Squirrel Family In the Engine Bay

A

AHTex

New member
Hey All,

Well woke up to no start. Decided to put it off for a few hours and finally popped the hood. To my surprise there was a rather large nest up by the vacuum canister. Also found some vacuum lines chewed up on the driveway. After extracting the baby squirrels and fending off a mad momma squirrel (totally longer different story) I discovered that my harness had been chewed up pretty good. Also to make things worse, the bulk of the damage was done up by the grommet at the firewall. So I was just looking for some options from yall. Run all new wires to the fuse/relay box, just repair the wires, add in a romex connector. These are my options so far. Thanks!
 
Register to hide this ad
If you can get away with doing the repair with a crimp-on butt connector, I highly recommend using these or something similar to these.

https://www.amazon.com/Butt-Connector-Marine-Grade-Adhesive/dp/B0121ZVOLK?th=1

They have adhesive lined shrink tubing and after crimping and heat gun, they make a water tight seal which would be ideal for a repair like this.

The only thing I can recommend above this is the right crimper. A smooth jaw so it doesn't damage the shrink is what you want. 2nd from the RIGHT crimper is the one I use. The design also help with clearance in tight spaces.

FAWLIAY.jpg


anc-309003_lg__00054.1558141545.jpg
 
This was in my work Explorer in just 2 days ! Totally fresh locally harvested greens... and a bunch of chewed up sound deadening material that I don't know where they stole from, doesn't seem to be missing any. They didn't chew up and wires but gnawed on the engine cover a bit and crapped all over the battery, the designated pooping spot.
 

Attachments

  • squi.jpg
    squi.jpg
    139.9 KB · Views: 343
Butt connectors will work, but they are not the prettiest things in the world when done. They make a big bundle if a bunch of them end up in the same spot.

I do quite a bit of this stuff, and I would go with solder and a good dual wall heat shrink. Looks a lot better, less obvious.

For any wires that are stripped but not cut, you can use a layer of liquid electrical tape covered with a good 3m quality electrical tape. Then cover the whole bundle in a loom of some sort to pretty it up.

Just do one colour at a time and it should go back together OK.
 
Last edited:
Kanoe said:
Butt connectors will work, but they are not the prettiest things in the world when done. They make a big bundle if a bunch of them end up in the same spot.

I do quite a bit of this stuff, and I would go with solder and a good dual wall heat shrink. Looks a lot better, less obvious.

For any wires that are stripped but not cut, you can use a layer of liquid electrical tape covered with a good 3m quality electrical tape. Then cover the whole bundle in a loom of some sort to pretty it up.

Just do one colour at a time and it should go back together OK.
Click to expand...


agree with this ^^^^

esp if wire is not broken, id rewrap it. I was never a fan of liquid electrical tape until this summer doing an on river emergency electrical repair on a boat...now I use it often, and used it yesterday on an extension cord yesterday that a horse stepped on. However I use it thin, then electrical tape ( like above,) and if in wet environment, a thin layer over the electrical tape.

Ive also become a big fan of rescue tape
 
Wedgy said:
This was in my work Explorer in just 2 days ! Totally fresh locally harvested greens... and a bunch of chewed up sound deadening material that I don't know where they stole from, doesn't seem to be missing any. They didn't chew up and wires but gnawed on the engine cover a bit and crapped all over the battery, the designated pooping spot.
Click to expand...

Depending on the year of Explorer the insulation is either from the under engine shield, the hood, or the inner fender liners.
 
Thank god the wires are color coded. Seems to be going back together ok. Just slow and tedious. I ended up going with stainless barrel connectors and marine heat shrink. Kept the bundle small and should provide some protection. My neighbor is a bit of a wildlife expert, says the babies were about a month old. Those little guys drove all around town with me. Anyhow i think they out grew their space and got trapped. Thats when the chewing started.
 
Thankfully are rigs actually have non soy based insulation on them. Newer wiring went to soy based insulation and the critters just love that protein sheath on the wires. So they made the wiring even more attractive to animals to chew on. :[

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk
 
brillo_76 said:
Thankfully are rigs actually have non soy based insulation on them. Newer wiring went to soy based insulation and the critters just love that protein sheath on the wires. So they made the wiring even more attractive to animals to chew on. :[

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I've read a bunch of stories and seen several vehicles at trailheads where the marmots and various other critters ate the wiring and the car wouldn't start. I wondered what was so appealing about the wires and that explains why .
 
Wedgy said:
I've read a bunch of stories and seen several vehicles at trailheads where the marmots and various other critters ate the wiring and the car wouldn't start. I wondered what was so appealing about the wires and that explains why .
Click to expand...

Well its close. Toyota I think was a few years later.

2000
Since the year 2000, almost all car manufacturers started using the soy-based wiring insulation.​

Yes you might as well just put an eat me on the wiring on all new automobiles. By switching insulation, they created an entirely new problem.

I noticed it for sure in the mid 2000s on Toyota vehicles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 685 (members: 2, guests: 683)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,312
Messages
3,554,089
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top