Worst bodge you have seen
Discussion
In WW2 when materials were scarce, I heard first hand a story from a local engineer who had turned a wooden piston (appropriate for Piston Heads!) on his lathe to replace the broken original on an old Riley in order to sell it.
He told me it ran quite well and the new owner drove off blissfully unaware into the distance.
On one occasion at a local pub we were talking about worst bodges and I was about to tell this story when another bloke just came in with his story first. " My Dad once bought a car in the 1950s, I think it was a Riley, and something was wrong with the engine and they took it apart and found that one of the pistons was made of wood!)
It must have run for several years. I suppose hardwood in a low revving unstressed engine would work for some time.
He told me it ran quite well and the new owner drove off blissfully unaware into the distance.
On one occasion at a local pub we were talking about worst bodges and I was about to tell this story when another bloke just came in with his story first. " My Dad once bought a car in the 1950s, I think it was a Riley, and something was wrong with the engine and they took it apart and found that one of the pistons was made of wood!)
It must have run for several years. I suppose hardwood in a low revving unstressed engine would work for some time.
Cerberaherts said:
They don't have any kind of liner. The boot had been pulled out and paper slid in the gap between the ball and socket. For the avoidance of doubt, below is a pic of a brand new one I took from our stores....
That's the liner coming out, wishful thinking to think you could wedge waxed paper in there!I've seen some proper clangers over my years in the trade. An elise rear chassis leg held on with sikaflex probably stands as the best/worst though.
Negative Creep said:
A few have pointed out this can't turn corners. Except it can - just look more closely. The belt is held in tension by the double wheel device at the back of the car. This can pivot, presumably against a spring. In turn this gives a variable length belt, which means the car can steer. As the front wheels turn, the belts either extend or contract dependant on the direction. On to the front wheels. Given the age and type of car, coupled to the vaguely Eastern flavour of the surrounding buildings I'd have a guess that's in Tibet or Mongolia or some other snowy region. The paddle wheel devices are presumably present to dig into snow or soft mud or whatever to keep it going without off roader tyres.
It's awesome!
MagneticMeerkat said:
Negative Creep said:
A few have pointed out this can't turn corners. Except it can - just look more closely. The belt is held in tension by the double wheel device at the back of the car. This can pivot, presumably against a spring. In turn this gives a variable length belt, which means the car can steer. As the front wheels turn, the belts either extend or contract dependant on the direction. On to the front wheels. Given the age and type of car, coupled to the vaguely Eastern flavour of the surrounding buildings I'd have a guess that's in Tibet or Mongolia or some other snowy region. The paddle wheel devices are presumably present to dig into snow or soft mud or whatever to keep it going without off roader tyres.
It's awesome!
The blades would not provide for traction as they face the wrong direction, they're there presumably to guide the belt as the front wheels turn.
Can't see how a belt could transfer a usefull amount of torque myself though.
randy said:
That's the liner coming out, wishful thinking to think you could wedge waxed paper in there!
I've seen some proper clangers over my years in the trade. An elise rear chassis leg held on with sikaflex probably stands as the best/worst though.
Here we go again! Look at the above pic....no lining. There is no lining fitted to the ball joint....no lining....jeez...I've seen some proper clangers over my years in the trade. An elise rear chassis leg held on with sikaflex probably stands as the best/worst though.
hairyben said:
yeah my first thought was it's based on the same idea as the tensioner on a bicycle derailer.
The blades would not provide for traction as they face the wrong direction, they're there presumably to guide the belt as the front wheels turn.
Can't see how a belt could transfer a usefull amount of torque myself though.
Aren't double dockers belt driven?The blades would not provide for traction as they face the wrong direction, they're there presumably to guide the belt as the front wheels turn.
Can't see how a belt could transfer a usefull amount of torque myself though.
shake n bake said:
I filled the seem of an ldv van roof up with bathroom sealer to stop a leak. I ended up doing most of the roof seem with it!
Had a van where there had been a hole in the roofFixed with a biscuit tin
How do i know it was a biscuit tin?
You could still read the writing on the inside of the van
I had a bodge go wrong on my motorbike. The front pads were held into the calliper by a bar running through a loop on the top of each pad, and then into corresponding holes in the calliper itself.
The bar was held in place by an "R" clip, which upon removal is designed to fling itself away as far as possible. It disappeared into my gravel driveway, so I replaced it with a small split pin, bent around itself.
Turns out, this wasn't up to the job. The split pin fell off at some point, the bar worked itself loose (despite being a complete pain to remove when you need to) and one of the pads decided to part company with the bike, and fall out of the bottom of the calliper.
Not really something that improves your day when you're at cruising speed on a motorway, but it was easy enough to get the couple of miles home using the rear brake and engine braking.
All fixed now of course.
The bar was held in place by an "R" clip, which upon removal is designed to fling itself away as far as possible. It disappeared into my gravel driveway, so I replaced it with a small split pin, bent around itself.
Turns out, this wasn't up to the job. The split pin fell off at some point, the bar worked itself loose (despite being a complete pain to remove when you need to) and one of the pads decided to part company with the bike, and fall out of the bottom of the calliper.
Not really something that improves your day when you're at cruising speed on a motorway, but it was easy enough to get the couple of miles home using the rear brake and engine braking.
All fixed now of course.
As an MOT tester I've seen plenty of bodges, usually involving filler and chassis parts, there's some good ones here though..
https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/category/horr...
https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/category/horr...
MagneticMeerkat said:
A few have pointed out this can't turn corners. Except it can - just look more closely. The belt is held in tension by the double wheel device at the back of the car. This can pivot, presumably against a spring. In turn this gives a variable length belt, which means the car can steer. As the front wheels turn, the belts either extend or contract dependant on the direction.
That forward idler is only to move the belt down to allow the door to be opened. The rear tensioners (somebody's been looking at bike derailleurs) will compensate for suspension movement. There's not a lot of variability in them to cope with the large change in length of steering, and absolutely no sideways movement compensation. In addition, what's going to happen to the belt when it contacts the projecting rear sidewall of the outer tyre in a turn, on anything but negligable lock?Cerberaherts said:
randy said:
That's the liner coming out, wishful thinking to think you could wedge waxed paper in there!
I've seen some proper clangers over my years in the trade. An elise rear chassis leg held on with sikaflex probably stands as the best/worst though.
Here we go again! Look at the above pic....no lining. There is no lining fitted to the ball joint....no lining....jeez...I've seen some proper clangers over my years in the trade. An elise rear chassis leg held on with sikaflex probably stands as the best/worst though.
Zoobeef said:
On the above picture you do realise the lining isn't visible?
Take a look at my original pic..it is a piece of paper, not a lining. If they weren't so bloody expensive I would press the innards out of one to dispel the mythical brown lining that others appear to think is fitted to these joints...A friend of mine bought an Alfa 156 2.0 TS from auction. It was running very lumpy (like it was only on 3 cylinders) but he had another car with a good engine to transplant in so not an issue.
We took the engine out and noticed the sump had been patched with GRP and then smeared wth oil and dirt to hide it. Dropped the sump off and found that number 4 piston and conrod were missing. We figure it had put part of it out through the sump and the owner had finished the job
We took the engine out and noticed the sump had been patched with GRP and then smeared wth oil and dirt to hide it. Dropped the sump off and found that number 4 piston and conrod were missing. We figure it had put part of it out through the sump and the owner had finished the job
TooMany2cvs said:
That forward idler is only to move the belt down to allow the door to be opened. The rear tensioners (somebody's been looking at bike derailleurs) will compensate for suspension movement. There's not a lot of variability in them to cope with the large change in length of steering, and absolutely no sideways movement compensation. In addition, what's going to happen to the belt when it contacts the projecting rear sidewall of the outer tyre in a turn, on anything but negligable lock?
Presume that the device is just a cheapskate 4x4 not intended for continuous use, just to ease you out of trouble.The derailleur would make it easier to remove the belt once the going improved and the spokes on the front are just there to keep the belt on the front pulley allowing only small steering movements.
The spokes would be no help at all on their own in either mud or snow.
Personally I think it is a brilliant solution to a temporary problem.
Like many others on this thread I have repaired exhausts with beer cans and hose clips. In fact I once had a Nova that was more beer can than exhaust. I also fixed the heating on my sisters Polo with toilet roll tubes and sellotape.
The worst car bodge I bought was my first car, a VW Polo. The whole of the drivers side c pillar was made out of newspaper and filler. The clue to this bodge should have been that it was the only part of the car that wasn't rusty. This incident however taught me the magnet rule for buying used cars, which came into play when buying a seemingly perfect E30 325i. I arrived at the sellers house and immediately recognised him as a local night club bouncer with a bit of a reputation. The car looked perfect in ice white with black leather and a set of MIM Alpinas adding a touch of after market style. As I said the car looked mint so I ran the magnet round it with no problems until I reached the drivers side rear arch. I just wouldn't stick. I delved a little deeper and reached under the arch. Much to my surprise my fingers went straight through the inner arch and as I pulled them out most of the inner arch came away in my hand. I looked up at the gorilla of a seller and smiled, the fat wheel and tyre that filled the arch gave me somewhere to leave the dodgy bodywork and after a few more minutes of umming and ahhing I made my excuses and left.
The worst car bodge I bought was my first car, a VW Polo. The whole of the drivers side c pillar was made out of newspaper and filler. The clue to this bodge should have been that it was the only part of the car that wasn't rusty. This incident however taught me the magnet rule for buying used cars, which came into play when buying a seemingly perfect E30 325i. I arrived at the sellers house and immediately recognised him as a local night club bouncer with a bit of a reputation. The car looked perfect in ice white with black leather and a set of MIM Alpinas adding a touch of after market style. As I said the car looked mint so I ran the magnet round it with no problems until I reached the drivers side rear arch. I just wouldn't stick. I delved a little deeper and reached under the arch. Much to my surprise my fingers went straight through the inner arch and as I pulled them out most of the inner arch came away in my hand. I looked up at the gorilla of a seller and smiled, the fat wheel and tyre that filled the arch gave me somewhere to leave the dodgy bodywork and after a few more minutes of umming and ahhing I made my excuses and left.
Cerberaherts said:
Here we go again! Look at the above pic....no lining. There is no lining fitted to the ball joint....no lining....jeez...
With respect... Its not a ball joint, its a spherical and it will absolutely have a lining. I know the part, I've fitted tons of them. If you're not familiar with race parts I can see its an easy thing to assume the outer is one solid part but its not.Good diagram here http://blogperrinperformance.com/wp-content/upload...
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