kyleandhisIH
Member
This is a thread concerning those little things you do to your vehicle from time to time that lift your morale concerning that specific rig or setup. Feel free to post about any of your own small maintenance or repair-related "fixes" that satisfied the need to care for your vehicle.
Ever since I've had my Scout II in service, it didn't like to start - or maybe it's better to say that it didn't like to run right after starting. After tons of adjusting, I had just about resigned myself to not worrying about it until I got a 2300 Holley.
But today I took a choke cable that's been laying around my barn for a few years and unwound it from the tight factory-packaged coil. After finding out I didn't own a large enough drill bit, I filed out my hole and installed the choke control. I looked at the carburetor itself and noticed that the passenger-side bracket setup isn't exactly ideal for a 90 degree change in the actuating linkage. Only after running it through the firewall did I notice my first issue.
I discovered that the Holley 2210 carburetors have a backwards choke plate, in relation to the installation of a cable. No biggie, I thought, I can just use a little extra cable and route it to pull the linkage to the front, so that pulling the choke control out would close the choke.
The next problem was the length of cable I had to work with. I set up a trial install for the reverse-cable and noticed a pretty sharp bend going over top of the coil and back through the firewall. Trying to use the control was pointless, the bend was too severe. Even when assisting the cable's movement, the geometry was wrong and I still had a half inch gap in the fully choked position.
After resolving myself to having a backwards choke knob, I set up the cable on the rear of the carburetor and played with geometry until I could close the choke completely. I tightened my mounting brackets down, pulled the choke control out (opening the choke) and attempted to close it again. But alas, I wasn't quite done yet.
The control just sprang back out, so I proceeded to follow the cable blindly, trying to find a kink or bend in it somewhere. I found nothing. Finally, after experimenting with the carb-end mounting position, I got in the vehicle, yanked out the entire steel cable, and went to dig up a can of grease.
Needless to say, I overgreased every last inch of that cable, making sure that none of it was showing silver. Feeding it back through, I hooked it up and smiled when it easily opened and closed the choke.
The last thing I had to do was bend the linkage between choke plate and fast idle cam, because the (close to) oem linkage allowed the fast idle screw to ride far past the top step of the cam. After ensuring that full choke only brought it up to the top step, I dug out my keys and fumbled them twice in anticipation.
I pushed the choke control in to fully close it. Checked under my cleaner to make sure I was on the top step of my fast idle cam. Turned the ignition on. My fingers flew to my juryrigged starter button and the engine cranked as I slowly opened up the choke.
I was instantly rewarded with a glorious thundering of dual glass-pak exhausts as my 70,000 mile 304 woke up. I fully expected the normal start - slow down - die within 5 seconds routine. But to my surprise, it ran smooth.
I then ran across my yard, occasionally jumping and not once looking back, because I could hear it running. On the first attempt, I can start my Scout, and it makes me proud to be the owner of such a fine vehicle.
So please, share your own stories of those little steps you've taken that rekindled your IH spirits.
Ever since I've had my Scout II in service, it didn't like to start - or maybe it's better to say that it didn't like to run right after starting. After tons of adjusting, I had just about resigned myself to not worrying about it until I got a 2300 Holley.
But today I took a choke cable that's been laying around my barn for a few years and unwound it from the tight factory-packaged coil. After finding out I didn't own a large enough drill bit, I filed out my hole and installed the choke control. I looked at the carburetor itself and noticed that the passenger-side bracket setup isn't exactly ideal for a 90 degree change in the actuating linkage. Only after running it through the firewall did I notice my first issue.
I discovered that the Holley 2210 carburetors have a backwards choke plate, in relation to the installation of a cable. No biggie, I thought, I can just use a little extra cable and route it to pull the linkage to the front, so that pulling the choke control out would close the choke.
The next problem was the length of cable I had to work with. I set up a trial install for the reverse-cable and noticed a pretty sharp bend going over top of the coil and back through the firewall. Trying to use the control was pointless, the bend was too severe. Even when assisting the cable's movement, the geometry was wrong and I still had a half inch gap in the fully choked position.
After resolving myself to having a backwards choke knob, I set up the cable on the rear of the carburetor and played with geometry until I could close the choke completely. I tightened my mounting brackets down, pulled the choke control out (opening the choke) and attempted to close it again. But alas, I wasn't quite done yet.
The control just sprang back out, so I proceeded to follow the cable blindly, trying to find a kink or bend in it somewhere. I found nothing. Finally, after experimenting with the carb-end mounting position, I got in the vehicle, yanked out the entire steel cable, and went to dig up a can of grease.
Needless to say, I overgreased every last inch of that cable, making sure that none of it was showing silver. Feeding it back through, I hooked it up and smiled when it easily opened and closed the choke.
The last thing I had to do was bend the linkage between choke plate and fast idle cam, because the (close to) oem linkage allowed the fast idle screw to ride far past the top step of the cam. After ensuring that full choke only brought it up to the top step, I dug out my keys and fumbled them twice in anticipation.
I pushed the choke control in to fully close it. Checked under my cleaner to make sure I was on the top step of my fast idle cam. Turned the ignition on. My fingers flew to my juryrigged starter button and the engine cranked as I slowly opened up the choke.
I was instantly rewarded with a glorious thundering of dual glass-pak exhausts as my 70,000 mile 304 woke up. I fully expected the normal start - slow down - die within 5 seconds routine. But to my surprise, it ran smooth.
I then ran across my yard, occasionally jumping and not once looking back, because I could hear it running. On the first attempt, I can start my Scout, and it makes me proud to be the owner of such a fine vehicle. So please, share your own stories of those little steps you've taken that rekindled your IH spirits.