My wife called me on the way home today. She said the Dodge pickup had very dim headlighhts on the trip to her job today. She also reported something hanging from the front on the truck behind the bumper.
I told her to stay put and I would stop by and check things out.
As soon as I pulled up I recognized the fan belt hanging from the front.
Checking things out I found some brown/yellow hair on the pulley to the air conditioner compressor. She had driven the truck to the grocery yesterday and drove to the barn after a while to put some things in the deepfreeze. She heard a "Bump" when she started the engine.
I figure a cat got under the hood to enjoy the warm engine and got quite a shock when she started the Dodge up. The hair was not the color of our cats. I guess it must have been a "visiting" tomcat.
The alternator and ac were driven by the dislocated belts. The water pump belt was still in place. I had enough tools to put the belt back on so it was not a big deal to fix.
Her coworkers were all stopping by to offer rides/help to her but we handled in ok.
The moral of the story is have a basic set of tools and jumper cables on board. I think I will put a cheap socket set in my ride It was a pain to replace the belt with channel locks and crescent wrench. We were only a few minutes from home so I could have gone for the big tool box but I wanted to see if I could do it with what I had.
I bet there is a cat with a sore tail or leg around the heighborhood today.
Back in my gas station days around 1981 I got involved with a cat vs fanbelt incident that caused radiator damage. The cats didn't fair well against the radiator / fan either. The Lady who owned the car was very upset that she had done in her pet with the Ford LTD.
Good Luck
Bob
I told her to stay put and I would stop by and check things out.
As soon as I pulled up I recognized the fan belt hanging from the front.
Checking things out I found some brown/yellow hair on the pulley to the air conditioner compressor. She had driven the truck to the grocery yesterday and drove to the barn after a while to put some things in the deepfreeze. She heard a "Bump" when she started the engine.
I figure a cat got under the hood to enjoy the warm engine and got quite a shock when she started the Dodge up. The hair was not the color of our cats. I guess it must have been a "visiting" tomcat.
The alternator and ac were driven by the dislocated belts. The water pump belt was still in place. I had enough tools to put the belt back on so it was not a big deal to fix.
Her coworkers were all stopping by to offer rides/help to her but we handled in ok.
The moral of the story is have a basic set of tools and jumper cables on board. I think I will put a cheap socket set in my ride It was a pain to replace the belt with channel locks and crescent wrench. We were only a few minutes from home so I could have gone for the big tool box but I wanted to see if I could do it with what I had.
I bet there is a cat with a sore tail or leg around the heighborhood today.
Back in my gas station days around 1981 I got involved with a cat vs fanbelt incident that caused radiator damage. The cats didn't fair well against the radiator / fan either. The Lady who owned the car was very upset that she had done in her pet with the Ford LTD.
Good Luck
Bob