!#$@%&*@!-farkling squirrels!!

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Scott Tanner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2003
Messages
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Location
Marcellus, NY
So here I am, driving home last night, doing about 60-ish, approaching downtown on the interstate. I slow down a little for traffic, then I let off the gas to slow down to 45-ish to change lanes. The Trac wouldn't slow down, so i looked to see if the speed control was on, it wasn't. I put on the brake, and the engine is still pulling. I put the trac in neutral, and the engine revs up high. Right about now, I'm thinking that wow, my throttle cable broke.... my tps is bad... i have a vacuum leak... trac is going to blow up... I'm gonna crash... All of this came into my head in about 4 seconds. I shut off the trac while in neutral at 35 mph, and restarted it, same thing. Now, I did find out that the rev limiter that keeps the engine from going over 3000 rpms in park does not work while in neutral... It revved up past 5000 rpm. I then shifted to neutral and shut the engine off and rolled to the exit, made the light at the bottom of the ramp and into a parking lot using "armstrong" steering and brakes. Opened the hood to inspect the throttle, reached under the engine cover to snap the throttle. when it snapped back, I heard this crunch sound. I lifted up the engine cover to see what the noise was, and a squirrel left a hickory nut in there that must have rolled down between the throttle cam and the stop, thus keeping the throttle from closing... Cleaned it out, and runs normally now.... I can't take too many more of these.... :fire::fire::fire:
 
All I can say is "Wow!". What are the odds of that happening.

Thank God you had the presence of mind to handle it like you did. Many would have just panicked an run into something like those Toyota's with the sudden acceleration issues a couple of years ago.
 
reached under the engine cover to snap the throttle. when it snapped back, I heard this crunch sound



I thought you were going to say. The squirl got your finger....whew.....
 
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