Category: Travelall

Shaky

Death Wobble. It’s an issue Jeep owners of a certain era are very familiar with: in solid-axle suspension setups, when elements like track bars, ball joints, tie rods, or wheel bearings wear out, the entire steering setup will start to oscillate and quickly shake the front of the truck to the point where it becomes uncontrollable. While I know my wheels are out of balance or bent, I’m beginning to suspect there’s something wrong with the suspension on the truck as well, which gets set off by the uneven wheels.

I’ve been through about 75% of my front suspension so far, having upgraded the springs, replaced 3 of the 4 tie rods, and repacked the wheel bearings on both sides; at this point I don’t know what else I need to focus on. I know I’ve got bushings that need to be replaced on the factory-installed sway bar, which could be the culprit, but I’m not sure that’s the issue. I called the Scout Connection to see if they’ve got the odd tie rod—it’s a nonstandard length, about 9″ from edge to edge—and bushings for the sway bars. I was grasping at straws at first, and thought I might look in the MT-112 Parts Catalog I’ve got on the shelf for kicks, when I was surprised to remember it’s for all of the C-series trucks, not the Scout II like I thought. So I was able to give them the part numbers, which is handy, and they’re going to call me back.

In the meantime, I’m going to swap the passenger front and rear wheels and see if that makes any difference at speed.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Shaky  |  Posted in Travelall  |  Tagged

While any major projects have slowed to a crawl, I’ve quietly been putting miles on the Travelall over the last couple of weeks. I’ve had her out for a couple of trips over 20 miles each, and she’s come through with flying colors. Last weekend I ran a bunch of errands with her and the only issues I found were the ongoing balance issues with the tires, and the engine sometimes dieseling on shutdown.

The second problem is due to a couple of issues, I suspect: I do have to retard the timing just a hair, but the main cause is due to the choke cable binding somewhere so that after the engine is started and I push it back in to open the choke, it’s not opening all the way—and the mechanism keeps the idle higher than normal. So she’s running a little hotter than she should, even though the temp needle stays pegged to the cooler side.

On the semi-positive side, I had a credit on the books with IHPA for my clutch core so I used that to get a set of window channels and felts for the rear doors on the truck. When I bought the fronts I wasn’t aware that the rears aren’t usually sold separately, so they had to do some wrangling. The company that makes the fronts doesn’t like to split the kits up so they went with their second supplier, who shipped them directly to me. After I looked the kit over, I was not as impressed with the fit and finish of the first kit: the channels aren’t backed with metal, nor do they have the clips IH used to mount the top section; the felts are thicker than OEM, come without the mounting clips installed, and are pre-drilled in the wrong locations.

I pulled the driver’s rear door apart, took the original metal channels out, and test-fit the new ones. They are flexible, so they don’t cradle the window firmly in the middle of the track, and they’re about 1/8″ too wide to fit in the original metal channels. The felts are mounted differently on the rear doors than the fronts; here they clip into the chrome trim ring on the outside and a black trim ring on the inside—which requires removal of both. The black ring is easy to take off but the chrome ring requires delicate surgery to pull off without bending. And because the chrome ring is on the outside, that’s the most important side to install.

With plastic trim tools I was able to gently pull the lower chrome section off the truck, and after drilling holes in the right locations, I fed the clips through and fastened them with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Re-assembling the door, I found that with both felts installed, the window was unable to rise past them; they’re too thick. I left the felt attached to the black trim ring and pulled another ring off one of my spare doors to swap onto the truck. With just the outer felt installed, the window went up and down—but the metal clips were scraping along the window as it went up and down. And the window was not moving smoothly after I put the door card back on.

I then broke down the passenger rear window on the Travelall and installed the channels and felt on that side, being sure to add a liberal coat of white lithium grease to the scissor and all of the door mechanisms. On this side, I put the felt on the outside chrome channel and then added two strips of rubber to the back of the inside black channel to keep the window from rattling—and that seems to do the trick. The window is quieter now, which is great, but I’m not impressed with this kit at all.

Last Saturday, I drove the Scout out to the store to pick up some oven cleaner, and sprayed a generous amount of that over the power steering pump, the steering box, and everything under and around it covered in oil and grease. She’s been leaking for some time now, and the reservoir was empty before I left the house, so this has been on my mind for a while. Steering boxes are very hard to find these days, and replacements are expensive, so I was nervous thinking about how much effort and money it would take to replace.

With the engine hot, the gunk broke up quickly, and I cleared it off with the pressure washer. With that done, I was able to see the frame on that side clearly for the first time, and noted that one of the previous owners had done some decent welding on the frame, bump stop and shock mounts. I sprayed the bare frame with rust-stop, then covered  that with chassis black, then ran the truck up for a little bit, parked it, and waited.

Last Sunday afternoon I did a careful inspection of the steering box, and I don’t see any leaks, nor do I see anyplace it could be leaking from. I noticed liquid dripping from above it, on what I think is the front of the pump, near the pulley. It’s hard to get my big fat head down in there to look closely. New pumps are about $150, so I’ll pick up a new one and swap it on.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on   |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall

On Fumes

It was a very hot weekend, so my motivation for being outside was very low, but I did push forward with some small tasks on the Scout—and I put about 80 miles on the Travelall in two separate trips.

I had started pulling the evap fittings apart on the Scout last week, but what I needed was about 16 feet of thin-diameter fuel hose and a handful of new brass barb fittings. ACE hardware always comes through with the right stuff, and I was able to plumb three of five fittings in on the truck before I had to get the jack out and drop the tank about 4″ to access the ones on the top. When I had those all in place, I squinted multiple times at the diagram in the service manual, and I think I connected all of the hoses in the right locations. This evap system is supposed to do a couple of things: reduce fumes and emissions from the tank, but also provide a couple more vent pathways to prevent overfilling when adding new gas to the tank. We’ll see how that shakes out. If it doesn’t have any effect, then I’ll consider dropping this tank completely and re-installing the steel tank, which should seal up at the sender location much better.

I didn’t do much to the Travelall other than drive it, although two wiper blades came in at NAPA and I found a spring for the spare wiper arm to cobble something together. I still have a new one coming in tomorrow, which will get installed on the truck, but now I understand how it’s assembled. She’s running like a champ, but I still have to sort out the issue with the wheels.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on On Fumes  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall

Post-Nats Video Update

Here’s a long-delayed video update covering everything after Nationals to now, including yesterday’s excellent Travelall update: The truck is starting again, after I ran out to the 800, stole the ignition switch from that, and swapped it in. As I was testing the old one I found that the lock barrel was just spinning inside the switch, which is very much not supposed to happen. This was the unit from the replacement wiring harness, so it was probably 60+ years old, and definitely due for a replacement.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Post-Nats Video Update  |  Posted in Travelall, Video

Realizations

I decided yesterday, as I was grinding to a stop about 100 feet past a red light, that I’m going to be driving the Scout to Nationals this year.

In the morning I dropped off the Travelall at a local shop, new to me, to have the wheels rebalanced. I got a good feeling from the shop when I pulled into the driveway and saw a bright green Volkswagen bus, a Porsche 944 and a beautiful 1968 Cadillac in their parking lot. Clearly, these are guys who are not afraid of older cars. After talking to the fellow behind the counter, I felt even better. They got back to me toward the end of the day to tell me they’d rebalanced the tires and put the worst ones on the back, but that those two are bent. On my way home, I took it down towards 195 to see how the wheels felt at highway speed. But before I could get there, I found that the brakes had faded so badly that I wound up unable to stop at a red light, requiring me to jam it into second gear, chirp the tires, and aim for the median to slow down enough so that I didn’t pull into the intersection. It was at that moment I accepted the fact that the truck just isn’t safe enough yet to take long distance.

This is fine; the Scout is running great and I have no doubt we’ll make it out there and back. Plus, convertible! I fully expect it to get hinges-of-hell-hot the day we hit the road.

For the Travelall, I’ve got a couple of choices. I’m definitely going to be looking for replacement 15 inch wheels when I’m out at Nationals. But, the most important improvement I need to make is going to be the brake system. There is a kit to convert front drum brakes to discs available, but it’s pricey. If I can find someone to buy the Bestop I’ll have made almost enough to pay for a disk kit. That, and a dual master cylinder would go a long way to improving the brake situation on the truck.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   2 Comments on Realizations  |  Posted in Travelall

Prep for Nationals

I had a busy weekend moving and shaking with truck stuff. The first task was to drive down to northern Virginia for a cheap used Bestop soft top I spied on Marketplace. Saturday mornings are the perfect time to get around Washington to avoid traffic, and it took just one hour to pull into the seller’s driveway. He was cleaning out his house in preparation for a sale, and had pulled the top down out of the garage attic for the first time in decades. All the parts were present and the fabric and plastic were in excellent shape, so I made the deal and headed home.

Bestops are different than Kaylines in that the mounting hardware is a completely different design, so I’m not interested in keeping this one, even though it’s in excellent shape. I opened it up, made sure all the parts were there, then shot pictures and put it up for sale on the Binder Planet. I’ll drag it to Nats to see if anyone wants to drive home with it and hopefully make some more gas money.

Then I drove over to the local U-Haul location and hitched a tow dolly up to the Scout. Once again I’m thankful that the previous owners did a great job wiring the truck up, including a tow harness. After getting it home, I backed it up to the 800 and did some thinking on how to get the truck onto the dolly. The first and easiest solution was to drop the battery from the Travelall into it and use the starter to crawl it up onto the dolly, but the starter is old and tired and couldn’t make it all the way up the ramps. So I put the tow strap on and used the Travelall to yank it up onto the dolly where I could get it strapped in place.

I had been nervous all week about towing the truck, but after some initial starts and check stops (I had to use a ratchet strap to hold the tailgate closed) I made it out to Brian’s with no issues. Peer Pressure pulled just fine, and apart from the engine getting warmer than usual I had no problems. At Brian’s, we puzzled out how to get the 800 off the ramp, down the driveway and into the garage, and settled on pulling the dolly out from under the front wheels. Then we let gravity pull the truck down the driveway where I did a 180 and lined it up to roll backwards into the garage bay.

With that done, I pulled the CR-V up onto the dolly, strapped it down, and headed for home. Again, Peer Pressure pulled it easily, and after dropping the Honda off and returning the dolly, I took the Travelall back out to Ellicott City for some dinner and a speed run up Rt. 40. The wheels are still vibrating badly up front, so hopefully the shop I’m taking it to on Wednesday can help me balance things out.

Sunday I did a lot of prep work on both trucks to make sure they’re both ready for the drive. I cut some 1/4 allthread down and made a battery hold down strap with a length of aluminum on the Travelall. Next, I pulled the front tires off the Scout and lubed the suspension up for the first time since ever. While the passenger wheel was off I finally replaced a section of rubber fuel line that was rubbing against the brake line as well as a filter between the pump and the carb—both of which date back to the previous owner. I tidied up wiring in the engine bay and along the frame rails, cleaned out the cabin, and topped off the fluids. On the red truck I did a lot of the same, as well as adjusted the timing and idle a bit to combat some dieseling I was getting at shutdown. I also tucked the rearmost section of headliner from the green truck up into Darth, grounded the dome light, and hooked it up to the circuit so that there’s a working light over the barn doors.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Prep for Nationals  |  Posted in Future Plans, Travelall

Re-Organization

Memorial Weekend was damp and rainy, so I wasn’t able to do much outside, but I did take advantage of the time to re-re-re-organize in the garage. After erecting a set of racks for my Home Depot totes and immediately filling them all a few months ago, I quickly realized I needed another stack. So I cobbled together the rest of my spare lumber and put a second stack together, which required moving a bunch of other crap out of the way. By the end of Saturday I’d built and filled the new stack, raised the old kitchen cabinets on the back wall higher, moved the fridge underneath that, moved the second pair of spare Scout doors out under the back porch, and shifted a bunch of other stuff around to make more room. Then I consolidated some of the parts in the tubs and updated my parts spreadsheet so more common items are together. There’s still a long way to go, but I can get to it all much easier.

On the trucks, I did dumb puttery stuff like install the V7 cupholder (verdict: perfect!), swap the refinished passenger fender onto the truck to church it up for Nats, and tightened both fenders down securely. I pulled a bunch of parts down out of the attic to see if there’s any interest in Ohio—this is stuff they’re not currently reproducing—and stuffed them into a bin for the trip. And the floor is bolted down with more hardware.

I’ve been chasing the issue with the fuel gauge for a couple of weeks now. I tested the sender and found that it was sending, as well as the gauge behind the dashboard. Doing some more digging, I realized there’s another thing I hadn’t considered: I most likely fried the voltage regulator when I was welding on the truck in the fall of 2024—the same thing that fried the condenser on the distributor. I pulled the original off the truck and swapped in a used spare from the green truck, but that did nothing. The Jungle site overnighted me a new one, and after swapping it and the original blackface gauge back in, I was rewarded with a working unit again! Now I just have to drive it around for awhile with a jerry can in the back until I understand what it considers empty and full.

Friday evening I got a message on the Binder Planet from a guy in South Carolina who read the site here and was wondering if I still had any spare Kayline hardware in my collection. After trading some messages and an email, I sent him pictures of what I had and we struck up a deal. He’s one of the rare examples of someone who has an intact canvas top but only some of the mounting gear—I’ve come across piles of hardware made obsolete because the canvas was shredded. Along the way I’ve rescued a number of these spares, and I was happy to pass them along to him. I made a sturdy box out of some spare cardboard and shipped it off to him Tuesday afternoon.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Re-Organization  |  Posted in Electrical, Future Plans, Travelall

Weekend Updates, 3 Days Later

I got the steel wheel back from the repair shop yesterday, and it looks much better than it did before. I put it on the front hub and spun it to see how straight it looked, and while there’s just a little side-to-side variation it’s not as huge as it was before. This morning I took her out for a test spin, and when I got up to 55mph I did feel a shake—but not as bad as it was before. At 60-65mph it smoothed out and ran like a champ—the engine was happy at that speed and she felt stable and true. So I think I might swap the newly repaired tire to the front, put a camera on both wheels and see if I notice any vibration at speed. If there’s another wheel that looks bad, I’ll get that one repaired as well. And if I need extra balancing, I’m going to take it to a tire shop and have them add balance beads to each wheel.

Three years ago, after I’d pulled all of the carpet off the interior of the truck, I was left with a bunch of adhesive all over the bare metal. Later on I used a rubber-brush wheel on a drill to knock all of that residue off—the ancient adhesive resisted acetone, and I didn’t want to use anything stronger than that—which left a dull finish on the metal. I did a test run with the cutting compound and found that it brought the shine right back, so I spent Sunday afternoon going around the perimeter of the interior and cleaning up the metal, including the doorframes. It looks a million times better inside.

I also pulled the original steering wheel off and replaced it with the one I refinished a year ago. I had to clean up the threads on the new wheel and sand paint off the copper horn ring, but it went on with no complaints and the horn works fine. Interestingly, there is a turn signal cancelling mechanism in there, but one of the contacts was broken years ago. After a test drive with the new wheel, I found that the left turn signal will now cancel, but the right side won’t. I’m going to see if I can source a new mechanism at Nats.

The outside paint is…better than it was, but nothing short of a full sanding job is going to get it to look any better. The cutting compound knocked all of the oxidization back, but the patchy nature of the original paint, remainder of the clearcoat, my bodywork, and rattle-can IH red gives it a true farm-implement look. Thankfully, the fresh paint on the roof and wheels plus four shiny hubcaps make up for a lot of these sins.

On Tuesday a replacement fuel sender showed up, and I started testing it. Using a multimeter, I tested the new sender to make sure it was working (using the Ohm setting, put test leads on the body of the sender and the contact point, and move the float arm. The reading should rise and fall based on where the arm is) and then working backwards from the tank, tried to isolate where the signal was dropping. It got dark very quickly so I wasn’t able to get very far, but I’ve got a plan for how to proceed.

SendCutSend tells me I’m going to have two modified cupholders in hand Thursday, which I’ll weld up for Nats. The goal there is to show them to Light Line vendors to see if they’ll distribute them for me. I’ve done some basic math, and I figure I can make some decent money producing these in volume if I get enough interest.

At Harbor Freight on Saturday, I happened to spy a speed controller box designed for a router. Essentially a potentiometer wired in between power from the wall and the tool, it’s meant to slow the router speed down. This is exactly what I need for a circular saw cutting steel or aluminum, so I grabbed it and a 10″ aluminum blade for the DeWalt miter saw my brother-in-law sent me home with last Christmas. I gave it a test run with some of the aluminum channel I bought last fall, and it does work as advertised, although it pops the 8V fuse on the back of the box. I’ve got to see what the draw from the saw is, but I can’t imagine it’s any more than a router would be—the Porter-Cable unit I’ve got is a monster. I’ve got a box full of glass fuses for the Scout so I can mix-and-match until I get something comfortably between constant tripping and nuclear meltdown.

The test cuts I did worked pretty well. My idea is to do a carpentry-style set of pie cuts to allow for gentle 90˚ rounded corners, which would then get welded solid after they’re bent. I’m going to need to be surgically precise on these, as well as find a way to lay things as flat as possible for the straightest joins. I bought extra aluminum to practice with, but I figure this is going to take some time to do correctly.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekend Updates, 3 Days Later  |  Posted in Future Plans, Repairs, Travelall