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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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″.
Saturday morning, with a mixture of anticipation and nervous fear, I pulled the beast out of the garage and filled the back with garbage from our basement, scrap lumber from the garage, and a year’s worth of dead branches shed from the yard, loaded in a toolbox, made sure I had a towing company number in my cellphone, and set out for the dump.
As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. The Scout did fine. Even sitting in the line at the dump, the temp needle never went past the first line, the idle calmed down, and she behaved herself. I had to give her a lot of gas to get restarted, so there’s definitely a tune-up in the future, but overall I’m surprised and happy. And my fears for her road manners were unfounded; steering was straight and true at 65mph.
On the trip south, a guy in a Dodge dually honked and gave me a thumbs-up, which put a smile on my face for the next half-hour. After unloading everything (god it’s nice to have a true utility vehicle again) I put the top completely down and drive home in the sunshine.
Sunday morning I was finally able to meet up with the owner of a very dilapidated ’78 plow rig to begin parting out what’s left, after weeks of missed connections and unexpected rainshowers. He bought the truck in order to pull the axles for his ’59 Willys wagon and has no use for the rest of the carcass—although now he’s talking about using the frame and drivetrain for a T-bucket with a plow.
I was more interested in the hard-to-replace plastics and any sheetmetal that might be salvageable, so I brought the Jeep down with my tools and commenced to stripping. He’s a very nice guy, and within ten minutes offered me a cold beer and an air-powered impact wrench, which made life much easier. In fact, he helped me pull a lot of good parts off the truck while also taking out the brake and steering systems for his Jeep. At the end of a five-hour day, I drove home with:
A clean driver’s fender (with one small dimple at the front curve—nothing I can’t knock back out)
A clean fan shroud
One good door panel
a clean ’78 grille and headlight bezels
A clean valance panel
Both headlight buckets, retaining rings, and a spare set of lights
Marker lights, lenses and buckets
Taillight lenses (the buckets were shot)
Gauges (including speedo, the one thing I don’t have a spare of)
An extra set of wiper arms
Plastic defroster exhausts
Steering column plastic
Driver’s knee vent
Glove box door (with turn latch, which I don’t have)
A complete headlight switch
An extra set of dash plastics (mine are painted purple)
A complete wiper fluid container
A complete coolant reservoir
Two sets of door hinges
Hoses and clips for windshield fluid
Assorted other small parts and bolts
I tried getting the door glass out of the driver’s door, but we ran out of time–the upper channel is most likely rusted to the lower. However, the regulators both seem to work better than the ones I’ve got, and also appear to be easier to get out, so I’ll go back for those. We didn’t have time to pull/cut off the passenger fender, which made getting the heater box out impossible, so I’ll go back for that as well. The radiator came out, but I didn’t have space for it in the Jeep, so he’s hanging onto that for me as well.
Overall, it was a great day, and I had a fantastic time getting grease up to my elbows and talking cars (he’s got a ’69 Mach 1 sitting behind the Willys waiting for its turn). I’m stacked for the next couple of weeks, but I hope to head back down and pick up the rest of the parts (and possibly a set of spare wheels) very soon.
I snuck a little time into the garage this weekend to clean with the vacuum and a broom, although I didn’t get to drive anywhere. After cleaning out a pile of beach sand and pine needles, I looked over the floors and interior a bit further. The first thing that struck me is the unconventional installation of the front seats, the mounts of which are welded to the bases. So if I want to install Chewbacca’s old seats (one of which needs reupholstering), I’ll need to find a pair of new bases to start with.
I pulled the bikini top out and unrolled it for the first time, and it looks like it’s in great shape, which is a relief. When I pulled the soft top off last weekend, I did a quick inspection and found that it’s in worn but decent shape for the time being. I may pull it off and store it somehow so that I preserve it for as long as possible, because new tops are prohibitively expensive ($1K+).
The weather is lousy this week, but I’m going to try to break away from work early tomorrow evening to go pick parts from a Scout locally; there’s a pile of good parts to be had which have just been waiting for me to get to them.
Yesterday I woke up early and got to the DMV as it opened to get my title and tags taken care of, and surprisingly it only took about 20 minutes for the whole process (minus the wait outside the front door). After work, I zip-tied the rear plate onto the carrier, opened the garage back up, drove the rig down the street to the gas station, put $10 of regular in it (the gauge still reads zero) and washed the crud off the front window. Then I pulled it around the side and let it idle while I pulled the top off for the first time since I’ve owned it. Let me say I much prefer the fast-trac top to the snap-fastener version!
I saw no leaks from anywhere under the hood, and idle calmed down real quick, even though she was hard to re-start at the pump; I’ll have to check the plugs this weekend. There’s also a tendency to stay at a high idle when coming to a stop, which only a goose of the accelerator will solve-it’s almost like the linkage or the carb is sticking somewhere. I’ve got to adjust the throw of the clutch pedal, which seems to be a lot higher off the floor than I’m used to-plus it’s got a stupid aftermarket racing pedal that I keep catching my foot on.
She has much different highway manners than my first Scout, which had a stock driveline. This one tracks pretty straight but the steering is tight and very twitchy. It’s going to take some getting used to. The brakes seem to be in good shape, and the electrical system is functioning enough to work (even though the BRAKE light never goes off).
I stopped over and picked up Mr. Scout and his wife, who were at his mother’s place around the corner, and we took a quick trip around the block with the top down, the three of us grinning the whole way. Even though I offered the driver’s seat several times, he’s still holding out for his baby.
Last word: I came to a stopsign in the neighborhood behind my house, and two kids in a white pickup gave me the thumbs-up as they turned the corner. The kid in the back (the one with all the drum equipment) looks it over and says, “That is one bad-*** big purple truck, man! Right on!”
