Date:         Fri, 21 May 2010 22:06:58 -0400
Reply-To:     craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Friday- Conductivity of a stomach (Some Vanagon Content)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

So I was driving from Pittsburgh PA to New Cannan CT today and a few hours
into my trip my temp gauge started doing odd things. The level would spike
and fall, then stay consistent but in new and strange areas. So I pulled
over to take a look. Popped open the engine bay to find that on my bostig
swap, something was interfering with the temp sender.
The zetec uses the stock WBX 1.9 style temp 1 sending unit to feed the gauge
on the dash. It is connected with a spade connector on the top (just like on
a vanagon) and then grounded at the bottom via an eyelet attached to a wire
(rather than just being grounded to the metal thermostat housing in a 1.9
vanagon). Anyway, at some point in my travels I guess I hit some pretty
mangled up roadkill.....

Because when I opened up the engine bay I could see something on the temp
sender. It looked like a frayed red wire. I pulled it off to find that a
stomach (definitely a stomach, with pieces of associated tubing attached)
was grounding my temp sender!
It was a fairly compact stomach, likely from a groundhog or squirrel. I
still have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that this organ had
enough conductivity to do this, but promptly upon removing said organ....
the temp gauge worked as it should and has continued to since!

So.....
that's my odd story of the day.

How conductive are rodent organs?

-Craig
'85GL turned WESTY
BOSTIG in the back