Here’s a video from the weekend’s fun in the woods. Bennett and I put a list of the trucks and parts together for the family, and he’s going to pass that along to them to get the ball rolling. Hauling those trucks out is going to be a challenge.
Gray Hair
When I bought my first Scout, I was one of the youngest guys at the car meetups. I was 26, gainfully employed, and knew nothing about cars other than what I’d picked up in the repo lot. I knew more about picking locks than I did fixing engines, but I didn’t let that stop me from driving a 20-year-old truck to the Outer Banks from Baltimore with nothing but a screwdriver and some electrical tape. I read as much as I possibly could and picked up bits of information from the old-timers around me. Resources like the Binder Bulletin and the IHC Digest were full of guys who had bought Scouts new off the dealer lots, and they were a wealth of knowledge and information about the little quirks and tricks of ownership.
And as time has moved on, so have a lot of those old-timers. Guys I leaned on in the early years have since passed; interesting characters with names like Doc Stewart and Ol’ Saline have gone to the big garage in the sky, leaving a big empty space where their friendly knowledge once was.
One of Bennett’s friends from his early days collecting trucks passed late last year, leaving behind a huge collection of vehicles at his mother’s house. Finley and I had been up there 15 years ago to help Bennett pull an engine from under a lean-to, and at that point the place had simply been overgrown. Bennett was asked by the family to go up and inventory the stuff left behind, and I volunteered to give him a hand.
After meeting a member of his family and getting our bearings, we checked out a truck in the garage near the house: a Traveler in mostly restored condition, but surrounded by pieces and parts that still needed to be installed. It’s still in great shape, and all of the parts required look to be nearby, but it would require some serious excavation. The garage is stuffed with tools and parts and lawnmowers and other stuff, but it’s still dry and intact, which is good news. We noted what was there and what might be missing, and some wheels started turning in Bennett’s head.
Walking around back, we found another collection of parts that had once been protected by a lean-to and tarps. In this pile were a bunch of doors, hoods, and other sheet metal, as well as a bin full of heavy engine parts. Most of the stuff was open to the elements, so we dug around to try and identify as much as we could, pick it up out of the dirt, and shoot pictures.
Out in the back field, we found that the place was wildly overgrown compared to when we were there earlier: what had been open grassland 25 years ago was now a young forest, and it took us a while to bushwhack our way to the area where he had parked a bunch of cars and trucks: a group of R series Travelalls, R series pickups, a trio of Nash sedans, a couple of Scout IIs, a couple of Scout 800s, and a few more modern cars.
As we expected, some of the trucks were in rougher shape than others. Working carefully, we got into as many of the trucks as we could, shooting video and collecting VIN numbers to trace the titles and ownership. Apparently much of the paperwork is missing, though they were stored in the house at one time.
Several of the pickups and one of the Travelalls are in very good shape and would be restoration candidates for the right person. One of the Scout 800s might make a good restoration candidate, while both Scout IIs are only good for parts. It would be very tempting to offer the family money for one of those pickups.
Then we spent an hour bushwhacking through the forest to try to find a shed that was allegedly full of parts. We walked all the way across the property and all the way back to a creek at the rear boundary without finding anything. Consulting Bing maps, I found an outline of where a shed once stood in Street view and oriented us to where it should be. We discovered it collapsed under a tangle of vines and overgrowth and realized we had walked past it twice without seeing it. Under the broken beams we found another collection of parts: some Scout doors, some R-series doors, assorted sheet metal, as well as a bunch of Scout hubcaps and some other interior parts. In order to do a full survey, someone would have to return with a chainsaw and a bushhog to get in there. We collected the best parts we could reach, carried them back to the main truck collection, and then made our way out of the field before it started to rain. Exhausted after a four hour expedition, we stopped at the local diner and loaded up on breakfast.
Bennett got to thinking about how he might swing a deal for the Traveler, and we threw some ideas back and forth. It’s an extremely worthy candidate for saving, and miles ahead of Hanky’s condition.
On Sunday morning, one of those old hands came through for me again. My Scout has been at the transmission shop waiting on a callback from IH Parts America as to the clutch issue; this being the height of show season and Nats being next week I figure they are pretty busy planning and packing the trucks, so I haven’t heard anything back from them. Beginning to panic, I put a post up on the Binder Planet asking for help diagnosing the issue and within two hours I had an answer: one of the bolts is installed backwards and needs to be flipped around. This will require dropping the transmission again, but if that’s all it’s going to take, I’m glad it’s at a transmission shop. Hopefully they can get me in and out ASAP this week so I can get her prepped for the road.
Finally, a nice fellow from Instagram had reached out asking me for some advice on a C-Series pick up truck he bought locally. After trading some messages back and forth it turned out he was only about 20 minutes from the house, so I offered to stop down on Sunday morning to look over his truck.
The pickup in question was one I’d looked at back in 2022 when I was first searching for a new project vehicle. I met him in his driveway, where he was replacing the Holley 1940 carb on a six-cylinder engine. After meeting his dog and shaking his hand, he explained that the carb that came with the truck was leaky and had a lot of play in the butterfly valves. He’d rebuilt it, but water had gotten into the gas tank and rusted out parts of the carb.
He was looking at using a Chinese-built replacement, but the linkage on that carb was set up for a Ford so there would need to be a lot of re-engineering the throttle linkage to get it to work with his truck. So we futzed with the old carb, trying to find a gasket that would hold the gas in the bowl, but the two that he had didn’t work and it kept dumping gas when he ran the fuel pump. While we worked, I answered questions and passed on advice on what to prioritize and how I’ve done certain things on my truck. He’s facing the same issues I had with my Travelall: the cowl vents are leaking into the cab and need to be cut out and replaced, requiring major sheetmetal surgery. He doesn’t have any experience with bodywork or welding yet, and picked my brain about how to tackle the project. I explained the process I had followed and gave him advice on where to look for parts and how to disassemble certain things. We weren’t able to get the carb to work properly, so I told him I would look out for replacements at Nats.
I realize now that I am the old-timer. The brutal truth is that my peers and I are the graybeards, and we’re slowly passing on and leaving our stuff behind. I’m not a professional, and I still need to learn so much, but it feels good to give back to the community as much as I’ve learned from it, and to be an ambassador for the brand and for the hobby.
Starting and Stopping
Here’s a video update from the last week and a half of messing with the carburetor.
Musical Carbs
I had a plan going in to Sunday morning, after sitting back and thinking about all of the symptoms I’ve been facing with the carburetor. Typically when i’m working on mechanical or computer problems I’ll diagnose things backwards until I get to something I know is working. Then I move forward until I’ve identified the fault. On the carburetor, I knew that the engine spark timing was off, and the only good way I know to adjust that is to loosen the distributor while the engine is running and spin it slowly until the idle smooths out.
I figured the best way to do this was to put the old Holley 2300 back on the engine and work through the problem mechanically. Unbolting the Sniper from the engine, I put it aside, resting on some cardboard, and disconnected all of the wiring. I pulled the old carb from one of my spares bins and swapped it onto the engine, plumbing it to the boat tank through an electric fuel pump. With a couple squirts of 50-1 gas in the throat, the engine fired right up but sounded very choppy and died off after about 10 seconds. I got a couple of backfires out the throat of the carb—a sure sign of bad timing.
After verifying this was consistent behavior, I got it running long enough to get out to the distributor and slowly twist until the idle smoothed out and the throttle picked up. Then I tightened the mixture screws (they were wide open from last fall, when I was battling the dead condenser thinking it was a fuel issue) and adjusted the throttle until it was idling happily by itself.
Relieved, I let it run for about 10 minutes and shut it down, figuring it was warmed up enough to give the Sniper a hand. The learning feature in the Sniper control unit kicks in after the engine is warmed up past 160˚, and that was what I was shooting for: I wanted it to learn how to adjust the fuel/air mixture and self-meter. Friday evening I’d pulled the water neck open and examined the thermostat that was in the engine. I figured I’d find something crustier than a wino’s beard but the passages and thermostat looked almost brand-new, which was a pleasant surprise. I put a new 180˚ unit in and closed it back up.
I hustled around the engine and got the Sniper back in place in about 10 minutes, verifying I had reconnected the electric leads to everything, said a Hail Mary, and fired it off. It started immediately, and ran a lot smoother than it originally did—but was still hunting for the right fuel/air ratio, surging and fading. I let it run for a couple of minutes, noting that the temperature was reading 178˚ but knowing that the radiator wasn’t full, and shut it down after watching the Learn setting on the control unit struggle to balance things out.
I tried to restart after a couple of minutes but the battery sounded tired, so I hooked the tender back up and let it cool down. The Sniper says it’s reading 14 volts when the engine surges, but I’d bet the alternator is dead so I’ll source a new one after I verify its condition.
So: I know that the timing on the engine is set more correctly than it had been. I know that the Sniper will start the engine and run more consistently than it had been. I know I probably need to adjust the timing settings in the control unit again to better match the engine, and I know that the water passages are clean—but need more coolant.
With a little more time to kill, I got my 3M automotive tape out and finally put the International badge on the rear door. Looking at the rear quarter, I decided I wanted to add the Travelall badge that belonged there too. With the taillight removed I was able to see where the bondo had filled up the original mounting holes and used a chisel to carefully scrape it away to where I could see them. Then I drilled them out and widened them until the posts on the badge fit the holes perfectly. With some more tape the badge went on easily, and now the truck looks even more legit than before.
Puddin’s Steering Column
The guy who inspired me to build the seat lockbox for Darth just did another video where he swapped in an Ididit steering column to his ’68. His setup was a bit more complicated because his truck is a column shift and he swapped a Crown Vic subframe/GM powertrain, among other things, but he’s a lot more experienced with fabrication than I am.
Tick, Tick Tick
The stars finally aligned and I was able to drop the Scout off at the transmission shop on Friday to have the noise diagnosed. For a couple of days I’d thought it was going away but on the way to the shop it was louder than I’d ever heard it. Something definitely needs to be adjusted. I shot a video of the sound when I came to a stoplight and played it for the mechanics; hopefully it’s an easy fix and doesn’t require dropping the trans.
Last week I posted a bunch of parts for sale on the BinderPlanet and in a FB Travelall group—mainly stuff from the green truck I’m not going to need, with some other stuff thrown in. The first hit I got was on the ’61 grille and trim rings, and that sale is pending. I had a guy stop by yesterday to buy the roof rack with his son, and we wound up talking in the driveway for an hour. He’s got a Travelall body on a Durango chassis and his son has a ’61 Travelette. They looked through the other parts and he wound up buying the chrome from the green truck. I enjoyed talking with the two of them, and passed along a bunch of links and contacts for parts, window installation and upholstery. The father is considering the tailgate, and told me he’d get back to me. I’d love to get that thing out of the backyard. Finally, I’ve got a guy in Idaho interested in the steering ram setup, and he’s coordinating with his brother in Towson to come and pick it up. I’d really love to get that thing off the floor and out of the way.
Saturday Drive
Spark Testing
My plug wires showed up yesterday, which was a surprise. After using the Scout to jump the OG-V (the dome light stayed on for some reason and drained the battery) and charging that up, I put the spark tester on cylinder 3 and turned it over: there was no spark. Then I put the tester on the coil and cranked it again: there was one initial spark and then nothing after that. This is puzzling, and clearly something isn’t configured correctly. But it checks out with what the engine was doing earlier—in previous attempts it would almost catch and then just crank.
Sparky
Update 5.24: I’m trying to come up with a plan for the Sniper kit to work out the bugs. From a lot of the other posts and videos I’ve seen, guys with International engines have been able to hook everything up and just go, but as I recall there was something off with the timing on my truck before I installed it. Fixing it is going to require some more experienced help, so I’m going to call upon Bennett to give me a hand. I’m also looking at being able to view the data logs from the Sniper, which is only available through software that runs on a PC. Refurbished PCs are pretty cheap these days, so I could probably find something for 100 bucks—but I’d like to avoid that if possible. I want to talk to Holley support and send them the datalogs, but I have a sneaking suspicion their first question for me is going to be whether or not I verified the distributor is in the right position. So I’m in a bit of a holding pattern here.
The other thing I’m aware of is that in order for the system to use the self learning feature, the engine needs to be warmed up to 160° or higher. I have never looked at the thermostat in this truck, and I’d like to swap in a known good one just to be safe. That should be a relatively easy thing to do this weekend.
Update 5.16: With a new condenser/points unit installed, IT RUNS. The idle is super choppy and it dies after about 10 seconds, which means the timing is completely off, but it starts right up as advertised. Now I have to sort out the timing issues and figure out where it’s happy. I had the timing dialed in pretty well with the carburetor last fall before I started welding on the truck and burned the condenser out, so I think it’s a matter of finding where the sweet spot is in the sniper settings to make the engine happy. I’ve got a bunch of reading to do today, and I’m going to spend tomorrow (Saturday) working to get it smoothed out.
Update 5.14: I have a new points/condenser unit on order, and I’ll swap that in tomorrow. The thinking here is that the condenser (essentially a capacitor) isn’t storing a charge in between the points opening and closing, which means there’s no spark making its way to the plugs. In the Delco distributor I have the points/condenser are an integrated unit so it’s not a simple matter of unscrewing just the condenser and swapping in a new one.
Update 5.11: I bought a new spark tester from H-F and verified it was working on the Scout. There’s no spark at the coil when I put it there; this verifies what I suspected. Next I’ve got to use a test light to see if I’ve got power going to the coil with the key on at both sides of the poles, then see if there’s power in the distributor.
I got really discouraged yesterday and let my anger get the better of me; instead of taking a step back and researching next steps, I let my ADHD run wild and dicked around in the garage for the rest of the day.
***
I’m in a holding pattern on the fuel injection project until some parts come in. The big holdup is getting a new set of spark plug wires after the number four wire snapped off in my hand. I thought I had kept my old set from the Scout in the spares bin, but apparently I tossed them—all I have is a coil wire in the parts bag. As I write this, it occurs to me that I can pull one of the wires off the Scout and use that to test the ignition system (duh). Basically, the plan looks like this:
- Pull the #8 plug (International SV-series engines time off of the number eight cylinder)
- Spin the engine until # is at TDC, replace the plug
- Make sure the rotor is aligned correctly, pointing at the #8 wire
- Make sure the spark plug wires are routed in the correct order – CHECK
- Check for spark at the coil – NONE
- Check for spark at the plugs – NONE
If all of those things check out, and the engine still won’t start, then I’m at a complete loss. I know I’m getting fuel, and the EFI system should be metering air, so the only thing remaining would be spark. I did fool around a little bit with timing last fall, but the truck ran after I adjusted that. So I’m thinking it’s got to be an issue with the ignition system. I do still think the starter needs to be replaced, but I want to sort out all of this other stuff before I start throwing more money at parts.
Lazy Sunday
I had every intention of diagnosing the ignition issues on Darth Haul on Sunday, but the universe conspired against me. The weather forecast was for rain, which I could work around with a pop-up canopy, but Amazon decided the spark plug set I needed for my 8-cylinder engine should only require 5 wires. This from a “guaranteed fit”. Nobody around here had the plugs I need in stock, so the day was literally a wash. I’ve got new plugs on order which should be here Monday, and I can keep troubleshooting after work.
For the last two weeks I’ve been experimenting with leaving the cover off the truck to see what kind of water ingress I’m getting around the cowl vents and the door seals. The rain started Saturday night at midnight and continued on and off throughout the next day. Looking through the cab of the truck at noon, there’s a little bit of water dripping on both sides at the floorboards that I’ll have to track down, but nothing at the volume that was coming in before I cut the cowl out. There’s a small 1/4″ plug in the roof that I didn’t weld up when I repaired that, which is dripping on the front seat; that will just require some butyl or silicone caulk to fix. Finally, the driver’s rear window gasket is leaking a little bit at the very back corner.
The alternative is leaving a cover on the truck all the time, but I’ve found that the cover I have doesn’t breathe very well and moisture gets trapped underneath—to the point where the engine bay looks like it’s sweating. That’s not good at all. So I’m going to leave the cover off for the next month and see if I can stop the leaks enough to feel better about leaving it open to the elements.
Meanwhile, there’s a ticking sound coming from the transmission in the Scout in 4th gear under load. When I tap on the clutch pedal it goes away. I’m going to drop it off at the shop who did the work tomorrow so that they can adjust it for me; I’ve got a couple of long-distance trips coming up which are going to require a fully functional transmission that isn’t trying to eat itself, and I want to get it in as soon as possible to diagnose.