An Expedition Scout

Had the driveshaft done yesterday...$50.00...a great deal, and installed it this morning and checked and lubed the u-joints. Went for a test drive and am very happy with the results. This is the first s80 I've driven with 4.27's all my others have had 4.88's and with a 196 and a weber it will cruise effortlessly at 65mph on the highway at almost 3,000rpm instead of screaming at 55mph. Even with the solid mounted engine/trans the vibration isn't to bad at speed now...I'm willing to drive it almost anywhere now.
 
Been driving the 63 all week and she's doing pretty good. The steering box is in decent condition, but I cant wait to get the grand cherokee p/s box in it to tighten it up a bit. I need to change the wrong front ubolts out for the stock ones I have on the rf corner and I re-torqued the rear ubolts. Next up is my cheap 2" lift......
 
Its been awhile since I've done anything to the Scout cause its been so fricking hot here these last 2 months of summer. The weather has mellowed a bit now so I started in on it again this past week. Remember the drop plates I had made? Well I started fitting those this week getting ready to do my "on the cheap" lift while retaining the correct axle alignment specs. I have procured 3/8" x 5" shackles to take care of the other ends to match the 2" spring mount drop. Thats all for now and nothing has really changed yet, I'm planning to do the lift in 1 day so as not to down it for long since its my dd...more to follow.
 
I now have all the parts for the poormans lift, will start it tomorrow.

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Started on the lift today at the front...yes that's ruthie my wife. I'm fortunate enough to have a wife that likes IH's as much as me and likes to work on them too.

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Frame plates are installed first, bolted, and heavily tacked. I will finish weld them when I'm done with the whole lift and then painted. The shackles went on next and new kyb's. I've ordered the correct length kyb shocks for front and rear and will change them when they come in. The stock shocks will work for a mall crawler but will get destroyed four wheelin. It was 3pm when we got it back together and fixed the upper shock mounts. There has been some interesting things done to it in the past.

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I will get better pics tomorrow.
 
The hard work is done on the "poormans" lift now and I'm pleased with the results....

Before

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And after

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The frame plates need to be trimmed and finished welded but are welded to the factory brackets on the inside. If I were to do this again I would move the new mounting location 3/8" forward, or rearward depending on the location, to push the spring out a little more for more shackle angle, especially for the rear. I expect the rear shackle angle to be better when done cause there isnt any load on the rear right now and there will be gear in the bed when used. I replaced the rear springs with ones that I had that were just in better condition and had a little more arch to them....thus the slight "stink-bug" stance.

I also installed 1.5" wheel spacers on the rear since the waggy 44 was a narrow track unit.

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Beater had a new noise since the lift...a sorta song. Turns out the e-brake cable is rubbing on driveshaft and causing the "song". So I flipped the pull rod to the bottom of the swing bracket and made a tether out of steel rod to keep the cable away from the driveshaft. It does what its designed to and the brake works fine.

1 noise down 27 to go.......

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Now that winter is here a few things needed fixin. First up was the leaky exhaust system. A little cut and splice along with a new flange gasket, and adding another hanger later. It's amazing how much quieter it is now, I still get a wiff now and then but I still have some holes to fix. The stock heater seems to work pretty good but I need to add the heat valve and control cable to be able to shut the water off and on from inside the cab. The windshield hinge leaks like a sieve in the rain and I haven't got to it yet.
 
It has always "marked" its spot, but has been a bit excessive lately. It turns out that my tcase has alot of slop in the yokes. I was hoping to do a reseal but it really should get rebuilt. So I will be pulling the trans/tcase out of my 64 which is nice and tight and has minimal leakage and throw them in to keep him a dd. My intent is to rebuild the combo and put them back in this summer.

Oh boy!!
 
I got home early yesterday and started prepping the 64 to pull the trans/tcase to go in beater. Pulled the top cover on the t90 and the inside looks to be in pretty good condition, full of oil and no chipped teeth are evident.

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Since I don't have a hoist at home it has to come out the bottom and I have to lift the Scout high enough to drag them out from under it, so the shift levers have to come off. I wanted to keep anything from getting inside the trans so I made an abs plate to bolt in place of the shift tower to keep it sealed up during the job. Other than draining fluids and pulling the front driveshaft out, it's ready to pull.

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Found a rental yard that has a small hoist for $25.00 a day that comes apart into 6 pieces for easy transport, so I got busy today and prepped and pulled the trans/tcase out of beater and wilma. Beaters stuff is on a roll cart now and will be torn down for rebuilding later. The swap units are on the hoist ready for install in the morning, I ran out of light and energy. I did swap the t/o bearing from the 64, beaters was chattering and it was just plumb wore out. The clutch isn't to bad looks to have about another year left on it...I will have to start saving for a new one.

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Awwww crap!!

Somehow the pilot bearing came loose and is wedged behind the friction plate. No big deal really except that I dont have the alignment tool for a 4cyl, got one on the way and will have it done before the weekend I think.
 
Done, back together and it moves under its own power again. I have to say it's odd to not hear the the "I'm worn out" noises from the trans/tcase/clutch anymore, I even got a $14.99 seat cover from walmart!!

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Getting it ready for I.h.w.r. In April, got my ftm-350 ham radio mounted and working with a cheapo mag-mount antenna for now. I will have to save some pennies and get a good antenna soon. I also fixed my cup holders today they work great on a soda size can but the cup was so tall the larger travel cups didn't reach the bottom so I cut them down an inch or so. I need to move some cables and switches around so they don't interfere with the giant travel cup that I use.

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Tackled the doors today, they were just barely workable. The windows didn't operate very well and I don't have a key for the doors so I ordered a set of locks from IH parts and today they came in. Changed the locks out and now I can actually lock it if I need to...wohoo! I also took everything apart and cleaned and lubed it all and now my windows aren't perfect but they work much better now. I still need to replace the window track stuff since there isn't anything in the front one and the rears are cracked and falling apart. I remember reading about using velcro in the tracks, maybe I'll go that way. Either way my doors are operating pretty good now for a 54 year old truck.
 
Took both doors apart and pulled the windows out and did 1" velcro hook on the front track, the rear track was still intact so I lubed it and left it alone. I will never put door window felts on beater so I used the cloth side of the velcro on the outer door sill to stop the widow frame to door rattle when the windows are down. Added some strategic rubber pads to the glove box door to stop that rattle, all in all it's getting quieter while driving...still can't hear a radio at highway speeds, but below 55 mph you can. :cool:

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The engine has always been "piston slap" noisy for as long as I've had it but it runs great and has good compression and oil pressure. So while out on a test drive today I was climbing this hill in third and when I punched it pinged. When I got home I decided to check timing.....I guess I never checked it when I got it. It was timed at 12* btdc, what a dolt I am, I reset the timing to 0 and went for a drive...what a difference!!! The engine is sooo much quieter and has more pull on the top end too, can't believe I didn't check it! :sad: the rattles are slowly being resolved and it's driving better and better, its becoming a solid driver...now if I can stop the body rattles...
 
Added weatherproof storage in the bed today. I was going to do 2 "fat" .50 cans on each side, and May still go to that, but I got such a great deal on theses standard .50 cal boxes I had to buy them. I didn't want to get into the main bed storage area and this is the what I finally came up with to get 3 on each side and still be able to operate them easily with the bed packed.

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Modified the existing steering stabilizer mounts to accept a stock 60's era cj-6 unit, there cheap and available over the counter most of the time. Drives much better now, doesn't wander around as much at highway speeds. The one that was on it had no resistance at all anymore and was doing nothing.

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Started the loading of the needed gear today. Went to 4 wheel parts and picked up a mount for my hi lift and got it mounted. I picked up a nutsert tool...man this thing makes using nutserts a breeze!! I need to work on a spare tire and fuel can mount.

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Finished the install of the lock bars for the storage boxes. I still need to reinforce them with solid rod plug welded inside the tube to make it harder to bend them. These bars are double duty, hopefully they will keep the boxes fairly secure and to hold a tarp down over stuff in the bed when it's fully packed.

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First test was a success! Did a 3 day short run, 125 miles out, to I.h.w.r. In yermo over the weekend with beater loaded for camping. Well...glamping, we were in a campground with full services. 60 mph seems to be the "happy" speed and I averaged 19 mpg on the highway...not bad. There are a few more things I need to add to the truck to be able to dry camp but were gettin real close. We really need a bigger tent, the being bent over in it sucks, I want one that I can stand in. Gunna take a rest and work on the bike for a bit while I plan the next mods.
 
Started back at him again and I was getting exhaust in the cab again, so a check proved to be a loose exhaust...again. Yesterday I extended the exhaust to the rear, and added more hangers to take the stress off of the manifold connection. Flange gasket was toast and of coarse it wasn't in stock and had to be ordered. Got that replaced to today and did a short "seating in" run and re torqued it and did another heat cycle. I had no exhaust in the cab on either run so hopefully it's fixed for the last time, but then it is an IH. It's 103* right now and I'll wait till the sun goes down to go fill the tank.

Next is the enclosing and weather proofing of the storage pockets that used to be the saddle tank areas.
 
Left for the shop last week and right after I got on the highway he died, just like the key was shut off. When I got to the shoulder it was idling and then just died, restarted and died again.

Had time today to finally get into it, turned out to be no spark. The Delco dizzy has a pertronix ignition and I figured it died. I pulled the dizzy from Wilma and popped it in Beater...nothin. Changed the coil and bam, running like a champ. I set the timing and left the Holley points dizzy in Beater and will pickup a performance coil for Wilma and use the Delco in her.
 
As luck would have it I blew out the fiber style exhaust donut. Found that I had put alot of strain in the system. Added another hanger and let the system "hang" where it will, then tightened everything up. It's not good for any hard trail running cause it going downhill and the muffler drops below the frame. Other than that I think it's good......haha, we'll see! I really don't want to replace it, although a good muffler shop can do wonders.
 
It was a good day and a bad one..............

The good;
After redoing the exhaust I found the Weber needed a total rebuild and I just happen to have one freshly rebuilt on Wilma.

The bad;
There's a problem in the idle circuit on it, but it runs decently enough that I can drive it.

The good;
Other than the idle burble it runs awesome, clean smooth power throughout the whole RPM range.

I'm waiting of complete rebuild kits now and will go through my Weber stash for a better body with less corrosion in it. :nonod:
 
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