A Technical Comedy [Only After the Fact]

[Dejure]

Keep in mind, I've only had this truck a few days, so I don't know what surprises the previous two owners left for me.

At the time of purchase, I was only given a single door and ignition key. Yesterday, my work on my new driver was limited to going to what passes for town here, five miles away. There, a friend owns a hardware store. He had the ignition key blanks, but the door keys, not so much.

Today, I started tackling electrical issues. I started with simple ones - non-working lights. To that end, I opened the driver's side door, so I could access the ignition and light controls. Things went well, and I was down to the last marker and park light, on the passenger side.

Inasmuch as it was an hour of fiddling in, I started the truck, to bring the battery back up. I came back around to turn the right signal on. Because the truck is near a short, rock wall, I pushed the driver's door closed, to get to access the turns and park lights. Though the door was UNLOCKED, it wouldn't open.

CRAP. The truck was running, I hadn't unlocked the passenger side, and I had no key for the passenger door, aside from the one in the ignition. PANIC

I tried a bit of the REALLY strong wire used to support tree branches in the orchards surrounding me. Not a chance.

Oh, and it was a full tank of gas of gas. So, it could be days before things wound down. Meanwhile, the HOA would, probably, have me deported to someplace I've never been.

Anyone who knows alternators knows, disconnecting the battery does nothing, aside from, possibly, killing the alternator, which thinks the open equates to a WAY dead battery needing a lot of amps, as it keeps suppling the coil with electrons.

Did you know the twin size bed sheet you have in your shop, as a rag, bunched up and pressed over a four barrel will not shut off enough air to kill the engine (maybe if I cut it up and let it fill each cylinder. . . .(I sent a full, red mechanics rag through a John Deere once))?

Grabbing an HEI seemed out of the question (even if I could con the wife into doing it, she might have just acted as a resistor and I might only have gotten nothing but a bit poorer performance, in more ways than one).

[MORE PANIC AND SWEAT]

It ran through my mind I might need a CO2 fire extinguisher (yes, I went to the cringeworthy thought of grabbing a powder one, but I wasn't fully ready to hate this truck, yet).

Then I remembered I have a CO2 tank I keep in the shop, to charge water bottles, so I can make my own carbonated water, cider or what have you. I [we all] know, CO2 makes a good fire extinguisher, because it displaces oxygen, and doesn't leave any mess.

That CO2 tank is small, very portable, and comes with a 6' charging hose. Accordingly, I packed it out to the truck, opened the main valve, held the hose over the carb, and opened the charging valve.

The effect was, almost, immediate. The truck started running slower and slower. Then just quit.

SMILE What a relief.

I went back to the house and pulled up pages on breaking into my own truck. A bit of paracord and a slip knot later and I was back in the truck.

You have no idea as to how amazing that was. Suffice it to say, I may hold the record for time served as a Tenderfoot because of, well, knots.

The driver's door opened from the inside just fine. Once open, I removed the window crank (glad I didn't get rid of that that clip removal tool sometime in the 40 or so years since I sold my old 69), then the panel.

With the panel off, it's obvious the linkage came off. The previous owner, probably, didn't bother with the retainer.

TOMORROW, we go to a real town, an hour away, and I'll get four more door keys. One, along with an ignition key, will go into the usual secret hiddy-hole nylon key holder for such emergencies.

 

[DoubleDingo]

What a start!

 

[EvilGenius]

Crazy tale!

If you are ever in the situation again I think you can just pull the pink 12v feed wire to the HEI. It's a little hard to reach, but it slides down right out of the HEI. Depending on how worn it is you can often get it out with just your thumb nail.

 

[Ricko1966]

Crazy tale!

If you are ever in the situation again I think you can just pull the pink 12v feed wire to the HEI. It's a little hard to reach, but it slides down right out of the HEI. Depending on how worn it is you can often get it out with just your thumb nail.

Was going to say the same thing first time I read it,but figured,what are the chances it'll happen again?

 

[DoubleDingo]

He did mention it, but was going to have his wife do it, assuming that's what he meant when he said grab the HEI

 

[WFarm]

Too funny! Glad you got it shutdown. Reminds me of watching that old movie “The China Syndrome”. As a retired engineer in the nuclear power industry the movie was mostly a comedy, especially when these guys did all kind of mods and bypasses and such as they struggled to trip the reactor when they couldn’t access the control room.

There are thousands of ways to trip the reactor. Open a breaker to deenergize vital equipment. Close a valve. Or simply walk up to the main turbine-generator and hit the big red button that says “Push to Trip” or something similar.

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[legopnuematic]

I’ve not done with while running, but have locked the keys in my 76 a couple times at work. Thankfully got it opened up with a bent piece of Tig wire.

I’ve gotten into the habit of when working on a vehicle to have a window rolled down, to prevent something like that happening. Especially on newer stuff that can lock itself.

 

[Sad Sack]

This here handy little gizmo works really well for wing windows: https://store.z-tool.com/products/wing-window-tool

 

[Hunter79764]

I used to keep a homemade unlocking tool made from a coat hanger and some cord tied into a dog catcher's loop on the end back in high school. It didn't work on my S10 (had the sliding type locks, not the vertical knob style), but it seemed like once a month I was "breaking in" to a friend's vehicle to retrieve lost keys. And once a week I was breaking in to a friend's vehicle to play some kind of a prank. But either way, I got pretty good at it, sometimes could get the doors open on a modern style by looping the handle. A couple times I was able to get the offending keys out of the ignition and over to a cracked window. But mostly, it was to get in, pop it in neutral, and roll the car 50 feet away across the parking lot and into the football field or something.

 

[Dejure]

This here handy little gizmo works really well for wing windows: https://store.z-tool.com/products/wing-window-tool

Hmm. I'll have to see how that works. The heavy, high tensile wire used around here to hold up apple tree limbs just might make one.

 

[Dejure]

Too funny! Glad you got it shutdown. Reminds me of watching that old movie “The China Syndrome”. As a retired engineer in the nuclear power industry the movie was mostly a comedy, especially when these guys did all kind of mods and bypasses and such as they struggled to trip the reactor when they couldn’t access the control room.

There are thousands of ways to trip the reactor. Open a breaker to deenergize vital equipment. Close a valve. Or simply walk up to the main turbine-generator and hit the big red button that says “Push to Trip” or something similar.

Funny. I used to work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard [PSNS], then Bangor Sub Base, before ending up at Keyport Torpedo Station (Now Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station [NUWES], back in the day. As such, I worked with the engineers there, a lot. Lot of interesting stories that only folks who were around government. and employees, including those designing equipment to manage nukes (e.g., Mk 48 and Mk 53 attack consoles) would appreciate.

You come to learn security isn't everything agents would have us believe it is, and some of it is the stuff of comedy gold.

I chuckled, when I was called to work on a Mm 19 Plotter on a submarine. I had to walk past a big pieces of equipment covered in a nice, leather cover. I commented on it. The sailor assigned to monitor us (were were all civilians) said they had to cover it, because we were on board. I responded that that was funny, because I, literally, built (assembled) the thing, including the analog-digital module which stated the torpedo was not to be fired if the target was closer than 10,000 yards. You could almost seem him panic, because I couldn't know that. Wonder if he figured out how his equipment ever got built?

 

[Snoots]

Keep in mind, I've only had this truck a few days, so I don't know what surprises the previous two owners left for me.

Yesterday, my work on my new driver was limited to going to what passes for town here, five miles away. There, a friend owns a hardware and I had him cut me keys. At the time of purchase, I was only given a single door and ignition key. My friend had the ignition key blanks, but the door keys, not so much.

Today, I started tackling electrical issues. I started with simple ones - non-working lights. To that end, I opened the driver's side door, so I could access the ignition and light controls. Things went well and I was down to the last marker and park light, on the passenger side.

Inasmuch as it was an hour of fiddling in, I started the truck, to bring the battery back up. I came back around to turn the right signal on. Because the truck is near a short, rock wall, I pushed the driver's door closed. Though it was UNLOCKED, it wouldn't open.

CRAP. It was running. I hadn't unlocked the passenger side, had no key for the passenger door, aside from the one in the ignition. PANIC

I tried a bit of the REALLY strong wire used in the orchards surrounding me. Not a chance.

Oh, and it was a full tank of gas of gas, so it could be days before things wound down. Meanwhile, the HOA would, probably, have me deported to someplace I've never been.

Anyone who knows alternators knows disconnecting the battery does nothing, aside from, possibly, killing the alternator, which thinks the battery is WAY dead, so it keeps suppling the coil with electrons.

Did you know that twin size bed sheet you have in your shop, as a rag, bunched up and pressed over a four barrel will not shut off enough air to kill the engine (maybe if I cut it up and let it fill each cylinder. . . .(I sent a full, red mechanics rag through a John Deere once))?

Grabbing an HEI seemed out of the question (even if I could con the wife into doing it, she might have just acted as a resistor and I might only have gotten a bit poorer performance, in more ways than one).

[MORE PANIC AND SWEAT]

I ran through my mind I might need a CO2 fire extinguisher (yes, I went to the cringeworthy thought of grabbing a powder one, but I wasn't fully ready to hate this truck, yet.

Then I remembered I have a CO2 tank I keep in the shop to charge water bottles, so I can make my own carbonated water, cider or what have you. I [we all] know, CO2 makes a good fire extinguisher, because it displaces oxygen.

That tank is small, very portable, and comes with a 6' charging hose. Accordingly, I packed it out to the truck, opened the main valve, held the hose over the carb, and opened the charging valve.

The effect was, almost, immediate. The truck started running slower and slower. Then just quit.

SMILE What a relief.

I went back to the house and pulled up pages on breaking into my own truck. A bit of paracord and a slip knot later and I was back in the truck.

Door opened from the inside just fine. Once open, I removed the window crank (glad I didn't get rid of that that clip tool sometime in the 40 or so years since I sold my old 69).

With the panel off, it's obvious the linkage came off. The previous owner, probably, didn't bother with the retainer.

TOMORROW, we go to a real town, an hour away, and I'll get four more door keys. One, along with an ignition key, will go into the usual secret hiddy-hole nylon key holder for such emergencies.

You should write a book

 

[Matt69olds]

Friend of mine locked his keys in the ignition in his Chevelle. He crawled under the car, pushed off the sheetmetal he had covering the hole in the floor, reached up and pulled them out of the ignition.

Many years ago, I attended the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise in Detroit. Dumbass me left the keys dangling in the ignition and locked the doors. The REAL pisser: I had a 2 sets of spare keys with me, one set locked in my luggage in the trunk, the other set locked in the glove box.

We attracted some attention from Detroits finest attempting to break into my own car. Once we explained the situation, and they verified I really did own the car, they used their lockout set to unlock it.

From that day forward, anytime I travel with friends to events like that we swap set of keys to someone traveling with us.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Friend of mine locked his keys in the ignition in his Chevelle. He crawled under the car, pushed off the sheetmetal he had covering the hole in the floor, reached up and pulled them out of the ignition.

Many years ago, I attended the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise in Detroit. Dumbass me left the keys dangling in the ignition and locked the doors. The REAL pisser: I had a 2 sets of spare keys with me, one set locked in my luggage in the trunk, the other set locked in the glove box.

We attracted some attention from Detroits finest attempting to break into my own car. Once we explained the situation, and they verified I really did own the car, they used their lockout set to unlock it.

From that day forward, anytime I travel with friends to events like that we swap set of keys to someone traveling with us.

That's why I always have a spare set of keys in my pocket, besides the big ring on my belt .... been locked out too many times.