Corny truck

[Kaiser2boy]

Some friends had spent several hours trying to get an M43 running. It ran when parked. But is this case, it was running when parked just several weeks earlier.

It would start and then die in less than a minute. All the various starting methods - choke on, choke off, pump pedal, hold pedal open - had about the same result.

I arrived after they had been attempting to get it started for about half an hour. They were both crowded into the space under the hood. I was standing alongside the right (passenger's) door.

After each brief start, I heard the sound of escaping air coming from under the truck. They could not hear this from where they were. I pointed this sound out to them. They both were able to hear it when they got their heads out of the engine compartment and listened from my location.

The M43 owner was a nice guy. He regularly bought corn and put it out for the many dear who roamed the area around his house and his workshop. He let the corn bags lay on the floor in a corner of the shop. Mice had packed corn into the tailpipe so tightly that I was hearing the escaping air that built up pressure during the short moments the engine was running.

There was so much corn that we had to remove the muffler and tailbipe and blow them clear with compressed air. Without the corn blockage, the truck started and ran perfectly. We were all pretty surprised since there was no other indications of mice. Usually they modify the upholstery first.

I wonder if these mice would have done the same trick if they could have found a potato.

It may have been very interesting if there had been less corn in there. The engine would have started and the system would get very hot and then blow popcorn out the tail pipe.