Any Good "Machine Runaway" tales?

[HEMI®Dart]

I think this is the technical term manufacture's use when an impliment gets away from the operator.



Some are funny. Others are not.



Sunday I couldn't figure why the drive belt on my '71 Riding Lawnmower was slipping under load. Just replaced it. So I bumped the clutch pedal back with the heel of my shoe, to the fully engaged position. Well it HOOKED. I was vertical. The little hitch on the back dug into the ground. I was kinding hanging half on , half off of it. Managed to get it to a safe stop. I don't think anybody saw me.

 

[NETim]

runaways

A few years back, one of my old cat scanners suffered a "scan frame runaway. " Being back in the days long before slip rings and continuous rotation were in the vogue, this generation of cat scanner would make upwards of a 398* CCW pass, then rotate back CW to the home position.



I don't know how many HP this 3 phase DC servo motor made (I'm told it's the equivalent of the M1 tank turret motor), but it had to accelerate 800 lbs of electronics hard enough to make a 360* pass in one second.



One day it lost its' feedback and didn't stop at the end of the pass. It crashed full speed into the stops, sheared off the shock absorber on the other side and broke the Xray tube in half.



Since the glass insert in the Xray tube broke, the cooling oil came into contact on the tungsten target, which runs at incredible temps inside the evacuated glass insert. So smoke and hot oil were rolling out of the gantry... with a patient lying there on the couch! Fortunately the covers diverted everthing away from the patient and no one was hurt.



I'll never forget that day. I was installing an Xray room just down the hall when the tech came and got me.



"I think something is wrong. " Boy, I guess!



Tim

 

[Champane Flight]

Spooky

We had a old tractor at work. It was diesel and had a payloader on it. We used it often and was left outside for years. One night we had a bad thunderstorm and I was working the graveyard shift. When I got to work I noticed the tractor was parked in a different spot as usual. As I walked closer I could see it was up against the pipelane headers! The bucket was up against the header and the tractor had dug itself a big hole with the rear tires. I went to the control room and asked the evening Engineer why he had moved the tractor and why there? He said he had not even been out since the storm and had not been on the tractor at all!



It seems the electrics on the tractor shorted out and it was in low-low. This gave the starter enough torque to push the tractor fron its original parking spot 100' to the pipelane. Must have been the storm. Some people on pipeline still say the evening guy was lying. I don't think so.



I also saw a UH1-H go into overspeed once. The rotors kind of separated. Thank god it was on the ground at the time.

 

[illflem]

I was standing in front of a rear tire on a tractor, JD 2020, washing down the engine when the water shorted the ignition and it started in low gear idle. My foot caught under the tire and I was instantly thrown to the ground. The rest was in slow motion. The rear tire idled right up my spine pop, pop, pop, better than any chiropractor, then over my head. While my head was still under the tire then came the flail mower, the type with a steel roller on the back, trapped my legs again. I had to wait until the roller rolled over my back and head again, smoothing out the indentations the tire lugs left, before I was free. Laid there for a few seconds wondering if I was still alive before jumping up catching the tractor and shutting it down. My only injuries were a sprained ankle and gravel imbedded in the side of my head. I put tractors in neutral now before washing them.

 

[me4osu]

Good ole Detroit 71s

Right after High School, I went to Okla. State Tech in the Diesel Mechanics school. One class was Engine Principles (I think that is the right name). We had a shop with (32) 4-71 Detroits on stands with radiators.



Teams of two students each tore down their engine, measured the whole thing, and re-assembled it. It had to run for you to pass. Anyhow, my partner and I were the fourth team done, so we were told to help the others on their start-ups.



I had worked with real mechanics since I was 14 years old, and they taught me some things. One was: never start a Detroit, after service, with-out a pair of vise-grips on the rack. So, I clamp my vise-grips on the rack, and promptly get my a-- chewed by the instructor. I said "fine, you start it".



Turns out, this particular team got the governor forks BEHIND the three piece flyweight bearing. WaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! While Mr. Picky was trying to hammer fuel lines, I was hoofing it right out the bay door!!



When he had finally killed it, I came back. Being a smart mouthed 18 yr old, I said, "Sure would have been nice to have control of the rack, huh?" Had to start running again.

 

[lgibson]

While working at Porsheshopp, only Porsh and BMW's I saw a mail delivery truck going backwards with no one inside. I chased it down and got it stopped less than 3 feet from hitting a 930 slant nose worth about $120,000. The mailman bought me a nice lunch for about a month.



Hey illflem, next time throw some wood or something under the wheels and not yourself.

 

[Champane Flight]

Whoa?

I have nightmares about what Ill went through!



I finnished my truckdriver training with my father at 18 (after driving with him since 14) and found a job with a local wholesale hardware outfit doing local stuff with a single axle White conventional and a 38' flatbed trailer. It was a old truck with a 220 Cummins and a ten speed roadranger. No turbo on this old devil, you had to drive it.



Well, I had been driving it for two years with no real big problems. I had a haul up to C/S with a mixed load. On the way back I hit a rough patch of road and the frontend went crazy! I mean I couldn't hold the damn thing on the road! Both front renders were dancing up and down. It was all I could do to grab the trailer brake handle and pull it down, while holding onto the steering wheel with all my might! When it got down to about 30mph it quit shaking. After pulling my butt off the seat with a big pop, I checked out the truck. Thought I had blown a tire or something. Nothing! All looked normal. I took off again and as soon as I got to 45 and hit a slight bump It did it again! So I drove at thirty all the way home. Took it straight to the shop.



Two days later the shop owner (Real persnickity old rascal, who did not like young drivers) calls and tells me to come get my truck. He had replaced the front tires, rebuilt kingpins, new tierod ends, and aligned it. I took off from the shop and went up to fill it up at he local truckstop. I thought all was well and hit the bridge at about 50. Wham it did it again! I took it straight back and told him it was still doing it. He called me a liar and told me to jump in the cab, he was going to get to the bottom of it! We took off and headed down the road. I told him to hit the bridge about 60! He did and as he was trying to hold on for dear life, I said "See, it has a little shake huh?" The horn flew off it and the fenders were moving up and down so fast the turn signal came loose on the left fender. He got it back under control and drove back to the shop, very silent! As we pulled in a lady pulled up and got out carrying the horn, handed it to him" Sir, I think this is yours?". I turned around, chuckled to myself, didn't say a word and left.



The next day they found a broken crossmember on the frame. And one of the older drivers overheard the mechanic say " When that kid tells you theres something wrong with his truck. By God theres something wrong with his truck!" We turned out to be good friends. Man, could he tune a truck.

 

[b.j.oneill]

I have a friend who had a 96 dodge CTD club cab 1 ton with remote start all thats fine but it was a 5 speed. they own a horse ranch close to me and one day a guy that worked for them had the keys in his pocket and some how the truck started well he left it in low gear it jumped and shook alittle then took off across the pasture with a six horse trailer in tow he ran outside chased the truck down all 5 mph it might have been going and stoped it. I don't know how it did it and if I wouldn't have seen it I wouldn't belieave it but it sure was funny watching him chase down that truck and trailer luckly it didn't hit anything.

 

[JMichelson]

When I got out of high school I got a job operating a log skidder. I had parked the machine pointed down a steep hill. I set the handbrake and got behind it to set a choker. I heard a snap which was the hand brake releasing it self. The machine started down the hill with me running after it. At the bottom of the hill was a logging road, across the road was a drop of about 75 feet. I pictured my machine and my job going across the road and over the bank. The machine articulated in the middle, every time I caught up to it, it would turn the wrong direction and I couldn’t get on it. My boss was standing at the bottom of the hill yelling at me. I figured he was yelling “if you don’t catch that machine you don’t have a job. I caught up with it and got it stopped just before it went over the bank. My boss came up to me and said” you dumb son of a %^*#&, I was yelling get away from it”. You should have let that old piece of junk go, it’s insured we could have got a new one. Jeff

 

[rrausch]

I was 10 years old, and king of the world, cause I was "practicing" driving our Massey-Harris out west of the barn in a pasture. Pop was in town. Mom was in the house. I figured I'd better practice driving it so I would be ready to take over when called on!



Well I'd gotten it cranked up to about 3/4 throttle, and I'm cutting circles around the pasture with one hand on the spinner knob, and the left rear tire hit a rock about the size of a football. I went flying. The next thing I knew I was on my knees, on the ground and the tractor was headed straight for a big Hickory tree. I jumped up and chased the Massey down, climbed up and pushed the ignition switch in just as it hit the tree. The only casualty was the front grill. It got pushed in about 4 inches. Pop was not too happy about his new tractor, but he didn't punish me in the normal way. He thought things over for a little while, and then at the dinner table that night said since I had proved without any doubt that I could drive the tractor, that meant that I was ready for hard-time farm work and man he WORKED my young butt off all the rest of that summer.

 

[CCahill]

Ouch!!

OK... . I thought I'd do a good deed and take my tractor over to a friends house and scrape his lot for him..... So I park my truck, and trailer on my driveway, which is a slight downslope, and gravel to boot. I set the e-brake, and jump in the tractor... start running it up the trailer, and all of a sudden, the back of the truck is off the ground, and I'm sliding So I stand on the tractor brakes. . of course that does nothing, because the tractor is mostly on the trailer... And I can't jump( I'm way white), so I ride it out all the way to the bottom of the driveway about 140'.



lucky for me it went straight as an arrow... However:--) when I get to the bottom the trailer jumps off the ball, takes out my bumper, and on the second bounce, takes out my tailgate

Soooooo. For me it was a lesson well learned..... still have my funky bumper, allthough I do have a nice replacement. .



Colin

 

[johnrv4]

We have a Trackmobile at work that is used to move the train cars on the different spurs. It has a 4-71 engine which has a fuel shut off cable, and an emergency air shut off cable. One morning, we had gotten a call that it would not start. It was cold out(30*F), and the usual problem was that someone (that didn't know how to operate it)would pull the emergency shut off, which would shut off the air. Normal procedure was to remove the hood, reset the air shut off door, and start the machine. I removed the hood and reset the air door, and my co-worker started it up. Well, it idled for about 1 second, then went wide open at a rpm that sounded like about 6,000 . The fan blade started flinging pieces of rust or dirt. My co-worker should have pulled the emergency shut-off again, but when I looked, he was sitting there with his arms covering his head to hopefully protect himself from the flying engine parts. . After what seemed like a long time(actually about 10 seconds) the engine returned to idle. We then found out that the operators had emptied a whole can of starting fluid in the air inlet right before we got there, and after I opened the air shut off, it got a GOOD whiff of starting fluid which let it take off. I'm still amazed that it didn't blow up, being that it was cold and WAY over it's rated rpm.

 

[Doc Tinker]

Back when I was working for the charter bus company, a couple of the other mechanics pushed one of the buses that wouldn't run into the building to work on it. In order to do that they had to back off the rear brakes, since there was no pressure in the air brake system. They didn't plan out how they would stop the bus once it was inside and with no air pressure using the brake pedal was going to be useless. Once they got the bus inside, the guy in the bus realized that he couldn't stop it and jumped out of the bus yelling for help. I just leaned back against my workbench and watched the fun, as the boss and one of the desk jockeys ran out to be the heroes.



The boss jumped in front of the bus, with arms spread wide, while the desk jockey thought his foot would make a good wheel chock. Well. . the bus rolled right over the foot and it totally ignored the boss who managed to jump out of the way just before the bus rolled through the overhead door on the other side of the garage.



The whole time, me and six other mechanics stood there laughing our butts off.



I guess our punishment was the swimming pool cover that they used to replace the overhead door for the entire winter. Everything in that building froze solid that winter.



Doc

 

[tgbol]

One summer I got a job at the refinery as summer help. I was working as a tire man. One of the other summer replacements was servicing an IHC with a 6V-71. He over filled the oil bath air cleaner. What a racket when he lit it off. By the time some was able to pull the emergency shut off it was really wound up. When the shut off plate hit the blower it cracked the case.

 

[Hummin Cummins]

was loading a skid steer on a trailer and pickup on a slight hill one morning. started on the trailer, the weight proceeded to lift the rear of the truck off the ground = no emergency brake. after about 40 feet of sliding down hill i finally got smart enough to drive off the trailer and let the truck back down



sorry about the no caps, shattered my wrist too hard to type in a cast:{

 

[drawson]

In the Diesel shop a cross the hall they had a Detroit run away because of the rack being on the wrong side of the governer. The student sat on the intake blocking it off with his side and was given a great 6" hicky.

 

[WDaniels]

was working one summer in the early 70's on a site putting in a waste water facility at Alyeska Ski resort and was the assistant oiler on the site. One day I was on an excavator, think it was a Komatsu or some such off brand and we had turned the whole area for a 30 yards into soupy suckie muck. I was sitting on the back when the engine all of a sudden took off screaming at an increased rpm and out of the cab came the operator screaming for me to run for all I'm worth. I don't think I really heard him, but I got the message. Well, this scared the living begeebers out of this young kid and I did run. What happened was the engine started scavangeing its oil and ran away and blew itself up. You can guess what I looked like after running through 30 yards of soupy muck 3 feet deep. Always been scared of it happening again.

 

[homeka45]

Our mechanics were working on one of our departments engines with the turbo exposed when the engine started to run away. Word is one of the mechanics tried to cover the turbo and it ate his fingers, a nearby mechanic tried to help and ended losing a few of his fingers. Nasty business.

 

[bighammer]

I had an old Datsun B210 that had a problem in the starter circuit. I had to put a jumper cable from the battery to the starter to get it going. One night in a snowstorm, it stalled in an apartment complex parking lot entrance. I did the cable bit but it wouldn't quite catch. My girlfriend leaned over to pump the gas with her hand and bumped the shifter (automatic) into reverse.



I get the engine going, tires start spinning and the car very gently accelerates away from me. Of course, the stereo was on so she didn't hear me. The car went very straight. The parking lot however, had a kind of a dogleg. I knew I wasn't going to catch it, so I just watched. It just missed a new Cadilac and slammed into the side of a an old Oldsmobile.



It got REALLY interesting when the police came. Who was driving? Nobody, I was getting it jump-started. From who? My own car... .



The owner of the other car came out. He said the car was dented before, but I needed to replace the broken headlight. Mr policeman tore up his attempt at a report and left us on our own.

 

[DieselDoghouse]

#1 Was scraping a trench silo at school with a JD contractor series and a back blade, got off to adjust something with the tractor in gear and the hydro-reverser in neutral (Bad idea or what). Sleeve caught the lever and away we went. Drove over my leg, caught my pantleg in the blade and got dragged until the tractor veered into the silo and stalled with the bucket on the wall.



#2 Parked a JD 2040 at Tufts Vet School at the top of an embankment in neutral with parking brake on. Apparently someone had driven it with brake on, cause she got impatient and started to follow medown the hill into the barn. Bucket was on the ground so she stopped when it bottomed.



Conclusions:



1. Always put the gearshift out of gear when dismounting (duh).

2. Parking brakes on tractors are like kickstands on Sherman Tanks.

3. Parking locks are"A good thing"

4. Always lower implements to the ground when tractor is unattended.



And yes, I now do the above with my own tractors!!