Got zapped by my Engine !

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ValerianMagnum

the little car that could
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Stupid move that i did , the car ran weird and i open the hood and saw that one wire was off its plug but without the copper plug , the spark plug wire was just laying there on the side , didnt shut off the engine just wantes to plug it back to its place...my god , i was electrocuted for the 1st time , ill remember this for a long time , never happenned before , did you guys ever had a similar story , my leg hurts a bit and my back too , but im ok , i guess :)
 
Reminded me of my high-school shop class.
Teacher had an artificial leg.
We would get him to test the spark . He would hold the wire & we pull the cord on
Lawnmower engine ! It was funny to see his leg kick out. Think he enjoyed it, he never declined.
 
Try getting hit by MSD 7AL2, that will put some lead in your pencil. I was sitting on the right front tire of my bracket car when it happened.
 
If the engine to body ground is not super good, you can get zapped right through the distributor cap as your getting the timing.
 
When I was a kid, I was working on a lawn mower. The shut-off for it was out of adjustment (thx to me :rolleyes:) so there was no way to shut it off. But the plug wire was right there clipped to the spark plug so I thought "I'm quick, I'll just knock it off with my hand."

Well, I knocked it off alright. And the spark jumped from my leg (I had shorts on) to the mower metal handle. I proved right then and there that a white boy COULD jump to the sky!!

I had a nice burn mark on my leg for a few days where the spark jumped the gap. Learned my lesson early in life!
 
We had an old Murrey tiller that had no shut off switch, either you had to ground the tip of the spark plug out with a screwdriver or pull the choke.
If you pulled the choke it was a PIA to re-start.
One day I mis-placed the screwdriver, and decided to use my pocket knife, well the rivets running thru the handle of the pocket knife, will shock the hell out of you, I think my hand tingled for an hr afterwards.

I still have the old Murrey tiller (cirtica 1965) it still runs good, but I did wire a shut off switch on it.
 
i'm sure something similar has happened to just about everyone here at some point in time..it really wakes you up...lol
 
I did it on purpose. When I worked at the Toyotee dealership, I had just gotten done on a head gasket job on like a 91 Toyotee 4 Runner. 3.0 V6. The guy in the stall next to mine was....and still is a good friend. I had the thing sittin there runnin warmin up for a test drive and had a plug wire off. On purpose. I called him over to see what he thought. I made sure I wasn't touching the truck anywhere. He leaned over the fender and had his hand grounded on a engine bracket. "Perfect" I thought with my sinister mind. I reached down and stuck my pinky in the end of the plug wire. Engine still running. Then I reached over and grabbed his arm. You could see him wince up everytime the plug wire fired, but I wasn't gettin hardly anything. All he could do was look at me and go...... "you ........ sum....... *****".......to the rhythm of the spark everytime it hit him. By that time several of the other guys had come over and were about fallin on the floor laughin. We did stuff like that all the time.
 
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Have a friend that got whacked by his pacemaker when working on his son’s Jeep. He said it hurt like hell!

I got hit with a plug wire years ago working on a truck I had. Electricity has my respect.

A local electrician told me had rather take a 220V single phase shock than deal with anything 12 V!!
 
Found I had a crack in a ignition wire accidentally many years ago. Coincidentally, I also figured out why I had a misfire.
Have a friend that got whacked by his pacemaker when working on his son’s Jeep. He said it hurt like hell!
I have a pacemaker now, I don't touch anything running. Heard to many horror stories.
BTW those signs at amusement parks that say don't ride if you have a pacemaker, yeah, that's there for a reason.
 
Mike had a set of the wrong plug wires on his C10 with a 455. Nice truck but there was a gap between the boots and the dizzy terminals. Mike didn't care.
He got out to adjust the timing, grabbed the distributor and stood up real straight, both arms locked out like Frankenstein's creation as he rotated and staggered backwards.
His next purchase was a better set of plug wires
 
So, along with the theme of this thread, I'll pose a question. What's the highest voltage ignition system you've ever been hit with and what were the results?

I'll answer first. I got hit one time with the Mopar Gold Box on an all out Satellite drag car when I was about 19 or 20. After I was finally able to get up off the floor (with assistance), my ears rang for two days and I had a headache that lasted about as long. I was leaning over the fender with a timing light and put my hand right on top of the box for support. I got support alright. I've been hit with lots of ignitions through the years including a Joe Hunt magneto and none stack up to what that Mopar Gold Box did. LOL
 
If you're working under the hood of a car/truck, you usually also get a nice knot on the back of your head too!! :realcrazy:
 
Yea with my heart I’ll just shut the damn thing off before f’n with it. I’ve been buzzed a few times over the years but I don’t grip a distributor cap to adjust the timing anymore. Old heart likes to go out of rhythm once in a while on its own, doesn’t need any help.
 
Similar
Yrs ago I was working at at watermelon farm. I ran out of matches for my cigarettes and there weren't any anywhere.
Desperate,I got the the idea to use the
A little gas from the accelerator pump squirter on the end of the cigarette, and the pull the coil wire out enough to get a spark big enough to light the cigarette.
It worked but I got the snot shocked out of me.
 
I wired myself into the 220/3Phase wiring in my
old shop years ago!! i learned how to weld with
a large screwdriver for a moment.

It made the MSD 7AL/Pro Power Coil that I have
entertained now and then seem like a little tickle.
 
i was electrocuted for the 1st time , :)
Just to be technical, you were not electrocuted, or you would not be typing this. You would be dead

But be CAREFUL. Some modern ignition systems actually generate enough power to be lethal.
 
I had a buddy years ago that liked to zap people with a magneto. He got me one time by saying, "Hey, hold this," and then spinning the shaft when you grabbed hold of the magneto.
Funny...not!
 
It was enough for me that i was so scared and anxious the second after this happenned ahahah , my legs were tired ans my arm and fingers are still sensitive , like muscle spams , its just funny because i dont know how much voltage was in these spark plug wires ( 68 fury 3 ( 318 ) , points, all stock chrysler stuff ) pretty sure it was a lot more than the knife that some people have put in their toaster ahahaha ( and yes due to a childhood of being very sick i became hypocondriac !
 
Found I had a crack in a ignition wire accidentally many years ago. Coincidentally, I also figured out why I had a misfire.

I have a pacemaker now, I don't touch anything running. Heard to many horror stories.
BTW those signs at amusement parks that say don't ride if you have a pacemaker, yeah, that's there for a reason.
My sister has a pacemaker/defibrillator now. That's alien technology how they can get a difib that small.
 
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