There's a lot of quick / temporary fixes we all have come up with for our Fiero's, what's some of yours ?
The Phantom wipe : I installed a blown fuse into the fuse box w/ fuse taps, hook wires to a switch. When needed wipers, would flip that switch otherwise they would be powered down.
One of my current vehicles has an annoying rattle in the door. I know what it is, just don't have time to fix it yet. My quick-fix is, just locked the door, rattle goes away.
Headlight motor, driver side weak, not able the raise up. Again, know the fix, even have the parts here, just no time yet. My quick fix, I hit the switch, when the door opens slightly, I just pull it up.
Overheated while on trip to the Keys, thermostat stuck, After talking to a few forum members via very poor cell phone signal, it was decided to modify the thermostat, remove the spring assembly, and reinstall the thermostat. The fix worked, for the rest of the trip, the temperature ran a bit cooler than with a working stat.
What are some of your quick / temporary fixes ?
[This message has been edited by CoolBlue87GT (edited 09-27-2013).]
I had a Mini panel van years ago and I was up in the mountains and the accelerator cable broke. I had enough left to feed out from under the bonnet tie it to a piece of fencing wire and through the 1/4 window into the car. It became a hand accelerator.
[This message has been edited by AusFiero (edited 09-28-2013).]
I had a Mini panel van years ago and I was up in the mountains and the accelerator cable broke. I had enough left to feed out from under the bonnet tie it to a piece of fencing wire and through the 14 window into the car. It became a hand accelerator.
Many moons ago I had a volkswagen karman ghia. Same cable broke. I tied my shoe laces together, tied it to the throttle in the engine, and pulled on the laces from outside of my driver window. When sitting at a light a cop saw me and started to laugh and wished me luck on my drive home.
Before I realized there was a fix for the infamous Fiero door rattle (Help Section Ford striker bolt) I used to wrap the striker bolt in black electrical tape every few days. This did work magically though. Door was nice and quiet. Kit
I suppose it wasnt temporary, but my first 2m4 had no AC option. On those setups any air that blows into the cabin even without the blower on picked up some heat from the heater core. This, combined with the heat from the firewall caused an unnecessarily hot summer drive. So I put in a bypass hose under the hood and some water valves so i could bypass the heater core in the summer.
I've done the electrical tape on the striker bolt thing
On my current swap, I made a cruise control cable from a Lawn Boy throttle cable. Works and looks factory installed.
I blew a brake line on my old truck while hauling 6000 lbs of scrap metal on the trailer. Ended up driving 30+ miles back home using the thumb lever on the trailer brake control to stop. Does that count?
I replaced the antenna on my Grand Prix (after a storm blew a branch onto the car and broke it off) with a Fiero unit and a homemade bracket. That was 7 or 8 years ago and it's still holding...
------------------ 1986 SE Aero coupe.
3.4 DOHC swap is complete and running, now just have to finish the rest of the car...
I had a break in the 12V+DC feed to my ECM somewhere in the wiring harness. Until I could find and repair the broken wire, I ran the ECM off the cigarette lighter circuit. The wires going to the cigarette lighter just happened to be close by.
I'm not sure 'temporary' describes a ~15 year old fix, but I used a paper clip to fix the clutch safety switch so I could start my '84 SE after a fill-up about an hour from home.
Same car - manual transmission cable ball joint at the transmission lever kept falling off - a broccoli bunch rubber band held that together until I made a custom aluminum wrap-around clamp from aluminum siding.
Same car - installed driving lights in case the headlights wouldn't come up. After two sets of driving lights deteriorated & disintegrated & the headlights were still working fine, I gave up on the driving lights. I left the switch on the console &have used it to turn off the power to the headlight motors when the gears stripped until I got around to replacing the gears.
Same car - the aluminum frame sail panels were corroding inside the plastic coating, the coating was bulging and black corrosion would come out when washing the car. Took the plastic panels from an '87 parts car, removed the cracked glossy panels, cleaned, painted & installed them with SE decals. Took the cracked outer panels off my '86 coupe, cleaned & sprayed them with Dupli-Color trim paint right on the car. Only some Fiero aficionados would notice there's no outer panel.
Here's a common one I bet: holding the battery in with rubber bungie cords after the holder corrodes to nothing. (I did weld in a new holder after a few years...)
Had a 1967 GMC pickup,with a late model vortec carbed engine swaped into it...
The truck had the gas tank behind the drivers seat inside the cab,with the filler neck right outside and behind the drivers side window....The after market inline electric fuel pump stoped working on a midnight trip home from my hunting club bout an hour and a half from home
After pulling my hair out,I took a piece of garden hose and put it in the filler hose jammed a sock around it and then used the ALMIGHTY DUCT TAPE to seal around it. Then removed the fuel pump and connected the fuel line to the carb......
I would then,with the hose coming in the window,blow through the hose pressurizing the tank to force the fuel into the carb
I would clamp the garden hose with some vise grips and could get a few miles and would have to blow back into the tank...
Had a 1967 GMC pickup,with a late model vortec carbed engine swaped into it...
The truck had the gas tank behind the drivers seat inside the cab,with the filler neck right outside and behind the drivers side window....The after market inline electric fuel pump stoped working on a midnight trip home from my hunting club bout an hour and a half from home
After pulling my hair out,I took a piece of garden hose and put it in the filler hose jammed a sock around it and then used the ALMIGHTY DUCT TAPE to seal around it. Then removed the fuel pump and connected the fuel line to the carb......
I would then,with the hose coming in the window,blow through the hose pressurizing the tank to force the fuel into the carb
I would clamp the garden hose with some vise grips and could get a few miles and would have to blow back into the tank...
my clutch pushrod on my IMSA on the engine I put in needed just a lil more of a throw than what the stock push rod would give it So I took out the stock pushrod and put in a 5/8ths socket extension.... worked great, fierofreak can post a pic if he wants.
my clutch pushrod on my IMSA on the engine I put in needed just a lil more of a throw than what the stock push rod would give it So I took out the stock pushrod and put in a 5/8ths socket extension.... worked great, fierofreak can post a pic if he wants.
I used a 6" long 1/4" drive extension for my slave cylinder awhile back. I just ground off the big end. Worked perfect!
Jonathan, I loved that one, but that's a temporary fix that would need to be remedied very very quickly.
Always carry a good supply of nylon cable ties in your trunk. When changing out an ignition control module, one of the distributor cap screws stripped out and the cap wanted to tip up. I used a couple of cable ties looped around one of the wire nipples and the throttle body coolant lines, to hold it down. Actually ran it that way for a couple of years.
Also, used cable ties to hold my shift cable onto the transmission shift lever when the plastic end of the cable developed a bad crack.
When converting a V6 to an Isuzu trans, the cables can interfere with the throttle body cam wheel. Lashing the cables together with a number of large cable ties and wrapping around the decklid spring will keep it away. A piece of coat hanger will work as well.
whenever a tranny cable end gets sloppy and falls off at the tranny , i wrap the ball stud with a bit of cellophane and fill the hole in the plastic end with 5 minute epoxy .hold it on with your hand or a ty wrap . let it harden and drive on .i have used this fix on 2 fieros and after 7 years of driving i consider it a permanent fix .it will also work to fit a big stud cable end on to the small stud that some trannys have .
In the day, I was running a 67 GTO at the drags. While adjusting the timing the distributer hold-down bolt snapped off in the block. To keep the distributer from rising up and out, I put my Chilton manual on top of it along with a rolled up floor mat. Lowered the hood and limped home. Had to stop several times to bring the timing back into firing range.
Another fix was on a 84 Dodge mini van. Dist rotor cracked in half. Grabbed a tie strap from my tool bag and you know the rest of the story.
89 Ford E350,, air pump bracket snapped. Dealer item of course. I coasted into a Pep Boys and diagnosed the problem. Went in a grabbed a half dozen belts for sizing so I could bypass the air-pump. Yes,,,, I made it home.
Spoon
------------------ "Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut
My Brother used a dogfood can to wrap around a hole in the exhaust on his 86GT. It was a temporary fix and continues to be a temporary fix as he has to replace the burned-through can every year or so.
Had a 1967 GMC pickup,with a late model vortec carbed engine swaped into it...
The truck had the gas tank behind the drivers seat inside the cab,with the filler neck right outside and behind the drivers side window....The after market inline electric fuel pump stoped working on a midnight trip home from my hunting club bout an hour and a half from home
After pulling my hair out,I took a piece of garden hose and put it in the filler hose jammed a sock around it and then used the ALMIGHTY DUCT TAPE to seal around it. Then removed the fuel pump and connected the fuel line to the carb......
I would then,with the hose coming in the window,blow through the hose pressurizing the tank to force the fuel into the carb
I would clamp the garden hose with some vise grips and could get a few miles and would have to blow back into the tank...
I once stopped a pin hole leak in the metal fuel line of an 87 Grand Marquis with gas tank leak putty over the hole and a small hose clamp around it. It held for years.
This sorta fits this specific subject since none of the repairs were intended for long term use. My A/C compressor locked up one night at a Daytona restaurant while I was attending the spring show. I pulled the A/C belt, opened the sunroof, and drove both myself and the spouse home to Atlanta. I was happy that it did not rain on the way home. I have also pulled out my floor mats to get an operational clutch when air got into the system and I could not bleed it out (also at Daytona but a different year). I have also used tie wraps for temporary exhaust system fixes and wire relocation.
I had a lower radiator hose on a 90 Chevy truck develop a hole and lose coolant. I was on the interstate going to Chicago for my sister's wedding and noticed the temp gauge reading higher than normal, stopped, popped the hood, saw the leak. Limped the truck to the next exit and stopped at the nearest gas station. It was Sunday in a small town, no parts stores were open, so I scanned the isles of the store looking for options. Purchased a bicycle tire patch kit, a flat screw driver and some black electrical tape. Removed the hose, cleaned the area with the hole, applied the adhesive, installed the patch, wrapped the area with electrical tape and reinstall.
The patch held the rest of the weekend and for a few more weeks before I took the time to replace the hose with a new one.
Then there was the time I pulled the transmission from my fiero while on vacation with parts I picked up at lowes/home depot...
Before I realized there was a fix for the infamous Fiero door rattle (Help Section Ford striker bolt) I used to wrap the striker bolt in black electrical tape every few days. This did work magically though. Door was nice and quiet. Kit
Been there, did that (till I replaced the pins)
One one of mine had a weak motor - I would open the hood before I turned on the lights, then would close the hood. Eventually, I rebuilt both the motors.
This sorta fits this specific subject since none of the repairs were intended for long term use. My A/C compressor locked up one night at a Daytona restaurant while I was attending the spring show. I pulled the A/C belt, opened the sunroof, and drove both myself and the spouse home to Atlanta. I was happy that it did not rain on the way home. I have also pulled out my floor mats to get an operational clutch when air got into the system and I could not bleed it out (also at Daytona but a different year). I have also used tie wraps for temporary exhaust system fixes and wire relocation.
Nelson
Not to get off topic but I have driven through a downpour with my sunroof open and stayed perfectly dry.
I was once in the middle of putting a floor shifter in a 78 Malibu due to Monte Carlo headers interfering with the column shift. I was using the shifter from a Grand Am and was having troubles getting it to work right. I kind of put the project on the back burner for a while. In the meantime I rolled my daily driver and needed something to get to work and school. Only thing sitting around that ran was my Malibu....I had to crawl under the car to put it in drive and then start the car. Upon reaching my destination I had to park against a curb, shut the car off, and crawl under it and put it in park. After a couple trips I started bringing a couple chunks of wood with me to use as wheel chocks. This way I could just strategically park where I could pull out forward, thus saving me the hassle of crawling under the car to put it in park, I would just leave it in drive and shut it off.
I drove that thing for 2 weeks I bet like that....ahhh the crap you do when you're young