The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk so...interesting fault and result

jumped in my truck turned the key stomped on the starter.

Ebrake was on.

as i stomped on the starter my foot simultaneously accidentally hit the throttle pedal

so far so good.....

but id accidentally left it in gear (reverse)

.....probably not a big deal you may think. with the e brake on and coming off the throttle as the engine fires you might expect it just to stall.


noooooo!

this is where the planets aligned to throw a spanner in the works.

weirdly when i stomped on the starter and simultaneously the throttle, the throttle linkage rod actually bent and it stuck and stayed fully open....

the ebrake was never that strong anyway (on my truck) so what i effectively had was a 235 with a stuck wide open throttle in reverse gear with only a weak ebrake holding it back

...end result she violently drove backwards

thankfully there was no pedestrians or cars behind only a big hard wall...that she hit hard before i could even work out what was happening


i was surprised to discover the bent throttle connecting rod.


im now very careful to check shes out of gear/clutch disengaged before starting and ive fabricated a stronger rod.

That is a bummer, hope all it only got bumper. root

That is this month's safety meeting topic.

Back when us old geezers learned to drive, the advice was "Always push the clutch down before starting the engine!" It doesn't matter whether the transmission is in gear or not, if the power can't get to the transmission!
Jerry

You got it Jerry! That's how I learned it too.
Of course, now days driving a stick is almost a lost art.

My father in law always parked his cars with the e-brake on and in neutral.... never pushed the clutch in.... I was always taught to push in the clutch when starting, I also never had an e-brake I would trust without leaving it in gear. It only took a time or two of me leaving one of his cars in gear (oh, and he normally parked them in the garage!) before he started pushing the clutch in!

I'm not sure I qualify for my 'geezer' card yet, but I learned the same way. It was never been an issue for me until I tried to help out an older biker with his kick start HD. I found out that you can't hold the clutch in while trying to kick start the motor. It tends to kill any friction going to said starter and you can wear yourself out quickly by holding that clutch lever in.

The Harley I learned to ride in 1959 had a center-pivoted clutch pedal, not a hand lever, with the shift knob on the left side of the tank. It would lock in either the engaged or disengaged position. The kick starter was on the transmission case, IIRC, and it had to be in neutral with the clutch engaged to kick the engine over. Some guys would disable the clutch pedal locking function, resulting in a "suicide" clutch than would jump a bike out into traffic if the rider's foot slipped off the clutch pedal at an intersection!
Jerry

I thought it would make a good safety meeting topic. I didn't think it would turn into a Harley discussion.

I found out the hard way I needed a safety switch on my '56 with auto trans. Ran into a work table and put a dent in the bumper. It will now only start in park.

Didn't mean for it to evolve into a bike thing. Just saying that no matter how many wheels are under me, I'm using the clutch when starting the engine.

Glad to hear nobody was hurt. Thanks for sharing this story as most guys wouldn't admit to making this... glad you did.

My experience with my 59 parking brake is that reversing with it "on" is not an issue as it only drags a little... trying to drive forward is an entirely different outcome! It won't budge!

Not sure why this is but I think it has to do with how the cable holds the shoes and the rotation of the drum will "jam" the pads in forward rotation but not so good in reverse.

Perhaps someone here can expand on my theory or poke holes in it. Cheers

If it's got Bendix brakes they're "self-energizing" in the forward direction. As the drum rolls forward, the motion of the drum wedges the rear shoe into the drum. In reverse, the servo action isn't as effective because the rear brake lining is longer than the front. Since the speed in reverse is usually much slower, the designers didn't make the brake self-energizing that way.
Jerry

I was taught to always push the clutch in when starting anything.
It takes the transmission rotating load off of the starter, especially when it cold out.

My old girl doesn't fire up very easily and I find it very hard to hold the clutch, pump the gas, and stomp the starter. I was also taught the always use the clutch when starting just in case.
Now with this old truck (until the new engine goes in anyways): neutral, ebrake, pump, stomp, vrooooooom.