Drip Drip

After driving it on fumes to fill it up with gas (who knew you could put 18.8 gallons in an 18 gallon tank) and having it perform horribly, I decided maybe I should check the timing. It was about 4* advanced. Set it back to ~10* and it seems much happier.

Also put on the tailgate hinge pin that Alan borrowed (thanks Alan and Cami!). Now almost all of it's panels are back on. All that's left is the flywheel cover. But, woudn't you know it, that's exactly where a leak is dripping. So help me, if it's that inut shaft seal that's leaking, I'm going to have a fit (that thing gave me a fit putting it in). The transfer case is still leaking. Mostly because I haven't done anything about it. I did crawl under there to look and it does seem like it's coming from the gasket, so off it needs to come. I knew I should have put in new valve cover gaskets while I was regasketing everything else on that engine. definitely needs to be done now. Might need to redo the pan gasket too. I had to cut my own (was in a rush, don't ask).

In lieu of actually working on the truck on Sunday, Brian H and I decided to make a run over to Crazy Ray's in Hanky. Here's a tip: Get there early on nice days. There was a line out the door when we left. Didn't find any hydroboosts (for heavy D), but I did pick up a set of seat belts from a Suburban that look like they will fit better than the Ranger belts I have in there now. They had a PT Cruiser with a nice set of seats too. Tempting, but I didn't get them.

It was nice to ride in the Scout again. I do need to get those doors aligned a little better, though.

Closer to Home

Well, kids, I think that we're in the final stretch - close to getting Hanky back on the road. Well, technically I guess you could say we crossed that hurdle yesterday. Brian H stopped by to help again and we the radiator out of Big Red (since it's bad anyway) and took the new belts and but them on Hanky. Also found the right size for the A/C pump and put that one on and tightened down the pump.

Pulled it out of the garage for the first time under it's own power and it felt so good, we put the fenders, grill and hood on and took it for a spin around the block sans doors, top and windshield.

The wind was cold enough to blow tears out of my eyes (or maybe it was the dust), but it was cool. Gonna have to work on that carb though. Didn't like being given the gas and we pretty much idled around the block, but then when I did get it to take some gas, the throttle stuck near full open. Managed to turn around and get it back to the driveway without crushing anything. Tinkered with it a bit and got it to idle nicely again, but will have to give it some more attention.

We put it back in the garage so it wouldn't get sunburn. You have to ease into sun exposure you know.

Today I welded up the rust hole in the windshield frame and put that on. Dropped the top back on and bolted it to the windshield frame. Tip to all those who replace windshield frames, make sure you bolt it to the top before you tighten down the windshield frame bolts, then tighten the adjusting bolt, then the two on the inner/firewall side.

Also reattached the emergency brake and dimmer switch to the floor.

Wow, when you write it out, it doesn't sound like I did much, but I spent a good 8 hours in the garage this weekend. I think that I spent half that time looking for tools that were scattered about.

Would You Like Some Water?

BH came over to get some help with his u-joints yesterday. We knocked them out in about a half an hour.

Then we turned our attention to Hanky. On saturday I had spent about 4 hours in the garage, putting in the passenger side inner, the radiator, header panel and cutting, grinding and treating the rust in the replacement windshield frame. Sunday, BH and I put in the heater unit and plumbed it, the water bottle, the radiator overflow bottle, ran the headlight wires...

Then we decided to fire it up. With a little spritz of ether, it fired right up. Sounds pretty darned good. Need to tune the carb a little, but it doesn't sound like it needs a rebuild, lucky me (fingers crossed). However, when we filled the radiator with water, the water pump started leaking. Looks like from the bearing. Never fear, I have a few more laying around.

...and this is why I now fill with water first. I can always drain half of it out and replace with antifreeze once I'm certain it doesn't leak. Besides, water cools better than antifreeze, you just can't let it, well, freeze.