Well, now I know why tractors have a neutral safety switch!

Bret4207

Well-known Member
After 40 years of starting tractors and vehicles from other than the drivers seat, I finally had one start in gear. Damage was limited to the garage wall and my back where the tire tried to climb up my bod. I feel a little sore and a lot stupid. The bad part is that what I was fixing is still broke! The good part is my garage door opens and shuts a lot better now...

All my fault. Got to engage the brain before acting. :oops:
 
Dads uncle moved off the farm that bought a little
utility Ford FWA tractor. Really nice one. He did the
same thing but the tractor ran him over and climbed
the back wall of his shop. It died when it was
vertical. He was ok and the tractor survived but we
just all shook our heads.

I'm a bad one about safety switches. Pretty much all
of them get disabled. I do keep the starting switches
though. It's such a pain to need to get in the tractor
if I can reach the switch, but it's saved me lots of
repairs I'm sure.
 
My brother started our 970 case with a screw driver on the starter because the solinoid was bad, the tractor was in gear. It drove over a 4 row cultivator in front of it and climbed the wall of the pole shed. Climbed the post til it hung up on the drawbar. No damage to my brother, but put a hole in the shed and ruined a front and rear tire on the tractor. We had been starting it that way for a while, but that time the last to drive it was our oldest brother who had never driven much because of his issability and he didn't know to leave it in neutral.
 
I once started my Farmall H in 3rd gear with a baler on the drawbar; was out in the field sitting on the seat at the time so no damage, but it sure impressed me that it could start and take off like that.
 
My cousin started a tractor with a screw driver shorting the soleniod, it started ran him and his helper over. He died and his helper injured. Safety switches are there for a reason.
 
Glad you are ok. I've tried to hand crank
one in gear and it fortunately didn't start,
now it seems like I'm always checking if
it's in gear.
 
The 65? I put mine through the garage door a few years ago. Scary
business. I wasn't trying to start it. I'd just put it back
together and put the battery in it and away it went. The wires on
the starter never got tightened up and were touching.
 
Seven or eight yeArs a go. A guy in town tried to start his case 830 with a screwdriver. The tractor ran into the side of his garage. He no longer has a carport!
 
Seems every once in a while we all have to do something foolish to sharpen our wits and remind us to pay attention. Glad you are okay Bret. Scares the bejabbers outta you, doesn't it?
 
glad you are ok.
I've had tractors give me a good nudge when starting them in cold weather with heavy gear oil in the trans. That sinking feeling in your belly is not pleasant.....

was at a tractor jockeys place a few days ago to check out a tractor he just got in. He put it in neutral to start it. Just force of habit, I rocked a rear to make sure the fan didn't twitch. When he asked why I did that....I just shrugged and told him...I work on stuff, so the trust I have in mechanical contraptions.....is zero.
 
Good reminder.
I've been starting my tractor on the starter
with a lynch pin for about 5 years now.
All it needs is a wiring harness, key switch
and an alternator to fix it.
Have had those parts in hand about 3 times
now but always use them on another tractor
to get it sold.
 
I never start anything without checking for neutral
(or park.) If I'm not sure I just bump the starter
to check. Only thing I run that doesn't require
several turns of the crankshaft is my old Cummins
and it's an automatic.
 
I was just reading in Oliver Heritage magazine about somebody who did that at a plowing contest. The condenser went bad on his Oliver 77. He put a new one in,reached up and hit the starter button with the switch turned on. It was in reverse. He said it backed up,jack knifed on to the plow and rolled on to it's side right there in front of the whole crowd. He said they tipped it back down with another tractor and he went on to win the contest and take fourth in the nationals.
 
I saw a WD45 start in gear in an auction crowd. It looked like it was gonna be a disaster, but no one got hurt.
 
thats the reason ferguson put the start on the gear shift leaver on some they all should have been that way
 
I made same mistake, but reacted quickly
and tractor didn't run over me or damage
anything
Lesson learned.
 
I'm glad you turned out OK for the most part. If we would write down every time we survived a dumb move we would fill a big book. No one is exempt.
 
I got one that acts up occasionally and needs to be started with screw driver. Been doing it that way for years. 2 weeks ago it was in gear but screw driver slipped before it started and nudged it just
enough to warn me. I am very lucky as I was right tight to rear tire and could not have moved fast enough.
 
I've seen a few stupid things happen at auctions over the years when they go to start something. I never stand in front or behind anything when they go to start it.
 
30 years ago a friends BIL started a Deere standing beside it. It started in gear and ran him over. He rolled under a grinder/mixer hitch and it crushed his pelvis and broke his hips. I think he was probably in his 30's. He died fairly young. I don't know if it was related to the injury.
About 2 years ago a guy in the neighborhood (82 year old) was starting his international or farmall standing beside it. It started ran him over and killed him. I think he had just quit farming a couple years earlier.
 
I take them out of gear and idle them a minute or few before shutting them down. Before I start one I always grab the shifters and move them around to make sure still not in gear to save on the clutches and starters or crashing one. One of my family members has a tendency to leave them in gear after shutting them down, so I've learned that it's a good idea for me to treat them like guns and always assume that they're loaded until I prove otherwise.

Mark
 
I was working on my Oliver and had the wife on the seat, I asked her to turn the key to the ON position, she turned it
to the START position, and it started right away like it always does plus being in gear! Man I came unglued that day!
LOL
 
Many years ago when I was a deputy sheriff I had to write the report on a fatal accident like this. The tractor was a 2 cyl. Deere (don't remember the letter or number designation). The farmer some way reached from the back end and hit the starter. The tractor was in reverse and it crushed him against his barn. Not a pretty sight.
 
A number of years ago I bought an AC 6080. The clutch switch was bypassed and you could start the tractor without the clutch being depressed. I did something very stupid by turning the key to turn the engine over.. I believe it was to line up the grease fitting on the external thrust bearing helper. Anyway, the tractor was warm and "caught".. moving across the shop.. I was then fast enough to get out of the way and move forward with the tractor and reached in shuting the ignition off. Within a few days I installed a clutch safety switch... I call it my grand children safety switch. After the
episode .. I was actually shaking as I could have been crushed rather easily..
 
That is why I park ALL my tractor in neutral and if I know there is a chance some one else has been on one I double check that it is still in neutral before I try to start it. If am am working on a tractor for some one else I always make sure it is in neutral before doing any thing with it. Learned years ago the only true safety devise that work as it should is what is between my ears and if other people would learn the do that same thing many oh nos would not happen
 
Reading all these stories, some terrifying results!

Seems all the stories involve owner/operator accidents or close calls. If I were to hurt myself because I had bypassed a safety, no one to blame but myself.

But if my 4 year old grandson got hurt...

Remember, we can't always be there to watch, and our contraptions usually out live us!
 
Ah but many old tractor do not an never had had a neutral safety of any type. Like say the A/C WD/WD45?B/C etc. Or the Farmall H/M etc etc etc. so again the only safety that works is the one between a guys ears
 
I've been of mixed emotions about it all. I grew up on the seat of a Farmall H, Later a Super M and a John Deere A, and of course none of those had safety switches on anything. From the
time I started driving tractors it was drilled in my head to check gear and PTO before you start it, whether you're on the seat or standing next to it (used to run the H on a cord wood saw
a lot). Fast forward 8-10 years and I take a job as a mechanic at a golf course to work my way through college. On of the first things I did was to fix all the safety switches the previous
administration had disconnected. I did so under the impression that if someone got hurt on one of our mowers or tractors after the lawsuit the new owners of the course might want a
mechanic who could keep the darn safety switches working.
 
No matter how careful or experienced around machinery someone considers themselves even the best
will occasionally have a moment of inattention and do something they later regret. Unfortunately
there are some who don't get that chance because they're dead. That number probably includes some
who scoffed at the very safety devices that could have prevented a tragedy had they been installed
and working.
 
Glad to hear you didn't get hurt more seriously.Hear is another good example of not sitting the seat, when starting your tractor. Stan
a227398.jpg
 
37Chief- That picture and the story that goes along with it, still send a chill down my spine! You were very lucky.
 
(quoted from post at 20:30:51 05/21/16) No matter how careful or experienced around machinery someone considers themselves even the best
will occasionally have a moment of inattention and do something they later regret. Unfortunately
there are some who don't get that chance because they're dead. That number probably includes some
who scoffed at the very safety devices that could have prevented a tragedy had they been installed
and working.

Not safety switch, but same end result. I was hooking up a rear 3pt cultivator to my Allis D17 Series IV one day. It was sitting a little cocked, so I hooked up one arm and was on the LH side and decided it would be easiest to just raise the 3pt a little to line up that side. I walked in front of the rear tire and reached across the transmission to the 3pt lever. As I was retracting my arm, the cuff of my leather glove caught the gearshift and it slid right into first gear. Luckily I had the wheels set way out so I was inside the rear wheel and was able to kick it out of gear before it moved too far. If I was older and slower or the wheels were set in I don't think the outcome would have been good.
 
(quoted from post at 11:28:06 05/21/16) The 65? I put mine through the garage door a few years ago. Scary
business. I wasn't trying to start it. I'd just put it back
together and put the battery in it and away it went. The wires on
the starter never got tightened up and were touching.


Yup, the neutral safety switch was disconnected when I got it. Gen still inop!
 
(quoted from post at 11:37:31 05/21/16) Seems every once in a while we all have to do something foolish to sharpen our wits and remind us to pay attention. Glad you are okay Bret. Scares the bejabbers outta you, doesn't it?


Embarrassed more than scared. I know better!
 
(quoted from post at 17:08:16 05/21/16) That is why I park ALL my tractor in neutral and if I know there is a chance some one else has been on one I double check that it is still in neutral before I try to start it. If am am working on a tractor for some one else I always make sure it is in neutral before doing any thing with it. Learned years ago the only true safety devise that work as it should is what is between my ears and if other people would learn the do that same thing many oh nos would not happen

I checked to make sure it was in neutral. But, I had the dash off working on the wiring. I think the weight of the dash shoved it back in gear.
 
(quoted from post at 17:24:56 05/21/16) Ah but many old tractor do not an never had had a neutral safety of any type. Like say the A/C WD/WD45?B/C etc. Or the Farmall H/M etc etc etc. so again the only safety that works is the one between a guys ears

Exactly. My head was thinking about the wiring, not safety. The weird part is this particular tractor is a hard starter and always needs choke. Darwins Law I suppose.

I'm going to take the switch out and see why it was disconnected in the first place. Could be bad or could be a PO just didn't like having to have it in neutral.
 

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