restorer32]

When newly married we had a '68 VW that developed a bad habit of popping out of high gear and we couldn't afford to fix it. We cut a strip from an inner tube and tied one end to the seat frame. Shift into high (was it 3rd or 4th?, I forget) and slip the end of the strap over the gear shift knob. Drove it that way for most of a year. After a while it became a natural motion.

[Guest Kattosha]

I have used nylons to replace broken belts. Nail polish and wax crayons to cover bare metal.

When part of my shifter mechanism broke I drove for a week with a bizzare hook up of bungee cords attached to my rearview to keep the tension and let me shift gears (though I was without reverse for that week).

I also repaired a punctured radiator with duct tape and filled it with Mountain Dew...it didnt last us long, but it got us out of the woods and to the highway at least.

I've also been to a used car lot where they have sprayed the hoses with a laquer to make them look new and shiny and they put a very light film of oil on the rest of the components to make them shiney as well. Needless to say I walked off that lot quickly.

[carbking]

Lots of farmers in rural central Missouri disconnected the accelerator pump on the carburetor during/after WWII to save fuel. It works!

Jon

[Guest Skyking]

I have used nylons to replace broken belts.

They also work great for paint strainers.

[Guest Skyking]

Newspaper works good for cleaning windows. (at least it did before they started using recycled ink).