Well my dad and i took his 58 chevy apache out for a testdrive on sunday. We just put a 283 and a 4speed in it. we were driving it around without the exhaust on it scaring the neighbors dogs when all of a sudden it lot oil presure. My dad shut it down and started it again and still no oil pressure. so it was only mabye 200ft to the driveway so he hurried up and got to the driveway shut it down and coasted it in. well we messed around for a while with it trying to see what the hell was the matter and we couldnt tell anything. so he pulled the pan off and their it was thier was a damn ratsnest stuck in the oil pickup tube it was stopping all the oil from going through and it was a damb big nestto the screen on the tube was to pluged up to clean up so we ordered a new one. it was pretty dumb of us not to pull the pan when it was on the stand because the motor had been setting in a barn for 5 years with just the heads on it and nothing else. It seems to be fine were putting it back together tomorrow once we pull a few bearings and check them and put the pan and shit back on it. I just figured id post this as a entertaining story.
One of the motors a friend brought over for me to check out had been stored for only six months in his garage. Apparently being wrapped in an elevator blanket was an invitation for the rats. Lifter valley on down to the oil pan was packed. They even ate the blister pack of cam lube that was laying in the valley.
thats exactly what my dad and i were thinking. the motor was rebuilt and stat in a barn for 5 years then we bought it so they had 5 years to find their way down their.
You're not alone. A friend had a '70 Javelin with a 3 spd. handshaker some years ago. He used to store it in a neighbor's barn in the winter and drive a beater till the weather cleared up in the spring. Come springtime one year he pulls the Kelvinator out of storage, checks the fluids, reinstalls the battery and down the road he goes. Everything seemed fine at first but before too long the clutch started to feel "funny". It mostly drove OK but then the clutch didn't want to always fully disengage. He thought maybe there were some linkage issues but nothing was obviously out of place so he took it into a shop and had them put it up on the lift. When the mechanic pulled off the inspection cover on the bellhousing out came this big wad of shredded twine, paper, rags, whatever the rodents could find in a barn to build a nest with. Once they got all the trash pulled out of the clutch everything worked fine again. It was a bit of a mystery how they got in there in the first place, but they finally found that the boot around the clutch fork had a tear in it. It kind of acted like a doggy-door for the vermin!
Heck i just wasted a good bag of popcorn...I guess i should have read the thread first.....pesty little rodents
I ruined a lawnmower engine a few years ago because mice filled the blower housing full of cotton,it got hot and caught fire.
my dads calling it a mighty mouse. it isnt the first time mice have messed us up. when we first got the truck it had a 235 six we couldnt get it to run and we tried a new coil points condeser and all kinds of stuff. finally after 8 hours of trying differnt shit he got pissed dumped a shit load of gas down the carb and told me to crank it. it backfired loud as hell and it started to fire real slow and sped up and finally ran but it kept backfiring so he hammered on the bitch and i cracked even louder than before and dogfood started coming out the exahust the mice had made a nest in the damn muffler and packed it solid so it wouldnt let it run. then they were also in the heater.
We had an engine they filled up with deer corn-had to pull the plugs and crank it over till all the corn blew out.
They will do a number when the car, or truck sits for a few years sometimes less. This is about ten years, the smell is unreal.
I had my complete motor on the stand last winter. I figured I'd drain the oil before sticking it back in the car. It wouldn't drain so I pulled the pan and found at least 3 mice in the pan. The only thing off the engine was the fuel pump.
yea ask anyone who's gotten an old airplane thats been sitting airworthy again. they get into EVERYTHING
Did somebody mention RATS??? Fritzbaldm carries this damn thing around with him like it's a pet!!! So I come into the shop this morning and this harry little bastsrd is carting off my granola bar and it's a chocolate chip one at that, I mean holy shit dude!! I shag the fuzzy little son-of-bitch off mey keyboard and get my g-bar back and I think everything is gonna be good. So I go the head to whizz and when I come back this mother fucker is head first in my coffee cup suckin up my last drop of the morning mud!! I mean this is the last straw I'm bringing out the shot gun!!!!! >>>>.
I once bought a 49 Ford businessman's coupe That had apparently been home to about 20 families of squirrels at some time. I had to shovel out the interior and found about 15 pounds of walnut shells under the back seat. Those little bastards are just rats with a cute tail.
You know, I've actually never had a big problem with mice or rats down here in Texas. In the first Buick I bought though, I've found all sorts of little lizards and geckos. There were a lot of skeletons found in that car...
Yeah when we drag old cars in the rats sometimes will stay for the ride. We buy lots of rat poison. Here in north east ark we also have lots of trouble keeping dirt dauber (mud wasps) out of engines. They will get in through the smallest holes. Dont know which is worse but if you have dirt dauber nest in the pan it will eat the engine pronto when that hot oil dissolves it. OldWolf
Rat Bastads !!! Got one "visitor" in my garage atm. Little prick has eaten the side vinyl on my Charger - the "good" side as well.. Damn well had to crawl UNDER my tight car car cover to do it and then proceeded to shit /piss all over the paint. Lucky I made sure the windows were shut on the car, otherwise he would have trashed the interior as well. Had traps out and posion for a while - no dice. Not to hijack...how do I get this little fucker? Rat
I had them build a nest in the gas tank on my coupe as it sat empty for a number of years after the fire in the 80s. Same as your oil pump, the electric fuel pump would suck fuzz into the pickup tube and stop the fuel. After several unsuccessful attempts to get it all out I finally had to scrap the tank. Here's an answer to your question, RAT BASTAD JOE
Nice one JD...didnt know they couldnt swim. Ive gotta do something before he eats up my Deuce too !! Thanx... Rat
those damn rats & chipmunks will chew and ruin ANYTHING softer than their teeth! Had 2 old Arctic Cats in the barn, the rodents got into the seats and ruined them along with most of the wiring. Sticky sheet traps work pretty good (can get' em at Tractor Supply Centers or probly any farm/feed store). I like that 'water/corn in a bucket' thing too. Wifey used it on me but without water-just corn (the liquid variety) I fell for it. Twice.
when my pops was looking for an engine to replace the blown merc flatty in the 28 roadster (since changing hands to me) We came across a Guy (literally as that was his name) who had a 48 ford basket case that was in the process of being restored when he bought it to make a early/mid 90's pastel billett mobile out of it. we bought all the NICE running gear out of the car including a very nice 8ba motor that had sparkling clean never fired valves looking through the spark plug holes. We brought it all home for the grand total of $500. Propped the motor up on the garage floor and were severley tempted to fire it. Reason got the better of us so we pulled the pan first. Found the entire pan was full of a giant rats nest. they never put any oil in it so right down the crank vent they went. Had to pull the entire motor apart as everything in the pan had a light coat of rust on it. pulled it apart, put in a cam and johnsons to replace the stock pieces and found that it was a good thing the nest was there as the oil pump drive shaft was sheared. was a brand new pump that never ran too. Motor's been running fine for about 14 years or so.
The Jalopy Journal
