Category: Scout 800

Tires and Tasks

Having swapped one of the tires on to the new wheel I bought last week, one of the comments the guy at the tire store made got me thinking. I’d bought a set of 16″ tires for this truck when I first got it, but wasn’t aware they were only rated for trailers, and it was a fight to get them to balance it. I don’t want to be driving this truck on tires that are only meant for occasional use, so I think I’m going to have to buy a new set and have them swapped on. From what I understand, I can put a set of 195/75R16 tires on these wheels with no issues. An inexpensive set of van tires are only ~$400, and I can maybe sell the trailer tires on Marketplace for cheap.

Next up on the list:

  • Fix the fuel gauge. It was working a few years ago, and I’d sure like for it to work again.
  • Fix the exhaust hanger. At some point last week the rubber element in the replacement part I bought snapped, so I’ve got to fabricate a replacement.
  • Adjust the idle faster, just a touch.
  • Clean up the tie rods and measure for new ones. This will be critical for getting the truck ready for long-distance trips, along with researching other suspension repairs—bushings, greaseable fittings, and linkages.
  • Paint the other wheels. I have to wire-wheel, prep and paint the passenger side wheels.
  • Replace the steering wheel? I’ve been waiting to do this until after the power steering is done, but the hell with it, maybe I’ll just put the new wheel in to make it look better.

Two things I brought back from Brian’s are a whole stack of aluminum—two C-channels and a bunch of flat bar—which will eventually be formed into a proper roof rack. There was also a 4×4 sheet of 16 ga. steel, which will be formed into the patch for the driver’s floor. Those two projects may wind up being cold-weather pursuits; we’ll see how the summer shakes out.

On the 800, I’ve only got one major task in mind: I’m going to drag it out of the garage, dribble a little oil down the cylinders to build up compression, and get it running off the boat tank. Then I’m going to let it run for a good long while to see if I can knock the rings loose. I’m also going to dump some Seafoam down the carb and smoke out the neighborhood.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Tires and Tasks  |  Posted in Scout 800, To-Do List, Travelall

800 Update

I got my oil report on the 800 back from Blackstone Labs and the news is…not good. All of the ferrous metal percentages are WAY higher than they should be. As the report says, the oil shows a ton of wear in important surfaces like the pistons, cylinders, and bearings. I can’t say I’m that surprised; the anecdotal stories I’ve heard about Dan are that he tended to buy toys, use them hard, and do minimal maintenance. And I have no idea what life this truck had before it made its way East from California.

Looking at the left column and comparing it to the one on the far right, the important metals are at an average of 300 times more than they should be. Ouch!

On the positive side, I got a new coil the other day and dropped that in, but was still not getting any spark to the distributor. The trigger wire connecting the two was frayed at the exit point from the distributor, so I pulled out my wiring kit and made a new one, which finally yielded spark to the plugs. But the engine still isn’t catching. I’ve got spark, gas, and air; the only thing I can figure is that she’s not making compression. A test of the cylinders showed that #1 is still down at 50psi while the other three are at ~100. So the plan for the weekend is to pull it out of the garage with Peer Pressure, squirt a little oil in the cylinders to bring up the compression, and see if I can get her running. Then I’m going to let her idle for a while to try to free up the rings.

When I was out at Brian’s last weekend working on Slowflake (more info on that to come), we stopped at a local scrapyard near his house. They’ve got a ton of stuff there, including an area full of older vehicles, and in that fleet I spied an old CJ-5 with a pair of low-back bucket seats. I asked the front desk what they’d charge for those, and when I got a nice low number, we returned with some tools and pulled them out. They’ve been sitting out in the open for years so the vinyl is brittle but still holding together, but with some basic repairs they should be good for the time being—and much easier to get into and out of than the plastic buckets. I’d already pulled the passenger side seat out to hand off to Brian, and it only took a half an hour to pull the driver’s side out, remove the rusted Jeep tracks, and mount the seat to the Scout base. I’ll have to fabricate a base for the passenger side, as that one had been removed long ago, but that’ll be a fun metal-bending project for the future.

I also spent a grand total of $15 on two tubes of Tank-Weld and over four leak tests, sealed up the driver’s side gas tank. It looks like it lost a fight with a gallon of Play-Doh, but it holds liquid and it’s $250 cheaper than a new tank, and that is the guiding principle of this truck. I will, however, have to shell out ~$70 for a new rubber filler hose; for now the boat tank will do nicely.

Finally, I talked with Brendan, who bought the rest of the trucks up at Dan’s place, and he’s going to give me the rollbar from the blue Scout. He’s resigned himself to the fact that he’s not going to do much with the truck (it’s actually in worse shape than this Scout) so he’s cool with letting that part go. So I’m going to drive out there and cut that out of the truck, as well as pick up a spare 16″ wheel for the Travelall.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on 800 Update  |  Posted in Junkyards, Scout 800

Quick Update

Lots to write about, but not much time this morning:

  1. The Travelall brakes are still broke. I believe it’s the master cylinder at this point, so I’ve ordered a new one from Rock Auto, which should be here Wednesday. I replaced the entire hardline setup last week as well as the softline on the passenger side (which I’d overlooked two years ago).
  2. The 800 is not starting. I tested it from the key forward, and the coil is getting power but is hot to the touch, which tells me it’s toast. So I’ve got a new coil coming this week as well.
  3. Peer Pressure, as usual, is running like a top. There’s a whine from the power steering pump, which is leaking slowly, and the exhaust on the passenger side needs to be tightened again, but she made it over and back from Chestertown with zero issues. She is my rock.
  4. Project Slowflake is making progress! I spent two days with Brian mounting the power unit to the transmission (the custom aluminum adapter plates are SEXXXXXXY), welding supports up to the front battery tray, and re-configuring the PMU location for the thirteenth time—but we got it sorted. Stay tuned for updates there as well.

This video is two weeks behind, but should begin to catch up on the progress:

Posted on   |   by bill   |   2 Comments on Quick Update  |  Posted in Brakes, EV Swap, Friends, Scout 800, Travelall

Going Back To Cali

The 800 has been an enigma since I bought it. There is no documentation on it anywhere, and I didn’t get any paperwork from Dan’s family (who do not seem to be in any hurry to find any, strangely). But there are two stickers on the truck which hint at a little history.

The first is a Carlisle truck show sticker from 2006, which may well have been the last time this thing traveled anywhere before Dan parked it.

The second is an inventory sticker from Allied Equipment Co., which was placed on the firewall directly above where the data plate would have been screwed in. Allied Equipment was an International dealer based in California, with branches in Fresno, Reedley, Madison, Five Points, and Tranquility. They had an original Loewy-designed showroom in Five Points which looked like this:

And according to the International Dealers of the Past website, the building still exists.

 

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Going Back To Cali  |  Posted in Scout 800

New Friends and Priorities

I had a very nice fellow contact me through the YouTube channel when he spied the tailgate from the Green Travelall in the background of a recent video, asking if it’s still available. We traded a few emails and then talked via phone on Saturday morning. He’s got a Travelall of his own, and it’s been sitting for a while, but he said my videos have gotten him inspired to pick things back up again. He’s based in Michigan but drives east quite often, so we’re going to try to meet up somewhere to make a deal. It’s always cool to hear from people who like the videos (sometimes it feels like I’m doing them for myself only) and I’m happy that my low-key self promotion has yielded new friendships.

As I do in the middle of each week, I’m going to make a list of stuff to tackle next:

  • The first and most important job is going to be sorting out the brakes on the Travelall. I want to solve the sticky brake issue once and for all so I can drive the damn thing long-distance without fear. So the order of diagnosis will be to pull the drums off, starting with the driver’s front, and:
    1. Back the adjusters way off so that they’re not so grabby.
    2. Check each of the cylinders to make sure they’re moving both directions freely and not leaking.
    3. Bleed the system again.
    4. If all else fails, I’ll replace the long line going from the prop valve back to the rear axle, which is the only one that hasn’t been touched.
  • Then I’m going to pull out the buffing wheel and run it with some cutting compound on the hood to see if I can add a little sparkle to some of the remaining paint, as well as pull off some of the peeling clearcoat. That might church up the truck a little bit.
  • Check the wire to the fuel tank sender and see if it’s still connected. I’d like to have my fuel gauge working again.
  • While I’m behind the dashboard, I’ve got to ground the light on the right side of the panel, and add some light-blocking material around the edges of the panel.
  • Wire the electric fuel pump in to the ignition circuit more permanently. Right now it’s running off alligator clips, which is janky.
  • Sort out the vacuum lines on the 800. They are currently all over the place and disconnected in a way that makes no sense to me, and I suspect this is the reason the truck is dying on acceleration—much like the Travelall did before I hooked the main vacuum line back up to the carb. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Scout 800 service manual and 3 of the 4 service manuals I do have don’t cover the 196 engine at all, while the fourth only briefly talks about the carburetor and provides no vacuum line diagram.  The interwebs have been no help so far either, but a deeper search is in progress.
    • I fooled around with this Thursday evening: There were two hoses in question teeing off the side of the manifold. The first was a narrow black hose that was just long enough to reach the vacuum advance port on the distributor. I put a fitting together from my spares and connected it back up, and we’ll see if that helps any. The second was a larger red hose that led to the PCV on the valve cover, which I’d removed to get the cover off. With this hose plugged the engine wanted to die, but I figure I’ve got to adjust the timing with it connected to get the engine running properly, so I hooked it back up for now.
  • Wire the electric fuel pump up with an inline fuse to the ignition circuit on the 800 as well. I don’t see mysef springing for a mechanical pump anytime soon—and a rebuild kit for the one I have is three times the cost of a new one—so the electric pump will do for now.
  • Pick up another tube of TankWeld and keep chasing the leaks on the fuel tank down. I’ve got the major holes filled but I’m finding new pinholes here and there.
  • Stop out at Brian’s place to run up Peer Pressure, drop off my generator for him to look over, and grab my spare PCV valve and tow straps from the truck.

I’m hoping to get the Travelall sorted out so that I can drive her across the bridge to Brian’s place next week for some EV work, but that’s going to take a series of 5-10-50 trips locally to shake out the bugs. Alternately, I’ll ferry the OG-V over to swap it for the Scout, weather permitting.

Total Scout 800 costs to date:

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on New Friends and Priorities  |  Posted in Scout 800, Travelall

Weekend Recap, 23 March

This weekend was Travelall-focused, mainly, because I wanted to get her running properly now that Peer Pressure is stored at Brian’s house. The engine was running but bogging down on acceleration, which pointed me back to water being in the gas, so the first thing I did was disconnect the fuel pump, point it into a bucket, and let it run for a minute. When that gas had settled, there was indeed water at the bottom, so I started draining the tank into buckets again. collecting about 7 gallons and filtering it through an old T-shirt into another bucket. By the time the gas ran clear I had about half a pint of water collected, which certainly would explain the issues I was having. With that done, I mixed in a half a bottle of HEET and replaced the gas, then ran the pump again to make sure there wasn’t any more water. Then I took her for a test drive. The stumble was gone and she ran well, but the idle was very high.

I plugged in my garage-sale engine tester and vacuum gauge and brought the idle screw way down to hover at about 700RPM, which is a much happier place to be. On the second test drive, she ran like a dream. I took her for a longer trip but found that my brake issue is back: longer trips heat the drums up, which tells me there’s a blockage in the lines somewhere. This is puzzling because I’ve replaced all of the soft lines—usually in cases like this a soft line has swelled internally so that when pressure is applied it’s forced through the blockage but doesn’t have enough power to go back the other way. So I’ve got to figure out what’s going on there.

Before
After

While I was waiting on the tank to drain, I sprayed the engine bay of the 800 with oven cleaner and hit it with the pressure washer. When I was done I’d blasted about five pounds of dirt and grease off of the truck, and found that I could see the firewall, engine block, and suspension clearly for the first time. Another thing I’d done during last week was to take one of my spare valve covers, wire wheel it, and spray it with IH Implement Red. After replacing the original, the engine bay looks 13% less redneck.

With the engine a little cleaner, I pulled the truck forward and drained the oil. It came out black with a little water at the bottom—but this could have been from me spraying it with the PCV valve open. I took a sample for Blackstone Labs, pulled the cartridge-style oil filter off (first time I’ve ever dealt with one of these) and put a new one in. Then I refilled it with Rotella diesel 10-W40. Hopefully that will help clean the engine out a bit.

I also pulled the driver’s tank out of the 800 last week to find it’s in slightly better shape than the passenger side, so I spent $12 on some fiberglass screen patches and a tube of TankWeld and started glooping it on the visible holes after wire-wheeling the edges. After two liquid tests I found I still had some pinholes, so I’ve got to keep working on it.

Meanwhile, here’s a recap video from two weeks ago:

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekend Recap, 23 March  |  Posted in Scout 800, Travelall, Video

Lit, Part One

A redneck truck in a redneck shack

I snuck out to the garage after doing the dishes last night and messed around with some of the electrics, inspired by the fact that the license plate light actually worked. Within about a half an hour, I pulled both of the taillight buckets, swapped them out for some better examples in my spares, cleaned the wiring contacts, and got them both working. The front running lights are in worse shape. I had to pull the front bumper off to access them, and found that it weighs a metric ton. It’s made out of 1/2″ thick C-channel and I would hate to be the car on the other side of it in an accident. One of the buckets came out easily but the other is held in with a rusted screw which needs to be extracted.

Finally, now that I can open the driver’s door all the way, I hit all of the retaining screws with penetrant, pulled them out, propped the door up, and screwed it in tight. It now closes almost cleanly, but the door striker needs to be taken apart and lubricated.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Lit, Part One  |  Posted in Electrical, Scout 800

Bill’s House of Internationals

Sunday morning update: the Danscout is out of the backyard and safely tucked in the garage! I spent the bulk of yesterday replacing the wheel cylinders, soft lines, and cleaning out the roached pads and drums, capping off the rear brakes, and bleeding the system. I had to spend more time than I wanted futzing with one of the brake cylinders for a while. The threads hadn’t been cut deep enough to make a solid connection with the flare, so I had to double-flare it to make it thicker, and that finally worked. After capping off the rears, I had my daughter help me bleed it out enough to engage the fronts, which was all I needed to move it around the house without fear of driving through the neighbors’ fence. (That drunk fence in the background of my pictures is theirs, but whoever installed it only poured the footers about 4″ deep, so they’ve heaved over the years and come out. I’ve straightened it twice with the Scout and some chains but finally gave up.)

Then I mixed up some antifreeze and topped off the radiator, glad to see it held liquid and didn’t pee out all over everything. After moving all of my tools out of the way, I fired it up and eased it into gear. I think the clutch is pretty well roached, because it only engages at the very end of the pedal throw, but it does engage. I got it around the house, down onto the driveway, and backed it down to the front of the garage for a quick pressure-wash. Most of the dirt, mold, and at least 1/4 of the paint came off pretty easily. I still can’t tell what color this thing was originally, but I believe it was Light Yellow, and then someone hand-brushed another similar coat of yellow over that. The pressure wash blew a lot of the yellow off to reveal gray primer (or perhaps Aspen Green Metallic?) underneath.

With the dirt on the outside cleaned off, I let it dry out and then backed it into the garage. The plan now is to store Peer Pressure in my friend Brian’s spare garage bay for a while as I get the 800 sorted, and swap the Travelall in and out of there to keep both trucks lubricated and running. I’m going to rob the battery from PP to run the 800 for now with the intention of working on it while spending as little as possible.

Before closing up for the night I cut some scrap 14 ga. steel down and made a fuel pump blockoff plate after noticing I’d puked a bunch of oil out of the open hole. This coming week I’m going to drain the remaining oil out and send some away to Blackstone for analysis—I’m curious to see what they can tell me about the health of this engine. I will say that it’s strong and happy to idle, in spite of the fact that I’ve done absolutely no adjustments to the carb or distributor since re-stabbing it. One thing that does need adjustment is the amount of fuel pressure; I’ve got it closed down to 2psi through the regulator, but every time I got on the gas it felt like it was draining the bowl and I’d have to wait until it refilled to be able to get the RPMs up again.

One other funny thing I noticed after I’d pressure-washed it was that the license plate light was actually on! None of the other lights seem to be working, but apparently my daughter was fooling with the knobs and left it pulled out when I was bleeding the brakes. I don’t currently have the brake lights hooked up, but that will be a fun exercise to see if anything else comes to life.

So, the next tasks in line are:

  • Clean out the engine bay. This is going to take several cans of oven cleaner and a long afternoon with the pressure washer.
  • Change the oil. It’s black and looks original from 1967.
  • Hang the doors properly. Both of the striker mechanisms need to be pulled off, disassembled, lubricated, and replaced.
  • Clean out the interior. It’s dirty and needs a good hose-down.
  • Pull the cabtop off and pressure-wash the inside. It’s got a 2″ layer of dirt on the bottom edge and I’d like to blast all that off to see what condition the metal is in.
  • Pull the driver’s side gas tank out. The passenger side has two big rust holes on each side; maybe the driver’s side will be in better shape. Oh, wait, was that a pig flying by my window?
  • Install a new mechanical fuel pump. The original is soaking in spare gas to see if I can get the diaphragm to come alive again, but I don’t hold out much hope. And all of the extra vacuum lines on that unit are just annoying.

 

Total costs to date:

Item Cost
1966 Scout 800 $500
Lunch for the recovery crew $85.00
Curved points $7.00
Battery cable $33.37
Carb Rebuild kit, fuel pump $46.30
Spare plugs, wires, used starter, coil, fluids $0
Soft brake lines, two wheel cylinders $68.47
Antifreeze concentrate, 2 brass brake line couplers $31.77
Total $771.91
Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Bill’s House of Internationals  |  Posted in Inspiration, Scout 800

Video Update: 3.13

Here’s the latest video in the Travelall series, covering my attempts to get her running again, involving an afternoon pouring gas into and out of buckets, multiple test runs, carb tuning, and lots of fuel system plumbing. But: it’s on the road again.

On deck for this weekend:

  • Tune the Travelall. She’s running, but could be running much better. This video covers how to adjust a Holley carb with a vacuum gauge and tach, which is exactly what I need to do next.
  • Wire-wheel the 800 tank & prep for TankWeld. This is all dependent on H-F actually having some wire wheels, which they’ve been out of for the last two months.
  • Pull the brakes off the 800 and prep for replacement. I’ve got a set of wheel cylinders and soft lines on their way from RockAuto, and I have a new kit full of threaded brake connectors in hand; with this stuff I should be able to rebuild the front brakes, including bending new hard lines.
  • Finish cleaning the frame on the Travelall. Now that she sits a full 2-3″ higher off the ground, it’s easier to get underneath and needle-scale the parts of the frame that I missed the first time around.
  • Paint the frame. 
  • Install the floor in the Travelall. I’d love to put this in for the last time, now that I know I’m going to keep the axle the way it currently is for the time being.

Total costs to date:

Item Cost
1966 Scout 800 $500
Lunch for the recovery crew $85.00
Curved points $7.00
Battery cable $33.37
Carb Rebuild kit, fuel pump $46.30
Spare plugs, wires, used starter, coil, fluids $0
Soft brake lines, two wheel cylinders $68.47
Total $740.14
Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Video Update: 3.13  |  Posted in Scout 800, Travelall, Video