Skidder

[matteh99]

No welding involved in this project yet but I thought you guys would find it interesting.

My Dad's skidder wouldn't start this winter. It cranked fine at first and then started cranking slow. He charged the batteries and that didn't help. He swapped batteries from his crawler and that didn't help. He replaced the starter and that didn't help. Something inside the engine was binding up making it hard for the starter motor to turn over the engine. So he got one of his friends to tow it back to his shop so he could work on it. He futzed around with it and finally ended up pulling out the motor. Once to took the head off the problem was very obvious.

Thank goodness for friends with bigger toys than yours. It wouldn't have been easy getting the skidder home with out something huge to tow it.

The exhaust manifold was full of seeds..

Seeds don't compress the same way air does. As he cranked more and more seeds fell inside making it harder and harder to crank. Until enough seeds fell in that it couldn't crank any more.


The moral of the story is cover your exhaust pipe when your equipment is parked. Even if it is parked inside.

Eric

[Gadget]

Wow, was it mice or squirrels packing the pipe?

[junes]

Thats just amazin. was Any damage done to the motor

[matteh99]

It was probably mice. I don't think squirrels could fit through the baffles in the muffler. It could have been squirrles if the muffler was shot the exhaust pipe is big enough. We didn't find any of the little monsters inside so it is hard to know. Most of the seeds are juniper berries.

It did damage the motor. Two of the rods got bend by trying to compress the seeds and the valve seats on the set of valves that were open got really corroded from the moisture of the seeds. My dad guesses it will be around 2 grand to fix. .

Eric

[KHK]

WOW! If I didn't see the pictures I would think that you telling us a tall story!
Thanks for sharing.

[Hamstn]

Wow that is interesting. Guess it be time to fix the exhaust. Would have thought the exhaust would have pushed out the seeds but they look really packed in there. Yes not a good or cheap way to make bio-fuel.

[arandall]

That is really different! I'll bet you were frustrated when you found out the cause.

Cheers,
Art R.

[junes]

Yea without pictures I would never have believed that. That's too bad they caused damage. What do you guys do with that piece of equipment. You log?

[huck_this]

Holy Crap!!!!That was one busy little mouse!!!

[BearNPum]

Arrgh, work no one should have to deal with.