Dave Hinz writes:

On 7 Oct 2005 10:15:51 -0700, wrote:
I got a couple of logs from the nearby creek and levered
the engine back up and tied it into place with some rope I had in the
car, steel cored so it was strong. Drove the car 30 miles home then 20
miles to a repair shop on Monday.

Ford Escort GT, Mt. Washington, overheating on the way up, no electric
fan for some reason, used a paperclip to short the fan temperature
sensor wiring harness to fix that.

Chevy econobox, along side the road with pretty girl standing along side,
between Omaha and Kansas City, middle of nowhere. "It just stopped all
of the sudden". A bit of investigation showed no spark, which I traced
to the rotor having come apart in the distributor.

This thread is giving me deja vu.

Corvair on East Side Highway, Manhattan.
Spring had come off the vacuum advance weights inside the distributor.
The vacuum advance weights then rubbed on the inside of the metal
base of the distributor and sliced the entire top of the distributor
off. When I saw it, it was just hanging there buy the ignition wires.

Put the whole thing back in place and wrapped some of that wire they
use for rebar around the distributor and the base.

Drove back to the Bronx and fixed it there with junkyard parts.