I made it home anyway.

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RecklessWOT

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I’d had my beater Civic for like four years. In my ownership up to that point, I hadn’t been able to pull the rear drums due to the lip that the shoes had worn in, and no way to back them off that I could see.

So out of sight out of mind, and rear brake condition was unknown with over 260k on the clock.

I had a four day work thing out in Harrisburg, PA, all had gone well and I was heading home to NH. A bit east of town on some of those rolling hills out there I applied the brakes and felt a vibration in the pedal, then a big pulsation, then nasty metallic noises and the pedal right to the floor.

I knew right away what had happened, brake shoes had worn out and popped a wheel cylinder. I still had a little bit of brake right at the bottom of the travel and a full tank of gas. I didn’t even stop to check it out, why bother? Nothing I could do about it.

Pressed on, kept big following distances, engine braked as necessary. Hit Scranton right as rush hour was starting to get going but luckily missed the worst of it.

Finally stopped and gassed up in Carmel, NY, peeked underneath and saw the backing plate covered in brake fluid, as suspected.

Continued on and made it home no problem.

I cut the drum off the next day, called around for parts locally but rockauto was way cheaper. Put the order in with them but still needed the car to get around. C clamped the wheel cylinder together and bled it. Used the cut out center of the brake drum as a spacer so I could mount the wheel. Ran it like that for a week, few hundred miles or so, and did the brakes the following weekend.

Lots of limp home stories from over the years but that’s my most recent one (April 2018) and my long distance record.

Hah you got me beat. My longest distance no brakes story was from Waterbury, CT (not far from NY on I84) all the way back home in NH (little east of Manchester). Same thing, I was working out of state and had a little beater Mitsubishi, blew out my rusty rear brake lines breaking for sudden heavy traffic on the way home on a Friday afternoon and said "screw it, I just wanna get home". I lost basically all brake pressure so was just engine breaking, using the handbrake, and leaving lots of room. Going from Scranton to Nashua you easily had an extra 3 hours on me
 

Blue Ox

Turning Diesel Fuel Into Fun
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Hah you got me beat. My longest distance no brakes story was from Waterbury, CT (not far from NY on I84) all the way back home in NH (little east of Manchester). Same thing, I was working out of state and had a little beater Mitsubishi, blew out my rusty rear brake lines breaking for sudden heavy traffic on the way home on a Friday afternoon and said "screw it, I just wanna get home". I lost basically all brake pressure so was just engine breaking, using the handbrake, and leaving lots of room. Going from Scranton to Nashua you easily had an extra 3 hours on me

User name checks out. :D
 

Doc_Ellis

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Hah you got me beat. My longest distance no brakes story was from Waterbury, CT (not far from NY on I84) all the way back home in NH (little east of Manchester). Same thing, I was working out of state and had a little beater Mitsubishi, blew out my rusty rear brake lines breaking for sudden heavy traffic on the way home on a Friday afternoon and said "screw it, I just wanna get home". I lost basically all brake pressure so was just engine breaking, using the handbrake, and leaving lots of room. Going from Scranton to Nashua you easily had an extra 3 hours on me
Haha nice! Yup, blowing out rotten brake lines is a rite of passage here in New England. Still impressive distance, especially since you were passing through earlier in the day
 

shiftpro

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Knocking? o_O

I broke the crank on my diesel and it raised holy hell. Definitely not "knocking", clattered like crazy doesn't begin to describe the noise.

And no, I didn't drive it home. Although I probably could have.

He may have used another word to describe the noise. I never heard it but I saw the carnage. He said he could see the crank pulley dancing around. I imagine the timing chain was pulling it into wobble. Crank was broken right through the first journal, at and angle so the bearing cap actually held it in place... until it started the death wobble.
 

Blue Ox

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He may have used another word to describe the noise. I never heard it but I saw the carnage. He said he could see the crank pulley dancing around. I imagine the timing chain was pulling it into wobble. Crank was broken right through the first journal, at and angle so the bearing cap actually held it in place... until it started the death wobble.

Diesel vs gas, I guess it could have sounded like knocking. Best way I can describe mine was it sounded like somebody machine-gunning a church bell. Yeah, the damper was dancing too. I was amazed it ran, but it ran and restarted later when we were confirming the diagnosis.

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The main reason I didn't drive it home (maybe a couple of miles) was I was hoping to save the block. Little did I know,...
 

RecklessWOT

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Haha nice! Yup, blowing out rotten brake lines is a rite of passage here in New England. Still impressive distance, especially since you were passing through earlier in the day
Hah, oh yeah going thru Worcester and Lowell sucked ass. But you gotta do what you gotta do!
 

TerryRH

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My bowels would have been f'd for a week with some of these stories. I've had some motors blow and some scary type stuff, but most of those were in situations I could control.

There was one time I was towing a Suburban. After I loaded up, I was coming to a stop sign at the bottom of a hill at a "T" intersection leading into the woods. I had to pump the brakes and they shuddered and they went to the floor. I pumped again and got her stopped. The brakes were in "working order", but I forgot to set the trailer brakes. The stock brakes on my old truck just can't stop that load.

Definitely puckered my butthole, but I made it home anyway.

Edit: I set the trailer brakes when I got stopped.
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oobastank

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Went out for a danger ride after installing a brand new fitech system. The fuel lines they shipped with didn't stay on, so I was squirting fuel on the road. Once in a while they would pop off completely and I would have to coast to the side of the road, push the fuel line back on, and then continue on some more. I started off with 3/4 of a tank and it was on E as I coasted back into my garage.
 

idahovette

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Built a 427 for my 75 K20. Got it all together , put the overhead camper on and headed for Seattle. Got to Olympia and heard a knocking. Babied it to Fife at the good ole Motel 6. Started diagnosing(not to hard)decided one of my new pistons was noisy. Called my Uncle in Sumner and asked if we could camp there. Sure come on up. Sat around for a day trying to figure out what to do. Had a small tool box with me so decided to pull it apart and fix it. Pulled left exhaust manifold, intake bolts on the left side, loosened the right side and pulled the head. Big block heads are HEAVY. Drained the oil, pulled the pan and got #5 out. Took piston and rod to the local NAPA store and got new piston pressed on the rod. New head gasket and intake set and a tube of black RTV. Rented a torque wrench. Used the old rings, lots of RTV on each end of the intake and all over the old pan gasket. Got it together and headed home with the thought "if it makes 500 miles we'll be home". Made it and drove it for another 6 months , then put the 350 back in. Took the old piston back to my hometown NAPA and they warrantied it. Reimbursed me for my trouble(not enough). All this with a 3/8 drive socket set and a long cheater bar.
 

Kim Burke

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Built a 427 for my 75 K20. Got it all together , put the overhead camper on and headed for Seattle. Got to Olympia and heard a knocking. Babied it to Fife at the good ole Motel 6. Started diagnosing(not to hard)decided one of my new pistons was noisy. Called my Uncle in Sumner and asked if we could camp there. Sure come on up. Sat around for a day trying to figure out what to do. Had a small tool box with me so decided to pull it apart and fix it. Pulled left exhaust manifold, intake bolts on the left side, loosened the right side and pulled the head. Big block heads are HEAVY. Drained the oil, pulled the pan and got #5 out. Took piston and rod to the local NAPA store and got new piston pressed on the rod. New head gasket and intake set and a tube of black RTV. Rented a torque wrench. Used the old rings, lots of RTV on each end of the intake and all over the old pan gasket. Got it together and headed home with the thought "if it makes 500 miles we'll be home". Made it and drove it for another 6 months , then put the 350 back in. Took the old piston back to my hometown NAPA and they warrantied it. Reimbursed me for my trouble(not enough). All this with a 3/8 drive socket set and a long cheater bar.

You are a stud. Spent a little time in ID, you folks are kinda that way, I think.
 

yevgenievich

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Did 800+ miles after hitting elk in a suburban. Couple of stops at parts stores to get it together enough to keep going. Driving cross town in a smoking barely running long bed square with fuel canister under the hood. Did a stint on a motorcycle with a blown tire and flipped clutch spring being towed with a tow strap at about 10mph. Driving with completely loosing all brakes except parking brake and manual trans for brakes. And probably a lot more sketchy trips just to get home that I am missing. Rebuilding carbs on the road and swapping radiators/duct taping rad hoses I think are the only tools involved situations for me.
 

idahovette

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You are a stud. Spent a little time in ID, you folks are kinda that way, I think.
Mighta usta been, not any more. LOL That happened a "few" years ago and I was lucky!! You or anybody else for that matter, ought to come check out our little piece of the world. If anybody ever gets up here be sure and look me and my family up. Always cold beer and usually a little whiskey and a lot of food!!!
 

SDJunkMan

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Back in the 80's I was driving from New Orleans to Detroit in a 78 F150 with a 300 6cyl. About midnight it started making noise while passing thru northern Mississippi, nothing open, and I need to be in Detroit the next morning. Discover that a rocker stud broke, so I took out the pushrods and other loose parts, pulled the spark plug and wire, and drove to Detroit. Sounded like a damm air compressor ( which I guess it was) all the way, but I made it in time.
 

Darth Plasma

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I was with my grandfather in his old '97 Mazda 626. Pulling out into traffic from the grocery store and the brake pedal went to the floor. Drove 20 miles home with all the brake lines blown. Didn't even have to touch the E-brake, it was a 5 speed. We junked the car that same day. Fenders were completely disintegrated. Just saw that car last year sitting at the u-pull it. All the bondo work we did to it fell apart... Car ran great, it only had about 130k on it
 

Darth Plasma

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Before I redid my truck, I drove it around small distances just to drive it because I was excited about it, well at the time it didn't have any floors or rocker panels, I was at the gym and it started raining... by the time I got home I was soaking wet. The tires just kicked up water right into my lap. The torn carpet could only shield so much
 

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