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The Restoration log from '99

On deck to be done:
Finish installing spring bushings I got for Christmas
Swap in a better steering gear
Paint it (hopefully by August '99)

The log for '00
The log for '98
The log for '97

Events below are in reverse chronological order, FYI.

12/31/99:Crash! On my way to Hatteras the weekend of Thanksgiving, I had gotten no more than a mile from my house when a car rear ended me at a stoplight. It wasn't more than a 10mph smack, but it bent the bumper down about 15 degrees, and dinged the end panel sheet metal. On closer inspection after removing the bumper, I saw that the rear cross member was tweaked down on the passenger side (it took the hit), and that the bumper bracket has cracked above the weld. I took it to the body shop once I had the insurance check, and they did the repair, but the tailgate wasn't aligned in it's opening and the crossmember was still twisted on that side. A lot of hemming and hawing finally got me in to see the manager and I found out that it was a busy period for them, and that my truck had been subcontracted out. That other party simply tried to jack up the bumper to straighten things, and didn't do the job that needed to be done. I took it back to them after they scheduled me to come in again, and it is back to the point I can take care of the minute details (a loose bolt in the bottom hole of the crossmember-to-frame connection). Now I can get back to doing the things I've been wanting to take care of (weatherstripping, etc).

10/31/99:Again with the carb! Once again, the carb started doing it's lean-out thing, so I garaged it (yep, cleaned out the garage enough to allow me top park it inside for working on it!) for a week waiting for the time to attack it again. I'm getting proficient at it and can now remove, clean, and reinstall the carb in under 1/2 hour. If this continues, tho, I'm going to have to find a different carb to use as this is getting tiresome. I also took off the soft-top since today was an especially summer-like day. I drove to my dad's place and pulled the hard top down from it's ropes in the rafters of the barn and spent about half an hour de-dusting it. Some careful manuevering and it was in place on the Scout. The weatherstripping was still attached, so I decided to run with that until I can find some camper-shell tape to replace it with. It's not amazingly quieter than the canvas top, but I'm pretty sure it won't leak as badly. I *do* need to find some weatherstripping to go around the windows where I can see inside from the outside. The top itself is in great shape, with the only noticeable bad spot being at the bottom edge of the liftgate. I'm thinking either fiberglass to fix it or maybe replacing some sheetmetal if I can make it look good enough.

9/22/99:Remote Solenoid complete. After getting the 10G wire (expensive!), I rigged the rest of the wiring as per the instructions and hit the ignition. It's always been slow on the first crank rotation, but it turned over and started like normal. I drove it around a lot and never once had the hot-start problem I'd had before! I could still trim down a wire that runs from the voltage regulator to the solenoid, but I'm reluctant to cut the original wire.

9/20/99:Remote Solenoid. After having the truck fail to turn over once again when the carb problem surfaced, I decided I'd put off this mod long enough. I found Darrel Kline's description of the process and parts and have started the install. I need to get some 10g wire to complete the process, but it looks good so far.

9/19/99:More carb fixes. On a fluke, I emptied the float bowl into a container (white cup), and noticed a variety of particulates that were swirling around. My reasoning leads me to believe that as I let the passenger tank go without gas being filled up in it for a week or so, rust scale forms. New gas goes in and flakes of scale pull off then travel the system through the fuel filter and into the idle circuit, clogging it. I've gotten good at taking the carb apart and shooting spray through the orifaces to clear the obstruction. The new gasket appears to be working fine so far, but I still have a bit of fine tuning to do to the idle speed.

9/18/99:More carb troubles. The motor died again as I was leaving a restaurant. Same symptoms as before: backfire while in gear, no idle/must use choke to keep from stalling it. The cork gasket I made was sorta deformed, so I made a new gasket out of some thinner, more rubbery sheet that I got in that same kit. After boleting the carb back on, it still dies, so I've must have gotten some gunk in the idle circuit. Gas doesn't seem to be filling the fuel pump bowl, either, so maybe it's just crud in the tank causing all this nonsense.

8/30/99:Passenger seat fixed. My dad came through yet again, and with the help of a MIG welder, the cracks were shored up. A couple of large washers were bent by hitting a screwdriver across their centers as they each rested on an open vise to give a slight curvature to each. Then, the warped washers were MIG'd to each side of the backrest rails where they join the pedestal rail to provide extra support. Now the seat makes a solid, dull thud instead of a bouncy motion when it's eased back to the sitting position.

8/29/99:Passenger seat. I've found a weak point in the design of the passenger seat base. From the repeated slamming of the seat from it's folded-forward position to the at-rest position, the bar that rests on the step to the rear floor has stress-cracked at the bends directly under the seat back. I hope to get it welded and weld a piece of strap following the curvature of the bend to reenforce the joint.

8/23/99:Inspection time. I took it to my regular state inspection place and the usual inspector gave it the once over. He noted that the right rear wheel cylinder had some brake fluid on it. I told him about bleeding the brakes recently, but secretly began thinking that maybe this was the cause of the brake light. I haven't had a chance to check it out as of yet.

8/20/99:Brake Warning Light. For the past month or so, the warning light on the dash has lit indicating a brake line imbalance. Bleeding the brakes did no good, and it will sometimes take a week to light and other times, it will light immediately after resetting it. The truck stops fins still, even though it has always pulled to the right.

8/12/99:Ignition. I'm still having intermittent starting problems, and it doesn't have to be a hot engine anymore. I have respliced the wire that goes to the top terminal on the solenoid thinking that there may be some resistance in it. Still no conclusive evidence. I'll probably just put a relay inline with the spare wire I use to 'hot wire' it when the key won't work, then have a pushbutton in the cab that is wired to the relay from a keyed-on hot wire. I get smiles from people who see me get out and start it from under the hood, tho. :)

8/8/99:After the move. I've just moved into a new house, so I can finally devote some time to the Scout again. I got some heat-shield material from JC Whitney and some of thier foil tape. I cut a piece that would cover the entire bottom of the passenger floorboard and sealed the edges with the foil tape. Sheet metal screws and fender washers into the floor supports hold the material up, but I had to use a bent coat hanger as a prop to keep the middle more away from the muffler. Around town, the results are quite favorable! I want to do the entire firewall when I find some spare time in the near future. The first long distance test will be next weekend with a trip to Hatteras.

7/28/99:My glove box did not exit the dash kindly when I was doing the wiper swapping a while back, so I've decided to make a new one out of thin guage sheet metal. I've got a cardboard mock-up of the original paperboard unit so that I can use some tin snips and cut out the same pattern. I still have to test fit the mock-up in the dash for clearance, but it looks good so far.

7/26/99:Carb again? On the way to the gym, the truck started running rough at idle, but didn't have the catastrophic failure I saw last time. Once parked, I tightened the carb mount nuts and all seems well again.

7/15/99:Still heated floors. The heat wrap on the muffler helped a little bit, but I think I need to make a seperate sheet-metal heat shield to go between the muffler and floorboard. I also want to get some engine compartment insulation to try to cut down on the firewall heat a tad. Any suggestions for sources?

7/14/99:Success? I'll give the condensed chronicle: put a plug into the junction block on the side of the intake to replace unused hose with capped end (no change). Pulled hose from jct block that goes to fuel pump and when left open, the engine would run. Plugging the port with my finger made it run a little better still. I let it idle for 5 minutes while searching for a new hose. Revved it and the idle problem returned. New hose or not, no idle again. It got hot for two weeks so I let it sit and bought a gasket kit from CarQuest that had the hard fiber and cork sheet. I used cork sheet and made a new carb-to-intake gasket. I also took the carb completely apart again and blasted copious amounts of carb cleaner through it. I've left the fuel pump vacuum connection on the intake plugged (the wipers work fine off just the fuel pump). Bolted it all back on and started it. The problem seems to be cured now. I drove it around the block a few times and adjusted the needles to remove some hesitation. On the way into work the next morning, it was pouring rain. No problems until I get to the gate at work and it acts like it wants to cut out a couple of times. That afternoon, less rain and it starts and runs fine. I'm still paranoid about the idle problem returning so I'm ready to grab the choke at each stoplight now.

7/7/99:Heat shielding. I don't want to even try the carb in this heat, so it's onto something else. My wife's aerobics shoes' soles melted when they were left on the passenger floor all weekend while we camped at the beach. I guess there's some heat coming off the muffler! I bought some header wrap and applied it around the muffler and the exhaust header. I can't find a way to wrap the manifold yet. I got the Moroso stuff because the guy at the local speed shop is a friend. I think Northern Auto Parts offers the same thing made my DEI for ~$35. Follow the instructions about adding 10" for every bend you have!! It smokes pretty good as it cures, and it makes steam after running through puddles, BTW.

6/28/99:Still none, but new solenoid. I got tired of having to jump out and hot wire the starter whenever the engine was warm, so I got a new solenoid from Autozone. They didn't have a listing for a '70 Scout, so I had the parts guy look for a '75 Scout II and came up with a universal model. I put it on and it cranks just fine. I used the propan torch trick to see if I could deduce where the leak might be, but I still didn't see any improvement in idle no matter where I held the propane stream. Next up will be to remove all vacuum sources from the intake, also. If that doesn't work, removing the carb is my next move.

6/28/99:Still no idle. With choke in the warmup position, the motor runs without any hint of roughness. I managed to get 1/4 turn more on the carb mounting bolts, but it still doesn't idle properly. Although it's a little better, it will still die unless there's a bit of choke applied. I removed the vacuum advance line and felt that there was a small leak there as I sucked on the hose. I replaced it with another unit, and plugged the port on the carb. No change for the better yet.

6/27/99: No idle. At Whalebone Jct. on the way back from a great trip to Hatteras, the truck sounded like I needed to switch tanks, and I did. However, when decelerating, there were many backfires, and it refused to idle properly. In retrospect, I remember the backfiring a little bit before that time, so it only happened over a time span of about an hour. I managed to surmise that I had to choke it a bit to keep it running when stationary, but at higher speeds, it did just fine. I gassed the 'empty' tank thinking that I might have gotten some water in the full one. No luck there. I made it home and when I checked the plugs later, they had a faint copper residue to the tips, but they seemed more ashen than any other color.

6/23/99:Final bumper. After using a wire brush on it, I sprayed the bumper with Rustoleum's Hammered Silver. I could have sworn Lowe's had real Hammerite a while ago, but I had to settle for this for now. I also shot the brackets to stave off the rust demon for a while. I put the brackets back on using grade 8 hardware, and the crossmember is now tightly secured to the frame rails top and bottom. :) I slid the bumper into place and tightened the four mounting bolts. The tire carrier actually sounds solid again! The bottom mount for it attaches to the bumper, and since the bumper mounts were loose, I guess it caused enough slop in the system that the release would work by itself over hard bumps. On the drive in this morning, it felt like I was in a new vehicle. The rattle-noise level was down significantly. I can't wait to replace the body mount bushings as I'm sure that will help even more.

6/22/99:More Bumper. The other reason I took the bumper off was so that I could reattach the loop for the saftey chain of a trailer on the right side of the bumper. I took a 6" long bolt, bent it into a 'U' and had it welded where the original was. I also had the welder put a bead over two hairline cracks on each of the mounting brackets. There's no way to get at the hidden nuts other than lifting the whole body. I drilled a hole through the bed sheetmetal above the nut, then widened the hole with the Dremel just enough to get a socket in and onto the nut. Repeat procedure for other side. Grade 8 fine thread bolts were installed after some zinc coarse thread versions easily stripped. Go grade 8 when replacing anything, the cost is only a fraction more!

6/20/99:Bumper stuff. The rear bumper had never seemed like it was solidly mounted, so I finally decided to do something about it. After getting the bumper itself off (it's a step bumper), I saw that the bottom mounting bracket bolts holding it to the rear crossmember weren't tight on both sides, allowing the bottom side of the bracket to move around. The top bracket bolts were fairly tight and when I finally got them off, I found that there's a rail that runs along the top of the rear crossmember. The bolts that hold this rail to the crossmember have a nut that is hidden under the sheetmetal from the bed. Gotta find an easy way to get at those nuts.

6/7/99: Spares! On the way home from work today, I noticed the truck didn't want to apply power smoothly, almost as if it was starving for fuel. At one of the stops I made I took a look and the choke wasn't being held closed and the linkage to the carb looked good. Then I remembered the symptom was from the accel pump cam. Sure enough, the fixed one I applied had become slightly unglued. I pulled out the all fiberglass version and put it on. Back in business. I'll fix the broken one again (but better this time) just to make sure I have another spare on hand.

5/26/99:DOH! On the way to work, I heard an unusual thunkthunkthunk and after it didn't go away after a minute, I pulled over and all the driver's front lug nuts had backed off 1/4". I jacked it and tightened them as much as possible just so I could make it home. I guess that's why the brakes seemed to grab a bit that morning. After I got home that afternoon, I pounded out the studs with a hammer, and took them to the Autozone around the corner. These studs were marked with an 'F' on the base, and I think overall length was about 2". They went right into place using the hammer method. I also had noticed the muffler had developed a rattle, so wrestled it off and exchanged it at said Autozone.

5/24/99:Front wheel bearings. I thought the clunk I've been hearing when turning the wheels back and forth might be the bearings. After taking off the locking hub, I found each side's outer locknut needed a little tightening. Brakes still look good. Next, I took out one shim from each of the top kingpin mounts on the knuckles. I think that helped a little bit. Extensive road tests will tell the tale.

5/21/99:Wiper fix. After loosening the motor from the mouting bracket while the bracket was still attached to the windshield frame, I noticed the wiper works like a champ. The shaft seems to be bent ever so slightly, so I removed the unit and tapped it very close to straight, and it seems okay so far. We'll see when the rains come.

5/11/99:Wiper woes. Still no luck with the wiper unit, even after rebuilding it again! I chopped the ends of the hoses to see if it might be a tiny leak, but still no luck. I still have yet to try the passenger side wiper on the driver's side, and I may try to swap the top covers to see if I can make a passenger wiper a driver's wiper.

5/9/99:Ignition solved! Okay, I took some advice on what to look for from other digest members (thanks Howard!), and traced which wire was leading to where, and found that the wire destined for the 'R' terminal on the solenoid was on the 'S' terminal, and vice versa. Swapped them back (leaving the jumper wire to the 'S', and it cranked like a champ.

5/8/99:Bulkhead connectors. I took out the glove box to get to the bulkhead connectors behind it. I'll be constructing a new glove box from sheet metal that can actually be romved easily in the future. The connectors were tarnished a bit, so I took some sandpaper and cleaned each side and used dielectric grease on all of them to improve the connections. Still no starting, but stillhave power to all accessories.

5/7/99: Ignition switch. I took the guage panel off and removed the ignition switch to clean the contacts on it. I get power to the hot leads when the key is on, so the electrical from the key outward works.

5/6/99:More starter. Someone on the digest mentioned using a wire straight from the battery to the S terminal, so when I contact the two, the starter cranks and the engine wants to run, but only as long as I've got the wire connected to the battery. It dies as soon as I remove the contact. :( I found out that you need to touch the 'S' to the battery or the big post on the solenoid, BTW.

5/4/99: Starter stuff. My starter has been intermittently dying the last few weeks, but I can tap it with an object and it will crank for me. I decided to take the solenoid off and clean it a bit. I saw that the large washer inside was very pitted, so I flipped it over, put it back together, and reinstalled it. Hmmm, now I get absolutely no response from the key switch other than it turning the accessories on. I tried to jump it by touching a screwdriver to the S and R posts, but that had no effect.

4/21/99:Wiper problem? My driver's wiper doesn't want to wipe on the outward swipe, but will return fine to the inward sweep. It also will turn off with no problems at all. I swapped with the original wiper motor, but that was slightly worse. The hoses look fine and it works like a charm unless it's installed to the windshield frame with the wiper arm. A problem for another day, I guess. The passenger wiper works as it always has. Hmmmm.

3/19/99:Backup cam. I decided that I don't want to be stranded and doing the MacGuyver thing should the cam break again, so I used some 1/8" fiberglass board (all from my R/C car days) and cut three rectangular sections and epoxied them together. Using the still broken cam I'd just taken out as a guide, I ground the unit down until the cam profile matched the original's, then clearanced the arm for the linkage and tested the result on the 152's carb. It works more smoothly than the original plastic did! It's in the dash in case of emergency. I still plan on finding a way to fix the one that's still broken so I'll have a couple of spares ready. I found out that Daytona Parts Company sells replacement accel pump cams for $8/each (minimum order of $20).

3/17/99:Accel pump cam again. While pumping the gas once before starting to leave from work, the pedal stuck on the floor, so I used the toe of my shoe to pull it up again. I have now found a pattern to wear when the pedal stays depressed, there's something binding with the accelerator pump cam linkage (I won't use my foot to pull it up again). I wondered why it wanted to stall when letting the clutch out from a stop. I got under the hood and saw the cam lever arm was broken (again). It was at the very end where the metal linkage hooks through a hole in the plastic (the only part I didn't reinforce with epoxy). I used a piece of wire with an eyelet already attached, wrapped around the arm with the eyelet at the end where the hole was and managed to get home without stalling any more. I went to work on the old piece I'd started. This was from the 196's original carb where the whole arm was missing. I'd drilled a hole in some 1/32 fiberglass board to accept the cam, but hadn't finished it. I profiled the fiberglass to match the curvature of the cam section and then fiberglassed the pieces together. I drilled the hole at the end of the arm and installed. Works like normal now. whew!

3/7/99:Window works. While cleaning up the metal for a potential weld, I noticed that the bosses were only pressed into place to begin with. While welding would be the optimum cure, I was able to press them back into place with a vice and them pound on them against the anvil part of the vice to spread the metal out and tighten then into place. I dabbed some grey marine tex around the base of each to help stabilize them, too. If that doesn't work, I'll resort to the welding plan again. Replaced the glass and have only the window handle retaining pin to put back into place.

3/6/99:Passenger window. Sometime last summer, the passenger window began not rolling up and down like it should (it needed to be helped up and down, both). I took the acess panel off and discovered that the mounts had completely removed themselves from the regulator unit. I took out the main and vent windows and got the regulator out, then managed to get the screws out of the bosses that are supposed to hold the regulator to the door panel. I'm hoping a firend can tack weld tham back into place.

2/23/99:It lives!!! (once again) No question, this truck has had more re-births than I can remember, but at least it moves under its own power again, and I was able to richen the mixture to the point that it didn't have the stumble when mashing the gas. There's still just a touch of hesitation when I blip the throttle in neutral while at idle, but I'm attributing that to the cold weather. It feels like there's plenty more power and torque around than before, so in an effort to jinx myself, I'll say the the carb rebuild is 'mission accomplished'.

2/22/99:I blew that one. The carb I found from a '77 Scout II was sent to me, and it was nothing like the one from the '70 196 that I have (auto choke and a totally different body, among other quirks) so I went back to trying to free the stuck needle from my original. I borrowed a friend's compressor and did my best to plug a couple of fuel orifices. At first, it didn't want to allow any pressure buildup, so I put some Phil Tenacious Oil into the passage for that circuit, and hit the air nozzle again. Plooop! The needle was found lying on the workbench!! I proceeded to run a tap into the hole to clean the threads from all my dickering with it, and commenced the rebuild. All looks good from the outside, but the true test will be to get it running with said carb installed.

2/16/99:Still More bushings. I started on the driver's side rear spring and like the passenger's side, the bushing in the spring eye was non existant. The inner sleeve pulled off and the outer sleeve was easy enough to tap out. I did have to really heat the nut holding the shackle in place due to the bolt having deformed a bit. Darkness fell before I could finish the top bushing for the shackle end, so I'll have to wait for another warm day to finish.

2/14/99:Carb woes. I managed to drill out most of the broken off needle, but the tapered part is still wedged in the base. Three days of picking and prodding with a diaper pin (surprisingly strong stainless steel) and I can get it to wiggle around a tad, but it still won't dislodge. I've tried putting a few drops on water in the opening and freezing it hoping to force it out a bit. No dice. I don't want to drill it any more because I may not have enough material to work with, and I can see I'm near where the lip is below the threads in the carb. My next option is compressed air to try to blow it out, but I've gotta find someone with a compressor first. Or it could be a good excuse to finally buy one. More details as they become available.

2/6/99:More bushings. Time to put the rear bushings on in anticipation of getting the motor running again. I still need to put the bushings into the fixed end of the springs on the front. I started on the passenger rear, and there was no rubber left to the bushing in the spring eye. The inner sleeve was in two pieces, but the outer sleeve was firmly rooted in the spring eye. It was mostly worn through at the top so I used a flat blade screwdriver to slice it lengthwise and let me collapse it in and punch it out. The top mount was more stubborn and actually had some rubber left in it. The inner sleeve came right out, but the outer was a pain again. The socket on a bolt trick didn't make an impression on it. More pounding and it was out just fine. I shaved the ne bushings down just a bit and this solved the problem of the shoulder not contacting the spring. The fixed mount end was a major pain. The nut came off the mounting bolt fine, but the bolt was acting like it was welded to the spring perch. I sawed off the bolt head but it still wouldn't budge. Pounding with a punch didn't help, either. I put the nut back on and managed to make it pull out a little until I ran out of threads on the bolt. I took another bolt of the same width and finally managed to pound the offending piece out. The inner sleeve and bolt had rusted together over the years. I had to burn the rubber portion of the original bushing until the inner sleeve was able to be freed. The outer sleeve was in perfect, albeit rusted tight, condition. Much more pounding and I'm able to extract it. Of course, in all my pounding, I may have bent in the sides of the perch, beacuse the shoulder wouldn't slide in and had to be sanded down just a tad. The mounting bolts I bought didn't take into consideration that the shackles are thicker than the perch, so I need to exchange four of the bolts for units that are 1/2" shorter. Then I can look forward to repeating the process on the driver's rear and the front fixed spring ends. Joy.

2/1/99:Carb cleaning. The carb is on the bench, and has been sprayed out with cleaner and the body polished with elbow grease. In cleaning it, I noticed a few indentations that were filled with old dirt. Cleaning the dirt away revealed recessed adjusting screws, one of which I was able to loosen and remove. This one is for a passage that exits into the carb throat next to the accel pump jet. Of the other two, I was able to get the smaller one near the base of the carb to unscrew nearly a turn before the slot in the screw disintegrated. The larger screw just to the right of this one was too far gone to even get a good grip with the blade of the screwdriver. At least I've got one more thing to fiddle with when fine tuning the carb now, although I'd have enjoyed knowing all three were available. No mention of these screws are made in the parts manual, though. I've been trying to find a rebuild kit for this carb (stamped '3993' on the fuel bowl just above the IH number), and all the parts stores told me that they were on backorder from the factory. An email to Holley supports their claims. Holley did give me the number to a place called Daytona Parts Company @ 904 427-7108. They were able to sell me a kit (which requires a special accell pump they have to build) for $45 + $3.20 for 3-day shipping. I should have in by Tuesday.

1/28/99:More shackle. Following some tips from others, I tried the method of installing one side of the bushing first with the sleeve inside it, then pushing the other side onto it. This netted about the same result as last time, but I went ahead and bolted everything together anyway in hopes that under normal use, they'll go ahead and fullly seat themselves.

1/22/99:Stumbles? When I hopped in the rig to run to the store, it really wanted to die on me when I mashed the throttle to merge into traffic. It seems whenever a load is placed on it, the carb wants to spit/ backfire through the air cleaner. I had changed the jet to the next smallest size in hopes of getting a tad better gas mileage, but I've been told that may have made things too lean since the weather is now much colder.

1/09/99:Spring bushings. Time to install the Christmas gift of spring bushings. The old rubber ones were no trouble to get out, as they didn't have the metal outer sleeve that needed to be pressed out of the spring eye. And, they were a two-piece style, so I just plucked them out as there was also no inner sleeve. It's no wonder they were as worn as they are. Putting the poly bushings in proved to be a little harder than I'd envisioned. Without the inner sleeve installed, each side of the bushing could be inserted until the bushing shoulder contacted the spring eye. When the inner sleeve was inserted (hammered or 'pulled' in with a long bolt), the bushing on the opposite side would walk out about 1/8". I sanded down the outside diameter of the bushing, and the ID of the spring eye, and lopped off a tad from the end of each bushing, then chamfered the inner edges. This helped some, but not completely. After hearing from others on the matter, I just re-installed the shackle in hopes that they'll seat fully as they get used. All this and only the front bushings of the passenger shackle are done.