Thursday (doing a little catch-up here) rolling home from work, got a call from Wendy about Helena. Seems Helena's car broke/threw the big serpentine belt and she had lost her power steering and generator. I was more worried about overheating as she limped home, but later found that I was needlessly worries since the cross-mounted engine has a waterpump not driven by a belt and the radiator fans are electric.
Get home, pop the hood on the Escort, figure which side of the engine is the front and discover a large rather dead rat. Gingerly pick up and drop into the trash. Go wash hands. Get the hose and hose down the front of the engine. check the now cleaned area and find that the belt is simply off the pulleys. I'm assuming that the rat's tail had gotten caught between the belt and something and forced the belt to slip sideways -- the Escort has an automatic belt tensioner that will allow this. Had to dig out the Chilton's to find that you use a 3/8" ratchet driver or similar to move the tensioner. Grabbed my 3/8" torque wrench (longer handle, cushion grip), moved the tensioner to full back, and wiggled the belt back into position. No problem.
Seems that with food and water lying around, rats are a problem at dog kennels. They like hopping up on car engines to get warm.
Posted by at December 6, 2003 08:22 AM