What was your worst/most untimely/inconvenient repair that happened to you. For my wife and I they were both on the Jimmy, Little Easy.

In 2009 we drove our newly rebuilt 1995 Jimmy to NY from Houston to visit relatives. We stayed in Chittenango, but made a run up to Ogdensburg. On the way back to chitt, in the middle of another snow storm the fan clutch gave way. I mean just disintegrated. Fan came off and made a mess. I had to replace the radiator, lower hose, and the fan clutch, of course, in the Autozone parking lot at around 7pm in the middle of a small blizzard. I got lucky and it only dinged the oil cooler line. I initally was in panic mode cause i thought I had thrown a rod. But I learned my lesson a long time ago. When on a trip, always have your tool box in the back.

But the wife had a good one. While I was out of town she was driving home from work when the oil cooler line gave way. This was after the NY run, but it wasn't the ding. It separated at the compression joint. We were staying with my dad at the time and he got a tow rope and towed her 5 miles home. but she got elbow deep in gunk and got the line replaced with me directing her by phone. Nothing sexier than a girl that isn't afraid to get down and dirty in an engine. Heck she really impressed my dad also.

 

I broke a steering knuckle on a very difficult trail near Death Valley. There was no possible way to tow my rig out, so I spent the night there with my wife (on Valentine's Day, lol) while my friends found me a knuckle and delivered it to me the next morning so I could repair it and drive it out.

 

My worst was this last fall when I spent several days over a period of a whole week trying to figure out what was going on with my drivers side door lock.

• I replaced the lock mechanism with no effect. This was super hard to do.
• Then I thought the issue was a relay in the body relay block (BRB). That was a hassle to get out but I did. After replacing the relay, no change.
• The next thing was that the dome light was not going off along with the security system light was on with the remote lock fob not working right. So I started trying to figure out what happened with that by tracing wires all over the truck. This included removing the lift-gate interior panel to check the wiring there to see if I messed up something there by shorting a circuit. Result: no change.
• Then I noticed that with the door panel still off, that the door jamb switch was not being depressed. So I found that the dome light circuit was still fine.
• I then realized that when removing the panels to get at the BRB I had disconnected the receiver for the lock fob. With it reconnected, the security system was fine.
• Now I was back to retracing the circuit wiring since the lock was still not working. I eventually found a broken wire in the door jamb that sends power to the door lock solenoid. It was nicked by a knife when the PO had a remote stop light system installed and it simply broke. A quick wire splice had everything working correctly.

This was the most frustrating repair. I only have myself to blame for not properly diagnosing what was going on first.

 

The most inconvenient repair, though easy, was a broken clutch rod on a 76 Camaro at night between a buddy's house and my girlfriend's house somewhere in Mass. My buddy and I had a long weekend so we took off from Norfolk, VA up to just outside Boston. I was driving back to his house when I went to shift and the pedal just dropped to the floor. Pulled off the side of the road and crawled under the car to find the entire clutch rod gone. The rod was a two piece part, one part threaded into the other so you could adjust the clutch. I walked back behind the car a ways and found the part that was held into the linkage by a cotter pin and that the other part threaded into. I kept searching and never did find the threaded part.

Being as every town outside of Boston borders every town, there is no open spaces, as in country side, which worked out for me. There was a store not too far away, I think it was a grocery store but definitely not an auto parts store. I walked in hoping to find anything that I might be able to find that might work. This was back in the 80's, so no cell phones and I had no idea what my buddy's or girlfriend's home phone numbers were. I did find the automotive section in the store and they had some tool, maybe a battery post puller?, that had a threaded piece that looked to be about the right length, thickness and thread pitch. I bought hoping it would work. I had to do a couple of small modification to the piece but it would work.

So, now I'm once again under the car when two state troopers pulled up behind me and demanded that I get out from underneath that car. So I crawl out and they want to know what I'm doing. I tell them and give them my ID. It was quite evident the two of them had no idea how to install a clutch rod into a 76 Camaro on the side of a busy road at night in between to smallish towns just outside of Boston. They told me I had to have the car towed immediately. I told them I would have the car fixed before a tow truck could show up. They then asked me how long it would take to fix it. I told them I would already be on the road had they not interrupted me. Yes, I was a bit of smartass to LEO's in my younger days. Alright, more than a bit, but I've mellowed some in the last 30ish years. Anyways, I crawled back under and finished the job in less than a minute, crawled back out and started it up. I then asked, "Am I free to go now, or would you like me to take a look at your cruiser, too?"

Needless to say, in not so polite words, they told me to leave, and they didn't want to see me on their roads for the rest of the night.

 

I wish more guys felt this way!

 

You might be surprised.

 

2002 ZR2 - LIMG and 2 solenoids in tranny and replaced transfer case seal at same time.

 

Blown California Emissions air injection valve

gave me a small stroke when it let go.

 

I second this.....

 

i third this.