In case you've ever wondered what would happen if you threw your vehicle into "Park" at, say, 30 MPH, let me tell you exactly what happens...

We had bus stuck on a steep hill, his rear end was stuck on the pavement lifting his drive wheels ever so slightly off the ground.

I drove in my '97 Jeep Cherokee to a fire company member's house, where he gave me a pair of 5' long heavy-duty planks (like 3" thick, 12" wide) to try to get the bus some traction to get unstuck.

I opened the rear of the Jeep, put the planks in the back...

And as I returned to the scene, I applied the brakes, and one of the two planks slid forward - directly between the two front seats - and into the floor mounted shifter. WHAP - from DRIVE to PARK in an instant.

The rear wheels locked, and I started skidding immediately, but I was surprised, I didn't think I was going that fast and I pumped the brakes a bit - no effect. Then I realized that the vehicle had stalled - and only then did I put it all together and realize what had happened.

The damage seems to be limited to the fact that I really have to put it HARD into park to get the key out and it's no longer "locking" in drive position, the lock pont for drive is a little closer to "2". I'm told that there's a cable to be adjusted, I've got to deal with that.

But the spray of metal and oil I would have expected didn't happen, I bet there's some interior damage, but at 167,000 miles, there comes a time to say "good bye" to any vehicle, I'll run it until it does not go (this is the 3rd transmission anyway, the 97 Jeeps seem to devour tranmissions.