Not Much to Explain... Mice

[gpflepsen]

We get 7-8 inches of snow by the time I get home to start moving it, including a mile drive/plow to the 4-lane hwy to plow the median so the Mrs. can get across to get home. Just as the light subsides I pull out of the garage and go to hit the lights and... nothing. The turn signals give just enough light to work for an hour plus. Headlight fuse is blown and I trace down from the schematics that the relays are just not acting right by electrical test and grounds. I pull the dash (1533) and this is what the connectors at the headlamp relays look like; excuse the cell phone quality.

It's always something... The upper relay is missing about two inches of wire, the bottom four are almost severed. No where else are there signs of damage. Any suggestions for a fix? I don't think there's enough wire at the connector to solder some extensions on.

 

[beenthere]

Looks like enough wire to me to solder back together. Might need an extra hand to hold the two wires together and another extra to do the soldering.

At least to get going again.

Some mouse poison around is in order. Usually there is a nest near or over the wires they chew.

Good luck.

 

[tsteahr]

Time to fire the household cat!

Seriously, You may be able to get the metal portion of each conductor to come out of the molded plastic connector. That would give you a little more to solder to. I have remove the conductors from similar plastic connectors in the past and then been able to reinsert them without any problems.

Good luck!

 

[Willl]

It's doable. Are those spades in that plug ?

You'll have to pull the plug and peek to see what retains the metal piece in the plastic.

 

[WilliamTO-35]

Mice- I feel your pain ! Inside my shop, inside my house , they've done a lot of damage. If they don't chew on it, they pee on it . They're just trying to survive, but the interaction between mice and humans is often an unpleasant one when they get inside. And when they die, the smell is horrible.
Good luck with your repairs. I have found that mice don't like to chew on wires covered with asphalt spray, as used to undercoat cars or treat tree wounds. When I run a new wire through my attic for satellite or cable or phone use, I always spray the wire with asphalt spray, usually making a big mess in the process. But, it does work. For vehicles, it's not an ideal method, and tends to obscure color coding . All of my appliances in my kitchen have rat wire bottoms and backs, and I've been doing the same with furniture, cabinets, and tool drawers and cabinets in my shop. Keeping them from getting into your buildings is, or course, first priority, and keeping any food away from them is also vital. Sadly, food does include wire insulation.
I recommend trapping them, since poisoning them results in dead mice hidden away inside your home and shop . Contrary to poison claims, they don't go outside to die.

 

[Willl]

Small tip to keep them out from under your hood is to leave the hood open or propped it open a little.

Make it enough to let the 'light' in.

 

[beenthere]

Mice-...............Contrary to poison claims, they don't go outside to die.

I've used poison for the better part of 40 years in and around this house.
It works IF there is not already a population living inside. Only once when I had some siding off did a family get inside of a garage wall, and the poison dead mice did smell for a short time.

Keeping poison out will get the mice that are seeking to get inside. They find it, pack it back to their dwelling and eventually eat it.

I put poison packets out in my firewood stacked on pallets, and they eat it there and die. Bring the pallets in the garage with no mice, but do keep baited traps there to catch any strays. I don't keep an unlimited supply of poison out, but let them carry it away and have to eat it - - which apparently they do.

Poison works well for me.

 

[Johnbro]

Been there, done that. Constant battle with mice around here. I'm currently having excellent luck with the Rat Zapper--bait it with some dog kibble and it electrocutes them when they go after it. Catches mice and rats. for me the way to keep them out of the tractor is to move it frequently, hard to do in winter sometimes though.

 

[ray66v]

I have made a lot of these kind of repairs in the body shop over the years. Crushed, and damaged wires, & connectors, are pretty common nowadays.

That type of connector came from the automotive industry. If your lucky, you can find ones to splice in there in an automobile salvage yard.

We replaced an occasional wiring harness in the body shop, and often had several damaged ones laying around that we would scavenge parts off of. Checking your local body shop for possible replacements that they may have laying around, is also a possibility.

Finally, if all else fails, you can solder the wires right to each other, and right to the relays, sensors, bulbs, etc. It is really quite easy, if you can solder, and have a steady hand.

Of course use shrink tube, and liquid electrical tape, where necessary.

Mouse urine is very corrosive, you should see what it does to the aluminum inside of aircraft. Watch for signs of corrosion in areas where they spent a lot of time.

P.S., get a cat. :thumbsup:

 

[jonyyuma]

I had them knock out my spare hunting truck, by eating all the wiring off at the firewall connector. Hardly any wiring left untouched on the engine. Big pack rat nest on top of 350 engine intake, and cracking the hood open did not deter this one. I did tear open her nest and run off, but she came back with a vengence. Good luck, they also attacked my son's polaris, at another location. too bad the lead in wire covering acts so slow.?Jy.

 

[dravin21]

luckily the mice havn't made it to the tractor .. yet .. but i know those headaces well .. come spring i'll be completely rewiring 2 antique cars

 

[HSSC]

Wish I could keep some hungry cats around but the coyote make short order of them.
This is a good thread. Heads up, as I can see it will be a part of my furture.

I truly hate them critters................

 

[gpflepsen]

Yesterday I had a free afternoon so I dug into repairing the damage to the wires going to the two relay connectors. Each relay (high and low beam) has a four wire connector and they were all FUBAR, so the plan was to pull the wires out of the connector and solder replacments to the spade connectors, then reassemble. Then new wires were soldered into the wire harness on the tractor.

The spades are held into the plastic connector plug with little spring catches stamped out of the connector, so a thin narrow blade pushed into the end of the connector will release each individual connector. A pic below shows what they look like. In the past I've had some that were impossible to extract undamaged because they were so fragile. These are rather beefy, and I'm appreciative for that.

Once removed, the connector wire cannot be "uncrimped" without destroying the spade, so the strain relief wrap was pried open and the wire nipped off as close as possible. The connector was tinned and the new wire laid back on and held in place with the relief closed. Then the wire was soldered to the tinned area. Once all eight were done, the spring clip was checked to be extending enough and adjusted, then reinserted into the connector.

The mice didn't leave much room to work on the existing wires at the tractor, so it was a bit tedious working with limited exposure. The damaged wires were trimmed back, stripped and twisted with the connector wires and soldered. Shrink tube applied and heated. A couple zip-ties near the new joints would keep any stresses from reaching the joint and causing failure. Lights work- job complete!

I think I'll stuff several dryer sheets behind the dash while I have the cowling off, it can't hurt.

 

[gpflepsen]

Just a few more pics... One of the assembled connector, one of the installation at the tractor and a couple of the P.O.S. soldering iron that I used.

I've had this soldering iron for probably close to 15+ years, and this must be the first time I used it for any duration. It was maybe plugged in for 30-40 minutes inside, then another like time in the garage. The iron started to melt the plastic which secures it into the handle. Who'd a thunk a manufacturer would produce an iron than can melt itself?

Iron specifics: Model 910 K&S Engineering 60 Watt "Heavy Duty". It looks to be marketed towards the hobbyist, but that shouldn't matter as soldering is soldering and it doesn't care who is holding it. Proudly "Made in China" for American disposable consumption.:thumbdown:

 

[ray66v]

I think I'll stuff several dryer sheets behind the dash while I have the cowling off, it can't hurt.

It could make your tractor smell like a sissy tractor.

They do make tools that make it easy to retract the barbs that hold the spades in the connectors.

Toyota MR2's had a big fuse box just inside the left quarter panel that used to break whenever they got hit there. I would to have to one at a time, remove the old wire from the old box, remove the new wire from the new box, then place the old wire in the correct place on the new box, while working in close quarters with probably 50 wires, and no wiring diagram if I screwed up.

I don't miss that.