[tcb] Re: Can a collision move the engine?
- From: "Gerald V. Livingston II" <gerald.tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:50:14 -0500
5mph is fast when you hit a stationary object. Forget 15mph.
Back when seatbelt laws first started getting passed and the FED was the
first on the bandwagon (all military/federal installations required them
before most states) they had this thing called "The Convincer" that they
carried around to various units.
Basically, the bucket seat from a car with a Diest 5-point installed all
set on a greased rail on a tilt-able trailer with a radar gun and a
solid stop at the bottom.
They'd gauge the crowd and use sandbags to get the trailer tilted so the
seat would hit the stop right at 5mph for an average "customer". Then
they'd ask for volunteers.
I'll tell you what, when the seat hit the stop there was no recoil, it
was a dead stop from 5mph to 0mph in microseconds. That 5-point harness
left bruises on EVERYBODY. People that bruised easily anyway looked like
they'd been worked over with baseball bats. I hit a tree in my '69 Buick
LeSabre at about 35mph and it hurt less than that machine did because I
had a little room to bounce around and brace myself.
If Denis had been strapped in with a standard VW "stiff shoulder belt"
he'd have popped his shoulder out of socket when he hit that tree.
I can see it shifting the motor/tranny forward a bit.
Bent pulley? No.
Bent rear tin, possibly, if the motor/tranny swung forward then sprang
back hard enough to press the tin against the valance slightly.
Gerald
Brian Denning wrote:
i would think it could move the motor...15mph is fast when you hit a
stationary object
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: coocoo@xxxxxxx
To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tcb] Can a collision move the engine?
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:48:42 -0500
I have done absolutely zero work of maintenance on Murray's mechanicals
since the tree kissing. When ever I did start him to move him a few
yards while doing the body work, there was a banging noise that I
thought was the tailpipe banging against the body metal. When Chuck and
I were replacing the electronic points with real points, I noticed that
the crank pulley nut was loose. It took a few turns. I also had to push
the cooling tin away from the pulley. When I started the engine with
Chuck looking at the engine we found that the pulley is way wobbly.
There was no problem before the crash. I say that I was going, maybe, 15
MPH when I hit the tree, because I can't think that I was going much
faster, maybe I was.
The question is, would a front collision cause the engine to move
forward, maybe 1/4-1/2 inch? How hard would I have to smack to cause the
engine to go forward far enough to bend the pulley?
Let's all make a wish that the crank wasn't damaged. I'll know tomorrow,
maybe.
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