Worst kludge Re: origins of "kludge"

[Jim Isbell, W5JAI]

Well, mine was similar in that it involved a car.  A 1962 Mercedes
Benz that I was driving across the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico. 
Suddenly the engine quit and all I could see for miles was sand and
some very near starved Brahman cattle.  The fuel pump diaphragm had
sprung a major leak and no longer pumped gas.

In the trunk I had some luggage.  In the luggage were my wife's shower
cap, some fingernail polish and some dental floss.  I cut out a new
diaphragm from the shower cap, glued it to the old diaphragm with
fingernail polish and tied it to the center shaft with several wraps
of dental floss.  Then with more fingernail polish I sealed the gasket
between the halves and put it all together.

45 minutes later I was on my way to Mazatlan.  When I got there I
started scouring the parts store for a new fuel pump but couldn't find
one.  Two weeks later when I got back to the states I had forgotten
about the repair.  I drove the car for another TWO (2) years and never
thought about that repair again.  I sold the car and to this day I
would love to have been there when the first mechanic took that pump
apart and saw that pretty flowered diaphragm.

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:32:47 -0500, Joe R. <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> At 04:06 PM 3/30/05 -0600, you wrote:
>  Since this is now only
> >remotely on-topic; what would you consider to be your most "artless
> >hack?"  I mean, what klu(d)ge are you most proud of, and yet at the
> >same time a bit abashed (-fun- to say) to cop to?
> 
>   I think my worst kludge was on the VW dune buggy that I built while in
> high school. I was running it in a cross country race one day and the
> trottle cable broke. In those days I always carried a roll of stainless
> steel safety wire (the modern equivelent of baling wire) so I broke out the
> safety wire and ran it out the back of the car and tied it to the trottle
> on the carburator. I held the roll in one hand and pulled on it to operate
> the trottle and drove with the other hand. I forget how I managed the shift
> lever!
> 
>    Joe
> 
> 


-- 
Jim Isbell
"If you are not living on the edge, well then, 
you are just taking up too much space."
W5JAI
UltraVan #257
CAL - 27   #221