This afternoon, after some particularly uncomfortable time spent in the eaves of my porch installing another layer of insulation, I decided to reward myself by dropping the donor battery (Thanks, Mr. Soundman!) into the Scout and running up the engine. After attaching two 10′ lengths of dryer hose to each exhaust and venting them out the windows, I put a little gas in the carb and it cranked right over. I also replaced the nasty gas-soaked air filter with the spare Mr. Scout gave me (he went to a K&N).<\/p>\n
While it was running, I installed two scavenged flourescent lights on the ceiling so that I can see what I’m doing in the dark—the garage has been without power or lights since we moved in in 2004. <\/p>\n
Finally, I wanted to positively identify the transmission from the top of the casing, so I removed the nautical cupholder from the center console (it was ugly anyway), pulled the screws from the trans cover, and found the letters “T19<\/a> 148″ stamped across the iron casing, which makes it identical to the unit in Chewbacca. I’m not sure if this is close or wide (geared high for driving or low for crawling) based on the one test-drive I’ve had, but it felt like my old Scout, so wide is what I’m guessing.<\/p>\n