Category: Travelall

Weekend Update, 4 May

Saturday morning I had some time to get out to the driveway. The first thing to do was diagnose the wobble on the front wheel, so I jacked it off the ground and spun it. I immediately found the cause of the vibration above 50mph: the new wheel is out of true. There’s a wide variation in both diameter and depth as it spins, which explains the problem. So I swapped that wheel with the one on the back, and we’ll see if that makes any difference. If the back starts wobbling badly, I’ll swap the tire back on to the odd 16″ wheel until I can get a good set of 15″ wheels to replace these.

With the front wheel off, I started working on the tie rods. After cleaning the accumulated grease and dirt off the fittings, I heated and cooled each side until I was able to get it to spin. Counting the threads carefully, I pulled it off and threaded the new one on at exactly the same length. With the driver’s side fastened, I pulled the passenger wheel off and repeated the process. The steering tie rod ends were just as bad, but I couldn’t get both here at the same time, so I did some cross-site parts research and found a left-hand thread Moog unit on the jungle site that could be delivered Sunday.

Then I went out and swapped the Honda out for Peer Pressure at Brian’s place to bring it home. Stopping off at ACE for fresh grade 8 hardware, I installed the female sides of the lap belts on the rear bench in Darth—so now I’ve got one full lap belt back there until I can source another male belt with a quick-release. With that done, I routed and mounted the fourth tiedown on the driver’s side rear, so there’s one on each side to secure any cargo back there.

Meanwhile, I’ve been noticing the cord on the IH fridge has been getting more and more frayed, and some of the original plastic sheathing was ripped about halfway along its length. Fearing a fire hazard, I took a little time last night to splice in a replacement appliance cord with solder and four layers of shrink wrap to keep it as secure as possible.

Sunday I was multi-tasking on house and truck stuff, but the part did arrive, and after some initial confusion about whether or not it was correct, I threaded it on. The rear half of the steering link is an odd size: the rod section is about 8″ long, which I haven’t seen anywhere. I think my solution to this will be to find a replacement sleeve that’s longer to accept a normal off-the-shelf tie rod.

With three of the four tie rods replaced and the wobbly wheel on the back, I took her out for a test drive. Getting her up to speed on 195, I felt the rear wheel doing its dance, but the other three felt good—and most importantly, as I drove over the traffic calming speed bumps on the way to the highway, I felt and heard none of the loose clanking through the steering wheel  that was there before the tie rods went in. And the steering is still straight and true, which means I did it right.

Something positive to note: I got her up to 65mph with little difficulty, and I believe, once the wheels are sorted out, she’d do 70 with no problem.

Monday afternoon I’ve got an internet acquaintance stopping by to buy a bunch of parts: the Travelall liftgate, the Ford bumper, some doorhandles, and a badge off one of the ’68 grilles. It’ll be good to clear that stuff out and free up a litle cash for some other stuff. He’s picking up a Travelall from Tyler out in Frederick, and I was hoping to horse trade him for the original jack and windshield washer pump out of that truck; we’ll see if we can swing it.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekend Update, 4 May  |  Posted in Friends, Repairs, Travelall

Wheely Tired of This

I took the truck out on the highway with the intention of driving it to Frederick last weekend, and found that I had an extremely strong vibration coming from the front end over 55mph, which I strongly suspect are the tires. So I turned around and swapped it for the Honda. Doing more research, I’ve come to the unfortunate realization that the 16″ steel wheels I’ve currently got on the truck do not accept anything currently available other than the trailer tires I have currently mounted. These are made with less care than normal tires, and thus aren’t balanced for everyday use. Given that I’m not road-tripping this thing to Illinois and back every day, that’s not a huge deal, but I intend to take it to Ohio in a couple of months and would like to have proper tires mounted. So now I’m on the hunt for a set of 15″ 4.5×5″ steel wheels that will accept original IH dish hubcaps.

In the meantime I’m going to move the rear tires up front and see if that smooths out the ride, which will then tell me which tires are good and which are bad, or if it’s an issue related to the suspension (which I strongly doubt). I also have new right and left tie rod ends sitting on my desk waiting to be installed this weekend, which should help tighten up the steering linkages.

The other job to finish will be installing the female side of the rear seatbelts, which my truck never came with. I’ve seen a couple of different stock installations, one where the mount is on the wheel arch and one where the mount is on the flat step in front of the arch.

belts mounted to the flat step
Belt mounted to the wheel arch. This truck was the inspiration for the design of my seats.
Another mounted to the wheel arch. Note placement of the latch mechanism on the side of the seat

I think, having crawled under this truck a million times, that I’d rather have it on the flat step with a big fat g8 bolt going through the structural part of the truck, and a backing plate underneath.

Oh yeah, and I’ve got to fix the damn fuel gauge.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Wheely Tired of This  |  Posted in Travelall

Ruminating

The weather was kind of garbage this weekend, which put a literal damper on a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish. I was able to install a set of 6,000 lb. cargo hooks in the back of the Travelall to accept a set of seatbelts for the back seat, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while.

These hooks replace the original round IH cups that came with the Green truck (my truck never had these, falling outside the federal seatbelt mandate) which were very deep, and which I couldn’t come up with a method of attaching to anything solid.

The new hooks come with a stout metal plate that bolts underneath, so I don’t think they’re going to go anywhere. Now I have to add the female belts to the wheel wells, which will require a custom fabricated backing plate.

Meanwhile, a nice fellow in Michigan reached out to me several weeks ago after seeing the Travelall liftgate in one of my videos; we traded emails and a couple of calls, and made some plans for him to buy some parts. Then my local Travelall friend Tyler showed me a picture of a truck he picked up locally and asked me if anyone I knew was interested. I passed the word along to Bill, and he sounded very interested. So I wrapped two trips up into one on Sunday: I drove out Tyler’s way to buy a new (used) Mirra desk chair and then stopped at his place to look over the truck. After sharing the video and my opinion, Bill is going to buy it, which is a great deal for both people (and I don’t feel tempted to buy it myself and risk my marriage). My intention was to drive Darth, but after I got her out onto the Beltway and up to 60mph, the front of the truck started vibrating badly. So I think the plan will be to replace the tie rods and then find someone who can do an alignment for me.

I dragged the 800 back out of the garage, put some oil in the cylinders, and tried to fire it off again, but didn’t have any luck. I cleaned all the plugs and verified that I’ve got spark, but the #1 cylinder is still only making 75psi of pressure. I’m going to pull the carb off this week and clean it out, and I’ll give it another try maybe this coming weekend, but I’m beginning to think this truck will be a winter project—and I’m considering swapping it out with the Scout II at Brian’s place. I want to drive Peer Pressure this summer, and I’m still focused on making Darth Haul a runner, so the 800 is a distraction. Plus, nobody knows more about cranky engines that won’t start than my friend Brian, so there’s that added benefit. I’ve just got to get it over there.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Ruminating  |  Posted in Friends, Seat Belts, Travelall

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

We May Have This Beat

I think I’ve got the brake situation on Darth Haul pretty much licked—but it’s going to take a little more adjustment before I’m happy. When I last wrote about this, I was waiting on a master cylinder from Rock Auto. I wound up installing that, and as I took the 2-year-old unit off the firewall, I found that the pushrod for the clutch fell inside the firewall, while the pushrod for the brakes stuck out into the engine bay by an inch or so. This pointed at the cylinder being pressurized as I hit the brakes, but not able to release all of the pressure when the pedal was let back out, thus building up over time as I drove and braked.

So I unscrewed the adjustable pushrod and lopped about 1″ of length off of it, and put it back in the truck. I found that I’d taken off way too much and that I wasn’t getting any brakes at all. So I measured the threaded side of the pushrod, then bought a couple of 7/16 bolts with 20 pitch thread and used an angle grinder to fabricate a new pushrod.

After spinning a jam nut down on the threads, I put it back in the truck and gave it a test, but found I wasn’t getting enough brake, and needed more length. So I fabricated a third pushrod and installed that one, and this time I got some stop in the pedal. It still needs some fine tuning—I’ve got to stand on the brakes to stop quickly—but after a 15-mile drive the wheels were cool to the touch and the truck wasn’t struggling against itself.

Now I’ve got to do some tightening up on the front suspension. The tie rods and bushings are all toast, so I have to order new hardware for all of that, as well as pick up a working grease gun (both of the units I have here, circa the repo agency from 1988,  seem to be broken) to lube all the important bits.

Brendan left me a couple of goodies up at Dan’s place a few weekends ago, so I made the most of the trip by hauling a load of broken concrete from our backyard up to the landfill on that side of town in the Scout. His place is right around the corner, so I quietly backed into the side field so as not to disturb his family. Brendan dropped a proper 16″ IH wheel in the driver’s seat of the blue 80 for the Travelall and told me to just take the rollbar out of that truck. I was able to get one of two bolts out with a wrench but had to resort to a portable cutoff wheel to get the other out. With that, the bar was free, and I hauled both parts back to Peer Pressure to head home.

The wheel is exactly what I needed. I’ve got three originals on the truck but the fourth is one I got from a guy on Marketplace, and while it fits the truck, the mounting boss is a different size than the others so I can’t mount a hubcap on it. I wire-wheeled the whole thing, sprayed the outside white, and mounted it on the truck.

With the hubcap on it really brings out the white in the top and makes the truck look sharp. I liked it so much I used the playing card trick to spray the rear wheel white as well. Something else to look into are different tires; the ones on the truck are technically for a trailer, and I’d like to have the right kind of rubber on the truck. It’s an odd size so it’s going to take some searching to find the right thing.

While I was at the Hobo Freight I picked up a bottle of cutting compound and a couple of orbital pads, and gave it a try on some of the red paint with the worst oxidization. It took some experimentation and practice, but after a little while I had the original paint as shiny as it’s going to get, punctuated with areas of rattle-can IH Implement red covering repairs I’ve made. I did the entire passenger rear quarter up to the point where my sheet-metal repair starts (and the spray paint is fading) and both doors, and it looks worlds better. It’s not going to save the peeling clear coat but it’s better than it was.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on We May Have This Beat  |  Posted in Brakes, Purchasing, Travelall

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

Broken Brakes

Sometimes you have a workday where everything seems to fall in place and work correctly, and sometimes you finish the day where it feels like nothing was accomplished. This weekend was mostly the latter. I spent just about the entire weekend on the brake situation in the Travelall, and as of right now I still don’t have anything to show for it.

I started by doing a short test run to get the truck warm, and then brought it back to the driveway to check the drums. The driver’s front was the hottest, so I put the entire truck up on stands and pulled all four wheels. Each drum was warm to the touch and didn’t spin freely, which told me they weren’t releasing properly. So I bled them starting at the far corner with my daughter’s help, put the wheels back on, dropped it onto the ground, and did another test run.

After the second run the drums were still hot, which pointed to a possible problem with the master cylinder. When I originally replaced it, I bled it on the truck instead of the bench (rookie mistake), so I figured maybe there was air still trapped in the cylinder. I rigged up a bleed tube, disconnected the brake system, and bled it out again. I did get some air out of it before it went clear, so I figured maybe I was home free. After dropping it back on the ground, I bled it at the wheels again and prepped it for a test run.

Sunday morning I took it back out for a drive, and back in the driveway I found that the driver’s front drum was still hot to the touch. This was frustrating, but I kept my cool. I figured I would replace the only two elements that still exist from the original brake system: a long hardline going from the prop valve to the rear axle and another going across the front of the frame to the passenger front wheel. As I’ve bled the system the fluid has been coming out dirty, so there’s a good chance there’s some crud in those lines that isn’t letting the pressure release.

I tackled the long line first, and was lucky to have just enough left to reach— it’s 9 feet in total—so I ordered another length of 1/4″ line from Prime and got to work heating and cooling and heating and cooling the fittings. The rear fitting came out relatively easily but it took an hour of patiently working on the front fitting before I felt brave enough to put a wrench on it. While that was happening I pulled the old line off and used the needle-scaler to remove surface rust on the inside of the frame rail behind the mounting points, and hit it with Rust Encapsulator. Then I put the new line in place, double-flaring the ends, and tidied up the wiring on that side.

Up at the prop valve, I decided to split the line and slide a box-head wrench up to the nut so that I was getting all the contact area possible, and then with one mighty heave, it came loose. After that it was relatively easy to double-flare the other end and tighten it on the valve.

By this time it was getting dark, but I worked until about 8PM heating and loosening the nut on the other side of the valve and pulling all of the retaining clips off of the frame. While I was under the truck I tidied up the wiring on the passenger side and found that when I’d re-connected the gas tank sender wire I never covered it with anything (there was an unused section of heat shrink tube on the wire, so I had all the best intentions) so I cleaned those connections for testing later.

The front line is going to take hours, I suspect. It’s in a difficult location to get to. The end of the line is mounted up on the frame behind the tire, right next to the starter, so there’s little room to move. I suspect I’ll have to remove the starter and spend a lot of time heating and juicing that line as well.

If this isn’t the issue, the way I see it there are only two things left that could be the problem: the short soft line going from the master cylinder to the prop valve, or the master cylinder itself. I’m thinking I’m going to order the soft line just to rule it out (it’s pretty cheap in any case) before spending $80 on another master cylinder, just to make sure I’m not firing the parts cannon prematurely.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Broken Brakes  |  Posted in Brakes, Travelall

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