240 General: Most scary break downs

[AndrewBrown]

I was reading the forum and seeing 240 breakdown problems

I remembered my most scary breakdown and easy fix,

so what's your most scary ridiculous breakdown story with a happy ending...
here's mine

I bought my manual gearbox 245 DL in 2015 and drove it home a few hundred miles with no problems,
so a few days later I was checking a few things over and went out for a drive and while driving on a busy road the car cut out and rolled to a halt....bugger!!!

I barely got off the road into an entrance to a factory, the security guards were not happy but liked the car so helped me move the car out of the way of trucks going in and out.

I thought typical just my luck its packed up in exactly the wrong place, so opened the bonnet, the car turned over had a spark and fuel and the carb was OK but I noticed there was very little vacuum through the carb, so off with the the oil filler cap and got a security guard to crank it over and the cam is not going around...Cam belt broken!!!!

Horror and woe went through my mind with visions of bent valves and other
expensive damage,

The sudden realisation the B21 is a non interference engine calmed my nerves and as I looked up I saw across the road just past the opposite road junction the most fantastic sight luck has ever bestowed upon me " UNIPART" I ran across the road and into the shop, they had 4 belts in stock so I bought one and went back to the car

I got the tool roll out and the little 8mm/10mm spanner was still there so after removing the cover I got the cambelt on holding the tensioner back was a major problem, I had to go back to the shop and buy a set of Allen keys to put in the tensioner and drove home after.

So always carry a belt Allen keys and a small tool kit and yes you can slip the belt on past the pulley without removing the pulley bolt on a B21...but only if the alternator mounting bolt is not tight because the fan belt was slipping

I didn't have a 13mm to loosen it off

Lucky escape really because the UNIPART shop closed down a few days later
Beat that!!!!

[Clifford Pope]

What did you do about the lower plastic belt cover? Or did you use my trick of simply cutting it to get it over the crank pulley and then taping it up afterwards?

[AndrewBrown]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

What did you do about the lower plastic belt cover? Or did you use my trick of simply cutting it to get it over the crank pulley and then taping it up afterwards?

there is no plastic cover on a 1974 245 B21A

I removed the alloy cam belt cover and slipped the belt on the lower pulley from the underneath, there is enough room to slip it on through the gap

[Volvocano]

I was doing about 80 down the outside lane of a dual carriageway on a motorbike - the chain snapped and wrapped round the rear wheel locking it. I spotted a gap in inside armco about 50 metres ahead and skidded the bike into it across the front of an HGV. I'm pretty sure none of the traffic would have stopped in time and my chips would have been up! This was before the days of ABS or stability control where panic braking usually ended in tears.

[DW42]

Maybe this thread title would get more responses on a Saab forum.

Disclaimer -- I actually adore Saabs, but a brake line did snap off at the caliper approaching a red light at a busy intersection on my 1971 Saab 95. Still managed just barely to stop on the remaining circuit.

[SnineT]

1994 in a 1991 2.0i Cavalier, on the motorway near Wolverhampton and she cuts out dead at 70 in the middle lane, I manage to coast to the exit and end up luckily having to go down hill a bit to the then Toys r'us store carpark.

She restarted first go and I was back on my way, few days later she wouldn't start turned out to be the fuel inj relay.

[geoffo]

What could be better than thrashing a GLT round the country lanes of North Yorkshire on a summers eve. I’d done calipers disks and pads etc. Noticed a sort of burning smell on the way back but thought I might have overdone the g forces. Got to roundabout near home and brake pedal flat to the floor and no brakes! Turns out the burning smell was the brake fluid vaporising. Luckily it’s an auto so adjusted my driving. Brakes returned when it cooled down but purged the system with new fluid. Apparently some people don’t like being my passengers!

[DOUGIE68]

In 1989 I drove down from Fife to Weybridge in a VX490 when on the M25 the metal fuel pipe to the rear carb split. All i saw was vapours and and fumes. I cant remember the details of stopping the car but i was off like Bolt up the banking. I still shudder at the memory of it.

[hreg240]

Originally Posted by Volvocano

I was doing about 80 down the outside lane of a dual carriageway on a motorbike - the chain snapped and wrapped round the rear wheel locking it. I spotted a gap in inside armco about 50 metres ahead and skidded the bike into it across the front of an HGV. I'm pretty sure none of the traffic would have stopped in time and my chips would have been up! This was before the days of ABS or stability control where panic braking usually ended in tears.

I did very similar a couple of years ago! 1981 Honda CB, going down the outside lane of the A21 on Easter Sunday. Chain snapped, engine seized. Goodness knows how, but I managed to snake it across both lanes of traffic and straight into a layby.

A bloke in a van pulled up a few minutes later; he was travelling on the opposite side and caught the whole thing on dash-cam. Very scary watching the footage back that's for sure.

I now much prefer driving with 4 wheels

[CosmicBike]

Does a greyhound getting his head wedged in the dog guard count? The only time I have had to stop on the hard shoulder of a motorway. A welfare hound too, not even one of mine! Scary, noisy, and trying to get the old 240 up to speed before re-joining made even more hair raising when the 'no hard shoulder for 100 yards' sign pops up! That day I wish I had many more horse powers.....