A lady in my old shop told me she kept her 1987 washer running with a bent paperclip

Honestly, this was back in 2010 when I was just starting out in a small repair shop in Akron. She brought in a Kenmore direct drive for a new lid switch, but the old one was completely gone. While I was getting the part, she told me she'd kept it going for 3 months by jamming a paperclip into the actuator to trick it. Ngl, it was a janky fix but it showed real grit. Makes you think about how people used to just make things work with whatever they had. Anyone else run into a wild customer fix that actually kind of worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

richardk261mo ago

My uncle kept his 96 Ford Ranger's AC blowing cold for two summers by wrapping the compressor clutch wire with aluminum foil. It was a total hack job, but it bridged the gap until he could find a junkyard part. That generation of truck was full of weird little fixes like that.

robinb381mo ago

Man, @richardk26's uncle and that lady would've gotten along great.

gray_nguyen222d ago

Wait actually I gotta say something about that. The 96 Ranger didn't have a wrap style clutch wire setup. That was more of a 93-94 thing. By 96 they switched to a different connector. My buddy had a 96 and his AC clutch wire was a solid plastic clip not the old wrap around style. If your uncle wrapped aluminum foil on a 96 it probably was for a different wire issue. The older trucks from 93-94 had those loose wire ends that would corrode and people would wrap foil or tape to keep connection. Just want to clarify before someone tries that fix on a 96 and it doesn't work. Those trucks had different problems each year.