colder than hillary clintons heart this morning at 5 am. i parked the 2014 and jumped in the kenworth to run a couple loads.
got home at 2pm and jumped into baby, turned the key, and all hell broke loose. sounded like the water pump broke and spit the fan through the radiator.
then "fluff" came out from all around the hood and grill. engine was running for less than 2 seconds.
i knew rite away what it was. a freakin cat!!!
pop the hood and start looking at the carnage.
shroud. fan. fan clutch and wire. whatever the "box" on the top passenger side of the radiator is. 3 vacuum lines. 2 sensors. 6 or 7 plugs. plus 1/2 the wiring harness on the passenger side of the engine. when the engine started, the cat must have wrapped around the fan, and grabbed the fan clutch wire, ripping it down into the fan. which tore the top of the shroud off, and pulled all the wiring harness and vacuum lines with it.
we had to push the truck into the shop to get it on a lift, and then cut the bottom of the shroud off to get the damn cat out.
i just hope the radiator is ok, it looks like the cat clawed the crap out of it.

 

This happened on my father's tundra. It didn't cause any damage to the truck and he actually drove around a couple of days before noticing the smell and finding a dead cat in the bottom of the radiator shroud.

 

Several years ago, before my nice neighbor started killing my pets, requiring me to keep them inside, we has a similar thing happen

I had plugged in momma's 1500 IH rollback IDI in for the night, and went in.
In the morning, she jumped in the truck, and lit it up, it cranked, and slammed to an abrupt stop.

We were like WTF????

Pulled the hood open, there's one of the cats all wrapped around the belts and pulleys. eyes blinking
I got a breaker bar out, and turned the motor over backwards while she held the cat.
Believe it or not, the cat wasn't hurt.
That old truck was v-belts, not a serpentine belt.

From that day on, we pulled the hood open first in the winter, never had that happen again

 

first time in 9 years in this yard it happened to any of us in personal vehicles.
there has been a few under the hoods of the big trucks up the yard, but never with us.

looking at the damage and parts needed, i am thinking this is gonna be around $800 or so.

 

So the next time a red head asks you for a ride, better do it

They don't get even, they get ahead....LOL
Sorry your truck got broken

 

That's what you call a "catastrophic" failure...

 

radiator is leaking. went out this am and there is a big puddle under it.

i think "miss penny" will be going to work from now on.
she is a 18 month old rottweiller that loves cats and squirrels.................for lunch

 

that is my worst nightmare trust me
i always open my hood and check during the colder months but my wife and kids dont and im dreading hearing about it

did the cat survive?

 

a bloody nose, bloody ear, and small cut on it's leg. the guy that pulled it out of the radiator needed 18 stitches in his arm after it was out and decided to "wake up". the katana blades some people call claws opened his arm up just before he threw it across the shop.
after landing it ran out the door.

 

I had one jump into the engine bay of my HMMWV once. It didn't go well for the cat.

 

Don't worry, your truck will be back on the road and running purr-fectly before you know it!

How many more lives does that cat have?

 

We had a ground hog climb up in a Peterbilt one night. Everything was covered in guts. Broke the fan and shroud. Took the mechanic longer to clean the mess than fix the damage.

 

from what i gathered from the bossman, zero.
it seems the guy it clawed, necessitating 18 stitches in his arm as a thank you for freeing it from between the radiator and fan "accidentally" made it a road pizza last night on the way out of the facility.
Mike's pickup also pushed a 5 yard dumpster into one of the storage buildings when he bumped it trying to ̶h̶i̶t̶ miss said cat.

 

ok, question for the brain trust.
on top of the radiator the fan clutch wire comes out of the shroud into a harness.
it goes into a module of some sort which is both electric, and vacuum.
there is a small 6 inch or so vacuum line coming off a "T" in the line to the module that i can not find a plug in for.
i think i have everything figured out except for where this vacuum line goes to.
truck runs ok with the line capped off, but i have noticed fuel mileage dropped from 11.3 to 9.1
i will not be getting the new fan clutch and shroud till monday or tuesday.
but since it is not going to get warmer than the current 36 degrees for at least the next week, i feel safe going without a fan and just paying attention ot the temp gauge.