Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 14:45:35 -0400
Reply-To: Dave Katsuki <dkatsuki@THEWORLD.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Katsuki <dkatsuki@THEWORLD.COM>
Subject: Re: Why I hate mice and cats! (Vanagon content)
In-Reply-To: <JBEHILDOENOMAEMBAHMGMECICIAA.kenwilfy@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Ken,
Had the same problem (mice) on a previous van, and same solution,
too. (You get good at pulling the dash after
replacing a couple of heater blower motors and cleaning/disinfecting the
air system...)
The place where the mice are getting in is around the edges of the air
intake screen, which is behind the front (upper) grill.
To see the problem, remove the front grill and look around the sides of the
plastic inner screen that covers the air intake.
There is probably a small gap at either side of the screen, and that turns
out to be just fine for a mouse to get in, since mice can get through a
1/2" crack.
I first taped the gaps up with duct tape over pieces of alum flashing, and
then for a more permanent solution, I formed 1/4" hardware cloth
(galvanized screening) to cover the gaps and attached it with
screws. Need to goop the screw holes well afterwards, since that's also a
great place for rust to get in.
Others have mentioned that mice can also get through the battery breather
pipe (on late models with sealed battery box) and make a nest in the
battery box.
The easy solution to that one is to overcharge the battery really hard so
as to make lots of hydrogen, and then light the breather pipe, which will
then blow the mice right out (kids, don't try this on your own van... wear
goggles...).
Dave
90 Westy
At 02:19 PM 7/23/02 -0400, Kenneth Wilford wrote:
>I bought a '85 Westy last summer and after a bunch of sitting around I
>finally got a chance within the last few weeks to get it back on the road.
>It has been sitting since '97 and when I bought it, it reeked of mice pee.
>I have since taken everything apart in this Westy from the fridge to the
>seats, etc. and have washed almost everything to try to get rid of this
>smell. The last thing I had to do was the thing I dreaded the most. They
>had built a nest in the front heater box. This was were the worst of the
>smell was coming from and it got worse whenever you went down the road
>because air would blow through it. I had to take the entire dash apart
>yesterday just to remove all of the mouse crap that was in there (the blower
>fan worked great). What a mess! I wiped everything down the bleach and
>water. It smells much better in the van now (I have one of those pine trees
>hanging on the mirror), but what a bunch of trouble to go through just for a
>few small furry creatures! I am going to put some poison in the van now to
>hopefully keep this from happening again.
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