A rhetorical question. Here's why:
Some of you will remember that I use a twenty dollar Cat Eye Velo 5. It has always worked very well except when the sensor bracket came loose and was bouncing around, causing erratic readings. Well I fixed that and all was well until this morning. I had driven to Winfield, a distance of about ten miles, and everything worked normally. But when I started home, the speedometer started giving erratic readings again, and then quit altogether. I checked the bracket and it was fine, so I drove the rest of the way home with no speedometer. When I got home and started really inspecting things, I found the inch of wire pictured above. It was just behind the front axle. What mangled the wire and caused it to break? Rocks kicked up by the wheel? A gnawing rodent? I have no clue. It took a few minutes to cut out the bad inch and splice the wire back together. I went for a test drive around the block, and all is well in T Land again.
Steve
That looks like the work of the copper eating bacteria.
It enters thru a break in the insulation and expands as it eats the copper.
Once it gets big enough the insulation explodes.
It looks as if you have a serious infestation because it attacked in four locations on the same wire.
It has surely spread though your T.
Skills to remove all the infestation can only be found in Newfields NH.
If you send your T to me in Newfields New Hampshire, I'd be willing to do it for you.
It usually takes 3-5 years but your T will be saved.
A rat?
Steve, My mother went to St. Johns in Winfield back around 1920. Her home was Canton (near McPherson) and that's where my Dad met her and the rest is history. My Mom was born in 1900 and died in 2000, My Dad was born in 1898 and died in 2002. They lived in Wisconsin where I was born. My Dad owned a Model T but hardly knew a wrench from a screwdriver.
Steve,
Squirrels love smaller wires helps them sharpen their teeth.
Also certain poly tube (same chemical compound as used on lots of drip irrigation pipe, not sure what it is) is a smorgasboard for dogs, voles and gophers...something in it is like catnip for them to gnaw on.
Might just have been what's in the insulation if you can't find a mechanical cause but since the topic is what it is, and you are 'Steve', and you started with 'rhetorical' maybe you already know?
Fred,
You're a miracle worker. Thank goodness you offer your services. :-)
Darin
Obviously the work of the rare and elusive west Kansas "jackalope".
Be very very careful...........
http://nicolezoltack.blogspot.com/2012/01/creature-of-week-jackalope.html
Rob, a lengthier description would probably have discussed their predilection for copper....
Dick,
How true. For those attending the Lincoln tour next month, be on the lookout for them. Not as prevalent as they once were, it is still not unusual to see a "trophy mount" at some local watering holes. Of course, now they are a protected species. Naturally the Nebraska varieties are much larger and more intelligent than their poor Kansas cousins (probably due to inbreeding).
Steve,
I crack me up
Rob
Rob, there is said to be several sightings of them up here in the Adirondacks lately. Maybe they migrated east due to the pressure!!!!(snicker, snicker)!!
I've heard that the wireless speedometers will not work on a T. Steve's experience confirms this. As soon as his speedometer was wireless, it quit working.