Neighbor Lost His Life Sat. Night, Common Sense P.S.A.

[MopaR&D]

According to what I've heard about it, PA State Trooper found wrench & nut under truck, Victim's Nephew stated He was going to change an O2 sensor. It appears He wished to get the shift cable out of His way, not sure if He took the bolt & stud nut off to move braket & cable w/the end still attached to trans control lever & accidently tugged it out of park, or was trying to remove lever from control shaft 1st & accidently knocked it out tapping/prying on the lever.....those get really corroded once those Fords get old.
Either way, Chester was an OK Dude, but paid the ultimate price for a moment of carelessness.

I learned my lesson once working on a lifted Cummins Ram when I briefly tried working as a mechanic at a hot rod/race car shop, always put on the parking brake! Didn't have to jack the truck since it sit so high off the ground as-is. I had to pull the driveshaft and it was just in Park, luckily it wasn't on much of a slope another mechanic was nearby to jump in and put the brake on when it started rolling and I yelled for help. Guy was kind of an asshole about it like "stupid kid what's wrong with you" attitude but I guess I can't blame him.

 

[Big_John]

Two stories.

I knew a guy that had his car up on 4 bumper jacks. The car fell on him and he spent the rest of his short life in a wheelchair.

Next to my shop was a gas station with a dump truck with a broken front axle sitting next to it. The owner of the truck had jacked it up and it fell on him. The gas station owner tried to pick up the dump truck with his tow truck, but the winch wouldn't handle the weight. I wasn't there when it happened. I could see that dump truck out of my window for at least a month...

Both stories make me be very careful of jacking and working under cars. Always use jack stands and if a wheel comes off, it goes under the car as a backup.

 

[MopaR&D]

Two stories.

I knew a guy that had his car up on 4 bumper jacks. The car fell on him and he spent the rest of his short life in a wheelchair.

Next to my shop was a gas station with a dump truck with a broken front axle sitting next to it. The owner of the truck had jacked it up and it fell on him. The gas station owner tried to pick up the dump truck with his tow truck, but the winch wouldn't handle the weight. I wasn't there when it happened. I could see that dump truck out of my window for at least a month...

Both stories make me be very careful of jacking and working under cars. Always use jack stands and if a wheel comes off, it goes under the car as a backup.

Also a good idea to jostle the car once it's set down on stands. If it won't fall off with a few good shoves, it's not going to fall with you under it.

 

[mbaird]

In the late 80s one of our Mopar club members was under his 4sp Mopar with the front wheels on ramps . Somehow he arced the starter motor terminals and the car lurched backwards ( trany was in reverse I assume) and ran him over . Didn’t live to tell the whole story…. I always disconnect my battery now if under the car.

 

[Big_John]

Also a good idea to jostle the car once it's set down on stands. If it won't fall off with a few good shoves, it's not going to fall with you under it.

Yep. I grab the bumper and give it a good pull and push. Once in a while you can feel it "settle" everything and then the car is rock solid.

And for anyone with a lift, this happened when my oldest son was selling Fords. He was walking across the shop and this truck fell off the lift right behind him.

He sells windows now.

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

My then 19 year old stepson had his 73 Duster 340 in my garage, trying to remove the rear axle assembly so he could take it somewhere to put a Sure Grip in it.

He came in a while later, cussing, saying that he thought it would be an easy job with my impact wrench, but it would hardly turn the u-bolt nuts. So I went down to have a look see. He was using jack stands, but he had them UNDER THE AXLE HE WAS TRYING TO REMOVE. So, of course, the full weight of the car was on the u-bolts. No wonder they were hard to turn. Thank goodness he didn't actually get them off. . . .

Crazy that he owns a real 340 car.. but somehow didn't attain the knowledge to pulled the center section to change the suregrip.

Glad he is ok though.

 

[missing linc]

Yep. I grab the bumper and give it a good pull and push. Once in a while you can feel it "settle" everything and then the car is rock solid.

And for anyone with a lift, this happened when my oldest son was selling Fords. He was walking across the shop and this truck fell off the lift right behind him.

He sells windows now.

View attachment 1716463508

Every time I put any vehicle up on my lift I stop it just after the wheels are off the ground and grab the front end and give it a couple of good hard shoves to make sure it is solid on the lift. I had an 80s Plymouth Fury on a lift once in the days when I worked in an independent shop that nearly fell off the lift. I wasn't the one who set it up, my boss did that, but since that time I have been very careful about putting a vehicle on any lift. Was a truly frightening experience that I hope to never have to repeat. Best advice I can give is always take your time and make sure it is done safely before you risk your life.

 

[JDMopar]

I like my 4 post lift, but if I'm going to be under it for an extended amount of time, I put safety ropes at all four corners in case I were to jostle it off of a lock. I go under the crossbar that holds the runners and loop the safety thru the hole in the top of the post and tie it. Probably overkill, but it makes me feel better. The tail of the rope on the corner where the lock handle is gets tied around the lock handle so I don't forget to remove them before lowering the lift. I spent my whole adult life as a lineman working on live high voltage power lines. Now that I'm retired, I'm too old to get mashed under a car while enjoying my hobby.

 

[Killer6]

Yep. I grab the bumper and give it a good pull and push. Once in a while you can feel it "settle" everything and then the car is rock solid.

And for anyone with a lift, this happened when my oldest son was selling Fords. He was walking across the shop and this truck fell off the lift right behind him.

He sells windows now.

View attachment 1716463508

I have quite a number of rack close-calls & horror stories, & pics somewhere of a practically brand new Crapillac SUV on it's side, luckily nobody killed/seriously injured..

 

[65 Cuda 340]

Crazy that he owns a real 340 car.. but somehow didn't attain the knowledge to pulled the center section to change the suregrip.

Glad he is ok though.

It was a 73 Duster 340, so had an 8 1/4 rear.

That was about 1990. After I refused to work on it anymore, he sold it, so it is long gone.

He brought it to me to sell, so I took it for a drive to see how it ran. Terrible. Checked, found out one idle mixture screw was four turns out, the other all the way in.

Radio didn't work, checked that, found out he had cut all the speaker wires (aftermarket radio I had put in for him), then just wrapped the wire ends together with no tape, so they were shorting out onto the dash. Also, the inner radio knobs were on backwards, so you couldn't turn the outer knobs without moving the inners. Radio worked good after I got that fixed.

Also, the headers leaked really badly from being crashed onto the pavement so many times, and the pilot bearing was making all kinds or racket. But aside from being noisy, it ran really well after I adjusted the carb. I already had it sold, or I might have kept it. It was in better shape than I had originally thought.

 

[67Dart273]

It is easy to find, on YewToobe, such as the power tour, drag week, other events, COMMONPLACE, somebody doing some important repair to a race car, and here they are, under there with a floor jack, and no other devices to hold it up, OFTEN with one or more tires removed

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

It is easy to find, on YewToobe, such as the power tour, drag week, other events, COMMONPLACE, somebody doing some important repair to a race car, and here they are, under there with a floor jack, and no other devices to hold it up, OFTEN with one or more tires removed

Every time I've worked on a car where I had to remove the wheel, I always laid the wheel down under the car near the jack in case it failed.

 

[ProjectBazza]

It is easy to find, on YewToobe, such as the power tour, drag week, other events, COMMONPLACE, somebody doing some important repair to a race car, and here they are, under there with a floor jack, and no other devices to hold it up, OFTEN with one or more tires removed

I’ve seen that on the TeeVee as well, and you’d think that someone would either call that out “during”, or edit it out “after”.