I understand it's irritating when newbies jump on the board and ask repetitive questions, so I hope I'm not doing this here. I looked around a little bit for a similar issue but I didn't see anything so I'm going to jump right in an explain what I have going on and if someone can send me to a similar thread I'm happy to do some reading.

I have a 2008 Class-C RV built on an E-450 chassis with V10 power. I had it parked for a couple of months and when I went to crank it, it appeared to be out of gas when I knew that it wasn't. It had more than a quarter tank (55gal tank) when I parked it and I've put in gas since to be sure. The engine turns over fine but will not fire. The gauge moves up to E and the display says LOW FUEL. When I turn the key without attempting to crank, it appears normal for a second, then you hear a whirr than the low fuel message pops up on the display.

I opened the hood and began looking around and noticed a bunch of sticks on the top of the motor. At this point my heart sunk and I knew I was in trouble. I went inside the cab and pulled off the engine cover, and sure enough, a squirrel had taken up residence it that short (relatively) amount of time between the top of the block and the intake manifold. 20 acers of nice trees around but I guess my engine compartment was more appealing.

I took my shop vac and suctioned out everything I could find. I went though everything I cleaned out and found bits of what appear to be my windshield washer hose and some vacuum hoses. Some of the vacuum hoses are very tiny. I've looked all over the engine as best I can to find where these hoses might be gnawed off, but I can't find where they should be not have I found any chewed electrical wires. It's not easy to see anything on this engine and I must confess to not being a Ford enthusiast per se, so I'm not exactly familiar with where I need to to look on this Ford setup.

I've attached a picture that I hope uploads. The left two hose bits are the windshield washer hose. The other pieces I'm clueless about. Can someone point me in the direction to look?

 

smaller hose looks like windshield washer hose ( that run under the windshield) next size looks like a vacuum hose off the Tee.

 

If this RV has the typical E-Series front cab and the same dashboard I've posted a somewhat full tutorial in the Tech Folder of the 1968-2013 Full Sized Van's sub-forum. You might find something useful there. E-Series Vacuum Control

 

Yes, thank you so much! This looks like it is going to get me pointed somewhere useful.

 

Step number one. You need to learn to eat squirrel.

Those little buggers are bad on parked equipment. They are good at eating lead roof jacks on buildings also. I just spent two weeks trying to run down a leak on a second floor whirlpool tub. Pulled the cover off cut holes in ceiling etc. Nothing. Crawled up on the roof. There was a roof vent in a location I did not remember. It goes down the wall next to the tub. Water ran down that pipe and spread out under the tub. Hence the damage to the ceiling on the first floor. :-{

Not the first time. Once before they got another vent in the same bathroom. That time it got the ceiling of the bath. :-{

I have three squirrels in the freezer. Have maybe three more to go.

 

Check your RV hot water heater and the RV forced air heater also before firing them up. Those are other areas they like to build nest.

Hobo

 

Any place under the motor home is suspect. Top of transmission or fuel tank etc. If not squirrel then other rodents. Crawl under it and have a good look.

 

My dad is a diesel engineer, and got called out to fix a trencher that had an international 6 cylinder on it, the workers explained that one day it just would not start anymore and even with cables on, didnt even seem to want to turn over properly.

He started troubleshooting it, and said it was giving him a hell of a time because nothing outward appeared to be wrong, but it did not want to turn over, hardly any rotation, he got a cheater onto the crank feeling it out to see if it felt like a rod or the crank was screwed up, but that when he rolled it forwards and backwards it would turn only slightly forwards, but he could toll it back 2 revolutions without any hard stop but then it also resisted going any farther in reverse.

He decided maybe it was some kind of gunk up, blockage, or such, rolled the crank backwards as far as it would go, and then hit the air filter with ether/starting fluid as he hit the key and it fired up but instantly something exploded with a bang but the engine kept running.

They found a no longer intact lets say, Rat or Mole, or gopher looking "something" splatted out of the exhaust pipe at high velocity, the machine operated properly after that. Bugger had crawled up the exhaust pipe and got stuck....