Best / worst place you have broken down

[dingo]

Anyone with any adventurous spirit has some good stories about breaking down in the middle of nowhere. Whatever the experience, they always make good 'after the fact' fireside tales of resourcefulness, luck or surprise...in Bus or other vehicle, place your story here.

[asiab3]

Worst place:
Interstate 10 about thirty miles from cell service. Local airport said 112* but phone said 108*. Electronic points module went kaput. One misfire a minute quickly became one misfire per crank rotation. No bueno. I coasted to a call box in case there was something major up. I didn't even diagnose, I just swapped points in and went about 3,000 miles before checking the dwell.




Best place:
Some meadow above Solvang, CA. There is a 20-something mile dirt road from Refugio Beach to the quaint Danish town inland of Buellton, CA. We bounced along for about 15 miles in first gear. For a few seconds, there was this stretch of pavement where I just idled in first. A butterfly flew in the passenger window opening at our speed for almost a minute, until it found something else to endorse with its presence. Around that time, I remembered something my dad did for me over a decade and a half ago. When you're REALLY in the middle of nowhere on a drive, slowly come to a stop, tell your passengers to "just listen" and shut the car off. The silence is deafening.



We walked for an hour or so, talked less, and sang some songs. Three hours later we were starving, and the sheer calm was starting to become normal. The creeps set in when I had no idiot lights, or any electrical ANYWHERE when I turned the key or flipped switches. After a few seconds of prodding with a multimeter, I found the positive battery cable detached from the post. Yes, that means that for over an hour on a bumpy path, that clacking sound wasn't rocks in the wheel wells, it was my positive battery cable arcing against the engine compartment with full alternator output.

Robbie

PS - The alternator is fine, by the way, and it currently lives in a '68 single cab down the street form me. Installed it last night, actually.

[wcfvw69]

Me and a buddy where driving a 71 bug from San Diego to Phoenix in the early 80's. A few hours out from Phoenix, I lost the drivers side outer front wheel bearing. It simply disintegrated. I had spare tools and miscellaneous parts and stuff. I had a big washer in my tool box to hold the drum on the spindle. It was night time and several nice people pulled over to offer assistance. I was able to slowly drive it up the freeway to a small town that I don't recall now.

We pulled into a cheap motel and checked in. The owner working the desk asked about the bug and I told him what happened. He was a nice guy and said he had a shop behind the motel and would help me fix it in the morning. Thankfully, he had a torch as the bearing welded itself to the spindle. We replaced the bearings and then he educated me on how to properly adjust them. I was 18 at the time w/out much experience. I had tightened the adjustment nut way too tight to remove all the play vs. setting them to roughly 0 ft. pounds or till the washer is just barely movable.

My only other break down stories where from a trip in 1980 from El Paso to San Diego in a 69 bug. It was my first car that my Dad bought for me after working the summer at his shop. I was 16. About 30 miles out of EP, a wire in the dash fried, the car died and I pulled over to the side of the road. Dad had given me some tools, spare parts, wire, etc.. I was able to replace the fried wire though I didn't know at the time why it fried. The car started and I kept heading west. I stayed the night in Tucson. About an hour from the California border, the gas gauge quit working. A couple of hours later, the speedometer cable broke. Climbing the grade into SD, the bug overheated (summer time). I made it to the top but the car died. I let it cool for 30 minutes and it restarted and I made it home to SD. The bug was a very used, neglected VW. The engine had to be rebuilt a couple of weeks later.

Funny how times have changed. There's no way I would let my kids at 16 drive that far in a new to us 11 year old VW w/out cell phones..

Luckily, these are my only break down stories. I learned quickly back then to work on this VW's and do ALL the preventative maintenance or I would be on the side of the road again...

[locoqueso]

Best Place: I ran out of gas (does that count as a break down?) at the bottom of my driveway as I was about to leave for a weekend drive.

Worst Place: I got a flat tire and had to pull over on the side of a Texas highway in the middle of summer, during rush hour, while transporting a cat from an animal shelter. For some reason no one stopped to help a sweaty, 300 pound guy standing next to his pickup truck with a 22 pound cat.

[hambone]

best - out of gas camping with my new girlfriend
worst - nighttime south side of Chicago worst neighborhood, no gas
maybe both were "best", it all worked out

[JLT]

Worst: A tie:

1. Generator went out while driving over Pacheco Pass near Gilroy. I was on the shoulder of the road, barely off the slow lane. Dark. Had to install new generator brushes, holding a flashlight with my teeth, while every 18 wheeler that passed me set the bus rocking.

2. Blew a valve driving through Joplin MO. A friend of mine had a junkyard there. I pulled the engine and rebuilt the head with a new valve ... in the snow.

Best: probably the ones that were close to home, where I could get towed back by a friend and fix it in my own back yard.

[hippiewannabe]

Thanks for the memory. Could have been worst, but ended up good. I went to school at Michigan Tech in da U.P., and went off-roading to go camping at Keystone Bay:



It was fairly easy four-wheeling, except for the creek that had been turned in to a small lake by the busy beavers. I waded in with the Bronco. Bizarrely, there was an old coot in chest waders near the far shore who told me it was far too deep, and I should turn back. I kept chugging slowly towards him, as the water got to about mid-grill, and the floor started to get a little wet. As we got closer to him, he yelled that the bottom was very soft and muddy, and I needed to gun it. I guess in the heat of the moment I listened to advice from a stranger over my own judgement, and floored it. Very near the shore, I hit a dip, and water washed clean over the hood, the wave hitting the windshield and killing the engine. I tried to start it, but it didn't turn a degree. Turns out the bottom was hard gravel, and If I had just crept slowly, we could have easily made it.

Without saying another word, the coot walked out of the pond, leaving us alone in four feet of water with a hydrolocked engine.

There was another truck full of friends a couple hours behind us, so we wouldn't have starved to death, but I'm not sure how we could have gotten the thing out of there. We sat there for a few minutes contemplating the situation, when I finally had the brainstorm to take off my pants, wade over to the dam, and breech it. I tore notch a foot or so deep, and was amazed at the torrent that flowed through it. Went back to the Bronco, had a beer while we waited, and by the time the pond level had dropped, the water had drained out of the locked cylinder, and she fired right up. Low range, creeper gear, and it crawled up the bank as easy as pie.

Had a beautiful weekend camping on the Lake Superior shore. On the way home the beavers had repaired the breech, so we just knocked it down a few inches for safety, and crossed the pond nice and slow.

I guess it wasn't a break-down in the sense of needing a repair (except for an oil change when I got home), but it stopped working, and I got it running again, even if it was by just waiting and not being any more of an idiot than I already was.

[dingo]

Best: serious loud wheel rumble coming out of Canyonlands in my 77 Tintop...found an awesome forested mountainside campsite to chill. Muir guide said 'ballsy rumble' was wheel bearing, so we assumed correct logic, and rumbled into Blanding,UT....parts shop didnt care for longhairs or Busses and gave us no help. Back to the mountain...slept in a natural cave and mule deer came by in the early morning, Back to Blanding and still no love from parts shop. Considered getting my haircut, but found the town barber asleep in his barber chair..didnt want to disturb the scene. Back to the mountain, we checked caster,camber ,toe in and scoured the manuals for obscure ideas, drank tea, built fires and enjoyed the spot. Next day back to parts store with a GM equivalent part#..gave it to the assistant kid who scored us a bearing at the back door. back to the mountain, replaced what was fairly worn bearing...but still the crazy rumbling !! Another day or two of camping, jacking up wheels and puzzlement. Finally noticed a golfball sized bulge on tire on the opposite side of vehicle than we had thought. back to Blanding. New tire. Rolled on quietly to 4 corners