Got one on my 50 Ferguson tractor and my 80 ford,farm, daily driver, rust bucket truck. Love 'em. You just have to watch where you put your thumbs. Early power steering. McCray
[ QUOTE ] The cool thing would have been if they made sammys fake eye out of the knob [/ QUOTE ]Or make a knob out of his eye.
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] can we get a pic for refrence? [/ QUOTE ] wow, I always wondered why they were banned too. interesting about the caddy production story if true? here's your reference pic ratrodder.... [/ QUOTE ] come on, photoshop types! this is too easy... nic
i had one on my 50, never had any problems but one time the center ring on the wheel came off in my hands when i was doing a u-turn good think my feet thought for me and stepped on the brakes i almost ran into a friend of mine's car because of it.
Are they really illegal? or is that a "urban legend"!! I have never heard of anyone getting a ticket for one, I have also never had of solid evidence of anyone getting a ticket for driving without shoes,having bluedot lenses,getting stabbed while running with sissors, getting shot in the eye with a BB gun, having there girlfriend fuck a gearshift knob after giving her Spanish fly,Spanish fly!! A lady with"If you can beat me you can eat me"lettered on there car,A hook hanging off there door handle or a smelly corvette that someone died in!! Its always been, "My cousins nephews 3rd grade teachers neighbors vet treated a cat who treated JFK for the clap has a friend who knew someone who got a ticket" etc, Is there anyone out there who actually got written up??LOL JimV
Just like blue dots they have been illegal since the 50's in this area. As far back as I can remember.
Oh man I can't believe you guys are mocking Sammy.. The man was a God! Never appreciated in his time, by far the most talented of the "Rat Pack." Anyway.. sucks about the autronic eye, but i'll have to second Av8, I did not ever hear it was a suicide knob. TinyE
I'm now making this a post about Sammy's eye From Sammy's own lips: The grinding, steel-twisting, glass-shattering noise screamed all around me. I had no control, I was just there, totally consumed by it, unable to believe I was really in an automobile crash. I saw the impact spin the other car completely around and hurl it out of sight, then my forehead slammed into my steering wheel. As I felt pain and saw my hand moving, I was stunned by the knowledge that I was still alive . I reached up. As I ran my hand over my cheek I felt my eye hanging there by a string.
Here's a pic of the autronic eye that I took a few years ago. This was in a '55 Cadillac I believe. My friend had a 1988 Mercury cougar that had this feature (sensor was on the rear view mirror).. What would happen is at night, you'd meet people who also had their high beams on, and their hi-beams would make the Cougar's auto-dim. Then they saw the Cougar dim and did the same.. As soon as the oncoming driver turned off his hi-beams, the Cougar would turn the hi-beams back on. Pretty funny, because everyone thought my friend was just an asshole Once a highway patrolman happened to pull him over, and he thought it was kinda funny too, but told him to disable the feature. I have NO idea how Sammy bonked his eye on this.. It's too big really to do any intermal eyeball damage, and it's back there so far, that you got a steering wheel to contend with.
You guys are rude. (Which is no surprise.) I don't think that steering wheel knobs are illegal, at least in PA. Here's what the PA code has to say on the subject: [ QUOTE ] § 175.63. Steering. (a) Condition of steering components. The steering assembly and steering mechanism shall be in safe operating condition as described in § 175.80 (relating to inspection procedure). (b) Steering wheel. The steering wheel, except if specially designed for handicapped drivers, shall be equivalent to original equipment in material strength and have a minimum outside diameter of 13 inches. [/ QUOTE ] There's also nothing in the vehicle inspection routine which recommends rejecting a car that has one. So I think that the illegality is indeed an urban myth, which is not to say that an officer of the law wouldn't give you a ticket for it...
[ QUOTE ] the cop,that stopped him(for something else) said they were illegal here, cause you would get impaled on it in an accident [/ QUOTE ] If you hit the steering wheel hard enough to impale yourself on a 2" round knob, you've got bigger problems than digging that out of your forehead. Fucking safety nazis. Getting back on topic... Reminds me of some genius in the Air Force medical field that decided we should wear safety glasses under our NVGs because in one accident, a helicopter pilot's NVGs were embedded into his head. Uhhh, if I hit hard enough to embed them in my head, I've got bigger issues than protecting my eyes! Idiots. I had a suicide knob on my A roadster & switched it out for one that folded down. Well, when folded down, it stuck out quite a ways from the rim. Imagine my surprise going around a round-a-bout & getting my hand caught between the door & the folded knob. Kinda makes the steering unresponsive! Hurt my hand too! Got home & took it off.
[ QUOTE ] I have also never had of solid evidence of anyone getting a ticket for ...having bluedot lenses... [/ QUOTE ] We got pulled over in Calaveras County, CA a couple years ago at night for blue dot lenses. She (CHP officer) could not give us a ticket, because according to the code, if the vehicle was older than 1959, they were legal. I should have asked her for the code #. (We were in a 55 F100.)
I don't know about the legality of them, but from personal experience I could see how they could hurt you... My car came with one and I found that it interfered with steering because I couldn't loosen my grip and have the wheel 'right itself' after a sharp turn without getting banged in the hand. Mine caught my shirt once also. It's in my glovebox now and will probably stay there. I also found that it didn't really help with parking cause the amount of forced needed to turn the wheel with one hand and the knob was more than two hands and no knob. Stacey
The Jalopy Journal
