Weird tricks to cars ?
 

This is a thread about tricks you can do to cars. List the things you could do to your car to make something work when it was turned off, etc. Here's mine that I recall.


As a kid growing up, during High School golf season, our school provided Ford LTD's for us to travel to meets. We would cram 6 boys, a coach and 7 sets of golf clubs into a 73, or 74 or a 75 Ford LTD.

When the meet was over and we were awaiting the team &individual scores of the meet, first guy back to the car jump in the driver's set. Coach would not give us the keys, so you could put your foot on the brake, wiggle the 4 way flasher just right without engaging it plus turn on the radio. Boom, music, you have the radio on to listen to the tunes you could find. You let your foot off the brake, you had to start it all over again.

Finally he started to let us have the keys after finding out what we were doing.

Somehow the flasher and brake lights would short / overload it's way over into the radio in the steering column and work. We found out just tinkering with it one day, early in the golf season, not knowing it would happen. Just being kids, things boys do when bored.

You can bypass the solonoid on a 1960s Mustang by crossing two screwdrivers that are touching the wires on either side of it. It'll create a spark and start the car without a key.

Given that there was no lock on the hood, it was a pretty easy car to steal if you wanted to. You just had to find one where the doors weren't locked.

Not that I stole a car, mind you. My dad restored Mustangs as a business, so we occasionally had to move cars when we didn't have the keys.

Never tried it, but have seen it mentioned all over that cracking an egg into a leaking radiator will plug it up for a short time

I drove my Triumph Spitfire without a starter for about six months. Maybe a year.

They still shouldn't have started. Crank sure but not actually start. No power to the coil. That should come through the ignition switch I'm thinking

Roll start, fun times. Although in that thing it probably didn't take shit to start it

An old roommate of mine used to have a Triumph Spitfire... he spent waaaaaay more time out in the driveway working on it than he ever did actually driving it

That thing was ALWAYS broke down

Yeah I just looked at a 66 wiring diagram and that car would have cranked all day but not start without a hot wire to the coil.

Yep, it worked best popping in reverse, so I'd just park on an incline. Barely moving would do it.

I tried that with my GTI once when the battery was dead. I guess modern vehicles don't like it.

I don't know why, but they did. I saw my dad do it with some frequency. I can't remember if he had a guy inside the car doing anything.

I wasn't keen on doing it myself. It would spark and crackle, and I don't like holding metal objects that are crackling with electricity.

Why do Englishmen drink warm beer?

Because they have Triumph refrigerators.

LMAO

To this day, I still miss that car though. But yeah, daily inspections were routine.

Reverse was probably the lowest gear ratio.

Modern cars have to have at least a little juice in them to push start, but ive done it quite a few times

I swear he did it. I don't remember him moving any wires or anything. Maybe my memory is faulty in that regard.

He had to have had someone inside putting a wire to the back of the ignition switch then.

Heh, all my tricks would be about getting out of a jam when something breaks on top of a mountain when you're 20 miles from the nearest road or something similar. It has involved things like bailing wire, duct tape, hi-lift jacks, axes and using things in the area like dead trees and rocks. I have had to MacGyver a lot of things over the years.

LMAO his was orange, it was an awesome looking little roadster, very Bond-ish

See the solenoid on that cars only purpose is to send the power to the starter. The ignition switch sends power to another smaller post and that closes the internal switch to send power momentarily to the starter.

The side of the solenoid with the fusible links has power all the time which is why all the accessories work without cranking the engine over.

He probably had a jumper wire from.the battery to the coil

Take off all the body parts on Bugs 1972 Lemans.... Hit the dirt road that has a ramp between two sets of railroad tracks at 75mph & launch the car straight up & then straight nosedive ...
Last thing I remember is watching Bugs brand new battery fly off into a cornfield,never to be found again.

Yeah, mine was a 78 1500 in British Racing Green. Basically a go kart. My "new" car is something of an homage, I'll admit.

Many years ago I bought a Triumph TR-7. Thank God I had a pickup as well because that Triumph was by far the biggest money vortex I have ever owned. All I ever did was put money into that piece of crap. I remember the day I sold it like it was yesterday, one of the happiest days of my life.

Actually the ignition has to be on but yes it will crank over

On 90's Chevy pickups, if your fuel pump (in the tank) isn't supplying fuel, take a hammer or rubber mallet and pound on the tank a few times.

Same thing with the starter.

This got me out of a few pinches.

They're just like Jaguars, awesome looking yet completely unreliable

A lot of times this will work on anything with the pump in the tank.

Have someone cranking while beating on the tank works best

Exactly

Started my 1985 ford tempo like this all the time.

One day I installed a CD player in it. To get to the opening, i had to move the shifter back to drive while it was off.

Went to leave, and hadnt put it back in park. Because I bypassed the whole key mechanism, the car took off like a ****ing rocketship. I SOMEHOW ran and jumped in the shit like a movie and got the car stopped. Only destroyed a fence gate.

But you turned the key on first, correct?

yes the key had to be on for the screwdriver to fire the car via touching the two posts.

I think it would do it if the key was on. Unless your pops was boosting stangs.

When I was about 18 I really wanted one of those or an MG or a Triumph or something. A friend of mine bought an MG Midget, and it was a fun car, but I'm glad I didn't have one. I don't think I could have afforded the repairs.

I actually kind of want one now, but not enough to actually buy one. I really don't enjoy car breakdowns.

The years didn't make the electrical systems or anything else any better...

First car was a MG midget. Spent more money keeping it running that my monthly payment. Worked nights while going to college during the day to pay for that piece of fun junk.

2nd car was TR-6. LOVED that car. Basically a little bit of metal wrapped around a V6. I scared myself numerous times in that car.

Thought it would get me the cheerleaders and supermodels. It didn't. :(

I worked in an import car parts store that specialized in British cars at one time. Most of the electrical parts were made by Lucas.

So the way I heard that joke was,

Why do Englishmen drink warm beer?

Because Lucas makes their refrigerators.

I had a 76 Cutlass that could be started with out the key in the ignition.
When I sold it, I had to tell the new owner.

You still owe me $100 for that car.

I've had air-cooled VW's most of my life. When I was 20 I had a primered/lowered '66 bug.

One night I got a 2:30 am booty call from a girl who'd shut me down all semester. I jumped in and started the 20 mile drive on surface streets to her place.

3 miles in, my clutch cable broke. There was no way I was gonna give up my chance to finally give her a spinal tap from the inside. I drove the whole way in third gear, timing the stoplights. When I had to stop a couple of times I just started the car in first and tried to match the revs to the speed to force the gearshift into the next gear.

I pulled into her driveway going about 30 MPH and almost rear ended her car. I did rear end HER soon after though.

Plus I had to drive back the same way the next morning

To start an old ford with a screwdriver, you only have to run a wire from the positive side of the battery to the positive post on the coil. Jump the solenoid and it will run.

Hey, i restore Mustangs as a business. We can be besties now.

Clutch move, bro.

No way. What years do you work with? My dad worked almost exclusively with the '64-'66 models, but occasionally he'd work with one as new as a '72 or '73 if it was a Mach I.

In college one of my dorm neighbors came out after a night in aggieville and couldn't find his car, reported it stolen. Shortly thereafter it was determined that he got in his early 90s ford probe, drive home, went to bed. Except it wasn't his probe, but another. Guess they looked similar under the metal halide parking lot lights even though they were different colors. Sure enough, they found his still parked in the vile. Apparently the keys on probes were cut poorly and a lot of to keys would start other probes.

64-70. We build show quality cars mostly but once in awhile we do standard mechanical stuff for the right customers. You should check out the gear heads thread as i've posted some of our work in there. I'll update some pics soon too.

Right now we have:

67 Mustang Coupe, full standard restoration, its about to leave our shop, just buttoning it up.

68 Mustang Fastback converted into a wide body, too much custom shit to list. 428 Stroker, 351W based. Full coil over conversions front and rear, custom body, custom interior blah blah blah. This will be the next one we roll out and our first car in over 2 years to hit the show circuit.

66 Mustang Fastback. Im really excited about this one. Custom everything like the one above. Rockin' a '13 5.0 Coyote Supercharged. This thing might be my favorite ever once it's done.

65 Mustang Coupe. Twin Turbo'd Coyote 5.0.

66 Mustang Coupe that we haven't started yet, but will be equally as awesome as the rest. This guy owns a Motocross race team, so it's gonna be beastly, all motor, designed for going balls out fast.

oooh, we also have a '68 Convertible. It was a coupe, but we converted it. It's currently in paint.

We don't build cars for the **** of it and sell them like some people assume. Customers come to us, ask us to build their dream car, and then they pay as we go. Most of these projects end up being $150K + projects.

Ah. It sounds like you're souping them up. My dad was all about bringing them back to factory.

Some of my favorites were the Mach I's from the later years. I drove a '69 for a very short time, and then drove a '72 for about six months at one stretch. I was a big fan of those cars.

I learned to drive in a 76 Cutlass Supreme. Good memories.

My first car was a 67 Mustang, and my sister had an early 70s Mercury Comet. The keys weren't exactly the same, but were close enough that you could jiggle them a little and start either car with either key.

did you weep?

My fist vehicle was a 91 S-10 pickup..about once a week it would decide not to start..most of the time not a big deal..I would have someone use their vehicle to roll me and pop the clutch then I was on my way

One night it happened and I was alone after seeing a girl about her vagina..truck wouldn't start..no cell phone..middle of nowhere..I slammed the glove box closed and tried it again it fired right up

Did that every time it threw a fit and it always worked

Only way it would work. I would've just rigged up a push button with some gator clips to the solenoid. Also wise to wire in a resistor into that hot wire to the coil as well.

I did the same thing in my '74 Jeep CJ-5. Except there wasn't pussy involved. It didn't have a clutch cable, but the clutch linkage broke and I had to drive home 20 miles or so without the clutch. I did the same thing as you, started it in first gear and managed to shift without the clutch. I had to pop it out of gear for every stop and then repeat the process of starting it in first.

My first car was a '66 Bug. Thanks to the 6V electrical, I got really good at push starting it. I learned in a hurry to always try to park on a slope whenever possible.

Our house at the time had a longish driveway that sloped down to the garage. I would park the car at the top of the driveway and then, if it didn't start (usually), I would get it rolling, jump in and try to start it in time to avoid slamming into the garage door. If it didn't catch, I would have to push the car back up the driveway and try again. I was late to school so many times that year thanks to my car.

Later, the local VW wiz installed a relay that somehow shortened the distance the current from the battery had to travel and it would start every time.