The King of the Parking Lot Repair

[shelbyluvv]

I did a head gasket and timing belt on a 89 Daytona on the side of the 405 in SoCal.

 

I also replaced the clutch in my 87 Shelby Charger in a CarQuest parking lot.

 

The head was pretty easy to do. The clutch was not so fun. Dodge just does not give you much room under those little cars.

[Puritan21]

My alternator went out in a town about 30 miles from home. I got a buddy to jump me 3 times to get me to Autozone. Bought an alternator, then returned it because O' reilly's had one cheaper (two blocks away). Got the new one and started tearing into it at Autozone. It's a Ford Escape, so I ended up having to take the intermediate axle-shaft out just to get to the alternator :fs1: 3 hours later was headed home.... :D

[Eagle]

It wasn't my truck, but on one of the NAXJA North Atlantic Chapter wheeling trips in the Mohawk Trail area of Massachusetts Earle had one of the control arm brackets on his XJ tear off the frame. This was on an afternoon early in the weekend. Somehow we got it back to the campground, but it looked like he was done for the weekend and wondering howe to get his XJ from western MA back to RI. The next morning everyone was clustered around the truck and having no good ideas when a group of guys came through the campground on their way to the local fishing hole. There are a lot of wheelers in that area, so they stopped and asked what was going on. When someone explained, one of the guys said, "No problem. I'll be right back."

 

Turned out he was a welder by trade and he had an industrial grade welder in/on his work truck. He came back about 15 minutes later, fired up the welder and crawled under the XJ, and half an hour later it was stronger than TrailMaster had ever dreamed it could be.

[Comanche County]

Great stuff... :cheers:

[89mjpioneer]

not a parking lot, but there's a thread on jf where a group of xj'ers did a motor swap in a campground during a weekend off road trip. :bowdown:

 

I know the guys that did that. Saw the pics. It looked totally unsafe.

[CRF136N]

I personally haven't done anything major in parts store parking lots, but I used to work solo as a graveyard Valet parking attendant at a 5-star Hyatt resort (rooms there started at $400 a night, and went up to $1,500/night :eek: ). On the nights I didn't fall asleep in the company shuttle car :rotfl2: (counter chick would call my cell to wake me up when someone needed their car :yes: ) I would pull my MJ into the dark corner of the Valet lot and wrench on it...I once replaced my idler pulley for the fan belt that way Had to gently drop the hood and hide if security came around :rotf: I kept a bottle of Gojo handy, so I could make for a quick cleanup...between that and it being dark, nobody ever noticed my less than presentable (grease stained) hands, which was good since I was often dealing with very high dollar cars :D What an awesome job that was...I got away with so much stupid stuff :shake:

I also managed to do my 1st ever clutch job in the carport of my rental condo, in the middle of winter, without my overly anal landlord finding out...he lived a stone throw away, next door. It took me 3 days start to finish, because 1) It was too COLD to work for very long and 2) I couldn't figure out what those damn two bolts on the top of the bell housing were about cause I had never seen them before, and could only figure them out by braille...then once I figured out the whole reverse torqx thing, I had to drive all over creation to find the right sockets.

Those are my best so far.

 

-James

[brdhntr]

i've done alot of roadside repairs and parking lot fixes. the all time biggest was a clutch in a cj years ago in the parking lot at napa. it was interesting and i had most the employees out there watching me. i probably would have gotten in trouble but so many people stopped to check it out, the store actually gained a little business. since i had the tranny off, i talked the manager into letting me leave it overnight and came back the next morning to install the tranny i rebuilt over night. :ack:

 

you never realize how little some of these "parts guys" know until you have them surounding you asking what "that" piece is and where "that" goes.

 

i do have to give credit to the couple of friends that helped me right there in the parking lot. my wife who ran back home to get me tools, and keep me supplied with food and drink, as well as allowed me to put a dirty old jeep tranny in the back of her audi to bring it home and back. i should also give a shout out to all those who stopped and looked under and either said what the_____ are you doing, or you need to do this or that. :wavey:

 

just so you all know, i bought a couple cases of beer for the napa workers for letting me work in the driveway. they just said it was a good thing the store owner doesn't live here. :yes:

[Comanche County]

 

just so you all know, i bought a couple cases of beer for the napa workers for letting me work in the driveway. they just said it was a good thing the store owner doesn't live here. :yes:

 

:clapping: awesome!

[ejndssn]

one of the few times that my jeep left me hi was when the clutch hose went out :headpop: had to replace that in a NOB parking lot iit took 2hrs with bloody knuckles to boot but i as able to bring her home

[freakjeep93]

me and dad did a starter on a chev corsica inthe parking lot of where he used to work . we just got the forklift and lifted it about 3 feet in the air better than a lift :D then drove er home POS car

[terrawombat]

Swapped the engine and transmission out of a '91 3000GT VR-4 in my rented house when I was at school. Took up a better part of the driveway for a few months - took some time to source a good, used engine and trans.

 

I was even fined by the township for doing 'more than routine automotive repair work' on the car after being warned twice. I was able to plead it down to a $50 violation for having grass that was too tall. I think the original fine was $150 or so.