Here’s a great little post on the BP about tire size equivalents. Currently I’m running a set of 32×11.5R15 BF Goodrich Mud Terrains, but I’d like to set them aside for a smoother road-going tread at some point. It looks like 16″ tires are more plentiful, so the first thing I’d need is a set of four rims to mount tires on. I’d been led to believe I would need something like an LT315/70R15, but the BP thread is saying a 265/75R16 would work on a 16″ rim and sit at the same height as a 32″. Which would mean that a set of four Dunlop Radial Rovers (the brand I preferred on Chewbacca) would be about $118/tire.
Category: Purchasing
Hidden Tunes Via An iPod.
Here’s a really interesting article on the Jalopy Journal with some good information about hooking up an iPod to a hidden amplifier. The interesting part is the iPod dock connector, which I’d never really thought about searching for before. I believe the Kenwood head unit I have is equipped with RCA jacks that will support AUX input, so I may switch over to that instead of a mini stereo cable out the front.
Update: I’m out of luck with the Kenwood unit (it’s got no aux inputs on the back), so I may just sell it on Craigslist. I never liked the control/button setup anyway.
Posted on | | Leave a Comment on Hidden Tunes Via An iPod. | Posted in Future Plans, Inspiration, Purchasing
A Spare, and Chewbacca Comes To Visit.
I chose an absolutely glorious day to drive up into Monkton/White Hall to meet with a nice fellow and buy a spare Thermoquad for Peer Pressure today. Apart from one minor hiccup with lousy battery cabling, the old girl ran like a top, and we ventured out into farm country, blowing up clouds of leaves and passing by cows, horses, and IH farm equipment of all vintages. Erik is a real nice guy with a stable of drool-worthy trucks, and he gave me my pick of two Thermoquads. The one I chose looks like it was recently rebuilt itself, and comes with all the associated hardware I’ll need in case of replacement.
Later in the afternoon, I got a call from Mr. Scout, who was in town and behind the wheel of Chewbacca on her maiden voyage across the Bay Bridge. He stopped in to say hi and we looked her over; the work he did is spotless and the truck is beautiful. We took a short spin up the block and he made me get behind the wheel for the return trip. She feels great; the engine is strong, the brakes are sharp, the wheel is straight, and the truck feels tight, like it just came off the showroom floor. Well done, sir. You’ve made me proud.
Posted on | | Leave a Comment on A Spare, and Chewbacca Comes To Visit. | Posted in Friends, Inspiration, Progress, Purchasing, Trip Logs
Battery Blues.
This morning I pulled the tarp off of Peer Pressure and made ready to driver her to work; the weather is perfect, clear and 60° so I was excited to get behind the wheel. I popped the hood, connected the battery, got one reluctant crank out of the battery, and… nothing. It looks like the $70 Pep Boys Special is dead—this after only seven months. I’ve stored it with the hot lead disconnected since parking it, so I know it’s not a short; it’s got to be either the battery or the alternator. So I’m going to try to replace the battery this evening and we’ll see if this one lasts any longer.
Update: The battery tests fine on the machine at the parts store; after some futzing with the terminals she fired right up. I left the cables connected to the battery over the weekend and she started immediately on Monday morning, which leads me to believe it’s the cables themselves.
New Soft Top Vendor.
File this away for future reference: There’s a new vendor making soft tops for the Scout II, for an initial price of $800.
As it turns out, Kayline/STC, one of the two original soft top vendors, folded a couple of years ago, but their patterns were purchased and are being reproduced by a new company for the breathtaking price of $1000/canvas and $1600/full kit. My two tops are both Kayline models, so I’m covered on soft tops for a while, but it’s nice to know there are alternatives out there.
Wires.
I ordered a set of plug wires from RockAuto yesterday afternoon, as well as five dash bulb sockets and lights. Originally I was going to buy a gas tank sender and get the new tank ready for installation, but I suddenly came to my senses and realized that I don’t have an entire weekend to deal with that project. So, I ordered wires to go along with the plugs I’ve already got, and I figure I can get them installed in a couple of hours.
I also worked with the third bench seat a little more, and have it almost to the place where it’s ready to go in—but I have to do some POR-15 work on the mounting plates and bed before it goes in for good. The bed itself needs a good media blasting and sealant coat soon, because there’s some light rust coming up under the purple paint that I’d like to mitigate immediately as well as some flaky areas around the wheel wells.
I’m moving up my plans for a welder to near the top of the list, because I see some metal repairs in my future.
Recovery Efforts.
Today was a Scout day, even if I don’t have my Scout back yet.
My mechanic got back to me on Friday and asked for a little more time to work on her, which means Monday or Tuesday. The fact that I missed a week of almost perfect convertible weather has me bummed, but the payoff will be worth it when it’s back in the driveway and running well.
In the meantime, plans to recover the local Scout went off without much of a hitch at all. After Finn and I got some doughnuts down the street, Mr. Scout met us at the house and helped blow up her new inflatable pool while we waited for Alan and his friend to make it up with the trailer. After some jockeying around the narrow streets of the neighborhood, they got the tow rig pointed in the right direction and we headed over to the seller’s house.
At first, the Scout didn’t want to start. Gas down the carb made it fire up fine but there was no gas getting through the lines from the tank. After a quick trip to the gas station for a couple of gallons, the seller blew out the line and then the filter himself (can you say “motivated buyer?”) and we tried a few tests with everything disconnected. Once we made sure the fuel pump was working—squirting gas alarmingly all over the engine—we hooked everything back up and tried it again. It turned out that I was closest to the driver’s seat, so I fired it up and it finally stayed running, and everyone cleared a path out for me to crawl down the driveway and line up behind the trailer. This time I got up onto the trailer without doing any damage, put it in 4lo and shut everything down.
We ratcheted it down tight, closed the doors up good, and money exchanged hands. All was good!
The seller was very happy to have it out of his driveway, as was his wife.
Mr. Scout has a new steering wheel for his truck, which makes him happy. We weren’t able to pull it while we were there, so he and Alan will do the swap through the mail, most likely.
Meanwhile, I continued hoarding parts for Peer Pressure. The items above are the reason I organized the whole deal in the first place: a brand-new poly gas tank, unused, with a matching skidplate. I hosed the dust off the tank and looked it over; everything appears perfect. Score!
The next item is a passenger’s fender in excellent shape; this apparently came off a Terra donor rig. It’s in better shape than the fender I’ve already got, which makes me happy.
Side note: I’d say roughly 2/3 of the spare parts I have are or originally were Tahitian Red when they came from the factory—coincidence, or something more sinister? You decide.
I also took home a clean tailgate from the same rig, which is in excellent shape. It even sports a factory “Scout II” sticker.
From the same donor rig, there are two clean doors, which are in far better shape than the two spares I have. They still have Terra glass in them, which will get sold or scrapped. The rest of the chrome looks like it’s in excellent shape. There’s some slight rust on the underside of the interior, and some bubbles under the trim on the drivers door, but it’s definitely repairable.
Alan also brought me some gifts from the last set of scrapped vehicles we picked up: the first is a clean IH-serialed compressor for my AC setup.
The next is a used Holley 2300 carb, which will be my rebuild testbed. I don’t have an air cleaner housing to fit it, but I’m hoping the ThermoQuad air cleaner might.
Update: The serial number off the carb doesn’t match anything from a standard Light Line application, which means it’s not an exact match. I’ll have to find out exactly what I’ve got so that I can order the right replacement kit.
Following that is a Holley 2100 with a spreadbore adapter mounted to the bottom. I’m not as excited about this one, but I’m going to do some reading to learn more about it.
Finally, I took the crappier of the two windshields. I figure the wiper linkage and motor might be worthwhile to have, but the rest is definitely scrap metal.
Cheap Yard Sale Finds.
I picked up a couple of handy tools this past weekend at a yard sale here in town: A Peerless brand vacuum gauge, a tach/dwell/volt/ohmmeter and a set of old-school ratcheting boxhead SAE wrenches, which will fit nicely in the Tuffy box between the seats. I found some good information on how to use a vacuum gauge here on the Second Chance Garage site, and I’m itching to get the old girl home just so I can test it out. Next to find: a timing light.
Update Update.
That sound you hear is a 304 V8 roaring to life after a couple of years marooned in the back of a driveway. A splash of gas in the carb, a jumpstart from a highly excited Honda Passport, and a cloud of white smoke produced from the tailpipe marked its triumphant return to the land of the (mostly) running. I confirmed that it shifted into gear and pulled it forwards and backwards, making it a viable candidate for purchasing.
So, this weekend, we will return to sign over the title and take delivery of the rig and all its associated parts. There’s a brand-new poly gas tank and skidplate with my name on it, and we should have a clean rallye steering wheel for Mr. Scout.
Random and Assorted.
My carb rebuild kit arrived from the Carburetor Factory on Friday, so I’ve been spending some quality time poring over the Thermoquad service manuals I found online before doing anything rash like opening the box or tearing down the carb itself. The kit I got is a Walker 15711C which corresponds to the engine year, size, and model I have. I need to pick up some carb cleaner and other assorted products if I’m going to do this myself; I also left a message with my backup mechanic to see if he’d be able to help and for how much. Edit: He called back this morning, and I may be on for an appointment this coming weekend.
Meanwhile, I parked Peer Pressure out in the driveway while I was hauling garden tools and other stuff around the yard. My original plan was to drive her over to the Home Depot in the afternoon to browse the doorknob selection, but plans shifted and Finn accompanied me in the CR-V instead, and rainclouds meant it was back in the garage by 2:30. During the rainstorm I decided to try both of the spare windshield motors I have on hand to see if either of them worked. I plugged them both into the bulkhead connector after verifying that the one I have installed works, but neither one made a sound. I know the wiring on my original unit (the one I’ve been dragging around since 2002) is frayed and the green wire has come loose, so that didn’t surprise me. Doing some research on motors, I found A couple of good threads that deal with the motors and their wiring, another with some info about motor replacements (apparently a 94-01 Cherokee motor will work just as well), and one containing interesting info about testing (putting it on a battery charger at 2 amps).
Anyhow, I was disassembling one on the workbench downstairs, when the doorbell rang. It turned out to be a guy who lives in the neighborhood and who owns an orange Scout I’ve noticed on occasion, hidden behind the shrubs lining his driveway. He told me he was going to sell his truck, and knew I had a Scout, and wanted to know if I’d be interested in what he had?
Well, I said, would you mind if I took a look?
It looked better from the road than from up close, unfortunately. It’s been sitting in his driveway for a couple of years, but he claimed it will run with a jumpstart. The body was toast. The front fenders and tub are pretty far gone. The hood looked to be in decent shape. I couldn’t tell how the top looked from the inside because the inserts were still in place, and I didn’t stop to examine the doglegs or crawl under to see how the bottom of the tub looked (the right rear tire was flat).
However, it’s got a 4-speed and 44’s (3.54 gears according to the lineset). It came with highback buckets, a sport steering wheel, green tanbark interior, and white spoke wheels. And a quick review of the contents of his garage revealed:
A second set of inner fenders (I’d say fair to poor shape, but repairable).
A stored set of Traveler doors in fair to good shape.
A skid plate, looks to be in decent shape
A stored tailgate in very good shape
A stored passenger fender in very good shape (from what I could see; it was up in the rafters)
An unused poly gas tank
A stored windshield in excellent shape
Another stored windshield in fair shape (what looked to be surface rust by the mount points)
And a bunch of other smaller stuff that I can’t remember right now.
The price for what he has is very reasonable, but the problem is where to put this thing, how to part it out quickly, and how to have the carcass hauled away without blocking everything else in the driveway. I think it would fetch decent money for the spare the tailgate, transmission, axles, and doors, and possibly (over time, of course), pay for itself, minus the parts I’d like to keep.
I put the word out with the local crew to see if anyone needs anything, and checked in with Mr. Scout about the steering wheel; I’m waiting to hear back from everyone to see if it’s worth the time and trouble to pick up the whole thing, or make him an offer he can’t refuse on the stuff I’m most interested in. We’ll see.