Click to view attachmentPurpose?

Click to view attachmentPurpose?

it used to be to keep the car from starting if the passenger didn't have their seatbelt on.
now it is just a decorative loom of wires. (the jumper wire looks like someone by-passed it for you)

Ejection seat wire.

that's wehre the cruise control computer used to go.

That was for the rust detector. I see someone has removed it so they didn't have to listen to the alarm anymore!
Real answer is seat belt relay.
Tom

Combo emergency engine stopper and hidden kill switch. Pull the jumper to stop unintended acceleration or to prevent your car from starting- even when hotwired....

Don't you love federal mandates??? They give you useless stuff like this fabulous no-starty kill relay wiring. The missing relay was to prevent engine starting unless your seat belt is fastened. Keep the ahem, "illegal bypass jumper jumper", it now allows your car to start as well as offering the above two usefull advantages.

A bit if trivia....

The first ejection seat was made from a 105mm howitzer shell. The shell casing was fastened to the floor, pointed up, and the projectile was replaced with a rod that attached to the seat. When the pilot pulled the lever, he literally fired himself upwards. They put these in the P-80 shooting star. The two seat versions had a delay, the front seat fired 8 to 10 seconds after the rear because if it fired first, it would kill the rear seat pilot with the exploding instrument panel.

Later ones were made by the British company "Martin Baker"... thus pilots in VietNam were known to be members of the "Martin Baker Fan Club".


I have the strangest bits of trivia bouncing around in my skull.

Martin Bakers used an ejection gun to push the seat out of the plane before an Under Seat Rocket Motor Pack took over propulsion. This allowed for a much softer ejection on the pilot. The new seats on US planes are no longer made by Martin Baker and have a different system in place for ejection. They allow a pilot to eject safely with 0 knots airspeed and 0 altitude. Needless to say the ejection is much more violent and pilots are now only allowed three ejections before being permanently grounded due to the physical effects. I have fun (useless) facts too. Actually most of it isn't very interesting at all.

More TMI trivia -
F-4 Phantom II REO's also often ended up impaled on the vertical stabilizer/tailplane after eject, which is why the F-14, 15, 18 went to twin tailplanes - in addition to the aerodynamic & performance needs!

Personally, given the day/date today - I like the rust detector one above & the ejection seat!

You guys have a stunning amount of useless information but did you know that the research lab for ejection seats called the Egress lab is located at Edwards AFB several hundred yards from the Skunkworks?

Here's some real life trivia from my skull...

My dad flew the F-80 complete with ejection seats. As a 5 year old kid, I will never forget playing outside, hearing a crash and a boom, watching a fireball rise from the swamp, and watching the fearful wives run out of the houses...

After a couple of these fireball crashes, dad and mom got into an argument, and dad got out of the fighter business.

The ejection seats must have really sucked. Nobody got to eject......

"Final version of the F-80 plane was the T-33 trainer, which remained in continuous production until August 1959. The T-33A was a very hot fighter to handle, compared to slower piston engine aircraft, and an alarming number of airplanes were lost......"

Now B-52 bombers, they eject DOWNWARD. Not a good feeling during takeoff.