Repairs

Battery Blues.

In Purchasing, Repairs on 11 November 2010 with no comments

This morning I pulled the tarp off of Peer Pressure and made ready to driver her to work; the weather is perfect, clear and 60° so I was excited to get behind the wheel. I popped the hood, connected the battery, got one reluctant crank out of the battery, and… nothing. It looks like the $70 Pep Boys Special is dead—this after only seven months. I’ve stored it with the hot lead disconnected since parking it, so I know it’s not a short; it’s got to be either the battery or the alternator. So I’m going to try to replace the battery this evening and we’ll see if this one lasts any longer.

Update: The battery tests fine on the machine at the parts store; after some futzing with the terminals she fired right up. I left the cables connected to the battery over the weekend and she started immediately on Monday morning, which leads me to believe it’s the cables themselves.

High Technology.

In Progress, Repairs on 18 July 2010 with no comments

The other day, while waiting at a stoplight, I happened to notice the small headphone jack on the faceplate of the RoadGear (Wal-Mart) brand radio in the Scout. Intrigued, I filed this away for future investigation.

This afternoon, I pulled a 4″x6″ speaker from a spare dash and plugged it in to one of the lamp cord speaker wires coiled on the floor and tested the radio out. Success! I was pulling in stations, which means A. the antenna is connected, and B. there’s power to the unit. It even turns off when the key is out, which means it’s connected to the accessory circuit correctly. Next, I plugged my spare iPod into the jack and held my breath. Success! The headphone jack auto-switches to the accessory (something the fancy-shmancy Kenwood in the Jeep can’t do).

Lastly, thinking I was pushing my luck, I tried plugging the iPod charger into the cigarette lighter to see if it still carried power. Success!

I can hardly believe it. Now, to find a cheap pair of 6×9 speakers to cover up the big jagged holes in the rear walls.

Short-Term Projects.

In Future Plans, Repairs on 12 July 2010 with no comments

So, now that the carb is working correctly, I’m looking at small, inexpensive things that I can accomplish next on a tight time and money budget. There are a ton of things that are crying out to be worked on, unfortunately.

Happy Trails.

In Progress, Repairs on 7 July 2010 with 2 comments

Peer Pressure is back on the road and running like a top. After a long three weeks at the mechanic, the carburetor problem was finally solved; the reason for the leakage was a set of tiny O-rings which were actually supposed to be X-rings. Once he’d torn it down for the fifth time and put them in, she buttoned up and ran like an excited puppy at the edge of an empty field. I’ve had her out on several junk runs, a trip to the Home Depot, a trip to Columbia, and into Baltimore City on a day with record-setting heat, and the temp gauge stays obediently on the left side of the indicator. She starts with one twist of the key and idles like a satisfied kitten. Best of all, the obnoxious stink of gasoline and rich exhaust is almost completely gone—there’s less exhaust backwash on this truck than there was on Chewbacca, as a matter of fact.

Carb Update.

In Part Numbers, Repairs on 23 June 2010 with no comments

I got word from my mechanic yesterday that the carb went back together well, except for one small hitch: the gasket they sent in the rebuild kit (Walker 15821A) is too thick for this application. Apparently I have a heated choke (as opposed to manual or electric) which means the choke is actuated by the temperature coming off the manifold. Some good information on the various methods of automatic choke actuation can be found here, as well as some Thermoquad-specific information here.

With the thick supplied gasket installed, one of the linkage rods isn’t long enough to reach, so he had to call around to find the correct gasket and have it overnighted for tomorrow—which is great, because we can’t pick it up until tomorrow evening anyway.

Update.

In Future Plans, Repairs on 9 June 2010 with no comments

• Appointment made to see if the local parts Scout will run: check.
• Appointment made to have my mechanic rebuild the Thermoquad and look over the rest of Peer Pressure: check.

Clickity Click.

In Progress, Repairs on 1 June 2010 with no comments

I finally broke down and bought a new battery for the Scout this weekend after the donor battery from the Jeep decided it couldn’t crank the engine over anymore. While I was dealing with that (crank engine, jump out, twist the terminals down, jump back in, crank engine, repeat, repeat), the driver’s door latch spun itself around 180 degrees so that the latch would just prang off the striker uselessly. So, I tore the driver’s door down again and got inside to see what was happening with the mechanism.

A little backstory: In order to get the latch body out, the window needs to come out, and then the guide track closest to the handle. One bolt on my track was pretty well frozen but a little PBBlaster made short work of the other three. Once I had the track pulled away from the edge, the latch came free, and I compared it with another one I had in my spares (it’s the one on the right). Somehow the cam had gotten completely turned around and jammed itself into place. It had been “repaired” at some point in order to fasten the main pivot arm into place with a flattened bolt and nut, and the clip holding the door release rod was long gone—so they replaced it with a locknut hastily threaded onto the end of the rod. Instead of wasting time trying to fix the original, I shot the spare up with plenty of white lithium and used that instead.

While the driver’s door bolts were soaking, I tore the passenger door down and pulled the original regulator in there out. It looks to be a replacement unit like the ones sold by LightLine dealers (some of the original paint is still evident under the rust). I dropped the new one in, greased it up, buttoned the door back up, and then remembered that I need to tighten the outer door handle. D’oh! Eventually the window will need to come out and be replaced, because there’s some serious rust happening at the bottom of the channel on the inboard side, but that’s why I’ve got spares.

I also finished fabricating a strap stay for the bikini top out of a cut-down decking bracket and bolted that into place, as well as replaced six of the original grade 5 bolts holding the rollbar down with grade 8 hardware. I still have to drill four holes for bolts at the feet of the rollbar, which were never installed (there are only two on each side).

Finally, I’m going to order a ThermoQuad rebuild kit today. Wish me luck!

Polishing the Deck Chairs.

In Part Numbers, Repairs on 27 May 2010 with no comments

Last night I had about a half an hour to myself, so I went out to the garage and shot the drivers’ door mechanism with some white lithium grease to see if it would help smooth things out. Overall, it is much better, but there still seems to be someplace internally where it’s catching—it could be the lever arm getting caught on the inside of the door somewhere. I’m going to break the passenger door down this weekend (hopefully) and replace that regulator with the one I cleaned up this past winter.

I also started replacing the bolts fastening the rollbar to the body. The PO used some kind of zinc-plated hardware, so I bought a handful of grade-8 replacements and started swapping things out. I also found an angle bracket in the decking section of the Home Depot that I think I can modify to use as a secondary tiedown for the bikini top straps. (There’s one tiedown fastened to a passenger-side rollbar bolt, but the driver’s side has nothing).

Still on deck: A rebuild kit for the ThermoQuad. Stay tuned.

Notes for Myself.

In Future Plans, Purchasing, Repairs on 19 May 2010 with no comments

This to-do list is going to make more sense to me than to anyone else, but I’d like to get it out of my sketch book and up here where I can actually find it. It’s in rough order of importance for the year; I expect only to get about 1/5 of it done, but a guy can dream, right?

Install Holley 2300
buy rebuild kit – $60+
buy 2bbl. intake – $50

Rebuild the Thermoquad
buy Thermoquad rebuild kit – $50

Finish sanding and painting the seat bases, weld in some support on the bottom
Sand the bed and floors – buy stripper & discs
Fix the driver’s window scissors – It’s binding when pressure is first applied to the crank.
Clean sand & paint
Inner fenders
Windshields
Travel Top
Dogleg

Fix the rear bench seat – I’d like to replace the upholstery with something cleaner. The replacement bench seat I have doesn’t fit correctly (the latch doesn’t meet the striker on the wheel wells).
Fix the brake light indicator – the switch on the pedal is bent.

Battery Not Included.

In Future Plans, History, Progress, Repairs on 22 April 2010 with no comments

So, this Tuesday, the Scout made her maiden 2010 voyage into the city after having a new water pump installed. As recounted elsewhere, everything went smoothly until the 5-year-old battery decided it was finished, and stranded me in the parking garage after work. Jen came and gave me a jumpstart and I made it home fine, so it’s pretty obvious what the next outlay for the Scout will be.

After that, we move on to the carburetor. The mechanics tightened the Thermoquad down and plugged up a vacuum hose that was open, and the engine sounds a heck of a lot quieter now. They warned me about gas leakage from the carb, though, and suggested a rebuild ASAP, which has been on my radar since the day we got the truck started. I’ve been doing some research into rebuilding the Thermoquad, and from what I’ve read it sounds like a hassle to get dialed in correctly (and moreso to find someone competent enough to do so).

So I think my plan of action will be to buy a new or rebuilt Holley 2300 series and install that in place of the Thermoquad. From what I’ve heard the 2300 is more common, easier to work with, and generally a friendlier unit to n00bs like me. IHOnly North is offering rebuilt carbs for a decent price, and I will definitely give them a ring when I’m ready to swap out what I’ve got.