What was your closest wrenching near death experience

X2 was replacing the 42re in my zj in driveway had all bolts out but two and was using jack to hold pressure off bolts well damn trans bolts broke and trans landed on my chest knocked breathe out of me and I could move it bc jeep wasn't lifted then, so I had to push trans back up to scoot out froM under it was only option was to roll it off my chest... in this experience I did discover I could install the trans back in jeep with 2x4 strapped to it and me simple lifting it and holding with knees to get bolts started...
 
Probably the closest I've been (that I know of) wasn't automotive related. I was about 14/15 helping a guy move some stuff from a garage. I had grabbed an aluminum ladder and was walking with it upright towards his house. One of the older guys yelled at me to stop. I was about 5 feet from hitting low hanging overhead power lines.

Putting a long arm kit on a 02 Ram 2500 circa 2006ish. I had it the truck on a 2 post lift. I had removed both axles and had them sitting on jack stands, raised the truck up and proceeded to cut off the stock control arm brackets and installed the new brackets out of the kit which went somewhere under the door area IIRC. I hung the 5ft control arms on the new brackets and needed to let the lift down to attach them to the axles. I used my foot to sweep my side control arms forward so they wouldn't hit the floor, my buddy was supposed to do the same on the other side. Apparently he didn't get them memo. As I was letting the lift down his side control arms went straight down to the floor and catapulted the truck, luckily I got out of the way as it rolled against the lift upright post. It slide of my side lift arms and was a cluster f*** to get back on the lift.

Had a F250 on lift at a friends shop, air compressor was broke so I was using a long 1/2 ratchet to tighten a rear shock. Ratchet failed, smacked myself above the left eye, obviously was knocked out for a short period and woke up in a small pool of blood. They were out to eat so I couldn't go in the house and get a look or clean up. Worst part was when I got to the ER the doc came to the conclusion that my story couldn't have caused the damage to my eye. I tried to explain the grease still on my hands and clothes, guess it wasn't good enough. They sent numerous people in trying to find some sort of inconsistency. After being there a few hours they finally decide to stitch me up, same doc comes in and says "well the swelling is so bad we aren't going to be able to use anything to numb the area"....
 
All you amatuer pyro's need some fire Ade foam
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Best one was breaking a leaf spring shackle in a 78 k5 buggy in callalantee on a trail off of the rut buggy was on angle and high lift jack slipped out from under rocker panel causing buggy to flop on the side I was under it on, by grace of god it rolled over me completely without touching me and the jack was only thing that got me!!
 
Qwk87Coupe said:
Probably the closest I've been (that I know of) wasn't automotive related. I was about 14/15 helping a guy move some stuff from a garage. I had grabbed an aluminum ladder and was walking with it upright towards his house. One of the older guys yelled at me to stop. I was about 5 feet from hitting low hanging overhead power lines.
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You were probably perfectly safe, if the line was that low chances are it was either a TV cable, phone line, or power going to the house which would have been insulated anyways. I can touch the power line going to our house without jumping....

That or you were moving a 40 ft ladder as it would take you about 20 feet before you could reach an uninsulated power line.
 
1) Working on my YJ, home alone, no one due for hours. I pull the transmission with the intent to lay it to the side. Can't move it side to side to the frame rails and it ends up sitting on my chest. Fine and dandy not too heavy I'll just move it from there. Frame rails still in the way. Oh crap, now it's getting hard to breathe. I'll put it back on. Angle is terrible and can't muster the strength. Now it's really hard to breathe, can't reach my phone, inside the garage no one will hear me. Luckily, my buddy comes by unannounced.

2) Working on my boat moving and rewiring the batteries. On my back/side with a 1' "wall" that the seats sit on underneath my hip. Wrench arcs the batteries and gets red hot. Can't scramble to get away but in awkward position, decide to grab with the wrench with my bare hand. Luckily no burns.

3) Running a stand on skid steer with a horizontal boring attachment. Buddy is down at the business end of it. I'm lifting the end to get it out of the trench and it jerks up. ~10' long. Nearly takes off his head.
 
Two times come to mind

1. Dropping skid on grand Cherokee to change fluids and got distracted by a funny radio commercial. Forgot how many bolts I had taken out and it fell on my head. Knocked me out cold. Ended up with a fractured eye socket and concussion. Pissed I can’t remember the commercial

2. Installing lift on my wife’s brand new JKUR on Valentine’s Day evening while she was making some kind of dessert and our 4 month old daughter was sleeping. I was in a rush because I knew she was annoyed I was in the garage. Didn’t realize I had turned over my beer and covered the control arm in it. Picked it up while laying on my back with latex gloves on. Promptly dropped it after holding it over my head. Smashed my mouth so bad I bit through my upper lip. Stitches inside and out. Had to drive myself to the ER due to the baby and spend hours there. Funniest thing was the intake nurse. She looked at my face and then saw my wedding ring. “I’m gonna guess your wife isn’t happy right now - we don’t sell flowers here.”
 
1993, drove wrecker in Champaign IL, had just gotten a new set of self loading dollys, i played with them, figured out how they loaded, never really though about the "unload" part. Busy raining Saturday night, pick up a totaled taxi, needed to use the dollys. Loaded up, locked the trip levers, chained them to the car, hauled it to the taxi yard. Once i got it where they wanted it, proceeded to unload, soft ground, dolly tire sinking into the muck, pulled the trip lever, nothing..., put the pull bar into the pocket to help dolly wheel under and drop, wet, oil soaked pull lever quickly slips from my hand and hit me right behind the right ear. no idea how long i was out, taxi manager was pissed i was blocking up his lot came out yelling at is what woke me up. had a nice bruise for awhile. probably should have gone to hospital.

2003, working in truck shop in Chevrolet dealer, raised 2500 extended cab on lift, got it off ground, bounced bumper to check for steady on lift. all good, raised it to the top. reaches top, go to put stand under rear hitch, i hear a sound, see the right rear arm start sliding on the frame, the goo GM puts on the frame may as well be grease, i back up, wait for the crash, the arm stops against the lock, the foot is halfway off the frame. never fell, but was sure i was gonna die when i saw the arm moving, i was under rear and the bay door was closed.

2005, same truck shop, had a 2 post in ground, front post moved forward and rear to accommodate vehicle length, rear came up under rear axle and cupped the axle tubes on each side. lift leaked fluid constantly, i hated using it. you have to work the levers while kneeling on the floor, to raise each cylinder, air over hydraulic. 3500 G van, about 4ft in the air, stops moving up. Then suddenly shoots up to the stops, tosses the van in the air, rear first, the the front. it managed to stay upright and on the lift, but it was off center. Holy shit.
that lift caused the dealership a HUGE superfund cleanup because it had been leaking fluid for so long, 50ft deep hole inside the building and all the dirt had to be cleaned.
 
Hot Harley motor, petcock was leaking and I forgot the threads were left hand and loosened it rather than tightened it. I "tightened it" right off and all the gas in the tank spewed everywhere. I searched downstream for anything that would ignite it and rushed to get the hose when I knew I couldn't stop it.
 
14 yo, working at a gas station/repair shop in downtown Cary in 1979. I believe I was high from washing a few waxed up heads in the varsol sink for 1/2 hour or more when I was told to get a car down off the lift after a trans. replacement. I pushed the old school, round base/screw adjust trans jack ALMOST out from under the front of the car. I hit the lever to lower the car and heard a noise a few moments later and looked back, the jack had caught/stood the bumper up and lifted the front of the car to about 45* or more as it lowered, I about shit my pants and sent the lift back up. The car leveled right back on the lift like it never happened.
 
mommucked said:
14 yo, working at a gas station/repair shop in downtown Cary in 1979. I believe I was high from washing a few waxed up heads in the varsol sink for 1/2 hour or more when I was told to get a car down off the lift after a trans. replacement. I pushed the old school, round base/screw adjust trans jack ALMOST out from under the front of the car. I hit the lever to lower the car and heard a noise a few moments later and looked back, the jack had caught/stood the bumper up and lifted the front of the car to about 45* or more as it lowered, I about shit my pants and sent the lift back up. The car leveled right back on the lift like it never happened.
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Nothing to see here. Haha.
 
19 years old working at a Chevy dealer. Had to put a 4L80e in a dump body ‘03-‘07 3500 2wd. My two lifts couldn’t pick it up so had to put it on jack stands and so it off the ground. Had to take it off the trans jack just to get it under the frame rail. Got it back in the trans jack and thought It was good, It fell off the trans jack on to my chest/arm. Old alcoholic guy that worked there heard the noise and yelled over my way to see if I was alright. I’m only 5’7” and was a buck 40 back then.

1 month later my first rear end rebuild in a 4500 series Kodiac truck, square axle tube Dana axle . Young and inexperienced I tried busting the ring gear off with an air hammer but didn’t realize That Snap On air hammer bit exploded under the pressure, still have a piece of it under my skin over top of one of my ABs.

4 years later I’m doing carrier bearings in a ZJ, scoring the race to be able to use an air hammer to pop it off. Using a grinder with a cutoff wheel, felt my shirt get hot. Looked down blew out the fire, kept cutting. It got HOT again saw my shirt just but into flames but got it off just in time to singe all the hair in my armpit, side of my face, and some on the side of my head. My buddy I was doing the work for was like WTF while I’m standing there half naked stomping out my shirt that’s on fire on the ground.




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I was under a motor grader in a shop. assembling it, A new machine. Had the rear, frame, engine, pumps and cab assembled. All on stands. I was underneath, adjusting the fail safe brake. And a forklift driver backed into the machine. Nearly knocking it off the stands. Scared the life out of me.
 
Bad fireman story

One winter my help showed up at my house for work and said the trailer looked like it had dual exhaust. I didn't think about it, figured the sun was burning off the frost. After about 10 min I made my way out for the first time in the morning. The trailer did look like it had dual exhaust, slight smoke coming from the corners. I slung the doors open and the entire inside was a dense black smoke.

The day before I spilled Tung oil on the floor, wiped it up and threw a couple bags of garbage on top at the end of the day. The entire floor was gone under the 2 bags. How I didn't lose everything was a miracle. I hung 50, yes 50, of those pine tree air fresheners and fixed the floor. Every tool was sooty and sticky. Every electric tool smelled like a fire every time you used them for the longest time.
 
I was under my 70 Charger installing headers. It was not on the road and had really old tires on it. I had sat it down off the jackstands but was still trying to adjust some wiring to be safe from the tubes by just scooting under the car. I scooted out from under it and was standing there looking under the hood when the tire said "foooop" and just went flat setting the car right down on the side I had been under. 4000 lb Dodges crush young men with no one home to help. Scared me pretty bad.

Multiple bad stuff in my 20 years as a dealer tech and manager. Too many to count. God kept me from death for some crazy reason.
 
Any time a HiLift has been used...seriously but here is a story of a HiLift saving the day.

So I bought the Xtra Cab way back when. Where it was parked in the driveway wasn't totally flat, but still seemed ok. I was swapping from the Thornturds it came with to the 36 Iroks and had the whole thing on jackstands. Got all 4 tires off and dropped them off at the shop to get changed, came back and was tinkering on a bunch of stuff. Bolt checking underneath, trimming fenders etc. just general fuckery since it had been owned for 48 hours and was going to Harlan 2 days later because I'm smart like that. So I cruise back down to the tire shop, pick up my wheels/tires and come back and the fucker is on the ground. Like all 4 jackstands shot out from under it and it was sitting on rotors and drums. I had been under it maybe 10 minutes before. 2 hours spent with a HiLift lifting it high enough to get a tire on, move onto another corner, rinse and repeat.
 
First - I am not working with any of you fellers.
Second- I am not confessing any of my near death screw ups.
Third and most important. Reading this makes me wonder how people don't believe in God.
 
quite a few stories from the forest, sandbox, airstrip etc. prob only one mech experience i can think of though. vehicle fell off the jackstands (no tires). i was under it. just enough lift that there was metal to flesh contact. scary enough to establish even more future safety measures.
 
oscar80 said:
All you amatuer pyro's need some fire Ade foam
708a422e06cbd76985a0cf4e48625341.jpg


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Any kind of sprayer for this stuff?? Or ya just pop open and start pouring everywhere?
 
C.Berry said:
Any kind of sprayer for this stuff?? Or ya just pop open and start pouring everywhere?
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You can mix it with water and use it in a silver extinguisher. It is what I will be running this year in my hauler and trailer for track use. It uses very little amount per 2.5 gallon extinguisher. Cost about 135 per pail.

From what I was told from the sales rep is it encapsulates the oxygen and doesn't allow for flare up and cools whatever was on fire taking another part of the triangle of fire out of the equation.

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Sounds like the additive comonly uses in many fire trucks. On a Caff system they inject high pressure air along with the concentrate to sufficate chemical fires. Do note some of this stuff is highly corrosive and very reactive to brass and bronze. Most companies recommend only plastic or stainless fittings. However I have seen many instances of fire companies breaking the rules. Also it tends to jelly and for lack of a better expression mold. Old foam products turn green to tan to dark brown snot. They can also clog and cause system failure without flushing and use as a form of preventive maintenance. I have made a lot of money repairing such systems in the past.

On another note do not add to any water tank or storage system. When mixed wrong on an apparatus without flushing properly it's bubbles for days.
 
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