What's the strangest place you've done maintenance?

[CajunMike]

Was thinking about this last night. I know that everyone here has had to perform some emergency maintenance somewhere. Other than your home or mechanic shop where are some of the places you've done repairs? I can think of a few.

Changed alternator in a burger king parking lot.
Changed dist cap and rotor in a local restaurant parking lot.
Changed the water pump in a parking lot of a local trade college.
Changed my mechanical gas pump in my college apartment parking lot.

I'm sure there are a few others but these are the ones that came to mind.

[bobplyler]

I changed a fuel filter outside a Hardees in Mount Pleasant,NC. And I changed a cam belt on my Pinto on highway 49 outside of Asheboro, NC
And I replaced a motorcycle chain master link in a K-mart in Nashville,TN.

[124JOE]

well hi guys
ok lets start along time ago in a economy far far lost.
i pulled out of reno doing 80mph but had to slow down after 5 miles and flew into the desert around 4pm. around 10pm, im going down this big s curve with 300ft walls of mountain on each side "pitchblack". the car said ok im done
it needed some oil and 10 min brake."thank you UPS guy whom lent me a flashlight and headlights"
and off i went but drove easy on her that night at 12am went to a hotel to catch some zzs the next morning no starter
it had backed off the fly"wrong bolts with nuts"so all i heard was zzing.
ok push start for now i stoped again to check the oil and state trooper stop to check out my REG he wiggled the AL plate.
but i was ok and off i went again all the way home.

ok so i wasnt doing a repair so

i went to a park once and waslistening to the raido for a while and the points welded together
i had to brake and file them.

i remember stoping in the back part of the neiborhood to do some timing ajustment.
lug nuts flinging off and flying past me.
no brakes after installing a ft crossmember.
and a cigarette burning up the back seat.

and probably so much more .joe

[azruss]

I have done so much "side of the road" repair, the list is too extensive to remember. a couple come to mind. A rear end repair (dont remember what it was) in a mall parking lot in seattle on a 70 bavaria in a tux. (stayed clean to my amazement).
Rescued a girl on the side of the road outside Eugene on I-5, 6pm on christmas eve in pea soup fog. Had a cracked rotor. got it good enough to get her to a parking lot with lights. I dont think she made it home for Christmas.

[Zippy]

I had a brake job done on my 69 coupe in San Francisco. The next time the pads wore down they slipped right out of the caliper. I almost hit a pedestrian. Good thing I wasn't on a hill. I guess the shop took too much off the rotor. I still had the old pads in the trunk so I put one in right there on the corner of Mission and Fremont.

[spidernut]

Replaced an ignition switch in the parking lot of our hotel on our honeymoon, followed by changing a water pump in a gas station during our honeymoon....and they were two different cars that broke down. I also was troubleshooting an overheating vehicle at a clay sculpture factory in Japan. I guess I didn't really repair anything, but did have to borrow the hose and water from the golf course to refill the radiator in the factory parking lot.

[Ken]

On the 405 freeway going around Seattle there was a section with a lid, making a tunnel about ¼ mile long, I was going south in the far left lane and just before entering the car quit running and I was in the tunnel before I could stop, still in the left lane because the traffic wouldn’t let me pull over. I kept trying to restart and when it did I managed to get to the right shoulder before it quit again and still in the tunnel I took my distributor cap off and of course it was the pick up wires burned up, I separated the wires enough to make it to a parts store in Renton.

[maytag]

Like some others here, my list is extensive. But perhaps the highlight would be replacing a half-shaft on the Wife's Cabriolet on a narrow shoulder of I-215 at the junction with I-80 (Salt Lake City).

I replaced a head-gasket on my Buick V8 on the side of a road with a flashlight in my mouth.

[kmead]

Under a hotel entry portico with the rain coming down, the X1/9 up on one curb to repair the slave cylinder somewhere near Springfield MO in 1993. I was with three of my sisters driving my cars and belongings from California to Vermont.

The slave cylinder gave up the ghost during the night while we slept. I happened to have the two little seals in the glove compartment. My sisters were amazed that I had the prescience to have the seals (it was a freak occurrence as my friend Merkle had tossed them to me a couple of days before leaving Pasadena). After a bunch of fiddle farting around it was working but then the car wouldn't start anymore! I eventually spied a connector leading to the Bosch distributor I must have pulled loose in the course of working on the slave cylinder.

That curbside repair is still working today, eighteen years later.

[2ndwind]

I replaced a piston in the parking lot of my brother's apartment building in near-freezing weather. He had borrowed my E150 6 cyl. van and complained that all of a sudden a whole lot of blue smoke was coming from the tailpipe. It was winter and I lived 150 miles away. Over 3 weekends, we got the head off saw a piece was missing from #4 piston, jacked the engine up enough to support it with boards so I could slip my hands between engine and oil pan to get the connecting rod off. Went to the junkyard and got a used piston out of an engine lying on the ground. Reinstalled, and it ran for years before I sold it. I would NEVER do that again as I could have lost both of my hands.

One other story:
In 1987, I had a '64 Corvair. It quit running (only failure in 2.5 yrs) on the highway about 60 miles from home. Somehow I guessed it was the fuel pump (a very unique one at that). I climbed down the nearest off ramp, walked about 3 blocks (apparently in the right direction) and found an auto parts store in a strip mall. They said they didn't have one but could get it in an hour. The parts driver gave me a ride back to my car, quick install on the side of I-95, and I was on my way!

[Sunracer]

Just a couple of many : )

Rebuilt a DCNF carb in the since of my hotel room, changed a broken clutch cable in golden Gate Park here in SF, I had a spare so I drove it part way up a grass berm and swapped it with one of my buddies helping out, swapped from burn't MSD box back to the stock FIAT electronic ignition by the side of the road in a small highway in Oregon, pulled a cracked header out of my spider in a campground at Oregon. Got a ride in to town to get it welded and reinstalled-it was stinking hot and I had to lie in the dust...many more but can't remember them all : ) PB

[131]

My 131 runs on LPG (propane), it requires hot water from the engine to circulate through the converter so it doesn't freeze as the fuel evaporates from a liquid to a gas. I've recently had a radiator leak, getting to the stage a couple of weeks ago the engine was overheating in traffic and the converter was freezing. I topped up the radiator but over the previous weeks of topping it up the coolant had diluted sufficiently that there was very little antifreeze left, so the converter was still frozen. After nursing it through town and just making it to the highway it died again. I was out of water, so rang my son to bring me some water, he was surprised when I requested hot water. In the mean time, with peakhour traffic whizzing passed, I ventured into the scrub and peed into a bottle I'd had for water. I poured the warm contents over the converter, it melted enough of the ice for me to drive a further 5 miles to get home (before my son had even left).

[maytag]

Nice one!

The night I decided I would eventually propose to my (eventually) wife, I caught a rock in the raditator and got a flat tire both at the same time, in the middle of nowhere, following a beat-up cow-trail up a mountain.

I sent HER date down the mountain with the cooler for some water (I'm so devious )... I'll skip some of the rest.

BUT: I had to 'repair' the radiator somehow, and I remembered an old farmer telling me once that the starch in bread will create a temporary patch when heated. All I had was muffins. So I took a chocolate-chocolate-chip muffin and squished it into the hole in the radiator, and left the cap in the un-sealed position (so it wouldn't build pressure). This 'repair' lasted me three weeks and several hundred miles around town, til I found time to pull it and do it right.

Of course this story comes-up every time I eat a chocolate-chocolate-chip muffin. (my favorite)

[baltobernie]

I've got a few stories of my own, mostly dealing with Pennsylvania winters and 6V cars and zero volts motorcycles, but my favorite repair story is about my dear friend John, who lost his battle with cancer earlier this year.

If you looked up "la dolce vita" in the dictionary, you'd probably find a photo and biography of John. He lived in n. NJ, and while fastidious about his appearance and home, had zero respect or love of automobiles. His policy was to spend no more than $500 (later upped to $1K) on a car, since nice cars get stolen, keyed or wrecked in the Garden State. So he was pretty handy with emergency repairs and carried a robust tool kit. But nothing else in the car, because several times he would simply remove the tags following a steamy or smoky stop alongside the road.

One late night/early morning, he was headed home after an evening of entertainment in the City. Alcohol was possibly served. He hits an expansion joint, and hears a "bang", followed by a scraping sound. Muffler broke free, he diagnoses from the shoulder. He slides under the car, but the muffler is too hot to touch and wire up. About this time, a passing motorist notices John's legs protruding from the side of the car. John is comfy, and while waiting for the exhaust to cool, he dozes off. An hour or two later, the same motorist passes John's car again, and calls the cops. "I passed the spot some time ago, and he's not moving." Some rollers show up, and cautiously approach the body. After getting no response to verbal greetings, one of them repeatedly nudges John's foot, waking him up, startled by his predicament and location. The cop almost soils himself. After an elaborate and possibly embellished story, the cops not only allow him to proceed with repairs, but send him on his way scot-free.

... and then there's the time in LA when he and his pals drove forward over a parking space concrete stop, and ripped the transmission pan. Alcohol was possibly served. They then got on the freeway, leaving a red trail for a good half mile before the rental gave up. Irate, the crew took a taxi back to John Wayne and Hertz gave them another car.

Some great memories