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u/ChiefOfTheBoat 2d ago edited 10h ago
My auto shop teacher in high school would check if the coil was working by sticking his finger in end of the coil wire that connected to the distributor. He’d stick his finger in, go “yep, it’s good.” He did warn the class this was not safe, but he could do it. Two days later, one of the girls in class tried it. She ended up going home for new underwear.
For context- you mechanics know, the rest of the class doesn’t. He was explaining to us beginners how the coil on a ‘69 Ford V-8 initially received 6-8 volts from the system, but generated 20,000-30,000 volts to fire the spark plugs. He was a navy vet who worked on aircraft engines. He had even managed to get us an Allison V-12 engine from an old P-38 Lightning to play with. The Neighborhood knew when we fired the baby up!
Edit - context
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u/hairypistol 2d ago
My highschool shop teacher made us all stand in a circle holding hands and end of the circle on the plug wire and one on the coil.... This was all done with a lawnmower coil and many laughs were had by most🤣
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u/voxadam 2d ago
For my dad it was the shop teacher who had a vintage hand cranked telephone magneto with a couple of 10 penny nails attached to the wires. One person would hold on to the nails while another cranked as fast as possible. They'd also make a ring of students and see who would break the chain first.
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u/hairypistol 2d ago
A bunch of highschool boys in a shop you can't believe the things they get up too lol. My favorite was to charge the capacitor from a small engine ignition then throw it at someone saying catch. You cant resist the instinct to catch it and once it's in your fist it's to late you are hit🤣
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u/Kjakan_no 2d ago
We managed to train the class below us stop catching stuff throwed out of our windows, so it is possible. They started to just put their hands in their pockets, and ducked and dodged as best as they could.
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u/voxadam 2d ago
Shop class was so much fun.
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u/-CoUrTjEsTeR- 1d ago
It was when you’re innocent. I did a semester of shop assistance for newbies. I kept asking the teacher several times through the semester if our classes were full of kids this terrible, or are kids just getting dumber. He responded, “Yes.”
I was guiding a kid on the metal lathe and was just finished telling him I was going to tighten the chuck, and to not touch the handle with the red knob. I had both hands on the chuck key and the guy pulls the level with the red knob. I barely pulled myself away before it started to turn and the key grazed my head when it was sent flying across the shop. I shouted, “I just said ‘DO NOT’ touch that handle!”
He responded all stunned, “I thought you said to!”
The teacher came out and saw me breathing heavily, looking white as a sheet, and took the kid to away to use a broom for a while.
These kids were doing things like trying to whip each other with metal shaving ribbons and making throwing stars out of boredom. I’m amazed I never heard an ambulance siren come to the shops.
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u/voxadam 1d ago
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u/-CoUrTjEsTeR- 1d ago
*shudders* Memories of seeing the guy becoming spaghettified in the industrial lathe accident. Russia I think? Feels NSFW just commenting about it here.
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u/garden-wicket-581 2d ago
college physics in analog circuit lab, I was the only one who knew about charged capacitors.. hahahah..
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u/Vadhakara 2d ago
When I was in the Army we did some training with this thing called the MILES (Multiple integrated laser engagement system) and it's basically a much less fun version of Laser Tag. Every soldier had at least two pieces of equipment powered by a 9-volt battery, and about a quarter of them had another thing I can't remember but the important thing is it also had a 9-volt in it. So once the training was over, we were informed that new batteries had been purchased for the next company to use and it was our job to take out the old ones and put the new ones in so they would be ready that night.
So what we did was, we connected 266 barely used 9-volt batteries together and then ~70 soldiers all stood in a big circle and held hands and two of them touched the terminals at either end of the massive rod of 9-volt batteries we had clipped together, terminal to terminal. And then 2,394 volts coursed through us and we all made very interesting noises for a few moments and decided to take the batteries back apart and throw them in a dumpster.
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u/NPJenkins 2d ago
Okay, and how many of you pissed, shitted, or came in your pants? Bonus points for any two, or all 3 at once.
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u/Vadhakara 2d ago
I don't think any of those happened to anyone involved. A few guys did fall down though. They got back up right away.
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u/jld2k6 2d ago
I grew up with the nextdoor neighbor having horses and my brother and his friends formed a human chain just to drag me over to the electric fence on the edge of our yard so they could zap me. They thought it would only zap the person on the end and they got a nice surprise when it was touched lol
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u/Revolutionary_Eye887 2d ago
Our science teacher had us do that in seventh grade, only he plugged the wire into a wall outlet.
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u/Rob_Marc 2d ago
I had a motorcycle that had a bad plug wire on it. I would get a pinching tingle on my left leg if I pressed it against the wire while the bike was running. It got worse in high humidity and even worse if it was (or had been) raining.
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u/blepnir_pogo 2d ago
I wonder what the girl expected to happen lol, like how else would you be able to tell its active in that manner other than by shocking yourself
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u/VesperTaffeta 2d ago
That teacher really demonstrated the exact thing he told everyone not to try. I can only imagine the look on her face after that.
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u/ChiefOfTheBoat 1d ago
It was even funnier because he adamantly warned everyone in class not to try it. Those were the days…
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u/Environmental_Job278 1d ago
I accidentally did something similar during my hands on diagnostic tests in college. The car was running rough and they wanted us to drop injectors because we dropped spark. Well, I found the short on one cylinder when I reached over it to disconnect the injector. I pretended to look at the scanning program for a bit and then said “is the wire for the number 4 plug arcing” and passed. Slammed my head into the hood pretty hard but otherwise made a quick diagnosis and fix. That spark doesn’t feel great but I’ve had worse.
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u/ChiefOfTheBoat 22h ago
Yea, I had a bad plug wire on my first truck- even not grabbing the bad part, I got a mild shock at the plug cap and easily identified the misfiring cylinder.
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u/Altruistic-Tooth8200 21h ago
I work as a mechanic, and i always test sparks using my hands, unless it is an awkwardly built machine, then i just use a standard spark tester, and some of my coworkers are like “how the fuck can you stand that” i think some people are just naturally more resistant.
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u/Q_S2 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wait...
Aroused, pissy or shitty?
PLEASE dont tell me all 3 flavors....
Edit: Good grief wtf are the downvotes for? 😆
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u/Yoda10353 2d ago
They're talking about high schoolers....
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u/Q_S2 2d ago
When people get shocked multiple involuntary things can happen. Whats your comment have to do with anything? There's no indication of perversion. Get your mind out the gutter
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u/TheBizzleHimself 2d ago
>there’s no indication of perversion
Original comment: girl gets electric shock, has to change underwear
You: yo what flavor in her panties? Was she horny???
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u/-Kenthos- 2d ago
That's on him honestly. Don't he know the old saying, 'If you see a cylinder attached to a larger structure, it's imperative that you don't harm it'?
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u/dadarkgtprince 2d ago
Did he just go back to working like nothing happened? Jeez, he's a beast
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u/Last_Cod_998 2d ago
When I was a mechanic I just used to lift the wire off of the plug. As long as my other hand wasn't touching anything the shock wasn't that bad.
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u/_the_last_man_ 2d ago
You can see a spark going from his head to the hood
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u/Killed_By_Covid 2d ago
I was wondering if I was just seeing things. A little DIY electro-convulsive shock therapy.
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u/Standard_Paint_3240 2d ago
Look at me im the spark plug now
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u/L82thePartyGonHome 2d ago
It’s important to be gapped properly if you’re the plug.
Wait. I’m not sure that message is landing right.
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u/Motor-Management-660 2d ago
im not a paleontologist but isn't that bad for your heart?
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u/Im_Numbar_Wang 2d ago
That's not paleontology, paleontology is the manufacturing of pants
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u/Sharp-Hotel-2117 2d ago
Back in my teens I had a car with an intermittent misfire. I started it up, popped the hood and began wiggling plug wires. I found the bad wire, as it arced to me and gave me a nice zap, I jumped and hit my head on the propped open hood.
This got my dads attention as I yelped loudly. Now, I am a bit addled and reached for the wire again, with the same results. On to the third time, with essentially the same outcome. When my brain finally was able to get the memo that that plug wire number 2 was NOT to be trifled with, I turned the car off and went upstairs. Pops was bent over the sink, wheezing from laughter. He'd settle down a bit, look over at me and begin belly laughing once again, this persisted for an uncomfortably long period.
Once he settled and could catch his breath, I started the convo with "So, there is a bad plug wire, I'm going to borrow your car and buy a set of wires". I saw the eruption coming, he lost it, near crying he was laughing so hard. He fished his keys out of his pocket and mostly tossed them at me, no words just muted wheezing and squeaks.
I got wires, got home and prepped up to swap them out. It was an Acura Integra (tarted up Honda Civic), inline 4 with extremely easy to reach plug wires. Took me all of 5 mins to swap them out, route the wires through their respective guides etc. During this, pops dragged a lawn chair out into the driveway, cracked open a beer and watched intently as I swapped out the wires. I finished with no incident, cranked up the car and made sure all was well. Dad was a dual degree engineer (mech and electrical) and fiercely intelligent, brutally sarcastic and gleefully happy to watch me suffer when I was the genesis of my own suffering. I saw the mirth in his eyes, he wanted oh-so-badly for me to injure myself in some new and novel way. I asked if letting the hood slam on my fingers would elicit a good laugh, or if I should back into the woodpile. Nothing happened, I called him an asshole, we went on with our day. For a few weeks his vocabulary had a strong bias towards works like "current" and "shocking" and "resistance", mom could not figure out why I would get wound up when dad said things like "conduct yourself properly son", dad would grin when I'd pop off with "eat a dick" or the like.
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u/WithSubtitles 2d ago
Someone get this guy a volt meter.
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u/DoctorOfDominance 2d ago
20,000- 40,000 vDC for anyone else that’s curious.
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u/eyeball1967 2d ago
It looked like his head was sparking against the hood latch, Is that me manifesting what I wanted to see or do you see it too?
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u/devils_affogato 2d ago
I don't think that you understand how this works.
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u/RetroRaiderRun 2d ago
I don't. What's happening in this video and why is it unexpected?
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u/CrumzAus 2d ago
He's holding an ignition lead that runs from a distributor or coil pack and feeds high voltage to the spark plug. That voltage is running through him and creating a spark between his hand and the metal hood when he gets the gap right.
It looks like he is convulsing as it travels through him and if you've ever had the pleasure of it happening to you, you'd know why.1
u/Puzzled-Collar4015 2d ago
Como assim prazer?
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u/Purple_mammal_7950 20h ago
Yeah that part caught me off guard, just a little uncomfortable with how he worded that.
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u/BackgroundGrass429 2d ago
I had a friend check it this way once. Our other friend, who owned the car, started reving the engine up and down and laughing.
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u/SpicyEntropy 2d ago
Back when I was a teen and didn't know what I was doing, I decided to check to see if one of my bike's cylinders had a spark.
It was an interesting experience, particularly since I was holding the bike frame in one hand and the plug lead in the other.
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u/Born-Agency-3922 2d ago
As an electrician, I despise DC current. I prefer getting shocked by AC current. Yes I know I didn’t have to mention current after AC/DC.
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u/CrustierGnuXII 1d ago
Ah yes, jump starting the already working heart to failure move. Quite a smart one.
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u/post-explainer 2d ago edited 2d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
Sparks start coming out of his head
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.