Duct Tape Isn’t the Only Hero in a Pinch: Welcome to MacGyver Mode

As I have mentioned in the past my first car was a 1984 Jeep Cherokee. I had a love/hate relationship with that car. The opinion really depends on the day. Don’t get me wrong, any car at 16 years old give you the type of freedom that you have longed for your whole life. But this particular car really brought out how I can adjust to weird situations.

One summer a couple of friends and myself decided to go out to Utah and do some off-roading. I thought it was great but then I realized one of those friends drove a little Honda Civic and the other drove his mom’s minivan. So, it would be my car. Ugh, it was always my car, but that is ok that means it is my rules!

The trip started off great. We got there in good time and found what we thought was a great campsite. But after that we quickly made our way to the trails. To say that Utah was beautiful was an understatement. It was beyond that. Every morning gave me a new view but I also started to prepare and realize what kind of mechanical fix I would have to do to my Jeep that day.

The first day off roading was not too bad, a mud flap coming up. Did not need to fix that, just threw it in the back and kept moving. But as the trip wore on I started to run out of these wonderful things called zip ties. I learned early on that these will hold anything in place (depending on how many you use).

So, on day 4 I realized I was out, completely out. That is ok I thought we would leave tomorrow; we can make it. But not long into day 4 we were hitting these sandy quick pace hills when suddenly, we heard this big clunking noise. That was for sure not normal.

I quickly stopped the car and got out to check. But I could not see anything visibly wrong with it. Of course I thought the worst, INTERNAL ENGINE ISSUE! WE ARE SO SCREWED. But I was not sure. So, I had my buddy drive the car while I ran next to it. As he drove I could hear the noise coming from my engine compartment. As I opened the hood to inspect it I saw the fan cover had popped off and was hitting the cooling fan. What a relief I thought I would just take it off and throw it with the rest of the parts in the back.

But it would not come off unless I took off the fan as well. That was not going to happen. Normally this would be a piece of cake, but I ran out of zip ties. I took everything out of the Jeep to see what I could use to tie this thing on but no hope I had nothing. I thought about what I could use and it snapped into my head, SPEAKER CABLE. I have 6 speakers throughout my car. That will work.

I started to rip one of my door panels and proceeded to take out the speaker cable. I started to cut it into sections and tie the fan cover back on. Thank goodness the wires were not bigger than holes. We started back and I suggested that we get off the trail since the car was falling apart. It is so funny when you are put into those situations that you can come up with. But I know now how important it is to really think outside the box, the speaker box that is.

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