Author Topic: When good trucks go bad... (Read 1844 times)

mfree · « **on:** June 05, 2006, 04:36:43 AM »

I got home saturday afternoon with some well-gotten gains (maps to use as wall cover, video games, etc), parked my truck and fished everythign out from behind the seats.

I turned around and there was a white flash and probably a second or so of reddish-black, and then I noticed my vision was fuzzy, very fuzzy. I nearly dropped everything, and then I nearly kicked the fenders in on my truck.

Seems that the door holder doesn't work very well anymore, and I park on a hill... I turned around just in time to catch the top of the door across the bridge of my nose, in full-speed slamming action.

No blood, surprisingly, just a black stripe (that faded immediately) amidst a red welt and some lovely swelling. I think I cracked it due to the sporadic blood, but nothing's out of line. My sinuses have been bothering me since though.

This ever happen to you?

280plus · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2006, 06:18:19 AM »

Caught my fingers in a locked car door once. Had to fish my keys out with the wrong hand and unlock the door before I could get them out. No damage. They fit in there just loose enough so they didn't get squished. I got my foot run over by a VW beetle once when I was a kid too. That one stung a bit. Good thing it was a V dub...

K Frame · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2006, 07:22:19 AM »

I had a Plymouth for about 10 years. The door detends just STANK.

I got cracked a couple of times.

Mannlicher · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2006, 03:10:02 PM »

my truck might be 30 years old now, but the doors still work as good as they did when it was new.

Jamisjockey · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2006, 04:34:13 PM »

Ignition switch went bad on my old jeep. Whilst trying to get it manually shut off by reaching under the column to move it to the off position, my buddy pulled the coil wire, which arced to the frame, through me into the ground. That hurt a touch.

spinr · « **Reply #5 on:** June 05, 2006, 11:28:18 PM »

This was part bad truck, part idiot owner...

My old regular cab Chevy had a piece of plastic trim along the bottom of the rear that worked itself loose over time. It had detached from the spring clip that held it in place, and the clip itself was still in place in its' mounting hole. I decided to fix it and commenced to pulling on the clip with a pair of pliers. Seems that clip was really wedged in there and just didn't want to come out. So I did the only sensible thing rolleyes

, and started pulling on it harder.

My right foot was on the ground outside the truck, my right leg folded & resting on the door sill, both hands squeezing the pliers and pulling on the clip with every bit of strength I could muster. The clip gave way and the collective mass of both my hands and the pointy ends of the plier grips began a very rapid and equally brief trip to the center of my forehead.

My backwards stumble began. The left leg was unable to clear the truck before it reached full extension and somehow became entagled in the seat frame. At the same time the right foot lost any semblance of traction it had on the pea graveled soil. The lower half now unable to compensate for the wild gyrations of the upper half...

I could hear the wind whistling by my head as I descended to the Earth's surface...

Landing flat on one's back produces the loveliest sounding "ttthwwummp"

I'm fairly certain the impact would've knocked the breath from me had I not expended all of the air in my lungs with the baboon-like screech I made as I penetrated the atmosphere during my re-entry.

Such fond memories... Wink

Azrael256 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 06, 2006, 12:48:16 AM »

*sigh*...

First off, I sometimes hit my head on my doorframe and I've had the car for about six years.

Ok, you guys know what a fuel pressure test port is? Think tire valve with fuel pressure behind it. Sometimes they get leaky like a tire valve, especially when your buddy who owns the truck loses the little cap. With that in mind...

Do you guys know how to test for a dead cylinder? Did you further know that sometimes you get a little shock from a cracked plug wire? Did you know that little shocks can make you drop the wire? Do the math... Eh, I was going to replace those plug wires anyway. The fireball was cool, though.

280plus · « **Reply #7 on:** June 06, 2006, 01:18:06 AM »

There WAS this time when I parked my 1970 F-150 with the three on the tree in gear on a hill one night. When I got up in the morning the TRUCK WAS GONE!! So I call the cops and they say, "Oh yea, we towed that out of the field at the bottom of the hill." The motor was so worn that the compression did not hold the truck there. During the night it had rolled BACKWARDS down the hill across an intersection at the bottom (!) and into the aforementioned field. About a 1/4 mile total. Now THAT is a good truck going bad on you. To this day I don't know WHAT I did to it to make it want to run away from home.

Tongue

mtnbkr · « **Reply #8 on:** June 06, 2006, 02:43:40 AM »

Quote

To this day I don't know WHAT I did to it to make it want to run away from home.

LMAO!!!

I've only owned one truck and it's currently content to live with us. However, I've had an evil car, one that tried to acellerate on it's on in rush hour traffic (cruise control malfunction). In bumper to bumper traffic on I66, the danged thing was trying to GO NOW. I killed the ignition and restarted it, but then it wanted to stall frequently. After a half mile or so, it cleared up. I replaced it within a day or so.
Stupid pontiac [/mumbling].

Chris

Tallpine · « **Reply #9 on:** June 06, 2006, 12:12:22 PM »

Quote from: 280plus

There WAS this time when I parked my 1970 F-150 with the three on the tree in gear on a hill one night. When I got up in the morning the TRUCK WAS GONE!! So I call the cops and they say, "Oh yea, we towed that out of the field at the bottom of the hill." The motor was so worn that the compression did not hold the truck there. During the night it had rolled BACKWARDS down the hill across an intersection at the bottom (!) and into the aforementioned field. About a 1/4 mile total. Now THAT is a good truck going bad on you. To this day I don't know WHAT I did to it to make it want to run away from home.

Tongue

My daughter has an 89 F-150 with a 5-speed transmission that must really belong on a Mustang because it is so high-geared. One day I was home alone and our dog started barking like crazy at something in the driveway. I looked out the window and saw her pickup moving. I thought someone must be stealing it (I dunno why anyone would want it ...? Tongue

) and just about had my gun out of its holster when I saw there was no one in the cab.

The pickup was creeping back about one cylinder at a time as the slope overcame the compression (300 cu 6 cycl). I ran out and chased it down and put the transfer case in low range to hold it in place.

The dog got extra treats

Azrael256 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 06, 2006, 01:52:14 PM »

I think there's a lesson here for all you manual transmission drivers... The engine provdes some resistance, but should not be used as a substitute for the parking brake. I never had to learn that lesson the hard way, but I knew a promising flute/clarinet player in high school with no feeling in two fingers on his right hand because somebody on his street didn't use the parking brake. I'm kinda paranoid about using it since that happened.

280plus · « **Reply #11 on:** June 06, 2006, 01:56:48 PM »

It's also a smrt move to turn thr wheels to the crb too. That way if it STILL rolls it'll roll off the road or into the curb, not down the hill. Learned that after the fact.

cosine · « **Reply #12 on:** June 06, 2006, 02:10:06 PM »

Quote from: 280plus

It's also a smrt move to turn thr wheels to the crb too. That way if it STILL rolls it'll roll off the road or into the curb, not down the hill. Learned that after the fact.

Okay, insulting statement ahead...

Duh! I though everyone knew that! Wink

280plus · « **Reply #13 on:** June 06, 2006, 08:32:12 PM »

280 trying to think of a snappy retort,,,

Sigh, I got nothin' ...

Tongue

Tallpine · « **Reply #14 on:** June 07, 2006, 04:44:43 AM »

"I think there's a lesson here for all you manual transmission drivers... The engine provdes some resistance, but should not be used as a substitute for the parking brake."

The engine provides plenty of resistance if you have an old truck with deep low and reverse. Much more reliable than a parking brake - the cable might snap at any moment anyway.

"It's also a smrt move to turn thr wheels to the crb too. That way if it STILL rolls it'll roll off the road or into the curb, not down the hill. Learned that after the fact."

No curbs around here - but rocks and blocks of wood work too.

spinr · « **Reply #15 on:** June 07, 2006, 10:31:37 PM »

Quote from: Azrael256

I think there's a lesson here for all you manual transmission drivers... The engine provdes some resistance, but should not be used as a substitute for the parking brake.

Yes, a lesson indeed.

Doesn't help, though, when you leave the truck running, with the tranny in neutral, without applying the parking brake, on a barely noticable slope at the local hardware store while loading multiple bags of mulch into the bed of the truck... shocked

The lesson here is to drop the bag of mulch before chasing after the runaway truck... Cheesy

Of course, I wouldn't know anything about that... Tongue

grislyatoms · « **Reply #16 on:** June 09, 2006, 10:16:55 AM »

Well, I wrote a couple anecdotes but they seemed to have vanished. Oh, well.

In short, the old codgers at the filling station I worked at in my youth swore that an old pickup truck backed from the 7-11 across the street across 4 lanes and a median into the station lot one day. Apparently, the tranny linkage had gotten so worn it fell down into R and idled right across the roadway.

One thing I can say from personal experience is that when a person brings their old pickup in for a state inspection and they state "Watch the brakes, they're a little soft" and "It seems to be idling really fast" get the guys together and push it into the service bay. Y'all can thank me for this advice later!

InfidelSerf · « **Reply #17 on:** June 12, 2006, 04:10:37 AM »

Quote

then I nearly kicked the fenders in on my truck.

It seems as if you are a cronic I.E.D.sufferer.
I suggest you spend thousands of dollars on therapy.

This has to be the most serious and pandemic of all the fake er I mean prominent, mental disorders that have been identified.

Personally, I.E.D. has sadly taken the lives of numerous cell phones.
I too decided to seek help and took to therepy sessions. That is until I got the first bill, blew up and destroyed a printer.
I got my money back for lack of improvement Cheesy

*disclaimer* to those who actualy believe in this garbage, er I mean suffer from said disorder. Please accept my apologies for making fun of your condition.
Now $#)(%*$ OFF YOU SILLY SOD!!
Cheesy

*legal disclaimer* For the sarcasm impaired, and general all around humorless. The preceding was laden with it.

cfabe · « **Reply #18 on:** June 12, 2006, 07:30:13 AM »

This reminds me of the time a friend was driving a true beater chevy s-10, parking brake was non-existant, so he usually parked in gear. Worked fine for a while, but one day while helping him out with another vehicle in his garage, I look up to see his s-10 roll down the street past us, hop the curb, and run up onto a telephone pole support wire. The truck must have not been in gear fully, or just popped out on its own. Moral of the story, as others have stated: use both brakes, and turn the wheel. After that event he traveled with some 4x4 wheel chocks in the bed.

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Author Topic: When good trucks go bad... (Read 1844 times)

spinr

spinr