Stupid lil dirt dobber broke my $30,000 Kubota...

dixiedrifter · Jul 13, 2004

Apparently the breather line going to the transmission of my M9000 is a prime home site. Same with the AC drains, and fuel tank breather lines.

Once plugged pressure in the transmission caused a cap to blow off the top and shoot hydraulic fluid everywhere.

Naturally this only happens in tall grass where there is slim to non chance of ever finding it again.

So now I get to drive 60 miles to my Kubota dealer to pick up a $6 part all because of some darn wasp.

I did rig up a patch however that consists of a rubber innertube cut into a circle with a speaker magnet on top of it.

Works good with lil chance its gonna go anywhere and if it does, it will just slide somewhere else but stay stuck.

Von · Jul 13, 2004

Same thing happened to me with my old B8200! Only I didn't lose the plug. von

MicroPilot · Jul 14, 2004

AND

mahlers · Jul 14, 2004

Funny you should bring that up. I spent about five hours last Saturday trying to fix my backpack blower. It worked great a couple of weeks ago, and then on Saturday I go to start it up and it just wouldn't fire. I checked everything - took it all apart, made sure each and every component was OK, and worked myself into a sweaty mess trying to pull-start it to no avail. Finally, on a fluke, I looked into the exhaust pipe and saw this weird mud cap neatly covering and plugging the inside of the pipe. I poked at it with a stick, and out comes a big ugly developing mud dobber. After cleaning out the nest, the blower started right up.

On one hand I was glad that the blower wasn't broken - but on the other hand I was really aggravated that the problem was so simple and I could have fixed it in two minutes if I had looked in the right place.

boustany · Jul 14, 2004

I had a flakey high efficiency furnace that would run/stop/run every minute or so. Eventually I diagnosed that it was 'flooded' with water. Obviously the condensate drain was plugged. I should learn to blow & not suck. I almost swallowed a great big, very dead, and unpleasant tasting /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif bug which had plugged the drain pipe.

Problem solved! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

ByronBob · Jul 14, 2004

Got a mouse (mice?) that like to build a nest on top of my radiator. Every couple of days I clean it up. My fear is they chew stuff I don't want them to. Lucky so far but the rodents need to move...........

rlee6 · Jul 14, 2004

Bug is a reality that we often forget. At work, during routine testing of vent valves, we learned the real danger of the bugs plugging up vent valves/holes. We did exactly the same thing: mesh and hose clamp.

By the way, what is the bug? Does it become a wasp of some kind?

Charlie_in_TX · Jul 14, 2004

For most low volume vents you can seal up the end of the hose and cut slits in the length ways.

MicroPilot · Jul 14, 2004

Here is a link to a good article about Mud Daubers aka "Dirt Dobbers".

Read this article for some good photos of organ pipe nests.

slowrev · Jul 14, 2004

One good thing about mud daubers is that they collect black widow spiders among other types to put in their nest for their young to eat. I destroyed a few when I was younger then found the black widows inside and never tore down another one unless it was winter.

My tractor has the tranny vent right beside the gear shift, so I can keep an eye on it. Maybe the older tractors kept this in mind when designing and the overseas designers don't have mud daubers over there.