It never rains... December 14, 2009, 06:23:18 pm Yahoo Message Number: 108519Well, seeing as how the time for the Death Valley GTG is just around the corner, today I decided I should fire up the LD and run the engine for a while in preparation. Imagine my surprise when the engine coughed, sputtered, surged (2k to 3k) and tried very hard to die. Thinking it was just cold after our recent rains and freezing weather I feathered the accelerator. Wrong move... the RPMs climbed to nearly 4,000 and before another thought passed through my noggin, I quickly shut it down. As I stepped out of the cab I noticed that the accelerator pedal was clear to the floor. Reaching up to where the cable connects I found nothing but slack wire. After a quick consultation with my guru mechanic the consensus was a broken accelerator cable. However, he agreed to a house call (how many would do that?), and when he arrived it was not long before the question was answered. After dis-assembly of the air intake housing we found that the air filter had been shredded on two sides by some sort of rodent (possibly a ground squirrel). Firing up the engine and pressing on the accelerator had sucked the shreds into the throttle body, jamming the throttle in the wide open position. The shop vac took care of the remnants and once I get a new air filter I'll be good to go. By the way, for those of you who have never had to remove your dog-house, it ain't fun!Steve S. Lazy Bones & Jiggs
Re: It never rains... Reply #1 – December 14, 2009, 06:36:34 pm Yahoo Message Number: 108522Steve You could make a screen out of hardware cloth to cover the air intake to prevent small critters from moving in. http://www.twpinc.com/twpinc/control/category/~category_id=TWPCAT_4> I hope no damage occurred if any of the filter media was ingested. It's paper and would most likely be ground up, burned and exhaled.Rodents can cause all sorts of under-hood problems.Larry
Re: It never rains... Reply #2 – December 14, 2009, 08:29:11 pm Yahoo Message Number: 108526Larry, you are right about critters. Last June I was taking my 98 FT 22 foot LD to the A/C guy. My LD had been in storage for 6 months. Some kind of critter, probably squirrels, had built a nest on the Chevy cat. converter. One mile down the road a fire erupted at the location of the cat. converter. I could not do anything but call 911 and watch her burn. I immediately went online and located a nice 24 footer FL in Portland, OR. I don't like climbing up a night so I removed the two chairs , cut down the table that covers the battery box, made a frame of oak, bought replacement doors from Home Depot. I then purchased a latex 6 inch block and had it upholstered locally. Now I have lots of storage underneath, and BTW overhead. I feel the utility of my LD has been enhanced. I could sleep 5 if needed. The gist of this story and the lesson learned, if we store our LD long term, give it a good "preflight", like I do my airplane. It could save your RV or your life. Darryll 2000 Blueboy.
It never rains... Reply #3 – December 15, 2009, 02:22:48 pm Yahoo Message Number: 108560Steve wrote: By the way, for those of you who have never had to remove your doghouse, it ain't fun! I don't know about the newer rigs, but on my '89RL removing the passenger seat was easy and made a world of difference in taking the dog house out.Gary in Chico, CA[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Topic: It never rains... (Read 5 times)
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