RE: was Cruise Control now Potential Safety Issues

["Dennis C." <dennis.2914@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the warning.

We just lost an entire family in San Diego when the accelerator stuck on 
a Lexus.  It appears that the driver, a police officer may not have done 
what your daughter did - slam on the brakes until it stopped. He 
probably did not brake hard enough and lost the brakes.  He left the 
road at over 100 mph. The local TV news played the 911 call that was 
made from the car before the crash.

I have not driven a Lexus however in our Prius the car can always be 
shifted to neutral, engines can be replaced.

It was determined that the floor mats may not have been installed 
correctly and trapped the accelerator down.

If anyone installs a cruise control it is very important that all 
linkage be checked at all throttle positions to insure that it will not 
bind or come off.

Again thanks for your comments, very important.

Dennis C.


W.A. Edison wrote:
> 
> My thanks to Dennis as well. I'd like to drive my cars more long 
> distances, but can't abide my right hip cramping up for days after. I'll 
> install one of these.
> 
> My daughter had a near-death misfortune with an aftermarket cruise 
> control I had installed on a car for her several years ago. I had it 
> 'professionally' installed by the dealer. A few months later, she 
> floored the accelerator to pass a car and a component of the control 
> lodged under the carburetor. So, she's going faster and faster down the 
> freeway, can't shut the key off or the steering would lock. She just 
> slammed on the brakes until she could get it slowed down, engine racing, 
> brakes smoking, then shut it off. I was furious after being scared to 
> death. Went back to the dealer and blew up at the owner for such a crap 
> job that nearly cost my daughter her life. As sometimes happens, his 
> only concern was trying to not pay for the damage to her brakes and 
> tires. Otherwise, he did not see what the big deal was.
> 
> I'm sure this install is quite safe, point is..... check every possible 
> point of failure and put in a safety of some kind. For example, I had a 
> throttle spring break on one of my 64 Sport Furys just as I started it. 
> It just never occurred to me that one could break or what would happen 
> if it did. Of course the engine then went to max revs and I immediately 
> shut it off. Could have happened at a school cross walk just as easily. 
> Now I put NEW springs (one primary and one weak safety) spring on the 
> throttle. It's a habit for me now to routinely grab those springs and 
> give them a twist. Good thing too, with my wife's 37 hot rod Plymouth 
> coupe. I did that little test a couple of weeks ago and the spring broke 
> off in my hand. I already had the weak secondary spring on it, so it 
> wouldn't have taken her to max rev in 2 seconds, but still had some 
> 'line of fire' potential.
> 
> Sorry about prattling on. Just want everyone to stay safe as we work on 
> the old iron. If you know of other points of potential failure on our 
> old rigs, I'd like to hear it.
> 
> /Butch/Ferndale, WA
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gary H. [mailto:spigot2039@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 8:26 AM
> To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Cruise Control
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> The review of a cruise control instal in a 1963 Plymouth are now online. 
> Thanks to Dennis C. for writing the article and sharing the install! 
> 
> http://1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/cruise-control.html  is the address.
> 
> Thanks,
> Gary H.
> 
> 
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> 
> 



1996 Dodge Ram 3500 Van Conversion
1964 Plymouth Belvedere 318 Auto
1963 Plymouth Sport Fury 383 4-speed
1949 Dodge Pickup 289/C4 soon to be changed
1998 Honda Valkyrie Standard


----
Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic.  Thanks!

'62 to '65 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html.