Sparky

Update 5.16: With a new condenser/points unit installed, IT RUNS. The idle is super choppy and it dies after about 10 seconds, which means the timing is completely off, but it starts right up as advertised. Now I have to sort out the timing issues and figure out where it’s happy. I had the timing dialed in pretty well with the carburetor last fall before I started welding on the truck and burned the condenser out, so I think it’s a matter of finding where the sweet spot is in the sniper settings to make the engine happy. I’ve got a bunch of reading to do today, and I’m going to spend tomorrow (Saturday) working to get it smoothed out.

Update 5.14: I have a new points/condenser unit on order, and I’ll swap that in tomorrow. The thinking here is that the condenser (essentially a capacitor) isn’t storing a charge in between the points opening and closing, which means there’s no spark making its way to the plugs. In the Delco distributor I have the points/condenser are an integrated unit so it’s not a simple matter of unscrewing just the condenser and swapping in a new one.

Update 5.11: I bought a new spark tester from H-F and verified it was working on the Scout. There’s no spark at the coil when I put it there; this verifies what I suspected. Next I’ve got to use a test light to see if I’ve got power going to the coil with the key on at both sides of the poles, then see if there’s power in the distributor.

I got really discouraged yesterday and let my anger get the better of me; instead of taking a step back and researching next steps, I let my ADHD run wild and dicked around in the garage for the rest of the day.

***

I’m in a holding pattern on the fuel injection project until some parts come in. The big holdup is getting a new set of spark plug wires after the number four wire snapped off in my hand. I thought I had kept my old set from the Scout in the spares bin, but apparently I tossed them—all I have is a coil wire in the parts bag. As I write this, it occurs to me that I can pull one of the wires off the Scout and use that to test the ignition system (duh). Basically, the plan looks like this:

  1. Pull the #8 plug (International SV-series engines time off of the number eight cylinder)
  2. Spin the engine until # is at TDC, replace the plug
  3. Make sure the rotor is aligned correctly, pointing at the #8 wire
  4. Make sure the spark plug wires are routed in the correct order – CHECK
  5. Check for spark at the coil – NONE
  6. Check for spark at the plugs – NONE

If all of those things check out, and the engine still won’t start, then I’m at a complete loss. I know I’m getting fuel, and the EFI system should be metering air, so the only thing remaining would be spark. I did fool around a little bit with timing last fall, but the truck ran after I adjusted that. So I’m thinking it’s got to be an issue with the ignition system. I do still think the starter needs to be replaced, but I want to sort out all of this other stuff before I start throwing more money at parts.

 

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Spark Testing

My plug wires showed up yesterday, which was a surprise. After using the Scout to jump the OG-V (the dome light stayed on for some reason and drained the battery) and charging that up, I put the spark tester on cylinder 3 and turned it over: there was no spark. Then I put the tester on the coil and cranked it again: there was one initial spark and then nothing after that. This is puzzling, and clearly something isn’t configured correctly. But it checks out with what the engine was doing earlier—in previous attempts it would almost catch and then just crank.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Spark Testing  |  Posted in Fuel Injection, Travelall

Lazy Sunday

I had every intention of diagnosing the ignition issues on Darth Haul on Sunday, but the universe conspired against me. The weather forecast was for rain, which I could work around with a pop-up canopy, but Amazon decided the spark plug set I needed for my 8-cylinder engine should only require 5 wires. This from a “guaranteed fit”. Nobody around here had the plugs I need in stock, so the day was literally a wash. I’ve got new plugs on order which should be here Monday, and I can keep troubleshooting after work.

For the last two weeks I’ve been experimenting with leaving the cover off the truck to see what kind of water ingress I’m getting around the cowl vents and the door seals. The rain started Saturday night at midnight and continued on and off throughout the next day. Looking through the cab of the truck at noon, there’s a little bit of water dripping on both sides at the floorboards that I’ll have to track down, but nothing at the volume that was coming in before I cut the cowl out. There’s a small 1/4″ plug in the roof that I didn’t weld up when I repaired that, which is dripping on the front seat; that will just require some butyl or silicone caulk to fix. Finally, the driver’s rear window gasket is leaking a little bit at the very back corner.

The alternative is leaving a cover on the truck all the time, but I’ve found that the cover I have doesn’t breathe very well and moisture gets trapped underneath—to the point where the engine bay looks like it’s sweating. That’s not good at all. So I’m going to leave the cover off for the next month and see if I can stop the leaks enough to feel better about leaving it open to the elements.

Meanwhile, there’s a ticking sound coming from the transmission in the Scout in 4th gear under load. When I tap on the clutch pedal it goes away. I’m going to drop it off at the shop who did the work tomorrow so that they can adjust it for me; I’ve got a couple of long-distance trips coming up which are going to require a fully functional transmission that isn’t trying to eat itself, and I want to get it in as soon as possible to diagnose.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Lazy Sunday  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall

Wiring Up, Wiring Down

Last night I took advantage of some warm weather to finish installing the second relay in Darth for the Sniper control unit. This mainly involved a screwdriver and a lot of small zip ties to clean up the wire runs and get everything out of the way. I’d already built all the wires and heat shrunk the connections, so all I had to do was screw the relay into the metal panel and then screw that back into the firewall. Then the wires got cleaned up and routed along with the existing wiring.

When that was done, I wanted to see if I was getting spark at the plugs, so I pulled the boot off the #3 plug, and… the connector snapped off the wire. These wires are brand-new, so this is really frustrating. I don’t have a spare set in my stores, so I ordered a new one which should be here this evening. The next steps are going to be:

  1. Checking spark at the plugs
  2. Verifying I’ve got the wires connected in the right order from the distributor to the plugs.
  3. Putting a third, transparent fuel filter in between the stock Holley unit and the carburetor to verify we’re getting gas (I can smell it, but need to verify).
Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Wiring Up, Wiring Down  |  Posted in Fuel Injection, Travelall

Pittsburgh Road Trip

Sunday morning broke cold but sunny, and I hit the road at 7AM with the car already loaded. I had a 3.5 hr. drive out to the other side of Pittsburgh in front of me, but my podcast app was loaded and I was headed away from the sunrise—which was good, because my sunglasses are AWOL. The drive was unremarkable other than beautiful foliage blooming throughout southern Pennsylvania, and I reached Pittsburgh by 11:30 with one stop for expensive gas. The yard was on a hill above the river, and I found two Internationals among many large tractor trailers in a commercial yard. I texted the owner and got to work on the column.

Because the truck was already pretty well picked over I had free access to the stuff I needed: there were only two bolts under the dash to free up the column there, but the three bolts on the steering box were rusted pretty good and the nuts were inaccessible due to a gusset built into the frame. I’d thought ahead and brought my generator, though, and after about 10 minutes with a corded cutoff wheel I trimmed off the bolt heads and pried the box off the frame with a bitch bar. Now, I had to figure out how to get the column out—and I’d forgotten to bring my steering wheel puller. Thankfully, Joey, the guy selling the truck, had one in his shop down the street, and ran me down to pick it up. We paused to look over a beautiful C-series tow truck he’s finishing up, and then he brought me back up to the yard.

I had the wheel off in 5 minutes and then had to puzzle out how to remove the whole unit. The collar in the cab wouldn’t fit through the hole in the firewall (I had this issue with the green truck) nor would the steering box. I did notice the collar moving as I was tugging on it from inside the cab and realized it wasn’t connected to the box anymore—then saw that if I pulled on the steering box from the front, the rod inside slid out of the outer casing and suddenly I was holding those two elements in my hands. The outer tube came out through the cab with a little convincing, and I put the two sections back together on the tailgate of the Honda.

Then I went through the rest of the truck and pulled some other parts off: The windshield wiper motor, the instrument cluster, the radio blockoff plate, and a slightly banged up ’63-’64 headlight trim ring. Inside the cab someone had stacked some extra parts, and I fished out some more good stuff: two uncut metal door cards, a heater motor (the heater in this truck was melted), an ashtray, a marker light assembly, a window crank unit, two sun visors in good shape, and an emergency brake assembly. I did leave a bunch of larger stuff behind—two D-series windshields, a rear pickup window, an instrument cluster in worse shape, and a bunch of other stuff.

After loading up and paying Joey I hit the road at about 4PM and made it home by 8 after stopping for some dinner. The steering column doesn’t look too different from the unit I pulled out of the green truck, save the fact that it’s attached to a power steering box, so I’ll have two basic units to practice on before I do anything with the one in Darth.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Pittsburgh Road Trip  |  Posted in Junkyards, Purchasing, Trip Logs

Sunday Excursion

I’ve got a line on a manual steering column, which is excellent news, and the price is right. But excellent news is usually accompanied by a catch, and this is no different. The catch here is that the parts truck in question is outside of Pittsburgh, which is about a 4-hour drive away from here. It looks like it’s perfect for my requirements; the truck is in the open, in a clean yard, and the hood is already gone so there’s nothing in the way. I’d be pulling the entire column from the wheel all the way down to the box; I’ll just unbolt the box and maybe cut the pitman arm, or bring a fork and pound out the link. Then it’s just removing 4 bolts under the dashboard, disconnecting some wiring, and out it should come. Easy, right?

As usual though, I’m going to bring the entire recovery kit, and this time I might even bring my generator and a corded cutoff wheel, just in case. It’s going to be a long day and I don’t want to be out there forever.

Making this trip a little sweeter is a pile of leftover parts another semi-local Travelall guy offered me after restomodding his truck. He’s outside of Frederick, which is right on the way, and he has a full set of gauges, seatbelts, and a couple of master cylinders. The seatbelts are an excellent find, as the mounting brackets on some of mine are pretty roached, and the gauges may come in handy, although I’ve got three full sets already. But I can always bring stuff to Nats and sell it.

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Halfway There

Super-sketchy temporary wiring proof of concept

A new 30amp relay came via Amazon this afternoon, and I did a quick and dirty wiring job to get it connected to constant power, a ground, the ignition circuit, and the carburetor. It wasn’t pretty but the truck turned over, and more importantly, the Sniper unit stayed on. The engine didn’t catch, however, which is getting really fucking frustrating.

Where the new relay is going to live.

So next up, I’m going to pull the mounting plate I used to organize the auxiliary fuse panel, add the second relay alongside the first, and use that as my mounting point. Then I can run clean wiring from there.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Halfway There  |  Posted in Electrical, Fuel Injection

Switch

Monday evening, I swapped the best of the two spare lock barrels onto the Travelall to test out the theory that the continuity problem might be an issue with the lock. Comparing the connections on the back, I swapped the wiring as it was on the current assembly and sadly, I got the same result—the Sniper head unit rebooted itself. Upon further investigation, I looked over the diagram from the service manual and identified the main circuits going to each of the poles on the back of the assembly. From what I could tell it was  mostly connected right, but my 27 wire (going to the speedometer, and then on to the fuel gauge) wasn’t on the right circuit, I needed to verify that the white wire in the center was the 14 wire (going to the starter), and verify the black wire on the ignition pole was the 12 wire (going to the coil).

Disconnecting the battery and checking things out, I put the 27 wire on the right side and verified the 11 wire was correct. The wire to the starter was not an original IH wire and covered with electrical tape, but I’m guessing it’s the right one in the right place. I ordered a Bosch relay, which should be here tomorrow, and I’ll wire that up to troubleshoot the Sniper this week.

I do have to say, it’s very nice to be able to unlock the door and start the truck with one key.

Later, I pulled three starters from the Heavy Spare Parts Pile to test them out, figuring I might eventually have to swap one of them in for the one on the Travelall. I’ve got a 12 volt bench tester, which makes this kind of thing very easy, so I just lined them up on the bench and connected the positive lead to the main connection and grounded the chassis. With a short length of copper romex I jumped the power to the start terminal on each one, and found that one was completely dead, one didn’t move but made an alarming buzzing noise, and one (that came to me with the solenoid cover off) punched the starter gear forward but didn’t spin the motor. So I’ve got two good cores and a third that might work in a pinch. I forgot to whack on the buzzing unit with a hammer to see if I can wake it up, but that will be a tomorrow test. And as I recall, there might be a fourth still attached to the spare motor in the garage…

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