new meaning to "serpentine belt"

....so the other day, the cat and the dog are out by the driveway, and I'm hearing this "activity" out there...
and the cat has an almost 3 foot even gray snake cornered. Pretty soon the snake wrangles under the jeep and
disappears.

The cat and the dog give up after 1/2 hour, but I'm still standing there trying to figure out what to do. I
usually coax animals out with tuna fish or doggie biskits but that's not gonna work.

So my wife sez to open the hood. And there it is on top of the radiator, you might say "blending in". I kind
of drop the hood and then think, well, why don't I start the engine, and the thing'll get too hot and maybe
come out. (the engine was cold)

So I start it up. It idles for a three or four minutes or so, and now it's starting to get suspenseful. Do I
peek under the hood just to "check"? Then, just like in an old roadrunner cartoon, we hear a THWACK THWACK
THWACK and the head comes flying out underneath and then the end of the tail comes out underneath and then...
silence.

So we wait a minute and the fact that it's gotta be dead sinks in, so I turn it off and...open the hood. And
there wrapped around the fan blade mechanism - almost in a knot - is the rest of the snake, and I see that
there is a certain amount of snake guts splayed under the hood.

Eventually I worked the pieces out with a stick and hosed off everything (it needed it anyway...) and that was
that.
Yikes !

C.P.

The moral of that story is starting the engine might not be the best way
to get a snake out from your engine compartment <G>

I think I would have started with blowing the horn... or maybe getting
the hose and spraying the snake while it was still alive and could get
out on it's own!

Jeff DeWitt



Captain Purple wrote:
> ...so the other day, the cat and the dog are out by the driveway, and I'm hearing this "activity" out there...
> and the cat has an almost 3 foot even gray snake cornered. Pretty soon the snake wrangles under the jeep and
> disappears.
>
> The cat and the dog give up after 1/2 hour, but I'm still standing there trying to figure out what to do. I
> usually coax animals out with tuna fish or doggie biskits but that's not gonna work.
>
> So my wife sez to open the hood. And there it is on top of the radiator, you might say "blending in". I kind
> of drop the hood and then think, well, why don't I start the engine, and the thing'll get too hot and maybe
> come out. (the engine was cold)
>
> So I start it up. It idles for a three or four minutes or so, and now it's starting to get suspenseful. Do I
> peek under the hood just to "check"? Then, just like in an old roadrunner cartoon, we hear a THWACK THWACK
> THWACK and the head comes flying out underneath and then the end of the tail comes out underneath and then...
> silence.
>
> So we wait a minute and the fact that it's gotta be dead sinks in, so I turn it off and...open the hood. And
> there wrapped around the fan blade mechanism - almost in a knot - is the rest of the snake, and I see that
> there is a certain amount of snake guts splayed under the hood.
>
> Eventually I worked the pieces out with a stick and hosed off everything (it needed it anyway...) and that was
> that.
> Yikes !
>
> C.P.
>
>

http://www.dragsource.com/articles/snake.jpg
God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O
http://www.billhughes.com/

Jeff DeWitt wrote:
>
> The moral of that story is starting the engine might not be the best way
> to get a snake out from your engine compartment <G>
>
> I think I would have started with blowing the horn... or maybe getting
> the hose and spraying the snake while it was still alive and could get
> out on it's own!
>
> Jeff DeWitt

"Captain Purple" > wrote in message
...
> ...so the other day, the cat and the dog are out by the driveway, and I'm
> hearing this "activity" out there...
> and the cat has an almost 3 foot even gray snake cornered. Pretty soon the
> snake wrangles under the jeep and
> disappears.
>
> The cat and the dog give up after 1/2 hour, but I'm still standing there
> trying to figure out what to do. I
> usually coax animals out with tuna fish or doggie biskits but that's not
> gonna work.
>
> So my wife sez to open the hood. And there it is on top of the radiator,
> you might say "blending in". I kind
> of drop the hood and then think, well, why don't I start the engine, and
> the thing'll get too hot and maybe
> come out. (the engine was cold)
>
> So I start it up. It idles for a three or four minutes or so, and now it's
> starting to get suspenseful. Do I
> peek under the hood just to "check"? Then, just like in an old roadrunner
> cartoon, we hear a THWACK THWACK
> THWACK and the head comes flying out underneath and then the end of the
> tail comes out underneath and then...
> silence.
>

Dude! You shoulda seen that coming ...

lol...Great story!

Jeff



"Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Captain Purple" > wrote in message
> ...
>> ...so the other day, the cat and the dog are out by the driveway, and I'm
>> hearing this "activity" out there...
>> and the cat has an almost 3 foot even gray snake cornered. Pretty soon
>> the snake wrangles under the jeep and
>> disappears.
>>
>> The cat and the dog give up after 1/2 hour, but I'm still standing there
>> trying to figure out what to do. I
>> usually coax animals out with tuna fish or doggie biskits but that's not
>> gonna work.
>>
>> So my wife sez to open the hood. And there it is on top of the radiator,
>> you might say "blending in". I kind
>> of drop the hood and then think, well, why don't I start the engine, and
>> the thing'll get too hot and maybe
>> come out. (the engine was cold)
>>
>> So I start it up. It idles for a three or four minutes or so, and now
>> it's starting to get suspenseful. Do I
>> peek under the hood just to "check"? Then, just like in an old
>> roadrunner cartoon, we hear a THWACK THWACK
>> THWACK and the head comes flying out underneath and then the end of the
>> tail comes out underneath and then...
>> silence.
>>
>
> Dude! You shoulda seen that coming ...
>
>
>
>

Ick.

I had a similar experience with our Kawasaki Mule: We keep it at our cabin
in northern Michigan, and when we went up in April I started it up and heard
a "THUNK" and then a high-pitch noise that varied with engine speed. We have
field mice everywhere up there so I'm thinking there's a damn nest in the
transmission. It has a belt-drive constantly variable transmission, similar
to a snowmobile, and the exhaust vent tube isn't screened, although the
intake vent is.

So I end up removing the housing cover and lo and behold, there's a HUGE
mouse nest in there, and when I pull the housing cover out and dump it I see
about 4 large pieces of mouse, with the rest sprayed on the inside of the
housing and all over the belt. So I use hot water and a scrub brush to clean
the mouse parts off the belt and the inside of the cover, and blow out all
the nest parts. Once everything's clean it all seemed to work. I went to the
local hardware and got a steel straining screen to cover the vent tube.

It took a couple hours for the cooking mouse smell to go away, though.

"Captain Purple" > wrote in message
...
> ...so the other day, the cat and the dog are out by the driveway, and I'm
> hearing this "activity" out there...
> and the cat has an almost 3 foot even gray snake cornered. Pretty soon the
> snake wrangles under the jeep and
> disappears.
>
> The cat and the dog give up after 1/2 hour, but I'm still standing there
> trying to figure out what to do. I
> usually coax animals out with tuna fish or doggie biskits but that's not
> gonna work.
>
> So my wife sez to open the hood. And there it is on top of the radiator,
> you might say "blending in". I kind
> of drop the hood and then think, well, why don't I start the engine, and
> the thing'll get too hot and maybe
> come out. (the engine was cold)
>
> So I start it up. It idles for a three or four minutes or so, and now it's
> starting to get suspenseful. Do I
> peek under the hood just to "check"? Then, just like in an old roadrunner
> cartoon, we hear a THWACK THWACK
> THWACK and the head comes flying out underneath and then the end of the
> tail comes out underneath and then...
> silence.
>
> So we wait a minute and the fact that it's gotta be dead sinks in, so I
> turn it off and...open the hood. And
> there wrapped around the fan blade mechanism - almost in a knot - is the
> rest of the snake, and I see that
> there is a certain amount of snake guts splayed under the hood.
>
> Eventually I worked the pieces out with a stick and hosed off everything
> (it needed it anyway...) and that was
> that.
> Yikes !
>
> C.P.
>
>