'96 F-150, 4.9L (300) six, five-speed, 92K. Told of this before, but just found pics: clutch started to slip, uphill in 5th, caught hold downshifting OK, seemed OK except when pulling hard. Figured disc worn out, but really thought previous owner "rode the clutch" a lot. So, bought a new disc and pressure plate, NAPA. Pulled out the starter, saw funny-looking shreds in there, reached in, brought out several mummified mice! I swore under my breath, having NO IDEA how their presence could have caused any trouble at all! Pulled out the transmission, swore out loud this time! They had brought in long stalks of heavy grass, like Johnson Grass, along with other ****, and over time, the grass had wound itself up into "rope", lodging beneath the pressure plate's fingers, preventing them from fully retracting back to rest position. The grass was effectively "riding the clutch", preventing full engagement force.

Hating this job, and surely wanting to prevent a recurrence, I noted two open vent holes, visible in the pic, on the top back of the bell housing, through which they must have entered, back and forth, during the few weeks the truck was not used. The large squarish hole is sealed off with a rubber boot. I glued two round pieces of window screen wire over the 2 holes, using RTV silicone rubber. The slave cylinder and throw-out bearing looked good, spun nice and free, no leakage, so opted to NOT spend 80 bucks for a new slave. BIG MISTAKE! The old disc was good as new, but I went ahead and installed the new clutch anyway.

Moral: DO replace the slave when yer in there; the damned thing started to leak less than a month after putting the trans. back in! imp

 

Yer lucky they didn't munch on the engine wiring harness, I can't count on both hands and feet the amount of harness replacements and repairs stretching into the thousands $$$$ worth when I worked at the dealer.

The clutch invasion is a new one on me however.

.

 

The girl I know just replaced her wife harness. She has a Fiat and the tech said the new harnesses are made from soy by products. Mice love that stuff he said. Her car was only a few months old when they ate the wiring harness.

 

I thought it was bad when the mice got in my log splitter and made a home. I evicted them with extreme prejudice.

 

The problem is easily solved with a little peanut butter. I ultimately caught 10 of the little bastards this winter.

 

Thank you all for your responses! We had the worst trouble with "Packrats", these guys being big, gray, like Norway Rats, I guess. In my old garage, all my tools stored while building my shop, they stole anything shiny, socket wrenches for example, and carried them away into big nests they built above and behind stored boxes, etc. One of them chewed away the little squeeze-bulb gasoline primer like you may have seen on Tecumseh engines. Old Ford truck stored for months outdoors, had huge nests underhood, they actually chewed through a battery cable! Copper strands and all!


Bear with me for a little story? '96 Explorer, usually kept in shop, was outdoors several days, we left to go to town, 23 miles away, nearly there, the engine began missing. Pulled over, opened hood, FIRE! Packrats had built a nest between the ignition coil and upper intake manifold, chewed THROUGH a plug wire, which left a gap big enough to fire across, ignited wire insulation, fire spread to coil and manifold (plastic). By then, the rats were long-gone, I got the fire out, coil still worked, but was pretty melted by heat, limped on into town, bought new wires and coil.


If the engine had not started missing, and the fire continued, it might have cost the whole G. D. vehicle! Scary! Kept it pretty much inside after that. Several times, entering the old garage, one or two of those bastards looked down on me from up on the walls' top plate. I took to carrying a .22 revolver, with which I killed several up there on a couple of occasions. The bullets went through the roof (tin), but it already leaked like hell anyway! Had 2 brand-new Motorsport 5.0L HO engines in there on dollies, the rats built nests under them, but pretty much left the soft parts alone, which included the upper engine harnesses Ford supplied them with. Still have one of those 5.0s, never used, brand new. Thanks for reading! imp

 

I once found a groundhog sleeping on the top of the engine in my Buick.

 

My 1996 F-150 sat for a long time and I ended up with a mouse nest in the clutch, causing it to slip. I removed the rubber boot on the bell housing and sprayed water from garden hose in it to loosen up the nest materials. (Clutch pedal must be depressed and engine running while flushing the clutch) Water must be directed into clutch interior, flashlight recommended. Took me 20 minutes of flushing to restore clutch function. So glad I did not have to tear it all down!! Hope this helps someone else out there.

 

Where did she get the wife harness?

I could use one of those.

 

A nice rat snake will keep them away!!