Nomination for MacGuyver Awards here

[tx246]

this sunday found us at the red river cycle ranch in north texas. the 2500 acre park was closed to all but a select few. anyway it was late in the day and me and a friend were on an extended trail ride wtih our kids. we come back to camp and we were it except for a couple that was parked a 100yrds away. as i was taking my helmet off i noticed the car had its hood up and the wife was walking our way.

as she got to us she asked if either of us had jumper cables. i knew i didnt and turned out neither did james. she said they were from a town that was 2 hrs away and asked where she could buy some cables. turns out that would be 35 miles away.

this is where the macguyver comes in. i scrounged around in the tools and small box of moto stuff. i find a kx60 clutch cable............hey that is made of metal. the brain started spinning. we pull her battery out of her car and lay it up close to my battery. i vise grip the clutch cable to the postives and used a ratchet to ground the negative side of the battery. i cranked up my truck and we ran it at a fast idle for 10 min or so. that clutch cable got kinda warm so i knew it was pulling on my trucks alternator. reinstalled her battery and the car cranked right up.

what is your best MacGuyver????

 

[BSWIFT]

Very cool! My dad used a coat hanger for a spark plug wire in the early seventies on an AMC Hornet. We drove 30 miles pulling a trailer.

 

[Papakeith]

I dunno if the picture is still in my gallery(I'll Look), but at one of our Damn Yankee rides, we had one rider break off a footpeg mid ride. He hacksawed a bit off of a bumper jack and bolted it to the footpeg mount.http://dirtrider.net/teamdrn/data//513/19688rmrepair.jpg

 

[Okiewan]

a454elk's kitty litter bottle mod at DirtWeek has to be on the list. I didn't catch all the detail, someone fill in the blanks?

 

[truespode]

I think the best is Elk's Kitty Litter Box Powervalve :)

Ivan

 

[dirt bike dave]

I sheared the woodruff key (holds the flywheel in place on the crankshaft) on my '84 KDX200.

We were about 2.5 hour drive from home. My buddy used some tin snips and a big washer to fabricate another one, and we still got great day's ride in.

 

[yz250roost]

While riding out in the desolate Mojave Desert, about 25 miles from camp, a guy in our group lost one of his linkage bolts, which left his bike looking like the first hardtail RM 250. Well we found the bolt, but couldn't find the nut, so we took a pair of vice grips, clamped it down and wire tied it to the frame, and it lasted him the whole trip home without ever slipping! Vice grips save lives.

 

[Timr]

Years ago, we were camping at Ambrose Lake in Rose City Michigan. Me and three other guys were pounding out miles on some of Michigan's fine single track when I had a close encounter with a pine tree. Crash damage was a partially mangled pipe and I sheered off the tip of my shift lever on my '84 KTM 250 MXC.

I was able to limp back to camp in 2nd gear. There was no way we were going to find a new shift lever and we still had the remainder of the day and all of the next day left to ride. So, I took an allen Key, the kind with the 90 bend in it and used three small hose clamps to attach it to what was left of the shift shaft. I put it on the bike and adjusted the level of it to make sure I could fit my boot under it.

We rode 40 more miles that day and about 50 the next before loading up and going home. I don't think I even missed one shift with that set up.

 

[theturbojosh]

me and a friend were way out in the woods and I fouled a plug we brought all the tools we thought we need but no spark plugs so with some electrical tape and some fir branches we fashioned a towstrap that wrapped around his torso and attached to my crossbar once we established the fact that it would indeed work and were almost home I had to see if my brakes worked..........................they did

 

[JasonJ]

Hmm lets see, there are so many. My CB handel in High School use to me MacGuyver! I had a MX 100 back then and nooooo scratch to fix it, I use so skim gass from the lawn mower to ride it or miss a few lunches. Any way, at one point on the bike, I had a bike break lever for a throttle (throttle cable broke so I put a break bold on it and dropped a lever on) A master link made from erector set parts and a fabricated cam type chain tensioner to replace the external bolt type that would bend or break if it so much as passed by a rock. I made up a front fairing wiht a light out of clorox bottles and a flash light so I could see at night,,, kind of :think: .

I was riding all day with some locals in Hazelton a few years back. went back to dudes house and had a few Coronas before heading back to my truck parked about 10 miles away. They offered to escort me to make sure I got back ok but none of us had lights and it was getting dark, I said why risk having to go back in the dark so I just headed out my self and took it easy. Well apparently taking it easy is just the right way to make an IT 250 rear axle snap in half about half way home!!!!!! I removed both halves of the snapped axle, hammered them over a rock, with a rock, to bend them enough that I was able to hammer and wedge them in the hub (with a rock). I then zip tied the chain tensioner cams to the frame to keep the axle from sliding up and the chain from falling off. I made it the 5 miles back and even drove the bike up the ramp into the truck,,,, In the dark :aj: .

These days I have more $ for my toys but I havent lost my Field Expedent repair skills when needed. Lat year when I cleaned my front fender off with a tree at paragon I formed one from a coat hanger covered with duct tape that kept my face dry the rest of the day,,,, didnt look to bad either, LOL :thumb: .
Oh and one of the most used skills is the hot wiring of buddies quads when they realize either half way or all the way to the parking area they forgot thier quad key!!! :ohmy: .

 

[jeffd]

OK - This one isn't so great, but it was the results that counted.
Years ago (OK, many years ago) when I was in high school, me and a friend snuck out and took his Dad's fully restored 1970 MG-B Roadster out for a spin. This one was cool. British racing green and real wire wheels with knock-off hubs, etc.

It was summer and the top was down and we were out tearing up the town until 3 am. We get pulled over by a Dallas cop. A female Dallas cop. Guess what? No tail lights!

She is basically aware that we had snuck the car out and we start trying to charm our way out of the impending ticket she was going to write for the lights. She finally agrees to a deal - if we can get the lights working in the next 5 minutes we are free to go. Yes!

I ask my friend where the fuse block is and I find the fried fuse. Now for a new one. Searching... searching.... Nada! No fuses and anywhere and this car had none to spare since it was a roadster. I am looking everywhere and I find a Wrigley's gum wrapper under the seat. I twist that sucker up with the foil-side out and jam it in the fuse block where the blown fuse was and now we had lights! You should have seen the look on that cop's face as we drove off. :)

 

[trout]

I dont know if it counts as a true MacGuyver as I dont recal seeing a paperclip, but you guys should ask Ivan about the 101 uses of a TUMS bottle.

 

[gwcrim]

Heh... cops and lights.... heh...

I got stopped when I was in high school by the small town 'chip on his shoulder' cop for a burned out headlight. I walked around front of the car, banged it with my fist and viola! Headlight!

Bad cop.... no donut.

Another time, I was on the way home from buying my '70 Challenger. I mashed the gas to see what she'd do and the throttle cable broke at the carb. I searched the roadside until I found a piece of automotive wire and rigged it to get me home.

 

[BSWIFT]

Being a locksmith, I have particular skills that allow me to gain entry into thinks that are locked. I used a small precision screwdriver and a beer tap to open my buddies new house when he left the only set of keys at the old house. Their were six of us there to unload furniture. MacGuyver, no, lucky, yes!

 

[gnarlykaw]

well, LOL, I had this CB450 that I bought out of a junk yard for 100 bucks and road it home. after a few weeks of riding, the handle bars, right side, snapped off at work. so, I whacked off a old steel broom handle off to make a set of "drag bars" and made it home. Two days later, whaile jackin around on the bike in the driveway, I folded the buggers on the right side during a brake torque, and dropped that bad puppy like a bad habit! And that was the last time I ever tried to outwit cold steel! LOL!
Or a broken throttle cable on a TS185, I was in the woods, and I tied a knot in the cable to hold the rpms up, (they were waaaaaay up!) and slipped the clutch all the way back!! oh yeah, as for the battery thing, we used to turn a good battey upside down onto the dead battery posts to jump cars.
Yes, I was a dumb, stupid young punk at the time. around 17 to 18 hey, being a stock boy didn't pay!

 

[LoriKTM]

Hey, I just remembered one...

One Sunday many years ago, I was driving the 35 or so miles from a friend's house back to my mom's house. The car was a 1970 Chevy Impala (sedan) that my father had "generously" allowed me to use for driving to my summer job while I was in school. At about the half-way point in the drive, there is a set of railroad tracks right at the bottom of a shallow hill. I went over the tracks, heard a "clunk"! and the engine was now really loud. Luckily, there was a little town at the top of the hill and I pulled in to the gas station. However, it was Sunday, so the gas station was closed.
I looked under the car, and the exhaust pipe had disconnected right behind the engine and dropped to the ground facing FORWARD. Well, I couldn't finish the drive like that.
The only tool I had on me was a box cutter. I found an old Coke can in some trash behind the gas station, cut out both ends of the can and slit it up the side. I then found some twine, and rigged a cradle to hold the exhaust pipe up to the broken end. The car was still loud, but I was able to finish the drive home.
My dad later took the car to the shop, and the mechanics were impressed with the fix that his 19 year old daughter had made on the fly!

 

[zio]

these aren't really macguyvers, but:

I duct-taped my nephew to a skateboard & rolled him down the driveway

I duct-taped my nephew into one of those big red Flintstone type kids cars & swung him around in it like an airplane by holding onto the roof & spinning around really fast. His mom didn't like that one too much

I duct-taped myself an eyepatch when I got a sliver of metal ground out & the doc put a little measly strip of medical tape over the gause

I duct-taped my needle into the little metal holder (that screws into the slide) when the retainer flew off during disasembly & I couldn't find it. I think it's still in there, too.

I got a piece of burning duct tape stuck to my finger once and couldn't flick it off

My spark arrestor plug that I use when washing the bike consists of a sprinkler head body wrapped in duct tape

My hacksaw is really just a hacksaw blade duct-taped to a piece of wood