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.

Speaking Too Soon

Did I say the radiator looked like it survived the trip? Yeah, well when I filled it with juice it promptly puked it back out from not one, not two, but three places in the core. Now, whether this happened in transit or I was sold a defective radiator, I'll never know. Caveat Emptor. Back to square one. Might just have to take the original radiator up to Courtney's Radiator to have him fix it right.

After that disappointment, I turned my attention back to Hanky. I got the passenger side inner fender hung with a little persuasion. Also cut some metal to scab into the firewall/floor seam on the passenger side. Once that is done, I can put the other inner back on.

The only other bodywork to do is to clean up the windshield frame and the grill and put it all back together. Then I'm ready to roll.

Well almost. I still need to get a tailgate hinge pin from Allan to replace the one that I gave him to go with the tailgate he sold.

...and I need to trace and fix that leak from the transfer case. Something tells me I am going to have to put it apart again.

Out With the Old, In With the New

The 'new' radiator for Heavy D arrived via the FedEx map today. Despite the FRAGILE marks on the box, they beat it up pretty good. Looks like the rad held up though. We'll find out when I put it in this weekend!

Filling the Void in Your Inner... Fender

Did some more trimming and welding yesterday. Not getting any better at it. The grinder is my best friend these days. But, I think that the welds are strong. I'm not going for beauty anyway. I cut out the rusty bits of the flange between the firewall and the floor on the engine side. I simply butt-welded the panels together on the driver's side where I cut out the flange. The passenger side will have to wait until I can move the Scout and get to that side (or until it's a warm enough day to work with the garage door open).

I also cut out the rust (well, what parts I felt like cutting out anyway) and welded in new metal in the inner fender. It was rusted out towards the front of the battery tray. Came out pretty decent. I'l be spraying over it with undercoating anyway, so it doesn't have to look pretty. Going to go do that now and hopefully be able to hang it before I go to bed.

It Lives!

Today I welded in the kick panel patch and put seam sealer over my crappy welds and it doesn't look half bad. Once the sealer sets up, I'll give it a coat of undercoating. Still need to cut out some rust in the floor/firewall seams on both sides, but this is major progress. Still need to do some work on the A pillar and kick/floor in the interior, but that can wait for the moment.

To compare to what I started with, refer back to the pics in the Slice and Dice post. I actually cut a bit more from it that that. The square under the inner fender flange was ultimately cut out as well (seen above as the square of seam sealer).

While the sealer and primer was drying, I decided it was time to give the engine a go. I fashioned a oil priming rod out of a piece of all-thread and ran it with the drill for about 5 minutes (about long enough to make the drill smoke). Put the dizzy back in, hooked up the battery, sprayed some ether and hit the key...

vrrrrrroooooooooommmmmmm. How sweet it is! On the first crank it fired off. Now that I know it wants to run, I filled the carb with gas. It fired right up and settled into a nice little idle. Sweeeet!

Didn't run it too long since there is no radiator and didn't want to totally gas out the garage. I asked Diane if she heard me start it and she said she not so much heard it as she felt it - it shook the whole house. Nice.

No big clouds of smoke, no belching of fluids. But, after it was shut down, I did notice that the transfer case is dripping oil. What's up with that? I also noticed that the passenger side exhaust is touching the frame just south of the manifold. Nothing a bfh can't fix.

If the rain holds off tomorrow, I might just have to roll it out into the driveway and let it run a while longer.

Woohoo!