Are you a hack?

So in a different thread it was brought up that there are some hacks here.

I am a hack.

Background:
1995 F150 - long story short Check Engine light on. Pulled codes and had one that was found to have conflicting information - one source references the Distributor Coil Pack Circuit and another references the Electrical Circuit of EVR.

Step one of trouble shooting a perceived electrical problem (learned it here) - cleaning and dielectric grease on electrical connections can really mean something. Started with connectors to the Coil Pack and moved to the distributor cap only to have the center feed 'plug' pull out with the cable. Found the rotor contact plug (which fell out when some dummy inverted the cap after removal) and tried to reassemble. Shortly realized that the gap between the main plug and the contact plug was far too wide for any spark.

Googled "distributor cap exploded view" and noticed that there is a spring between the two. Well I live on a hill 12 miles from the nearest store, my XJ is still waiting for me to burnish up the float needles/ seats, my wife's TJ is in Milwaukee, which leaves an ATV or a Leyland 270 for getting into town.

OR - maybe I can HACK this thing!

Half of a ball point pen spring - it got me into work this morning and after work will get a new rotor and install it at a co-workers house here in town. Total pucker factor as I drove constantly looking for the best place to pull over when she dies. Best I know - there is considerable voltage traveling into the distributor cap and through a tiny ball-point pen spring. Curious to see what condition it is in when removed.

I was on like McGyver - hack whack schellac!

Meanwhile it was noted that the ~ 2.5" section of vacuum hose between the throttle body and the EGR (which is controlled/ sensed/ monitored by the EVR ???) was dry and crumbly. Replaced that and noted that the Check Engine light did NOT turn on coming into town this morning.

So are YOU a hack?

 

You didn't use duct tape and bailing wire....so not a true hack, but you are a McGyver!

 

I

 

I'm an ex UK motorcycle courier.....upwards of 5,000 miles a week...some weeks, I've 'hacked' more bikes than i can remember.....once, on my XJ750, endless jobs....some very heavy, and one afternoon , with 4 quire of thick Manchester Evening News-papers to deliver (25 per quire), the subframe snapped clean off, aft of the shocks..

Bungees, cable ties, duct tape....we were on our (bouncy) way in 20 minutes!!!

 

My old GMC pickup ran for 60,000 miles with a formerly leaky radiator that I fixed with ground pepper. The new owner was told before he bought it.

 

I think I've mentioned it before, but I hacked my XJ. In July '15 I had the bolts in my starter clutch back out, forcing it to engage the starter motor at all times. This led to the armature getting completely fried, along with various other internals to the starter motor. With the help of the members here I was able figure all that out, but I had just got my bike back after being gone for 6 months and I want ready to give up the rest of the season to split the cases. So I removed the armature from the burnt out starter motor and reinstalled it to keep the oil from coming out. I rode the bike like that for the next four months, pop starting it every time. This prompted a lot of conversations from people wondering WTF I was doing. I just said I was practicing for my motogp career and was cutting weight. May the XJ court have mercy on me.

 

Yes. Unabashedly.

I know how to do things right, but I've always been too poor to save money by doing it right. It's the reality of poverty, unfortunately.

So, I've learned how to make things work, and where it's important to do it right, and where you can get away with just making it work.

Of course, use case matters. I'll hack up a solution for the vehicle I drive to work, but less so on the vehicle my wife hauls the kids around in.

 

So i did replace the distributor cap and rotor, put maybe a totoal of 15 miles on the ball-point pen spring.
It looked none the worse for wear.

I definetly relate to being poor.

I once fixed a leaking exhaust on my 93 YJ wrangler with a tin can and an old bass string. Used the D string not too thick yet thick enough to hold up.

 

I would not call myself a "Hack" as I view that as a derogatory term, however I do consider myself very adept at improvisation.

The funniest story I can think of was when I met some friends in downtown Toronto then had to ride home at night. I live over an hour north in the countryside.
When I started the bike I had no headlight or aux light. No tools, middle of the night so nothing open.
Being in the big city lights where unnecessary but once I hit the 400 highway it was bloody scarey trying to drive in the pitch black.
I stopped at the very next gas station and bought a big square 12v spotlight. A roll of electrical tape and some nail clippers.
I clipped the 12v cigarette lighter adapter off the spotlight and wired it directly to my battery. Took the electrical tape and with many wraps of the tape fastened the spotlight on top of my headlight housing.
It was not aimed well but it worked well enough.
All was good until I hit a Ride Check one block from my house. The police officer was checking for drunk drivers and when he saw the goofy set up I had improvised to get home I really had to work hard to convince him I was sober and also not a lunatic.

 

Hack? Me? Nope, that is an understatement! When my son asks me which is the most dangerous tool in the house, I usually answer "Either me, or the one I'm holding." One of my coworkers was a mechanic in the military, and when I regale him with tales of my repair and maintenance escapades, he gets the shudders and his face goes red... Door on the shed busted? Why not repurpose those old closet doors! Need to patch a hole in the wall? Well I have this lid from a tin can, and it's in a spot no one will ever see... But here's the weird part- I'm not really a fan of duct tape. I think I'm angry because the one thing it doesn't work on is ductwork. Can't handle heat or cold. I also don't like WD-40. I just don't have all that much water to disperse.

 

I am a Hack!!
Just after High School I had a Subaru Brat and the throttle cable broke on me. I had some bailing wire and used that worked great... sort of. The wire would get stuck sometimes and the would race to redline and beyond. to keep from blowing the engine I would shut it off at any stop or when I held the clutch in. Drove it this way for months. Sold it and told the new owner about the issue suggested he get a new cable. A year latter I hear he had to replace the engine. He drove it that way for 9 months. The part was about $30 at the time and would have taken 20 min to replace I was to poor or to lazy (depending on the day) to get it done. Apparently the new buyer was too.

 

hack would be not fixing the improvised fix.
throttle cable breaks what to do.
a. drive home on choke
b. reach under tank and use your hand.
c. tie a string to it and run it up over the handle bars.

all work to get you home

now if you continue to do a b or c after you get home to ride your bike your a hack.

is applying rtv to intake boots hack? nope

reusing that 10 cent cottor pin, Hack.

I had to get home early 1 morning front brake hose split(my car) out come the vice grips and clamp it off drive home. ok, to get home not ok to continue driving around town.

 

A:...But, at least on a GPZ900R, full 'choke' results in about 50MPH, in top gear!!!

 

Busted out some Gorilla Tape and a piece of bailing wire to spread a thin coat of RTV, now I am a high fallueten hack.

Believe I have resolved the Check Engine light (and no I didNOT put the Gorilla Tape and RTV over the Check Engine light!).
4 hour drive tomorrow shall reveal if I am a success or failure...

 

My tail light was taking it's sweet time getting here when I cut my fender. I could have put a spare stock fender on, but I had these LED strips....

And they're still there now, waiting for my tail light to arrive. Doesn't look like it now, in the daylight photo, but they're actually incredibly bright. Second set lights with braking, of course

 

My Best two so far---

1. Back around 1990, the fuel pump in my '76 Gran Torino quit while driving across NJ on interstate 80. After rolling to a stop, and taking inventory of all my junk and spare fluids in the car... drove a few miles to a service station for a replacement pump.

How I got there?---
1. a Plastic milk jug propped up on the dash with about half a gal of gas in it
2. A length of clear plastic tubing going to the fuel filter on the carburetor.

They guy in the service station just shook his head.
------
2. The day a tie rod broke in my '85 f150. I was able to control the truck to a straight stop. Then..... some sticks from the side of the road, a few coat hangers ( I usually keep a few in any vehicle......), and lot of baling twine (found a partial roll in a ditch just a few days before.....). It got me five mile to NAPA, and then 6 miles to the repair shop.

Dave

 

Lots of interesting and amusing stories here. I just learned I'm a hack with my xj650. I have a stainless steel screw clamp around both mufflers to plug a hole and a crack. It'll stay like that until I come across a stock exhaust in better shspe. Back in '85 when I was young I drove around for a bit with a c clamp on the exhaust header to the engine on my chevy Vega.

 

ANYBODY who had a Vega is a hack

 

1962 Chevy Impala station wagon. Driving from Ames, Iowa to my home in South Dakota in 1977. There is a long steep hill going west out of Correctionville, IA.

Car died half way up the hill. Fuel pump did not have enough pressure to keep carbs full. I recalled my dad saying with Model T's they backed up long hills to get the tank above the carbs.

It worked, backed up on the shoulder, a pretty long stretch of road! Passerby's must have thought I was crazy.

Replaced the fuel pump before the next trip.

Not really a hack, but it is a work around.

Recently I realized my '83 XJ550 is more than twice as old as that old Chevy Impala was when I was driving it....and I thought it was old at the time.

 

lol I guess you had to be with that car

 

That's not hacking.....it's "_____rigging" and it's a very special skillset and one that you should be VERY proud to possess!

Back in the early part of the last century, most Americans had that same skillset....then came modern times and it's all but disappeared or at most, staying with those who relish the older machines. Those resourceful guys in the heartland running their tractors off of wood gas....to provide the nation with food during the second world war.....now it's a dying skill.

We were just discussing this same thing on another forum I belong to to over at the Kaw triples Owners club.....I had earned the very politically incorrect(now) "king of the n-rigs" at the track in the 70's and that skillset still serves me well!

So no Stump....you aren't a "hack"...you are INGENIOUS!! It's much better sounding than 'hack" LOL


jeff

 

A Vega was a hack from the ground up....

 

what's the difference between a hack and a butcher?
is one better than the other?
would a P.O. be the former or latter ?
i think my best one was stopping every few miles on I90 to stick coins on the wheels with bubble gum to balance the tires. 90 cents later around Syracuse i was golden