<VV> Getting un-stranded

[Smitty]

Ron Sez;    I refuse to believe that anyone broke a crankshaft a hundred 
miles from the
nearest habitation, parked on a dirt road, dropped the engine, split the
block, installed a spare shaft which they just happened to have, reinstalled
the engine without jacks, etc. and drove merrily off before breakfast.  No,
there's too many bottles of Jack Daniels in that scenario.
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Smitty Says;  I suppose there has to be somebody out there that couldn't 
recognize a little "tongue in cheek" when I mentioned making minor 
adjustments to come home on a broken crankshaft.  Actually it wasn't quite 
as easy as Ron made it sound either.  We were skipping down the road and the 
fan belt came off.  Nobody ever does that flying straight and level so I was 
a little perplexed.  I put the belt back on and got about a hundred yards 
and it came off again.  This time I had the Boss start the car while I 
watched it.  The belt came off and I noticed the damper wobbling.  Soon as I 
grabbed ahold of it I knew the crank was broken.  I leaned against the 
fender and gazed across 50 miles of wind.  That's all there was to see out 
there, and considered my options.  My insurance covered 30 miles towing or 
to the nearest point of repair.  As I said before.  No cell phone so the 
towing was useless.  Boss came out of the camper and handed me a cold drink 
and said, have you figured out anything yet.  I said, not this time.  I 
don't see any daylight at all.  I said get back in the car, we are going 
down the road a ways.  She said, to where.  I said, thataway.  The camper 
wasn't helping the engine heat any but I drove it till the oil and CHT got 
high and then shut it down.  Actually those long prarie hills helped because 
I could climb one and then shut it off for the downhill.  Without the 
manifold covers the temps dropped pretty quickly.  After 13 miles we came to 
a crossroad.  There was a tourist attraction named 1880 Town there.  I paid 
the owner for some phone time and found that there was a U Haul at the next 
town about 40 miles away.  I got them to promise that they would hold a 24 
ft van for me.  We toured the town and enjoyed it very much.  Next day I 
hitched a ride to the next town and rented the truck.  Realized the tin 
wheel well covers inside would not support the Corvair, so I found a 
building supply.  I bought a saw, a hammer, nails, and a half ton of 2X12s. 
Drove back to the 1880 Town and proceeded to build a sturdy pair of rails to 
bridge the wheel wells in the truck.  The owner says, how you going to get 
the car in there?  I said, I am going to back the truck up to that berm over 
there and build a truss bridge into it from the berm.  He said you are a 
determined cuss aren't you.  Then he hollers, RJ, get the tilt bed and put 
Mr Smiths car on it so he can drive into the truck..  I always carry a nylon 
strap that is about 60 ft long made of nylon about an inch wide.  I used 
that to lace the car into the center of the truck utilizing the built in 
cleats around the floor.  From there it was a piece of cake.  Put the camper 
on the truck, Got to KC where my sister lives and dumped the car in her 
driveway.  Called some of my HACOA friends and gathered parts and rebuilt 
the engine using my Corvair jack to raise and lower the engine.  The crank 
was broken between #2 and #3.
Sorry for wasting so much space, but on This forum if you don't cover every 
little detail somebody will leap on it like a hen on a june bug and say you 
are full of crap.  The point I initially made was, when I leave home in a 
Corvair, I come home in the same Corvair.