I can now sit back and laugh…

[harshman]

After hearing on this site about the ultimate security device – the pedal lock (I can’t remember the name of the thing) I had to get one. I have used it for many months with much success until now. The other morning I drove my car to work and parked it. My mind was on the engine and why it wasn’t idling very well. I opened up my store and did some work until my employee came in so that I could go to the bank and make a deposit. This is the part where things got a little rough. I proceeded to exit the parking lot and brake before I headed out into traffic – yup, you guessed it… I forgot to take the pedal lock off. I was a whopping 20 feet from the sidewalk and was pressing on the brake pedal as hard as I could to no avail. I quickly banked hard right, over the cement curbing and onto the landscaping – leaving my car high centered just past the x-pipe. After jacking the rear up with a pallet jack and pieces of wood, a group of guys helped me get my car past the landscaping and onto the asphalt. Amazingly the car didn’t get damaged that much. The exhaust is a bit flatter now but that’s about it. Now I am hobbling around because my foot got badly bruised from pressing on the brake – yup I get to explain that to everybody I see now. :injured:

[TitoJones]

Holy F*ck!!

I guess you got used to it being installed, because when I picked your car up for that comercial shoot @ my shop I couldn't have even sat in the seat with it installed. I'm glad you aren't hurt, and the car isn't too badly damaged. We'll need to replace the exhaust when we install your LS1 anyways.
Tyler

[Restomod]

That sucks !! Could have been worse, but you could get one of those "remove before flight " tags and hang it on the wheel.

[zbugger]

Wow... That's pretty bad. Just glad that you're ok. At least what happened to you wasn't what happened to me. I lost all brake fluid and headed straight for a wall. That's not a good feeling. My sister also lost her brakes once.... Poor stop sign had to stop her.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Do you use the auto-lock? That is a lock that goes over the brake or clutch pedal. I use it on my truck sometimes. I'm glad to hear your car didn't suffer too much damage, I had something similar happen to me.

I did something along the same lines of what you did when I first got the lock. I put it over my brake pedal with the truck running, and then the genious inside of me said, (a non-thinking genious) see if you can put the truck in gear to move it. So, now I'm facing my garage (8ft away), and I shift into drive, the truck starts rolling forward. I start stepping on the brake to no avail (hey, atleast it works) and then quickly pressed the brake as hard as I could, and shifted it back into park and the truck stopped. Stupid move on my part. :doh:

The instructions that came with the package said that if put on properly you shouldn't be able to depress the pedal at all, and the truck should not be able to be shifted from park. That's why I (stupidly) pressed my foot on the brake and then pulled the gear lever, and it just so happened to fall into D.

[myclone]

FWIW, be very cautious about using the brake pedal lock thingy as your only theft deterant as a friend that was usning one lost a nice GN to some theif that was smart enough to use the E brake for stopping(GNs were before brake/gear shift interlocks). Luckily the cops stopped the thief for non functioning brake lights since they dont work with the E brake and the cop noticed the brake lock.

Point is that my friend was extremely lucky since he got his car back in one piece but he now uses other theft deterants as well as the brake lock.

[Piet]

........ now that I can wipe the tears from my eyes .... Glad to hear no major Damage.

Mental Note to Self.... Don't buy a brake lock... cause I would do the same thing.

Thanks for sharing the story

[WS6]

this wont keep them from taking the car or taking stuff in the car, but just put a kill switch on the car some how. heres and example. on lt1 fourth gens the power window wires from the drivers dorr controlling the passenger door, come very close to the wires that turn the silenoid on for the starter. so wire in a relay that requires the window wire to have power to allow the relay to close allowing the ignition wire to reach the starter. he has to hold pass window up at the same time to start the car. very simple, cheap and effective. you could do it any number of ways. left turn signal has to be on. headlights have to be on. be creative. but like i said you can still take the car and everything in it, but you wont drive it anywhere. breaking the steering column(think everything GM from the 80s) wont work either.

[trapin]

Harshman.....don't feel bad. That sounds like something that I would do.

[harshman]

It seems that there are things in life that you do that you wouldn't want repeated but in this case it was too stupid of me to pass up. :pat:
Lesson learned - and I went out and got an emergency brake cable. I also am installing a hidden switch so it will not move on its own power.

[trapin]

I also am installing a hidden switch so it will not move on its own power.
A kill switch?

[harshman]

ignition kill switch

[Nine Ball]

I'm wondering how you got into the car with that thing installed. Its hard enough to get into these cars with that thing not sticking in the way.

Glad nothing was seriously damaged! whew