Operation: New Fan Shroud.
I got a little window of time this afternoon between the blizzard and Finn’s nap to pick up a pair of metal shears. While she was down, I hurried to the basement and trimmed one side of the steel I’d bought, then laid it flat on the edge of my workbench. I bought a length of predrilled strap in order to make a hard edge to bend on. The object was adding a bend at the top 1/2″.
Once I’d bent the top to my satisfaction (I don’t have a metal brake, but a block of wood and a hammer work pretty well) I measured and drilled a pair of holes for the top mounting bolts. I’ve got a spare radiator that I dragged into the basement for test fitting:
Next, I drilled a series of holes to make a long adjustable vertical channel for the shroud and set that in place to test out the height. It turns out there’s a total of 3″ of lift on this truck based on the shroud mounting.
Then I assembled the whole thing to see how it all fit together. I used hex bolts with two flat washers on each side, as well as a lock washer to hold the entire thing in place. Outside on the Scout, it turned out that I was about a quarter-inch two low, so the top of the fanblades were hitting the fiberglas. I brought it back inside, extended the channels upwards, filed everything down, and did another test fit: perfect.
The steel extended down below the open area of the shroud, so I measured an area and cut out a section to allow for maximum airflow.
And once I’d tested it out on the Scout, I pulled everything back off so that I can prime and paint the steel this evening. Tomorrow, hopefully, I can get the bottom mounts made quickly and have the entire thing put back together. Then I’ve got to see if she’ll start. It sure would be nice to have her back on the road.
New Parts, New Thermostat.
So our local friend K. is selling off his stash of parts and moving northward, sadly diminishing our local ranks. Two Bs drove north from Columbia to my doorstep with the intention of forming a posse to pick over the goods; while we waited for a return call, we (well, mostly they) tore the water pipe down off of my rig and cleaned it up in preparation for a new thermostat. The gaskets were pretty toasted, so we cleaned them off with a razor blade and ran out to get some RTV. At the parts counter we got a call from K, who told us to stop on over.
He’s got quite a stash in his basement to pick over, but I showed good judgement and only walked away with two parts I need and one I couldn’t pass up. The first are a set of bucket seat bases in much better shape than the ones salvaged from Chewbacca. My plan is to sand, clean, and paint them up, refurbish the tracks, and remount the original green seats (I’ve got those too) to replace the hillbilly buckets that are mounted right now.
The third item is worth celebrating: when I got the truck, it sported a hideous aftermarket dashpad abomination that came out two weeks after we got it running. Because the metal of the dash is painted purple, the green stock replacement I put in looks, shall we say, odd, especially when paired with the red windshield frame and yellow hood. K. sold me a pristine black dashpad for a song, and it will be installed as soon as the weather warms up.
Back in the garage, the new thermostat went in quickly and without a fuss; we even got the upper hose reinstalled with two shiny new hose clamps. Next up is the fan shroud issue; we didn’t have time to tackle it this weekend.
Dead in the Water.
Well, it’s official: I’m overheating. I got the Scout out on the first dry Saturday in three weeks, made it down the hill to Ellicott City to gas up, and across the river into town before the temp gauge spiked beyond where I was comfortable. I pulled over into the International dealership at the top of the hill and popped the hood to take a look. The radiator cap was cool to the touch and the overflow tank was at its normal level; there was no sign of steam although I could faintly smell cooking antifreeze. I slowly unscrewed the radiator cap and got a burst of steam as well as gurgling from down below. After a half an hour cooldown, I made it back through town and about halfway home before I had to pull off again. It took two more rests to get it back in the garage.
So, the plan has changed a little: I’m going to mock up the fan shroud supports, probably out of some aluminum sheet I saw at the Lowe’s, buy a new water pump online, and then scoot down the street to our local garage to have the cooling system sorted out. At this point I just don’t have the time to fool with it myself, and I don’t want it sitting for months without running like my last Scout.
Then, after that’s fixed, I’ll bring it down to my other mechanic, who has experience with carburetors, and have him go through the Thermoquad and the ignition for me.
Meanwhile, there’s a fantastic thread on the Binder Planet about tuneups, including overhaul of distributors and cleaning carbs. I’m subscribed and watching it closely.
The Closer.
Ever since I’ve had FrankenScout, the tailgate never latched shut. It would stay up due to gravity and its own weight, but the latch arms on either side were pointing backwards and the button was inoperable.
Saturday afternoon, after a trip to the Home Depot to pick up ten bags of mulch (about 20 cubic yards) I took twenty minutes to pop the diamondplate cover off my tailgate and removed the access panel to see what the issue was with the latch mechanism. It turned out that the spring attached to the cam which both locks and unlocks the latch mechanism was completely disengaged from its stop, so that continual pushing of the button would cause the entire mechanism to spin around and stop functioning. I screwed the mechanism down to the tailgate and pulled the spring back into place with a screwdriver, then spun the latches and reconnected the entire mechanism. It closed and latched like a dream.
This was also Jen’s inaugural ride, and I think she enjoyed herself even though the exhaust fumes were strong. We rode a short distance with the top down, but had to stop and put it up on account of the chilly wind. I’m happy to say that 20 cubic yards of mulch didn’t so much as dent the rear springs—something that would have had the Jeep looking like it had been torpedoed.
View from the Cheap Seats.
I didn’t do much with the Scout this weekend, other than drive it on Saturday morning before the rains came. I did, however, pick up my used bench seat, two inner fenders and windshield frame from the bed of Mr. Clean’s pickup on my way through Columbia, and offloaded everything on Monday afternoon. The bench seat cleaned up nicely after a scrubbing with some carwash solution, although it’s got some stains that probably will never come out.
The inner fenders are a little weak in places but will make for good templates down the line when I’m ready to bend some steel. And the windshield frame looks good on the outside, but the sound of rust sliding down the inner chambers tells me it’s going to be more work than I thought.
Update: simply swapping in the new seat for the old seat did not work. The latch which swings down and catches the two pins bolted to the sides of the wheel wells did not line up properly (too far rearward) and no amount of cajoling would get them to line up. So I may have to disassemble the rear bench and bolt the old hardware onto the new upholstery—only after I’ve measured the distance from the front mounting bolts to the rear latch.
Weekend Report, 7-18
I got a couple of messages last week from Alan, who took a look at the pictures I’d posted of my throttle bracket and recognized a part meant for an automatic transmission, not a manual. He kindly offered to exchange a spare bracket he had in his stash for the one I’ve got, and I jumped at the chance. Two days later, I had the part in my hands, and on Sunday I took an hour to swap it in.
Due to the ever-changing nature of International SV engines and their smog requirements from year to year, I’d bet there were five different versions of the manual bracket produced. Alan sent me two, one tall and narrow and the other short and wide. After test-fitting both, I decided the taller one would be better even though it was angled at such a way as to deflect the path of the cable towards the center of the engine; I wound up temporarily pulling the vacuum hose bracket off the rear of the engine block to feed the cable behind it, then bending the bracket forward as much as possible to get a straight line. The hook-and-bolt bracket wasn’t long enough to securely attach over the thicker collar of the cable, so I repurposed one of the rubber-lined clips from the first bracket to fit.
Ahhh, it’s nice to have full throttle again. Thanks Alan!
Weekend Report, 7-11
Not a whole lot of time to play with the Scout this weekend, but I did a few things worth noting:
I picked up eight Autolite 303 plugs at the local NAPA. I wasn’t positive my distributor took female ended wires, so I held off on them (it does) as well as buying oil and a filter. I think I’ll wait until next week for that purchase. (I spent about $100 on wires and plugs for the other two cars, so I’m trying to stay on budget here). I have to preorder the wires, but that’s no big deal. I’ll preorder the oil filter while I’m at it. In the bad news department, the cap to the distributor is loose and comes off easily with a tug. That can’t be good.
Update: My friend Alan tells me Autolite 303s are no good and that I need 85′s, which is what the good BinderPlanet told me in the first place. Lesson learned: never believe the NAPA computer.
I then tore the dashboard down to swap out the fuel gauge out with another unit in order to see if it’s the gauge or the sender. It’s the sender. While I was in there, I looked at swapping out the nasty dash cover with a cleaner one—I have four spares in various conditions. It turns out I’ll have to cut one of the spares in order to fit a standard-size radio, or simply pull the radio out altogether and wait for a Tuffy console at a later date. There are no speakers in the rig right now, so I’m leaning towards pulling the radio, which would be one less thing to worry about when parking in public.
I also tried swapping the glovebox door with a spare I’ve got which has a better latch, but again, I was foiled. I couldn’t get the better latch to come apart, and subsequently off the door. So I pulled the original door and put the spare on: no dice. The catchplate on the inside of the glovebox doesn’t like the latch, and the sheetmetal is too small for the larger catchplate. Rats!
Finally, I returned to Wheaton to pick up the rest of the parts I’d left behind on my first trip, and in the interim, the seller had chopped the rest of the cancerous body from the frame and hauled it off for scrap.
However, he was kind enough to do a lot of saving for me, and thoughtful enough to set aside a bunch of items he thought I might like:
- The radiator (which I had to leave behind last time)
- The dash pad (which I forgot last time) – it’s in excellent shape save two small tears on the passenger side.
- Both door window regulators
- Complete sets of door glass-butterfly and main, with tracks
- Both door latch mechanisms
- Both door lock mechanisms
- Two doorhandles in very good shape (no pitting on the chrome)
- Passenger knee vent
- The entire dashboard, with intact loom, heater plastic, and switches (!)
- The bottom section of the cowl vent, with the wiper motor and arms attached
Plastic auto transmission shift cover - One taillight lens bucket
The regulators are in far worse shape than I’d hoped; I was going to refurb them and swap them in, but the bottoms are rusted pretty good. The dash is in good shape, as are the windows and mechanicals. The radiator is the worst part of the lot, though—the bottom panel has come loose from the main assembly, so I’ll have to see if that can be repaired at all.
Overall, for the amount of money I spent, I did exceptionally well. I’ve got a handful of hard-to-replace specialized parts stored away now, and spares of other things which may wear out or be damaged over time.
Leaky Gasket.
I took the Scout over to some friends’ last night to pick up a load of baby toys, and figured it would be a good idea to put some gas in the tank. There’s something wrong with either the gas gauge or the sender in the tank, because it’s never registered anything other than empty. As I started to pump, I noticed gas splashing down under the axles and immediately stopped. From what I can see, there’s a rubber hose connecting the steel fuel tube with the side of the tank which is splitting and pissing everything directly onto the ground.
Not to be discouraged, I continued on to my friends’ house (a few knocks on the tank verified there was sufficient gas available) and made it home alright. But now I’ve got to source a hose that won’t disintegrate with exposure to gasoline.
* * *
Last weekend I removed the entire soft top and folded it carefully for storage in my basement, along with the door frames, bed rails, and hoops. With soft tops being scarce and expensive, I’m going to try and keep this one in good shape for as long as I can. I replaced it with the bikini top, which went on easily, although I’ve got to add a tiedown on the driver’s side and redrill the holes at the edges of the windshield to secure the rail. This is the first time I’ve had a bikini top, and I have to say, it’s very nice.
Hi-Lift.
I stumbled across a used 48″ Hi-Lift jack on Craigslist yesterday for the low low price of $40, and couldn’t pass it up. The height of this Scout obviates any sort of bottle or floor jack, because they don’t allow enough height to get a 32″ wheel off the ground. I met the seller out in Highlandtown and the deal was quickly struck; this is an $80 jack new (not including shipping—it’s 30+ pounds).
It may be that I need to upgrade to a 60″ jack, depending on how hard it is to get my tires off the ground, but this is a good start (and I know a few guys who run/will run stock Scouts who might be interested in taking this off my hands in that case). Or, I could simply buy a 60″ steel bar and replace the 48″.
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