Most of the time I can see it coming right before it hits me, that’s about the time, “Dummy, you knew better” enters the picture. This usually comes from my taking a short cut or being in a hurry. But this one last week caught me off guard.
Many years ago when I was a Chevy parts man, I learned from the garage mechanics that the easiest, or rather the only way to get shocks off is with an impact wrench turned up full power. I had finished the fronts and while pulling the rear shocks off my ’50, 3604, I encountered a problem getting lined up with the lower through bolts. Center section one way and spring u-bolts the other way. Solution was to add a ½” universal between the socket and extension. I closed my left fist round the extension to keep the socket centered on the nut and that did the trick. However, when the nut spun off with a full 100psig applied to the ½” impact the socket whipped around and whacked me on the wrist splitting it open and badly bruising the bone, I thought I had broken the wrist by the pain and partial paralysis that followed three minuets of cursing. The socket ended up on the other side of the garage, and I guess I really was lucky that my face wasn’t in the line of fire. I might have been OK if I had burped the impact rather than holding full trigger pressure.
Lesson Learned; Universals and impact wrenches don’t go together, without using a lot of caution.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
