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Best Bodge Stories

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: Best Bodge Stories
From: Arlie Hart <ARHART@WSUHUB.UC.TWSU.EDU>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 1994 09:44:51 -0600 (CST)
I'm going to toss out a couple that are not strictly LBC Bodges, but may give 
someone the info they need to make it back home again ;^)

Great Bodge #1 - 8 or 9 years ago a friend and I were driving from Amarillo, 
Tx. 
to Petoskey, Michigan in a 1980 International Scout.  As we were driving in the 
middle of Missouri we heard a really scary "ptwang!!!" followed by a 
clicking/scraping noise coming from the tranny.  We pulled off to the side of 
I-40 
and sat looking at each other wondering what that was.  Mike tried to start the 
engine, and the cranking was accompanied by the horrid clacking/scraping noise. 
 

Now, Scouts are tall creatures, and so we rolled under the truck and pulled the 
flywheel inspection plate and took a look inside.  What we found was that one 
of 
the tangs on the pressure plate had sprung loose and was scraping against the 
bellhousing until it found a little outcropping at which time it was smacking 
into 
it and attempting to self destruct the whole thing.  

Enter BodgeMan!  Hero of broken auto owners everywhere!  I poked around in the 
boot and found my trusty Vise-Grips and a coat hanger and snipped of a bit of 
wire 
to wrap around the tang and hold it down so it wouldn't rub.  A bit of 
"clutchless" shifting later and we were on our way!  We wound up getting about 
100 
miles per bit of coat hanger (mpboch?) and after 2 coat hangers we were back 
home 
in Michigan!

Bodge #2 - Same friend, Mike, had an old Dodge Dart with a 225 Slant 6 in it.  
The 
starter went out and he didn't have the money for another so we ground a notch 
in 
an extra pulley on the crank and used a boat motor starter cord to pull start 
it.  
That engine had in excess of 300,000 miles and so little compression that you 
could roll it over by hand pretty easily.  Mike used the rope starter for 
almost 2 
months before he finally fixed it.  Wonderful conversation piece at the gas 
station. :^)

Happy Bodging!!!

Arlie



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