The upper bearings in my steering column were shot. Driving was difficult and the steering wheel was wobbling, so I bought a re-manufactured column and installed it yesterday.

The cab of my 99 F350 was in the garage and the body sat outside in the driveway on a slight down grade. I got the old column out without too much difficulty and was under the dash bolting up the new one.

The gear shift cable didn't quite line up to the arm at the end of the new shift tube, so I tried to work it into place. While laying on the cab floor with my legs hanging out of the driver side and my arms way up under the dash on the shift cable, I heard a very familiar click. Even before the truck started rolling backwards I knew that I had pulled the transmission out of park.

My first reaction was avoid being pinned between the truck and the garage wall, so I pulled my legs in and hit the parking brake with my hand. The truck stopped, but not before the open driver's door got jammed against the garage wall, over-extending the door hinges and crushing the upper corner of the door skin.

The lesson of the day: ALWAYS set the parking brake and block the wheels when working on any component that can prevent the parking pawl from doing it's job. This includes drive shafts and U-joints as well as steering columns and shift cables. As much as I hate having to replace the door, I'm glad that it was only my pride that was bruised.

 

Glad You were not hurt ! Lesson learned .
Great First hand advice on properly securing a vehicle while working on it !

I have seen horrific results from common mistakes . I have made a few myself .

Good post .

 

Kudos for quick thinking on your part. Good to hear you're OK!!!

 

Thank you for the forthcoming post....you've probably saved someone a serious injury or worse!

 

Welcome to the Dunderhead Brotherhood! I did the same working under my 65 F250, trying to line up some mis-matched transmission linkages. That familiar click and a long moment of dread and disbelief... then an escape worthy of Jackie Chan.

Chock your wheels!

 

Well, Thank God you didn't get hurt.

In High School a friend was taking the transmission out of someone's 74 Vega and the car rolled off the ramps and crushed him. He survived. But, I've never forgotten it. Makes me cringe to think about it!

 

Chris I'm glad you hear you weren't hurt. I think all of us need a story like yours as a reminder to "Always Block your wheels" I have come close to getting run over or crushed by my own vehicle a couple of times over the years. All because I got in a hurry and didn't block the wheels and one of the times I didn't use jack stands & wheels blocks. I actually know a guy that are dead now all because he didn't block the wheels and use jack stands.

So thanks for sharing and I'm glad you didn't lose your legs.
Quick thinking on your part !!
Moral of the story is "Don't get complacent."

 

Thanks for sharing that! I am always safety-safety-safety when I work on stuff... but that's been drummed into me because of working on hot 480 volt panels and industrial equipment that will eat people. Not everybody works in a dangerous environment on a daily basis, so this is a good reminder to think differently when man-handling something capable of crushing limbs, homes, and other vehicles.

 

Yer lucky pard ! Could have ended up like this!!! Running over my foot was not great either!!Thank goodness for the tree otherwise a long way down that valley

Smokie

 

DEJA VU....

WHEEL CHOCKS ARE LIFE SAVERS!!

BURN that message into your brain!!

I feel your pain, brother. Actually, no, I felt MY pain in a vaguely similar situation over four years ago, but I was UNDER the truck when she started rolling with NO WAY OUT.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ken-bones.html

I'm glad that you've survived your wake up call!

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Pete: I checked out your thread from 2009, painful just to read. Glad it wasn't worse.

Smokie: I thought of snapping a few pictures before winching the truck free but was too focused on getting the stupid thing back together. Good thing that tree was there!

Tugly: I disconnected the truck batteries and also a third aux battery that feeds a fuse panel under the dash, hoping to avoid any unintentional welding. Unfortunately the electrical safety aspects of the job took over and I totally overlooked the shift linkage part.

Kuzz: Complacency is exactly what happened. Wheel chocks are what we usually think of when working under a vehicle, but the steering column job was so far from the drive train that my dopey brain just never made the connection.

I have a contractor buddy with a few F series pickups that have bad motors, so hopefully he will sell me a door at a reasonable price. In the mean time, stay safe everyone. As we say in the fire department, experience is learning from your mistakes, training is learning form someone else's.

 

I'm glad to hear your ok. The truck can be fixed, some times people can not.
I do like this saying.
Experience is learning from your mistakes, training is learning form someone else's.

 

I'm even tempted to chock my wheels now every time I open the hood just because of how one thing can lead to another.

 

Glad you are OK Chris. Thank you for sharing your experience to remind us of the risk.

 

Old post but deserves waking from the dead once in awhile I think.
As a reminder...
And so I can relate a story of my dad, which I like doing anyway!

He was always a stickler for safety and would always put any wheels and tires he removed under the car he was working on at the time. So that in addition to any jackstands there was a backup plan.
Think CA. Think 1989 World Series. Think earthquake!

Luckily he'd just gotten out from under his car to clean up for dinner when the earthquake hit. But if he'd been under there still he'd have likely survived everything but the puckered pants effect.
Those decent-for-a-light-car light-duty jackstands crumpled like sticks under the swaying car (they were the splayed 3-leg tubular type) but the tires and wheels caught the car and kept it mostly off the ground. All while he was getting thrown around the hallway in the house, instead of under the car where he was just a couple of minutes before.

Another lesson learned. Even with small cars, along with good wheel chocks, beefy big boy cast steel jackstands are NOT overkill!
Sorry to dredge up the old stories and preach, but they do bear mentioning now and then.

Paul