Dennis Bernth
10-17-2009, 07:48 PM
Pretty slow around here this week, so I figured I'd post a little bit and at least get us a later 'last post' date. Spent yesterday doing some errands and putting a new driver's side exhaust manifold on my F150 (the old one came off in two pieces, no wonder I was getting fumes inside) so that the garage would be clear to put ol Luther inside and start work. For anybody that hasn't checked out my sig line, Luther is a 74 Scout II with a Terra top that is going to be my plow truck. I actually owned Luther and did a lot of work (body mounts, heavy diamond plate floors, replaced engine, and some other stuff) about 8 years ago, used him one year to plow snow, then sold him and regretted it. Saw an ad on the 'new' BB that sounded suspiciously like Luther....it was, a deal was struck and he is home again after a 7 year absence. Luther has been sitting in a heated garage for the last four years and hasn't been run in that time, so I need to do a 'revival' on him and make sure I don't screw up what was a 91K mile sweet running 304 that I put in him.
My wife was less than enthused about having to steer Luther while I pushed and pulled with the bobcat....she said 'you're going to end up smashing something and you'll get all mad' and I said nope, not going to happen- I sold my old waste oil stove this morning and loaded it on the guy's nice Powerstroke crew cab and looked like an expert with that bobcat, and I'm going to be real careful not to dent up Luther. Unfortunately she has some history to draw that conclusion from :hammer:
The first problem came when I tried to pull Luther forward to give her room to make the swing in the driveway- both back wheels were sliding on the gravel, and giving the little bobcat all it wanted. Finally got it moved enough so that I could get behind it and push, that worked better- the step bumper rode up on the bobcat blade, took some weight off the rear end, and the tires just kind of slid over the surface, moved much easier.
I got in front and carefully leveled the blade so that I wouldn't bend up the new shackles the PO put on, and so I wouldn't pop over the front bumper with the blade, and started pushing. The brakes evidently weren't locked up in this direction, it rolled fine and all was good until I hit a dip in the driveway that I forgot about with the back wheels of the bobcat. Back goes down, front goes up, blade rides over the bumper, CRUNCH! Even over the sound of the bobcat with a leaking exhaust manifold my wife could hear what I said (probably the neighbors too) and she just shook her head......I got out and looked, luckily it was just the front lower valance and it was in the 'slotted' part, I think it'll pull out easy enough even, and I didn't catch the radiator :stupid: Of course I yelled at my wife, blaming her for her self fulfilling prophecy....
The rest of getting Luther in the shop was pretty straightforward- although the passenger side rear tire slid again going forward, might be that the guy's kid put the E brake on or something, just one more thing I have to deal with.
Right now, the order of work looks like- 1) take old Prestolite distributor that I have laying here and make a drill driven pre oiling fixture out of it- won't take long, remove the gear, weld a bolt in to the top of the shaft where the rotor went and I'll be able to spin it with a 3/8" drill.
2) change oil in the engine, then use tool above to spin the oil pump and prime the engine. After spinning it up for a couple minutes, rotate engine slightly, spin it again, rinse and repeat until I've made two complete revolutions and I'm back where I started so I can drop the distributor back in.
3) check how much gas is in the tank, and get out as much as I can, replace with fresh fuel, replace fuel filter and fuel hoses, and prime carb.
4) turn the key and see what happens (after replacing the long dead battery that is).
5) days and days of miscellaneous junk that needs to be done- new stock shifter and shift cable on the trans. PO installed a nice Hurst shifter, but it doesn't like having to bend around the cable like a 727 has to in a Scout II, he toasted the original cable in ten minutes on the exhaust manifold, I don't want to fry the new one he replaced it with. Then find out why the brakes are dragging, change brake fluid and bleed brakes, flush antifreeze and replace hoses, and last but not least install plow. I'll keep up to date as I go, and even take a few pics....this isn't a show truck by any means, it's a solid, kind of ugly, snow plowing mo-fo. If it all works out, Luther may get a new bed floor in the spring along with new fiberglass outer quarters and a new paint job- the Sears Weatherbeater gray that he is now is pretty ugly. The only high point of the whole exercise was when my wife said 'if I was going to have a Scout, this is the kind I want, this is really cool, like a little pickup truck'. THAT sounds like an excuse to fix up Luther for her, and for me to get something else to plow with.....I would REALLY like a Traveler or Terra, and I'd almost give the left one if it had a glass body- I could dump the F150 and go all IH. Oh well, I'll keep lookin.....
My wife was less than enthused about having to steer Luther while I pushed and pulled with the bobcat....she said 'you're going to end up smashing something and you'll get all mad' and I said nope, not going to happen- I sold my old waste oil stove this morning and loaded it on the guy's nice Powerstroke crew cab and looked like an expert with that bobcat, and I'm going to be real careful not to dent up Luther. Unfortunately she has some history to draw that conclusion from :hammer:
The first problem came when I tried to pull Luther forward to give her room to make the swing in the driveway- both back wheels were sliding on the gravel, and giving the little bobcat all it wanted. Finally got it moved enough so that I could get behind it and push, that worked better- the step bumper rode up on the bobcat blade, took some weight off the rear end, and the tires just kind of slid over the surface, moved much easier.
I got in front and carefully leveled the blade so that I wouldn't bend up the new shackles the PO put on, and so I wouldn't pop over the front bumper with the blade, and started pushing. The brakes evidently weren't locked up in this direction, it rolled fine and all was good until I hit a dip in the driveway that I forgot about with the back wheels of the bobcat. Back goes down, front goes up, blade rides over the bumper, CRUNCH! Even over the sound of the bobcat with a leaking exhaust manifold my wife could hear what I said (probably the neighbors too) and she just shook her head......I got out and looked, luckily it was just the front lower valance and it was in the 'slotted' part, I think it'll pull out easy enough even, and I didn't catch the radiator :stupid: Of course I yelled at my wife, blaming her for her self fulfilling prophecy....
The rest of getting Luther in the shop was pretty straightforward- although the passenger side rear tire slid again going forward, might be that the guy's kid put the E brake on or something, just one more thing I have to deal with.
Right now, the order of work looks like- 1) take old Prestolite distributor that I have laying here and make a drill driven pre oiling fixture out of it- won't take long, remove the gear, weld a bolt in to the top of the shaft where the rotor went and I'll be able to spin it with a 3/8" drill.
2) change oil in the engine, then use tool above to spin the oil pump and prime the engine. After spinning it up for a couple minutes, rotate engine slightly, spin it again, rinse and repeat until I've made two complete revolutions and I'm back where I started so I can drop the distributor back in.
3) check how much gas is in the tank, and get out as much as I can, replace with fresh fuel, replace fuel filter and fuel hoses, and prime carb.
4) turn the key and see what happens (after replacing the long dead battery that is).
5) days and days of miscellaneous junk that needs to be done- new stock shifter and shift cable on the trans. PO installed a nice Hurst shifter, but it doesn't like having to bend around the cable like a 727 has to in a Scout II, he toasted the original cable in ten minutes on the exhaust manifold, I don't want to fry the new one he replaced it with. Then find out why the brakes are dragging, change brake fluid and bleed brakes, flush antifreeze and replace hoses, and last but not least install plow. I'll keep up to date as I go, and even take a few pics....this isn't a show truck by any means, it's a solid, kind of ugly, snow plowing mo-fo. If it all works out, Luther may get a new bed floor in the spring along with new fiberglass outer quarters and a new paint job- the Sears Weatherbeater gray that he is now is pretty ugly. The only high point of the whole exercise was when my wife said 'if I was going to have a Scout, this is the kind I want, this is really cool, like a little pickup truck'. THAT sounds like an excuse to fix up Luther for her, and for me to get something else to plow with.....I would REALLY like a Traveler or Terra, and I'd almost give the left one if it had a glass body- I could dump the F150 and go all IH. Oh well, I'll keep lookin.....