High-Tech

I had some time after work the other day and did a little vibe-coding with Codex to build a simple front-end search interface for the spreadsheet I use to keep track of my parts inventory. Over time I’ve amassed a pretty large collection of spares, from specialty bolts and nuts to large sheet metal parts. A couple of weeks ago I used some 2×3″ wood to build a rack system for my black parts bins, and with that I was able to make more space in the garage as well as make access easier (having them stacked on each other was exhausting). Knowing what is in which bin is good, but having to hump my laptop out there was a drag, and searching a Google Sheet via a phone sucks.

Codex quickly built a search query for me with PHP, and over time we streamlined the interface to return the bin and location information. But that was only half the problem; I need to be able to note when I’ve pulled something out of a bin, and also when I’ve added something to a bin. This required Codex stepping me through the process of hooking up an API to talk with my script and doing a little more work on the interface to clean things up.

I’m very happy with the results, and I think this will go a long way to organizing my stuff better. I used it last night to catalog a couple of parts Brian sent me home with from Slowflake: a proportioning valve, a gas tank valve switch, and a brake master cylinder.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on High-Tech  |  Posted in Design

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

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

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