So yesturday I was driving home from the gym in Brooklyn when I hit another pothole( crater ).... Well this time it took out my drivers front lower ball joint... Sheeted the bolt right off... Well they had a hell of a time towing it and then when they got back to my garage they had to leave it on the street several spots away from the garage door...: so I pulled the wheel and figured it would be worth a try and it worked... Slid the lower control arm back into position and weaves a ratchet strap all over it and the upper to hold it into place... Was able to maneuver the car around and back it into the garage... So along with duct tape it can be a handy emergency tool to have around I guess
Last week I lost my rear tire and I would have rather lost another tire any day of the week then this.... Luckily it's a warranty part it's just gonna be a pita to pull and get back together again... And I may have jacked up my rack some but won't know till I get the ball joint replaced
I had a ball joint break on a Lincoln Town Car. I didnt have a strap, but I did have some rope. Tied her up and drove it home...
Everyone be very aware of all the potholes from this winter. They can even be hidden in puddles of melting snow. Weve had lots of cars with major damage from them up to a foot deep. Im driving in the left lane on surface streets as much as possible...curb lane is a pinball game.
Very clever! I've never had that problem but if it ever occurs, I'll get the ratchet tie downs from my trunk and get to work. Thanks for the info.
Just before I hit "submit reply," my wife reminded me of the time we needed to put a huge, heavy brand new double oven into the back of my pickup. I tried everything to get it up some thick 2x12s and she said, "Dear, why don't you get your engine hoist and wrap some of those ratchet tie downs around the oven and lift it into the truck? Smart woman.
Also good for breaking bolts loose. I used one to loosen frozen bolts on my AC compressor. Hooked one end to the box end wrench on the bolt and the other end on the cross brace under the gas tank.
Used one to take the pressure off my dog bone bolt so I could slide it out. One end on the intake, other end on the trunk latch.
Can use it to tighten the serpentine belt.
Can use it to adjust the tension setting on the deck lid springs.
I don't know about ratchet tools, but a chain and a binder made a great "emergency metal bending tool" for me not to long ago. We bought a Grizzly (giant metal box with a angled top that you dump loads of dirt on to seperate rocks from the dirt with) a few months back and when they were loading it the wheel well on the trailor got bent. I "hoped" it'd be okay, but about 10 miles down the road I pulled over to check on it. The wheel well had been bent down and was cutting into the tire. I didn't think we would make it all the way back to the yard from the auction place without blowing the tire, but I didn't have any pry bars or hammers to bend/beat the wheel well back with. I had a short cheater bar for the binder, so I unbound the chain and hooked it around the bent down part of the wheel wells lip. Several applications of latching the binder and then reseting the chain later, I had the wheel well bent back up away from the tire. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. The suckiest part is when I first pulled over there was one nasty odor in the air. I was down near the Salt Lake, so I thought maybe it was just the smell from the lake (it has a rotten egg smell when you get near it) but it just smelled worse than that. I started looking around and low and behold, I pulled over right next to a "mostly" decompossed deer... I pulled the trailor another 50' or so down the road before I "fixed" the wheel well.
