65GTO

Hey... funny.. but not funny...

Sunday, a buddy on mine in the Plymouth car club did what we all have done a 1000 times before.. as much as we think 'just do a quick 'click'...

On his late 50's restored Ford Pick up, he was having trouble with the battery connection (also think.. lining up timing marks as another spin on this)..

He tried turning the key from inside the truck.. .click.. click.. click....

Got out, played with the terminals.. to SAVE TIME (famous last words.. you know where this is heading...) he reached into the cab to 'click' the ignition key to see if he had a good connection.

Well.. as he said... he never in his life had the truck start in anything but at least 3 or 4 cranks...

In that quick click... the engine started. Just a click, and the engine was off and running.

The truck was in gear. He admitted he knew this.. keeping it gear was his e-brake surrogate... but hey.. it was just going to be a 'quick test click'. Something out of laziness we all have done I am sure. Innocent 'quick click'.

Because he had sat in the truck at 1st to try to start it, he had already primed the carb (stepping on the gas a few times).. which as we (and in retrospect) he knew, kicked up t he carb on the fast idle cam

So off goes the truck.. in gear... 1200 rpm... down his driveway hill.

At the bottom of his drive is his wife's parked, restored Nash Metropolitan. Side by side to that is parked his restored 1932 Plymouth PB Coupe. Side to side of the PB is a big oak tree.

The PU t-bones the Nash, which then Nash side hits the PB, and the PU / Nash freight train drive the other side of the PB into the oak tree.

In an instant.. the front of the PU has significant front body work damage, and both sides of the Nash and the PB are slammed into each other and then into the oak tree.

Hey.... Just an innocent 'click' on the ignition switch.. right.. reaching in the window to do it.. out of laziness / time savings. How many times has each of us done it ???

By the way, my buddy got knocked over by the PU when it took off. Tweaked his back.. a neighbor saw it all happen and came to his aid to help him get up.

He took this in may more maturity / composure than I ever could (he is about 68 years old). He said in the bigger scheme of things, he only tweaked his back.

cv67

Done a lot of ignorant stuff but never tried to click a car over while in gear, at least hes ok.

GTOguy

Been working on cars for over 40 years and the only car I started in gear was a '57 Studebaker Scotsman in a wrecking yard....it was sitting on top of another car and I twisted the key because it was in it. It cranked the car over, but didn't start. Blew my mind that it cranked over.....It had been in that yard awhile. Working in the industry, I NEVER cranked (or would crank) an engine over in gear. But then again, I'm a mechanic so I know better. If this guy knew about 'free starts' on antique cars, that alone would have been enough to deter him no matter what he was working on!! ( a free start occurs in a car with a buzz-coil type ignition, like a Model T Ford or many other pre-1930's cars. The car will start right up by simply turning the ignition switch to 'on', which is enough to cause the coil to fire the plug, without the engine even being cranked. If one of the cylinders is on TDC or near it, the plug will fire the mixture and the engine will start right up. Old timers actually have 'free start' contests at events. I do remember a'67 Falcon that got away from me, but it was an automatic, with a worn shifter on the column, and when I goosed the throttle under the hood, it dropped into reverse and took off, dragging my scope with it. Car was a real roach, even in the early '80's.........)

tuxnharley

I've done that for a number of various reasons - but ALWAYS with the coil wire disconnected.....

corvetteed

Wow. Just wow. Whatever my next 'goof-up' w/my old cars is, I'll remember what he did, and how much worse mine could have been. Holy cow.

Kerrmudgeon

Wait until the insurance company hears this story.....









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Frankie the Fink

A "perfect storm" of bad coincidences....its easy to get 'target fixation' and forget the basics. I had the '61 front tires up on my Race Ramps and the rear end up on a floor jack at the differential. I neglected to put the chocks behind the front wheels on the ramps. After about 30 seconds the car rolled down off the ramps and stayed on the floor jack as pretty as you please and rolled out of the garage with the ***-end still airborne.

It was the one time the wife had come out to watch me do something (dammit)....she just shook her head and went back in the house...

One moment of inattention is all it takes.

No damage unlike your unlucky friend. I want to see how he writes that up for the insurance company...

hedgehead

Did that to my 58 Biscayne when I was a kid, went thorough my parents fence, into the neighbors back yard, and stopped when it hit a tree just shy of the pool.

65GTO

I know.. we all do it / have done it. Countless times myself.. like him.. even knowing my car is in gear... say to ourselves.. 'just a quick click rather than climbing in the car'.

Hence I thought I should relate to all us here as 'this can and does happen !'.

BTW.. he tweaked his back while trying to chase the truck reaching in to turn off the ignition... truck got going too fast and he tripped and fell. Said his back was tweaked enough that he could not get up until his neighbor came to help him up.

426 Hemi

What a story. Sure glad your friend didn't get hurt any worse.

I was putting the rear wheel back on my '96 cop car. Knelt down and lifted the wheel back on the studs------at the same time my heel hit the start button on my key fob in my back pocket. Car was in gear and was trying to turn the wheel as I held it.

Sometimes bad things can meet you half way.

3JsVette

My thoughts exactly! This challenges "it always could be worse". In this case only if the owners injuries were more severe.

fredski

All starter buttons should be located on the floor board,where you have to be in the car to engage it with your foot.


Fredski.

Frankie the Fink

The gas pedal was the starter in my '55 Buick.

I used to lean in and start my Corvettes at car shows if somebody wanted to hear them run, always checked the gearshift was in neutral and always parked with parking brake. Later on I thought I was being pretty dumb as a simple mistake could have the car underway into a crowd. I always sit in the seat now to do that...with foot on the brake.

RatDog

I don't know what year they added this safety feature but my wife's C6 won't start unless the clutch is in.

Steve

Frankie the Fink

That's been around for quite a while...the equivalent of an auto "neutral safety switch"...
New push button start cars won't start until your foot is on the brake (at least my Durango).

Roger Walling

It must have been a Ronson. "Lights First Every Time"

jerrybramlett

1969

hope2

Driving a 62 Corvette from Long Island to Florida in 1966. The clutch Z bar broke loose in Maryland, because I fell asleep and hit a road sign. Woke up looking at the sky. Started it in first gear and drove to South Carolina with no clutch. Gave up there because the exhaust which was damaged same time as Z bar, broke off. Had to be at work next day, so Greyhounded to Florida and left 62. Went up with trailer next weekend. I95 wasn't nearly finished then, so quite a feat.

DansYellow66

I managed to do this by accident once on my Cobra replica - all to easy in a roadster to reach in and turn the key from outside. Fortunately the car was on crank up dollies and when it started in gear it just spun the rollers on the dollies. Taught me a lesson.

When I was a kid (good excuse) I was setting the curb idle on my 64 Plymouth in gear with the parking brake set (apparently too lightly). I guess I took the service manual recommendations to set a particular idle speed in gear too literally. Forgetting for a moment what the hell I was doing while standing at the side of the left fender with my feet straddling the front tire, I grabbed the throttle to wing it slightly to just clear the engine a little. Yanked the throttle - engine went whoomp - nose rose up - car leaped forward - ran over my own foot - came back to a stop on the other side (of my foot). Good thing about weight transfer since my foot was fine except for tread marks over the top of it.

65GTO

A few have made note about his insurance.

I have known this gent through the Ply club for a number of years. I know his mentality is that... 'I do not drive them much at all.. I am very, very careful... if something happens it is 99% likely to be the other persons fault... so I will be able to get repairs done in the very unlikely event something happens through their insurance.'

So.. I really think he is self insuring beyond the basic liability insurance MA requires one to have. I will ask him what his insurance Co has to say about all this in a few days at a better time to broach this mishap with him.

But I will not be surprised at all to hear he only has liability on his cars.

I was doing the same up until relatively recently (like last 10 years or so). Before that MA did not have 'collector car' insurance. In MA insurance is almost a neo-state run organizations (they are very regulated) and out of state carriers were not allowed to sell their products in MA. At that time, to insure fully the value of a classic cost many 1000's per car. It was just too expensive to have full coverage.. now multiply that across many cars (if one had them). This has changed such that classic cars insurers (such as Grundy which I have) and the like are allowed to insure in MA.

Cheers - Jim