Category: Travelall

Weekend Update

I got the driveshaft back for the Travelall on Thursday. They wound up completely rebuilding what I brought them: they put a new yoke on either side of a larger driveshaft and connected that to the original slip shaft from my truck. The old driveshaft was 2 1/2″ in diameter and this new one is 3″ so there’s some extra beef. I hit it with some self-etching primer and black paint on Friday afternoon and let it cure in the sunlight. Saturday morning, after running some errands, I crawled under the truck and put it back in. This was straightforward, and when it was done I took her for a run around the block. I wound her up as fast as I could close to the house and it looks and feels like the vibration is gone—which is excellent news. I felt so good about it, I took the truck out three times over the weekend to run errands.

Then I put the Scout up on jack stands and started tearing into the hub on the passenger side in order to swap the rotors. All of the videos that I have seen talk about taking the faceplate off, then pulling a snap ring out before removing the outer section of the housing. None of the videos show exactly where that snap ring is, and I don’t see it on my hub anywhere. I pulled the driver’s side off to see if I was missing something, but that looks exactly the same as the passenger side. My spare hub is a completely different design, so I can’t use that as a baseline. So I put the whole thing back together to cogitate on it a little longer.

Doing some organizing in the garage during the weekend, I went looking for some weatherstripping and stumbled on something I forgot I had: a used speedometer cable from the green truck. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to slap myself in the head, because it would only make sense that I would save something like this. Brand new, these cables are $60, so this was a great find. I cleaned the grease off it, filled it with silicon spray and put it in the truck. The needle hops around a bit, but it’s working, and the odometer spins, which is great news, because now I can track gas usage again.

Another quick thing I looked at were the locks on the lockbox under the rear seat in Darth. I’ve had these finger-tight since I put them in, and now that the truck is on the road I need some secure storage. Both sides have needed adjustment since I put them in. The driver’s side needs a new slot to be cut into the side of the box for proper alignment with the key, and the passenger side needs a longer catch made for the lock mechanism. I think I’m going to draw up a design and have SendCutSend cut me two new ones instead of trying to cut and fabricate one here. Along with that, I have two modifications to make to the C-series cupholder I designed—I want to increase the diameter of the cup cutouts by at least 1/2″ to allow for some rubber bumpers around the edge, add a little more height to the gusset at the bottom, and have them cut the two bolt holes for the seat hoop. So I’ll gang those two orders up and maybe save a little on shipping.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekend Update  |  Posted in Brakes, Repairs, Travelall

Braked

Well, this weekend was a journey. Mostly a good one; a lot of good stuff got accomplished, and I spent a bunch of time with friends, but it wasn’t without its challenges.

We had a workday scheduled at Brian’s place in the country to work on Heavy D, Bennett’s long-sidelined pickup waiting for welding repairs, a windshield install, and re-assembly of the front clip. The last time I was out there I’d bent and formed a complicated section of metal to weld to the front of the firewall but Brian’s commercial welder was too strong to work the sheet metal without blowing through it. We were also going to help Brian move his pickup around and place the bed on the frame to free up space, and see what other stuff we could get up to.

My plan was to drive Darth Haul out there for her first short-distance trip, so I worked on the engine timing and fuel system on Thursday. I was having issues with the fuel pump pulling debris from the saddle tank up into the pickup and clogging it, so I rigged the boat tank up with a length of hose and put it on the passenger floor. After loading up my tools, welder, and welding bin, I hit the road at about 9 and took my time getting out there. Brian’s place is about 20 miles away, and I took back roads to avoid any high-speed sections. The truck did very well! Shifting is smooth, the engine is strong, and the brakes worked well. I noticed a vibration at 40mph and heard some rubbing in back, which foreshadowed later events.

At Brian’s house, I helped he and Bennett to clean out Mr. Hanky, because our friends Chad and Liz were coming down from Pittsburgh to possibly buy it. Bennett has had it up for sale since Nats in order to free up cash and space for a cleaner Scout, and they’ve been in the market for another project for a while. They arrived at 11 and he showed Chad the truck while we caught up with Liz. By 1PM the deal was done, and we helped them load the trucks up with a pile of extra parts. It was bittersweet to see Hanky drive away, but it’s great to see him going to a good home—it reminds me so much of selling Chewbacca to Carolyn to give to Brian—I know they’re going to do a great job reviving him.

After moving Brian’s pickup and freeing up a bunch of floor space, we had pizza delivered for a late lunch and then set to work on Heavy D. The first big task was to re-install the windshield, and luckily the rubber was designed exactly like what I put in Peer Pressure, so I knew how to align it in the channel. Between the four of us and with judicious use of glass cleaner, we got it in place and then used plastic putty spreaders to guide the edges into the channels, then fold the locking flap over.

With that done, I set my welder up and put the patch in place, ground it down, and got it ready for paint while Brian and Bennett started hanging fenders. Within about an hour we had the truck put mostly back together and ready for a test fire. The carb was mad at being ignored for a year, and didn’t want to run properly, so Bennett will have to go back and diagnose that. By 5PM we wound down and set course for home. I took Bennett back to his place, but noticed the truck working harder as we drove. Stopping for gas I found all four wheels hot to the touch, which told us the brakes were dragging. By the time we got to his house the passenger rear was smoking slightly. We pulled the wheels off and cooled them down with a hose, then banged the drums off with a hammer. The pads were all the way extended, which meant that the system wasn’t releasing pressure. It was getting dark, so he gave me the keys to his CR-V and I drove that home after parking Darth in his driveway.

The next morning I got there at 9 with all of my brake tools and fluids, and we started troubleshooting the system. After tearing apart and rebuilding the rear drums three times, we tested the master cylinder upstream and verified it wasn’t the lines above either axle. So we disconnected and bench bled the master until it looked clear, then connected everything back up to test. It looked like the brakes were grabbing and releasing, and a test drive verified this. While under the truck I also noticed a huge dent in the driveshaft, which explains the vibrations above 40MPH.

I packed up my tools, extended my sincere gratitude for Bennett’s knowledge and time, and set course for home. She ran well and didn’t feel like she was struggling the farther we went. The brakes and clutch felt good, and I got her home with no problems. The wheels were hot when I checked them after parking it, but not scalding as they had been before. It may take another bench bleed to really kick the issue, but for now, I’m happy she’s back in the driveway.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Braked  |  Posted in Brakes, Friends, Purchasing, Travelall, Trip Logs

Pizza and Beer Run

I got Darth Haul running well enough to take her down the street for a pizza and beer run. I’m having a little issue pulling gas from the tank, and after a little roadside troubleshooting I believe there’s something in the tank clogging the pickup. I’m planning on driving her 12 miles out and back to Brian’s place on Saturday, so I’m going to take the boat tank and a length of fuel line with me for backup.

I did get some more of the tasks checked off the master list:

The temperature sender from the green truck did in fact work—I heated it with a heat gun and then hooked up the wire and grounded it, and it tested properly. So I pulled the sender from the Sniper kit out and swapped this one in. Good to have another working gauge!

The passenger door hinge got swapped out, the door adjusted, and now the door closes correctly for the first time since I bought this truck. I had to get a bolt to put in one hole because it was stripped, but it went successfully. While the doors were broken down, I did clean them out, swab them with Rust Converter, and spray on a layer of rattlecan IH Red. And at the same time, with some fresh H-F wire wheels, I cleaned off the drip rails, masked them off, and used that same rattlecan to cover them in red up to and on top of the edge.

Finally, I dragged all of the timing tools out, plugged the proper vacuum hoses, and attempted to dial the timing in again. It seemed like every adjustment I made retarded the timing even more than before: reducing the air/fuel mixture while adjusting the dwell, all the while keeping an eye on the timing and vacuum. It’s running OK now, although the idle is still high, but it’s not dieseling anymore at shutoff, which is nice. I’m hoping I can get the heads at Brian’s to help me work on it a little more.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Pizza and Beer Run  |  Posted in Travelall

Sunday Afternoon Success

I crossed a couple of things off the list on the Travelall while I had good weather and a clear schedule:

  1. I wired the electric fuel pump into the switched power circuit, so that I stop forgetting to turn it off when I get out of the truck
  2. I moved the vacuum advance hose to the manifold port and plugged up the port on the carburetor where it had been. I had them mixed up. The port I was using is above the throttle blades, which means it only sees vacuum at throttle and doesn’t advance the timing at idle.
  3. I pulled the small metal bracket off the dash and hooked the speedometer/odometer cable back up
  4. With that done, I took her for a ride around the neighborhood, and she ran really well! There were some stumbles at first but when she’d warmed up it smoothed out.
  5. After I got back, I dug through my bins and reinstalled the choke cable. Firing the truck back up, I noticed that she ran worse with the choke open all the way, which makes sense; I’d set the timing with the choke open 1/3 of the way, and that had an effect on the air/fuel mixture.
  6. Then I moved her in the driveway and pulled the door cards off to expose the mounting bolts. After some fussing with the driver’s door, I got it to line up and close well for the first time ever.
  7. I messed with the passenger door for a while until I realized that the top hinge pin is broken—I think jacking the door up and wrenching it back and forth must have snapped the pin. I dug the spare hinge out from the green truck, and cleaned it up.

So next up on the list:

  1. Install the used temperature sender from the green truck’s manifold and see if that works
  2. Pull the passenger fender off, remove the broken hinge, and replace it with the green one (which is now wire-wheeled, etch primed, and painted red)
  3. Put the timing light on it and text/reset the timing again with a warmed up engine and vacuum advance unplugged.
  4. Clean up the insides of the two front doors (rust converter in the channel, vacuum the bottoms out, and spray in some Rust-Stop)
  5. There’s still one dash light missing, which I need to chase down
  6. Grind out any rust on the outer edge/underside of the drip rail, treat it, and paint it
  7. Continue putting bolts in the rear bed floor
  8. Put the metal surround back on the shift boot
  9. Figure out how to wire in a dome light

If I can keep ironing out the problems, my goal is to drive it 12 miles to Brian’s house this weekend for a workday. We’ll see.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Sunday Afternoon Success  |  Posted in To-Do List, Travelall

Beauty Shot

I did some quick troubleshooting yesterday with the timing and found that my timing gun was set to 10˚ advanced, so the truck is still way ahead of where it should be. It’s also dieseling when I shut it down, which tells me the timing is way too advanced. On our truck text thread the other day, Bennett gave me some things to check over:

  • Time it with vacuum advance disconnected and plugged. Done. It seems happiest when it’s waaaay advanced.
  • Are they the correct spark plugs? And gapped? Yes!
  • How’s the points gap? The gap looked good to me, but it’s hard to get a gauge in there with the condenser and mechanical advance in the way.
  • Have you set the dwell? This one I need to do some more research on. Two weeks ago I tested it and found that it was at 26˚ when it should be 30˚, so some adjustment is required there.
  • Does the timing mark jump around when you add throttle?  No, it’s smooth, which is a good sign.
  • Spray carb cleaner around the carb base and ports to test for vacuum leaks.  I didn’t get to this one.
  • Does the timing mark advance as you add throttle (with vacuum plugged) to test mechanical advance. Check—working as designed.

But she’s still not running correctly, so more diagnosis is required. And until I get the mechanical fuel pump fixed and installed, I’m going to need to wire the electric unit into the switched power fuse panel, because I keep forgetting to turn the damned thing off when I shut the truck down.

In retrospect, I’m very happy I decided to remove the Sniper and go back to the basics, because I would have been smashing my head against the wall for months trying to diagnose software when this a mechanical problem to begin with.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Beauty Shot  |  Posted in Carburetor, Travelall

Darth Update

Last weekend, I pulled the Sniper out of the engine bay and tucked it safely away in a box in the garage. The mechanical fuel pump is back on the truck, but it gave me a fight the last couple of days—it wouldn’t prime, and it sits uncomfortably close to the engine mount. Thursday morning I bypassed it with an electric pump and fed the carb directly. Once it fired, the engine tried to run away on me, so I reset the mixture screws to baseline. That’s when I found a huge vacuum leak at the back of the carb. After sealing that up, it settled into a decent idle. I set timing back to about 10°, which feels a lot more reasonable, dropped the hood, and took it for a spin around the block. The choke cable still needs to be hooked back up, but once it warmed up it drove fine. Heavy throttle still causes it to bog, so there’s more tuning ahead, but it’s already a big improvement.

I do want to pull the electric fuel pump off. Now that the lines are primed I want to hook the mechanical back up and see if it will pull fuel; if not, I’m going to pull the trigger on a rebuild kit for the original unit, which fits the truck better in any case.

Meanwhile, I painted the new plywood panel for the rear bed with a marine oil-based primer, countersunk the bolt holes, and rolled on two coats of Raptor Liner front and back. I have some fresh hardware in hand to put it in more permanently, although I have to go back out to get more bolts—the ones they used are an odd thread count for their size.

Lastly, I tore down a spare rear door to salvage the good glass, cleaned the tracks, and swapped it into the red truck. Once I knew the steps, the job was quick and straightforward. While I had the door apart, I pulled the handle, chased out a bit more rust, skimmed it, and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Darth Update  |  Posted in Carburetor, Travelall