What's Your Scariest FSJ Experience?

[goldhammer]

Close one---makes a case for a 12 to 18 inch square of 3/4 ply under the stands when on bare ground. Learned that one long time ago when something simular happened to me.

[Rich88]

About 15 years ago I was under the Jeep in my driveway which slants back to a busy neighborhood development road. I forget exactly what I was wrenching on at the time but the wrench slipped and I knocked the shift lever out of park. The right side of my rib cage (I was on my back) suddenly became a wheel chock.

After spending about 12 milliseconds to collect my thoughts of impending death-by-Jeep, I gathered all my strength and yanked myself out in an instant, and then watched my waggy roll backwards down into the road, so there was more . But my Jeep had mercy on innocents at that point and it didn't smash into a passing car. Instead it rolled across the street and whumped into a cluster of ancient thick shrubbery.

I ran down and drove it back up while feeling strange sensations from my ribs. Damage was torn rib cartilage and I was extremely hurting to breathe, cough, sneeze, fart, etc. and there was no position of comfort for several weeks.

[Ristow]

i got a little scared when i found out it wasn't a dodge motor under the hood....

[jdaniel83]

About 5 years ago a friend and I were in my '89 driving down the highway when I noticed the volt gauge drop to almost nothing as smoke started filling the cab from the ceiling of the GW. I skidded off the road into a parking lot as my friend bailed out scared out of his mind. I ripped the overhead console down and saw the wire that was on fire, stupidly grabbed it bare-handed which not only burned me but gave me a nice shock as well, and ripped the wire out.

As I climbed out of the car my burned and somehow badly cut (about a 3-4 inch gash) hand bleeding all over the place I looked up and realized that we had slid into the parking lot of a less than impressive "gentlemen's club" that was basically someone's old tin barn. Apparently my smoking Wagoneer got the attention of some of the employees of the establishment because out came a couple of 50-70 year old somewhat heavy set women wearing nothing but thongs and towels covering their torsos. One of them quickly ran towards me and offered her towel to cover my bleeding hand with which I graciously turned down as my friend and I jumped back in the GW and quickly drove away with me still bleeding.

Not sure what scared us more, my Jeep on fire or what we saw when that towel was taken off, but either way it was scary.

[austinaubinoe]

having a trailer push you downhill and off the shoulder of the road into a tree line at 40mph...

Did you fix it? Those pictures make my eyes hurt

[Ghinmi]

Two scary ones for me, well I guess the second is a 2-parter.

#1, Drag racing against a friend in his '70 Dart Swinger (408 stroker, 4 speed). I got on the brakes right at the finish line, he hit them a split second after me and went out of control taking up both lanes sliding around. Pretty scary watching your buddy go out of control while trying to stop a 4300 lb brick so that you don't run over him. I probably hold the 120 - 0 stopping record for an FSJ. Thank goodness for wide grippy tires on all 4 corners and upgraded brakes. The Dart managed to not hit anything by the way.

#2, Just finished making a jetting change in the carb & hopped in to fire it up. Hit the key and fired it up only for it to sputter and die. Gave it a few seconds and tried again. BANG! Fire everywhere. Coming out the back of the hood up the windshield, through the door jam, everywhere. Immediately realized that I forgot to hook up the fuel lines. Before I bailed out I made two reflex moves, turned the ignition off and bumped the shifter out of park. I know why I turned off the ignition (to shut off the fuel pump) but have no idea why I pulled it out of gear. Now I was faced with two situations. My Jeep is burning out of control. And it's in the garage with all the other cars/Jeeps, tools, parts, etc. Immediately realized I had to pick one or the other. As luck would have it, I had just put the rear wheels back on the Jeep so it was move-able. So with the adrenaline pumping I pushed the Jeep out of the garage and got to working on putting the fire out in the garage with the fire extinguishers I had. Then outside to the Jeep which at this point was no longer a fuel fire but an "everything that isn't metal" fire. After I used up the rest of the fire extinguishers I switched over to the garden hose that luckily was right there and got the rest of it out. All this happened in only a few minutes. It was late anyways so I decided to pull the Jeep further up the driveway so that if it caught fire in the night it wouldn't burn anything else. When I went to put it in park I realized another thing. My Jeep had a cable shifter with a plastic cable. If I wouldn't have bumped the shifter out of gear right away it would be sitting in the middle of the pile of burned rubble that used to be my shop. Someone was looking out for me that night.

Second part of that story. A week later I made a 19 hour round trip to pick up a donor vehicle for the rebuild. Decided to unload it in the driveway and then coast it down the hill backwards into the garage. All went well until the winch cable on the trailer snapped and I watched my new Jeep roll, picking up speed down the hill and into the same side of the garage that my other Jeep caught fire in. Crunched in the corner of the garage and door, as well as the electrical service. Luckily no damage of the Jeep somehow. And because it hit the edge of the barn it didn't go into the barn and damage the other cars. Needless to say it was a bad week all the way around but could have been much worse.

[will e]

My battery was weak. I stopped at a local convience store and left the truck running. Grabbed my stuff, got in line, and looked out the window. My wagoneer was gone. In a panic I ran to the door as a guy came in and said some truck took off by itself. By the GRACE OF GOD it somehow managed to backup 90 degrees into a parking spot and was stopped by the curb.

To this day I will not leave a car running without me in the driver seat unless I have chocked the wheels.

[BGW]

When I was shopping for a Wagoneer (was about 14 then) I was under the Jeep checking things out. I was done, so I grabbed the edge of the body in the driver's door jamb (door was open) to pull myself out from under it. My mom didn't see my hand so she slams the door. At first I'm panicking a bit, thinking I've just lost 4 of my fingers. I tell my mom to open the door, and she sees my hand squished in the door and starts freaking out. After asking her about 5 times to open the door, she finally does. Out comes my hand with nothing more than a few skinned knuckles. All I can say is I'm very glad the body has clearance there.

[fsjcowboy]

axle m.i.a.

I had an axle and wheel turn loose just like yours, only at 40 mph and at night. My GW continued to track straight and the spark trail from the draggin brake plate was quite impressive at night!

Some how I did not roll it.

http://www.jubileejeeps.org/wipeout

In "the hind sight" department, this would be the scariest...

The full deal:
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=131186[/quote]

[FSJ-Earl]

Oh my, where to start........

78 Cherokee - dropped the, what I thought was empty, gas tank and it took the tips of my right index and middle finger off. Got them sewn back on and all is well

82 J truck - drivers side rear wheel fell off at 5 am on my way to work, truck skid down the road throwing sparks like the 4th of July, wheel passed the truck, hit a curb, launched about 50 feet into the air and landed in the town cemetery.

89 GW - driving down the PA Turnpike at 80 MPH, loosing the driver side front wheel bearing and having the stub shaft twist off like a piece of molten metal and all the grease in the hub catch on fire. The only thing holding the wheel on was the brake caliper

89 GW (see above) stall out on me on a VERY steep hill / ridge in Harlan, KY and not having any brakes to hold me there and going down backwards with my wife and kids in the GW

80 something GW - installing a lift kit for another member on here and having the cutoff wheel shatter and slice through the chest of my Carhart bibs, work shirt, and slice my chest wide open

and the worse of all
89 GW (see above) that I just redid for my 16 year old daughter and getting in and hearing JUSTIN BEIBER ON THE STEREO!!!!

[threepiece]

I had at one time what started out as a scary experience but ended up being a fond memory.

I answered an add in the Detroit News classified for 1979 Wagoneer parts. It turns out that Tom, who operates a junk yard on the end of a dead end residential street in a very unfriendly looking part of the city has two wagoneers that are giong to scrap.

I must go now. I will tell the rest later.

[FSJunkie]

Did your boss just walk behind you on your computer at work?

[J20 project]

3ft of snow X 50 miles......chained up..

Lonnnnng night

J20

[mattmopar440]

Got sideswiped at a intersection by my house Guy took off

[Ristow]

those pics tick me off. best jeep i've ever owned. best car even.