[Gry]

VW beetle in the mountains in the winter. Rivet that holds the spring to the arm on the points failed. Was not my vehicle, or there would have been old but still usable sets in the tool box. Ended up using thread from the cuff on the bottom of the leg of a pair of jeans. Was able to lash the spring to arm well enough to get down the road.
Sure used to enjoy reading the smokey yunik stories.

[WelderDan]

When my oldest son was just a baby, we were traveling late at night and in the middle of nowhere the car just died. I'm going 55-60 and the engine just shuts off. So there are no houses around, and the only tool I have is a miniature pipe wrench on my keychain, a bic lighter and my (ex) wife has some nail clippers. I'm under the hood with the lighter trying to figure out what's up. It had to be ignition, because there was no sputtering, it just shut off. And then I saw it. The positive wire on the coil was broken. I used the nail clippers to strip the wire, used the little wrench to loosen the nut on the coil and and wrapped the wire around the post, tightened it with the wrench and off we went. I never touched it again.

[aridbud]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^Great experience!