7/25/97 - Update soon...

• I'm catching a lot of grief because I haven't updated this in a while. And the fact is I've been doing a fair bit to the Scout, I just haven't had the time to update the web page. I will get to it early next week, I promise.
  But, as a "preview", since 7/8 I have
  • Installed an MSD ignition
  • Installed a MSD coil
  • Added some custom Accel 8.8 wires
  • Worked on combatting the RFI noise generated by the above toys
  • Put on the side view mirrors
  • Worked on getting rid of a hesitation/stumbling problem I have on acceleration. (Read the "Fuel System" section of my shop manual 3 times so far...)

7/8/97 - Ordered MSD ignition

• I ordered an MSD 6A ignition and MSD Blaster 2 coil from Summit Racing. The ignition was $124, and the coil was $29. If you're thinking of installing on of these, read this note by John Landry.

7/7/97 - Drove it to work, ordered mirrors

• I drove it to work (finally) today. I watched the oil pressure and temp like a hawk. This was its first time on the highway. Its a short drive (about 15 minutes), and everything went pretty well. There's still a little stumbling on acceleration, and it pops a little, like it wants to back fire. I think I need to teak the timing slightly. But I'm switching to an MSD ignition, so I wait till then (this weekend) to make the adjustments.
  I also threw some gas in it, about 11 gallons on an almost empty tank. The needle on the gas gauge moved (so it does work), but only to just below a quarter of a tank. I want to fill it and see what happens, but I may need to drop the tank to work on the rear differential cover, so I'm trying not to keep too much gas in the tank.
• I ordered some new SSII mirrors from Giddum' Up Scout ($27.50 each).

7/6/97 - seat covers, roll bar pads, grill, rear view mirror

• I put the custom made seat covers I got from "Wet Okole" on. They look and fit great.
• I got a new set of roll bar pads from Giddum' Up Scout a while ago. today I put them on. The fit nicely, and look great.
• I really like the look of the original SSII grill, but it leaves a lot of space for rocks and stuff to hit the radiator. To fix this I took a piece of 1/2" spaced "hardware cloth" (really large, galvinized screen) and cut it to fit the opening in the metal grill support behind the SSII grill. On the edges I left "barbs" sticking out when I cut it. Then I spray painted it black. When dry, I took some black screen (normal sized stuff, for windows) and cut a piece a little larger than the hardware cloth. I stuck the barbs on the end of the hardware cloth through the screen, and then bent them over to hold the screen in place. Then I attached this whole thing to the grill support with a few screws and washers. I put the SSII grill back in place, and it works great.
• I also had no mirrors on the Scout, so I got some rear view mirror adheasive and put up the mirror. I still need to get some new side view mirrors.

7/5/97 - marker lights, washed it up and brought it home, new mufflers on, installed front drive shaft

• I sorted through the collection of marker lights I have now (I picked a few up at the Nationals, and bought some from someone on the IHC digest) and found the best ones. I cleaned them up, and installed them. Some trimming is required to get the marker light "frame" to fit since the fiberglass fender wall is so much thicker, but fortunately I did this before the body was painted, so they just went right in.
• Next I gave it a quick wash, inside and out. The great part about this truck is that is is not (more or less) waterproof inside and out. The interior is Rhino'd, and when I re-did the dash, I waterproofed all the electrical connections. So, to clean it out, I just point the hose. I did have to drill some small drain holes behind the seat, but that was expected.
• I'm not sure when he did it, but Al got the new mufflers on. I was going to do it, but some welding was required (and I don't know how to weld, yet) to attache the fittings to the muffler.
  The new mufflers sound pretty good.
• Al had been fighting with the front drive-shaft for a while. He couldn't figure out how to get it in so it would spin freely. At first he wasn't sure which end went where. And when he installed (either way) the U-joint would knock into itself, or bind.
  I called Giddum' Up Scout, and asked which way it went in, and they said the slip yoke goes by the xfer case. Al tried this and it still was knocking. I was talking to him about it today (he mentioned the problem to me, and I hadn't taken a look yet). He had it in correctly, but he said it was still knocking. I slid under, and spun it with no problem.
  It turns out that he had been installing it with the Scout up on the lift. This made the front axle hang lower, which made the joint bind. On the ground there is no problem.

6/28/97 - Adjust shifting cable, tweak seat belt

• Half the time when I turn the key when in Park, nothing happened, and I'd have to shift into Neutral to get it to start. This was because the shift cable was not adjusted correctly, and the park/neutral saftey switch was not getting hit when in Park.
  To fix this I pulled the housing around the shift lever off, and adjusted the end of the cable that attached to the lever. At the end of the cable is a threaded "bolt" that screws into the pin which goes into the lever. By removing the pin from the shift lever, and spinning it in one direction or the other, you can change the effective length of the shift cable. Usually not much adjustment is needed.
• The seat belts I have are from a Saab, and must be mounted pretty much vertically. I had the "coil" part of the belt mounted through the outer most hole in the vertical face of the roll bar mounting "foot". The problem was that because of the door insert, the top of the seat belt coil leaned toward the center of the truck and half the time the coil wouldn't unroll when sitting still. So I moved the coil to the other hole on this face of the roll bar "foot". I'll probably have to do the same on the passenger's side.

6/23/97 - Finished door inserts, another test drive

• All I had left to do to finish the door inserts was to put in the screws along the seam between the inner and outer pieces. I used #10 3/4" stainless steel screws. At the seam, the outer piece overlaps the inner piece, and I drilled larger holes in the top (outer piece). These holes were just large enough to push the screw through. This was done so that I could tighten the screw and pull the two pieces together. I drilled tiny pilot holes through the larger holes into the lower (inner) piece to make the screws go in easier. I started at the top, rear again on the drivers side, and worked my way forward. As I went I had to continually pull the pieces together to get a good seam.
  It came out ok, but I with these piece fit together a little better. If I never thought I'd have to remove these, the right thing to do (cosmetically) would be to have the seam sprayed with RhinoLining again. this would make the seam virtually invisible. I doubt I'll do it, though.
• I took another spin around the block a few times. The new hose seems to have fixed the coolant leak I had. The carb (or timing?) still needs a little adjustment. It stumbles slightly when you stomp on it. But other than that, it runs amazingly smooth. And the body feels so tight!
  I do need to tweak the driver's side seat belt. It locks up way to easily. By the end of the ride, I'm strapped in so tightly I can't move because it just gets tighter and tighter, and never releases. I think it might be mounted at a slight angle.

6/21/97 - Door inserts

• Today I put on the outer pieces of the door inserts. I had already drilled holes for the rivets before the outer pieces were painted. And fortunately they were the right size. (I didn't have the rivets then, so I guessed.)
  I ended up using aluminum rivets. They were the larges ones I could find, and had a 5/8" "reach" and required a 3/16" hole. I wasn't sure how long I needed the reach to be, I just knew it would have to go through at least two pretty thick pieces of fiberglass.
  Starting on the driver's side, I spent a few minutes liniing the outer piece up. I had a few screws holding the outer piece to the inner piece to make sure they were lined up relative to one another. Once I was happy with the position, I started at the top of the rear edge. Holding the door insert in place, tightly against the body, I drilled the first hole. I was nervous drilling into the body. Once the hole was made, I put in the rivet, making sure to hold the insert tightly against the body as I "popped" the rivet. It looked pretty good, so I kept going, slowly.
  After I had a couple on the rear edge done, I checked the front edge. It was lined up ok, so I continued in the rear, around the bottom edge, and then up the front. I was pretty simple, but slow going, as I really didn't want to make a mistake here.
  Once I had the driver's side done, I did the passeneger's side. Fortunately the inserts fit a little better on this side, making it easier to line up. Again, I started at the top of the rear edge, and worked my way down. Along the way I checked the front edge again, and it wasn't exactly where I wanted it, but there was still enough play to move it slightly. I decided to put a few rivets in the front now, instead of working my way over there. I started working my way down the front edge, and just before I got to the corner rivet, I went back to working forward along the bottom.
  The bottom edge (on both sides) took a bit of work to get it tight along the body. But with rivets roughly every 7.25" (the same spacing as the orginals) the panel gently bends into place.
  I still need to put the final screws into the seam between the inner and outer pieces. But I didn't have the right size stainless steel screws (#10 x 3/4").

6/19/97 - Door inserts, ordered new mufflers

• I started on the door inserts. Well, I actually started on them a while ago. The door insert is made up of two pieces which sandwhich around the door frame. The outer piece was originally riveted to the outer body, and screwed to the inner piece along the seam where the two meet. The inner piece was also screwed to the inner wall.
  I've already had the inside pieces, and the "step" part of the outer pieces Rhino'd. And just the other day, the rest of the outer piece got a coat of paint (and a few coats of clear) to match the rest of the body. The inner piece have been sitting in place for a while. They had to go in before the seats.
  So now the fun part, attaching the outer pieces to the inner pieces, and to the body. I drilled the holes (or at least pilot holes) for the rivets in the outer pieces before they were painted. So now I drilled holes along the edge where the outer piece overlaps the inner piece. I used the old door inserts as templates, although exactly where the screws end up doesn't really matter, as long as there are enough of them. My plan was to drill holes just large enough for the screws to slide through in the outer piece, and smaller pilot holes on the inner piece. I'm doing this because the outer piece goes over the inner piece, and I want the screws to pull the inner piece up to meet the edge of the outer. I'm also planning to attach the inner and outer pieces before attaching the pieces to the body.
  Once I got the screw holes drilled in the outer pieces, I also had to drill holes for the soft-door hinge. Again, I used the old door inserts as a template. Once the holes were drilled, I put the hinge in place (once you put the door inserts in place, you can't get behind them to put the hinge on, so I had to do it now).
  Next, I took a bunch of clean shop towels and taped them to the body around the door jams with electrical tape. I used electrical tape because that's what I had handy, and because I figured it wouldn't pull to hard on the paint when I removed it. The purpose for the towels is to protect the body from scratches as I get the door inserts in place.
  Ideally yuo should have two people for this, but you can do it with one, I did. I put the outer half of the driver's side door insert in place, and lined is up with the inner piece. Once I was happy with the position (relative to the inside piece), I drilled a smaller pilot hole in the inner piece through the a few of the holes I had already drilled in the outer piece, and then put in a few screws. 3 or 4 screws was enough to hold is solidly in place.
  The fiberglass door inserts are a fair bit thicker (and stronger) than the original, plastic pieces. This is nice because I often stood on the old one and heard them "groan" a little under my weight. The downside is that the outer piece protrudes from the body quite a bit more. And to make it worse, (as usual) Kentrol did not compensate for this added thickness in the design of these pieces. The result are gaps between the inner and outer pieces at the top of the door jam (in the front and rear) and a small gap between the outer half of the insert and "gutter" where the bed rails mount. Unfortunately there's really not a lot I can do about either. There's nothing to trim or modify that will provide the added material to bridge these gaps. I may try to fill or conceal them, but I'll deal with it later.
  For now I got one outer piece in place, and the other is all drilled and ready to go. I need to pick up some rivets, then I will attach the outer pieces to the body, and put the final screws in place.
• Al ordered new mufflers. The old ones are only about 2 years old, with only about 1 year of actual driving on them. But I couldn't find the receipt, so I had to spring for new ones. But I got them at Al's cost ($56/muffler), which helps a little. The problems with the old ones is that the inside seems to be blown out, it pops, and sounds kind of like a Harley (which is fine if you're driving a Harley, but not when you're driving a completely rebuilt Scout).

6/18/97 - bypass hose, hood support, hood latch

• After driving it around on Sunday, some coolant leaked from the short, fat, elbow shaped hose just on top of the water pump going into the block. This is the only piece of hose that hadn't been replaced, and obviously it needed it.
  A replacement was easy to find at a local parts store, this is a generic replacement, and needed to be cut to fit. I cut it once, trying to be cautious and no make it to short. But I tried for a while to get it in place, and realized it was still to long. I took another 1/2" off one end, and got it in. Its a real pain to get in because of its shape (90 degree elbow), and because its so short (maybe 3" long on either side of the bend). Its also in a tought spot. The trick I used was to lube the inside of the hose with a little anti-freeze. It makes the hose slide around on the fittings much easier.
• I wasn't sure about putting the original hood support back in. The directions from Kentrol said you need to re-install the "guide" that was spot welded to the inside of the original hood. The "stick" from the support stuck through the guide, and as the hood openned, the guide lead the stick into place. I really didn't like the idea of screwing something into the hood (there are no pre-drilled holes in the hood for this).
  I was looking the whole thing over, when I realized Kentrol had put a "ridge" in the hood that could serve roughly the same purpose as the guide. I installed the stick. Its mounted on a little bracket that I bolted to the front edge of the inner fender. The stick is spring loaded so it wants to stand up, and swing toward the front of the vehicle. About 10 degrees past vertical, the spring pushing the stick hits the inner fender, and the stick stops moving on its own. But if you push the stick by hand a little further, it finds a ridge in the underside of the hood that must have been put there for this purpose. The stick stays in place pretty well, and has no trouble supporting the hood.
  The think I still can't figure out is why Kentrol didn't mention this in the directions. Why did they suggest that you use the original guide? This is a much easier, cleaner solution...
• Even after adjusting it as much as I could, the hood still didn't close as much as I'd like. The problem was that the "post" on the hood latch (the threaded part that screws into the hood) was screwed into the hood as far as it could go, the end was up against the top skin of the hood. I had two options: 1) move the hood latch on the firewall down a bit, or 2) shorten the post. Since the hood latch was a real pain to put in, I went for the seccond option.
  I found two nuts that fit the threads on the post, and screwed them on. I used a hack saw to remove the last 1/2" of the post, trying to make as clean a cut as possible. Then I used the two nuts (both hardened) to fix any damage I'd done to the thread. Fortunatley the cut was clean, and there was little or no thread damage. The now shorter post screwed right into the hood, and it closes much tighter.

6/17/97 - hood latch, temp sender

• I thought putting the hood latch on was going to be tough. I figure getting it centered was going to be the hard part. It was really pretty easy.
  First, I screwed the "post" into the hood. The post is the part the latch grabs onto. There is a threaded plate inside the hood that this screw into. Unfortunately the plate can slid around a little, making the threaded hole a pain to get to. But with a little patience, its possible.
  Next, I tried to determine how high on the firewal to mount the latch. Its not marked on the firewall, but fortunately I took a lot of pictures before I got rid of the old tub. In all the pictures it looked like the latch was as high on the firewall as it could go, So finding the height was easy. (I found out later, that ideally it should have been about 1/2" down).
  Then I tried to figure out where to mount it left-to-right. This location had to be close, within about 1". There's a 1" slot in the latch mounting plate that will let you move it to the left or right. What I ended up doing was holding the latch up against the post in the hood, then closing the hood most of the way. I was leaning from the inside over the windshield and when the hood was mostly closed, I marked roughly where the latch was.
  So, with a rough idea how high on the firewall to put it, and where it should go left-to-right, I marked the holes in the latch mounting plate, and drilled.
  There are three holes in the place, one on top, two on the bottom. The top hole comes through the firewall in the cavity where the wiper motor is, so its still "outside" (not under/behind the dash). I removed the windshield cowl plate, and stuck a bolt through this hole to hold the latch in place.
  Now, the fun part. The other two holes are underneath/behind the dash. Normally they would be easy to get to, but I already put the defroster vents and the heating duct box in. This made things much more difficult. I eventually managed to get my hand in there, and shoved a couple bolts through the holes.
  Next, I drilled another hole through the firewall just big enough for the cable that releases the hood latch. Sticking this through was even more fun than trying to get the bolts in. After about 15 minutes of wrestling around with it I got it through. I attached it to the latch, and made sure it worked. It sticks a little after the latch is released, but I think it just needs a little grease.
  Then I needed to center the latch. I loosened the bolts a little, and slowly closed the hood. I looked at it through the windshield and from underneath to see if it was lined up. When it looked right, I tightened the bolts (the trick here is to use lock washers and washers w/ teeth under the dash, that way you can just tighten the bolts from the engine side of the firewall without the other end spinning).
  The final adjustment is the post that screws into the hood. I can't screw it in quite far enough to make the hood close as far as I'd like. The problem is that the post screws in so far that it hits the outer skin of the hood. this is bad because if the end of the post is up against this, every time you close the hood you'll poke the outer skin, potentially causing cracks. The two solutions are to move the latch down a little so the hood closes more, or shorten the post. I'll probably do that latter.
• The temp sender is very easy to replace. Just find the right size socket (I think 11/16", but I don't remember for sure), slide the wire off the old one, screw out the old one, screw in the new one, and re-attach the wire.
  The temp sensor is screwed into the engine just to the driver's side of the coil (in its stock mounting position), and kind of between the distributor and the carb. Its a little brass nub screwed into the engine with a "slide on" electrical connector on top (looks like a tiny, flat mushroom cap).

6/15/97 - Hood, drove it some more...

• Worked on getting the hood lined up.
  Al and I tried to put the hood on a few days ago. It was close, but we couldn't quite get it over to the drivers side enough. So I slotted the holes in the hood, so the bolts that go into the plates inside the hood could move over more (the plates move around inside the hood).
  With this done, we tried again. The hood is real pain to put on because the plates inside the hood slide around, and you can't always get to the holes in the plates. We came up with a little practice that helped. First, with the hood on the ground, put a short (3/4") bolt in one hole in each plate. These hold the plate in place so you can get to the rest of the holes. Have 2 longer (1.5") bolts on hand. While one guy holds the hood (it only weighs about 50 lbs) the other guy puts one of the long bolts through the hood hinge, into one of the empty holes in each plate. Then, he removes the two short bolts. You'll quickly see that you needed the longer bolts to give you enough room between the hinge and the hood to get the short ones out. Then put in the rest of the short bolts, and replace the long one with another short one.
  Once all the bolts are in, we left them a little loose, and went to work trying to align the hood. Unfortunately, there's a little more space between the edge of the hood and the fenders than I'd like. But we made sure the gap was pretty even on both sides, and then tightened the hinge bolts. One thing we did notice while trying to adjust it was that the lower bolts on the hinge need to be tightened in order for the front edge of the hood to be pulled down. Even when we were done, the front edge still seems to be a little higher than the fenders, but its not to bad.
  One other note. The instruction from Kentrol tell you to remove the spring from one of the hood hinges because the 'glass hood is so much lighter than the steel one. I really didn't like the idea of the hood being lifted unevenly by one hinge w/ a spring, and one without, so I decided to see what would happen if I left both hinges on. I was expecting the hood not to stay down. I wasn't concerned about too much stress on the hinge mounting points on the hood, because its not like Kentrol had stressed one mounting point over the other, and if either mounting point could take the stress from one spring, then leaving one spring on each should have no effect on the mounting point. Well, as it turns out, leaving both springs works great. The hood can easily be lifted with one hand, but doesn't fly up when not latched. And, if something should ever happen where the hood falls on someone's hand or arm, it is so "light" now, it probably wouldn't do much damage.
• Went over some brake lines, again.
  I noticed a little peeling paint on one of the brake lines due to brake fluid. It was probably from before we tightened all the lines last time, but just for safety I went over all the connections in that area again.
• Sand blast, prime, and paint hood support, hood latch parts.
  With the hood in place, I still needed to install the latch to hold it down, and the arm to hold it up. But, I had forgotten to clean these parts up, so I ran the sand blaster over them quickly and gave them a coat of primer, and them black paint. I'll install them when they're dry.
• Install horn switch, tighten steering wheel
  With the horns in, and the grounds all run, all I needed for the horn to work was the switch. The steering wheel I have is not original, its a small, aftermarket "racing-style" wheel (that I got with the Scout). There are three small bolts that screw into the "head" on the steering column through the wheel. And there is a large threaded rod coming out of the steering column that sticks through the wheel, and a large nut which goes on this to hold the wheel on.
  The horn button is a plate, metal on one side, and some thin, non-conductive material on the other. This plate sits in the center of the wheel, held in place by the four small bolts. The plate is suspended off the wheel with little rubber o-rings on the bolts, between the plate and the wheel. There is a cover for the plate which just slips over it, and sticks in place. When you push on the cover, the metal side of the plate makes contact with the (metal) wheel. There is also a small wire that comes out of the steering column, and attaches to the plate. Basically, when this wire is grounded, the horn sounds.
• Test drive
  I needed some screen for behind the SSII grill (I really don't want a rock to fly into my new radiator), so I decided it was time to take the Scout for a short test drive to the hardware store.
  I cleaned a bunch of the crap out of the back (stuff that would fly away), and reattached the driver's side seat belt. I had a little trouble starting it up because I still haven't adjusted the shifting cable, so the Park switch isn't getting hit quite right. It seems to start just fine in Neutral, so I used that instead. It starts well, but needs a couple seconds to warm up before you can kick the choke down, and have it stay down. I also think the idle is a little too high. But all that aside, it was a lot of fun to drive.
  The ride is very firm, but not bouncy. There are no squeaks, or rattles, which is something I've never experienced in a Scout. Unfortunately one of the mufflers seems to be bad. There's no hole in it, but it sounds kind of like a Harley. But it had that problem before the rebuild. So I'll get a new muffler.
  The other problem is a coolant leak around the short, elbow hose coming from the water pump. This is the only original hose left, and obviously need to be replaced, too.

6/14/97 - tons of stuff

• Installed cowl plate.
  With the fenders in place, I could finally put the cowl plate in (the one with the vacuum hose diagram on it). I already drilled the holes for the screws in the lip on the firewall, so all I had to do was set it in place, and put the screws in. Most of the rear lip of the plate goes under the front edge of the windshield frame, but it also has three tabs on the rear edge that go on top of the front edge of the WS frame to hold the plate up. I put in a couple of stainless screws, and it was it.
• Installed wiper jets.
  Once the cowl plate is in, the windshield washer jets could go in. These just poke through the holes in the rear lip of the cowl plate, and a screw holds them in place. There's a little plastic retainer clip that holds the tubing to the jets in place.
• Installed coolant bottle.
  Because of the way the brake lines come from the master cylinder, I couldn't fit the coolant bottle in its original location. So, instead I mounted it on the opposite inner fender, next to the windshield washer fluid bottle. I ran a hose from the overflow nipple on the radiator around the front, between the radiator and the cross-support (with the hood hinges on it), to the bottle. The bottle is just screwed into the fiberglass inner fender.
• Finished bolting grill together.
  I didn't have enough smaller bolts around to finish this the other day, so I got some more today. I just had to bolt the grill support to the lower grill (the part that supports the headlight to the part that holds the turn signals).
• Installed horn.
  I got some new horns, and mounted them to the front edge of the inner fender, next to each side of the radiator. The horns have little chrome grills that face forward. You should just be able to see them through the screen I'm going to put behind the plastic SSII grill.
• Checked running gear nuts/bolts. We went around and checked the nuts/bolts on all the running gear one last time, and used loc-tite on them.
• Grease steering gear.
  Al took the grease gun to all the grease fittings on the steering linkages.
• Grease front brake calipers.
  We took the front tires off so I could put in the bolts from the inner to outer fenders in the wheel well, and Al noticed that the front calipers were dragging a little due to some surface rust. He quickly pulled them apart, wire brushed the surface rust off, greased the sliding surfaces of the calipers, and put them back together.
• Bolted inner/outer fenders together in wheel well.
  The fiberglass outer fenders have tabs with nut-inserts in them along the edge of the wheel well. To use these you need to drill hole in the inner fenders for the bolts. Unfortunately you can't drill these holes until the fenders are installed, and tightened in place. The hard part is determining where to drill. The best bet is to start with a tiny drill bit. Pry the inner fender away from the outer fender, and mark where you think the hole should go. Then drill a test hole w/ the tiny bit. Stick a nail through the tiny hole, and pry them apart again to see how close you were. Adjust, and try again, until you're happy with it, then drill the hole for the 1/4" bolt. Make sure you use a fender washer on these bolts.
  Unfortunately the fenders don't line up exactly. In both sides I will probably need to go back and trim the inner fender a bit where you can see it stick out past the outer fender. Although I was also thinking about putting the original fender flares (or new ones) back on. These would hide this problem.
• Touch up frame paint.
  While we had it up on the lift, we took out the spray can of Rustoleum, and touched up a few scrapes and scratches in the frame paint.
• Headlights.
  I had a helper clean up the headlight holders, and give them a quick coat of silver paint. Once they were dry, Al and I put them in. While they will fit into the grill many ways, you have to be sure to line them up correctly. The important thing (at least on an SSII) is that the screws used to hold the headlight retaining ring line up with the slots in the grill, so you can change the headlights without removing the grill. Once these are in, all you need to do is plug in the headlights, and screw the retaining ring into place.
  It turns out that somehow my headlight indicator in the dash was backwards. When the low-beams were on, the it said the high beams were on. To remedy this I swapped the wires going into the plug for the headlight bulbs. I'm guessing a previous owner swapped these by accident (it used to be backward before the rebuild, too.)

6/13/97 - Front turn signals

• Ran grounds.
  The front turn signals, and a few other things needed to be grounded. For the turn signals, I had added extra wires to the headlight harness with the plan of someday adding beefier headlights. These extra wires included a ground. I "forked" the ground, so I had two available ground wires by each headlight. On each side, I used one for the turn signal, and one for the horn.
  Back under the hood, the other end of this ground wire comes out near the firewall. I was just going to hook this up, when I realized I also needed to ground the brake block, and the horn relay, which are both near by. So I ran the wire from the headlight harness to the horn relay, and I ran a wire from the brake block to the horn relay, and I ran a grounded wire from the dash frame through the hole in the firewall to the horn relay (it was the most inconspicuous ground source available). This grounds the horn relay, the brake block, the front turn signals, the horns, and the windshield washer pump (the last three are all coming off the headlight harness).
• Installed front turn signals.
  Once the ground wires were in place, installed the front turn signals was easy. There is a top and bottom to both the light housing and the lens. The housing will only fit into the grill one way, and the lens is marked "TOP". I put in two stainless screws, and the turn signals, and parking lights worked fine.

6/11/97 - DROVE IT AROUND THE BLOCK!!

I'll fill in the details on some of this stuff later...


• I had a little "extra" vacation, so I took today off from work to tool on the Scout. Al also didn't have to much scheduled for the day, so he spent most of the day helping me out. We got a lot done.
• Fixed the problem of the grill sticking out.
• Tightened up inner fenders, outer fenders, and front body mounts
• Put on most of the front grill
• Took it for a cruise around the block!!
  We couldn't wait any longer. Once we got the timing set right, threw a little more tranny fluid in, and wired a plate on the rear bumper we were ready to hit the road. We took it real easy because not all of the body mounts have been tightened yet.
  When we pulled out of the garage, we got lots of cheers from the guys working in the neighboring garages. (They've all been by at one point or another to check up on this project, and harass me about when it will be done). I'm sure we were quite a sight without much of a front grill, no hood, and only the inner half of the door inserts.
  We took it around the block, making sure it would up-shift, and down-shift correctly (remember, its an automatic). That seemed to work fine. The steering was good, the brakes were good (but I'd like them a little firmer), and the ride was amazing. It was stiff, but comfortable. And even with a few loose body mounts, there were no squeaks or rattles. The engine ran very smoothly, and I couldn't wipe the grin off my face if I tried.
  There's not a lot of major work to be done to get it on the road for real, but a ton of little stuff to do before its "done". With a little luck, I'll be driving it home this weekend!

6/8/97 - Worked on fenders.

• I thought about the problem with the grill sticking out to far over night. I decided that the right solution was to trim the back end of the inner fender and slide it back. (The grill attaches to the cross member that has the hood hinges on it, which in turn is bolted to the front of the inner fenders). This would pull the end of the grill in, towards the firewall.
  I was all set to trim the rear edge, when I realized this was going to reduce the clearance between the fan and the radiator since the radiator is bolted to the inner fender. I checked the clearance, and there is no room to spare. In my mind, its already a little too close for comfort.
  My only thought now is that there is an extra "pulley" mounted on the shaft that the fan is on (I think its for a plow pump, or A/C). Removing this pulley will give me another 1/4" of clearance between the fan and radiator, which will let me move the inner fender back that far.
  The other option is to cut the grill support, and/or the front edge of the cross member and try and take up the space there. I'm not really fond of this option, but it looks really bad to leave the grill sticking out.
• The outer pieces of the door inserts got a coat of paint today. I'm having a "real" body guy spray them as my painting skills aren't that great. The color coat is done, hopefully the clear-coat will follow soon. He's also painting the dash "cover", the little metal panel that covers/goes-around the gauges and radio.

6/7/97 - Worked on outer fenders.

• I had to adjust the windshield frame one more time. I moved the passenger's side back 1/8". Damn, I wish this Kentrol stuff fit together better....
• I finally got the outer fenders on. It actually only took about 45 minutes to get them lined up, and the holes drilled once I had the WS frame in the right place.
  I started with the passenger's side. I put the fender in place, and using a 5/16" drill bit (the bolts are 1/4") I drilled the holes. First I drilled a hole where the fender bolts to the end of the radiator support, and threw a bolt in there to hold the front end in (towards the radiator). Then I drilled the hole in the top lip where the bolts go into the top of the inner fender. I started in the back, drilled the hole, and threw in a bolt. Then I did the top hole along the rear edge, where the fender mounts to the door post. Then I swapped back and forth doing one along the top edge (moving forward) and one along the back edge (moving down), pulling the fender in as I went.
  Unfortunately this stuff just doesn't fit together as well as I'd hoped. Most of it looks pretty good, but there's still a little more of a gap than I'd like where the fender wraps around the front corner of the windshield frame. Then angle of the corner of the WS frame just isn't the same as the angle of the corner on the fender. With a little luck, most of this gap will be covered by the outer half of the door insert.
• Once the passenger's side was done, I did the driver's side. I did the same thing, tied the front end in first, then started on the top, back corner and worked forward and down at the same time (alternating). This side fits a little better than the other, but still not as nicely as I'd hoped.
• With both fenders in place, I decided to throw the hood on to see how it looks. I couldn't actually attach the hood since there was no one else around to hold it up while I bolted it in place, so I just set it in place. The gap between the hood and the fenders is larger and I'd like. Unfortunately they can't be moved in any further as they already butt up against the edges of the windshield frame.
• I also placed the grill support (the metal piece that the plastic SSII grill attaches to) in place. It fits fairly well on the passenger's side, but the driver's side sticks out (forward) past the fender by 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. There's no way to move the fender forward at all because it wraps around the rear of the door post. I studied the whole thing for a while, then left in disgust. These Kentrol parts really suck.

6/5/97 - Worked on outer fenders.

• I started working on the outer fenders tonight. The first thing I had to do was get the windshield frame in the right spot. I spent the entire time (~3 hours) working on this.
  The windshield frame can be adjusted in 4 ways: you can move it up and down, you can move it forward and backwards, you can move it left or right, and you can adjust the angle at which it leans back. The angle doesn't have much effect on how the outer fender fits. The up and down adjustment will determine whether the rear of the outer fender sticks up above the front of the WS frame, or vice-versa. The right-left adjustment will determine the size of the gap (if any) between the side edge of the WS frame and the outer fender, and the front/back adjustment will determine the size of the gap (if any) between the front edge of the WS frame and the outer fender.
  For me, the driver's side was a piece of cake. That fender seems to fit well. The passenger's side, on the other hand, has been a nightmare. The difficult part is that you must completely remove the bolts holding the WS frame bracket to the tub (these are used to adjust the height if the WS frame) in order to play with the front/back adjustment. And removing these bolts is a pain because they are inside the door pillar.
  The other pain, other than just adjusting things, is that the passenger side fender doesn't seem to fit quite right. When I line the rear, vertical edge up with the door post, the top, horizontal edge that bolts to the inner fender lifts off the inner fender more and more as you go towards the front. The directions say you may need to shim up the front of the inner fender to get things to line up, but I'd have to shim it up about 1.5", and that side is already .75" higher than the other.
  I'll fight with it more next time...

6/3/97 - Roll bar pads arrived.

• On 5/27/97 I ordered some new pads and covers for the factory roll bar. $70 (plus $5 shipping) from Giddum' Up Scout ($10 or $15 cheaper than most other places).
• I mounted the windshield washer reservoir/pump.
• Installed transfer case boot mounting ring.
• Removed and painted "cowl" plate, in front of windshield, under hood (the one with the vacuum hose diagram on it).

6/2/97 - Misc. stuff...

Details on this stuff soon...
• Tightened passenger's seat bolts.
• Installed "cowl" plate, in front of windshield, under hood (the one with the vacuum hose diagram on it).
• Installed/repositioned/tested windshield washer "jets".
• Started to install windshield washer reservoir/pump.

6/1/97 - Worked on interior

Details on this stuff soon...
• Finished roll bar. Put newly-painted support plates in.
• Cleaned up coolant and windshield washer reservoirs
• Bolted dash speaker in.
• Worked on seat belt problem.
• Put in passenger's side seat belt.
• Put in passenger's side door insert.
• Put in passenger's side door.
• Al finished exhaust, rear drive shaft, and re-routed heater hose.
• Stripped, primed, and painted transfer case boot mounting ring.

• The pads and cover for the factory roll bar are toast, so I ordered a new set from Giddum' Up Scout for $70.

• The heater valve I painted a few days ago was dry, to I installed it. I cut a small piece of heater hose and attached it to the top pipe on the heater core, and attached the other end to the heater control valve. Then I attached the hose coming from the water pump to the other side of the heater control valve. I attached the control cable to the valve, and the heater is now complete.
• I mounted the main loop of the roll bar last week. So today I mounted the rear "legs". I put the legs in place and lined up the "feet" on top of the wheel wells. I marked and drilled four holes for each. I dropped bolts into the holes, and put the backing plate in place from underneath the wheel well. The backing plates hadn't been cleaned up yet, so once I was sure the holes were in the right place, I remove the backing plates again. I cleaned up the plates using the wire buffer on the bench grinder, and gave them a coat of primer, and then black paint. When they're dry I'll put them in place.
• I started to mount the front seat belt spools to the bottom of the main loop of the roll bar when I realized the inner piece of the door insert had to go in first. This piece fits pretty tightly and will not get by the seat belt spool.
  I took some 1/8" thick waterproof ("closed-cell") weather stripping and put it on the back of the inner piece of the driver's side door insert. This is to seal out any draft or wind noise between the door insert and the tub. Then I put the door insert in place. I'm not going to attach the inner piece to the tub until I get the outer piece in place (and the outer one can't go on until it gets painted, and the outer fenders go on).
  With that in place I bolted the driver's side seat belt spool to the bottom of the roll bar (and through the floor of the tub).
• The center console was next. While I can't mount this permanently until I get the stereo mounted in it, I wanted to get it all ready to bolt in. All that was left to do was get the front bracket in, and drill the rear mounting holes. I put the front bracket I made last week in place, and positioned the console where I want it. I marked the location of the bracket, and removed the console. I marked two holes to bolt the bracket through the floor, and drilled. I bolted the bracket in place with heads underneath for security, and put some mild thread lock on the nuts so there's no way that simple turning the bolts from underneath will let you remove the bracket. And to get to the nuts on the top side you would have to remove the console since it sits on top of the bracket. And the console will be mounted similarly to the bracket, with the nuts locked inside.
  With the front bracket bolted in place to the floor, I the console in place, and put a bolt in to hold the console to the front bracket. Next I marked the rear mounting holes, remove the console and drilled. The original 5.5" bolts that came w/ the console were to long, so I found some 5" ones.
  Once I get the stereo mounted in the console, I will permanently install the console. I've been trying to determine the best stereo to get for this application. I'm concerned because the console is designed to take a normal in-dash unit, I want to install a CD player, and in-dash CD players aren't designed to function mounted on their backs. I've asked around on the net, and a Defender-90 owner told me he's had good luck with a Blaupunkt unit. (Even the factory tape deck in a D90 mounts in a similar center console).
• I removed the console, and started to work on the driver's seat. I had bolted the seat base on a week or so ago, so all I needed to do was drop bolts through the holes. (I drilled the holes a long time ago, before I had the RhinoLining sprayed in.) Underneath I had some wide flat steel pieces (3" x 16" x 1/8") that I cut, drilled and painted when I put the holes in the floor. I used these as backing plates underneath the floor.
• Next I started mounting the right driver's side seat belt anchor (the one the belt buckles into). I ran into a small problem because there's not much room between the seat and the center console. There's just enough room to buckle the belt, but not quite enough to get your finger between the belt and the console to press the release button. I'm going to try using the passenger's side anchor on the driver's side, hoping that the button will end up in a more accessible place. Unfortunately I left that piece at home...

• Details Soon

5/23/97 - Heater valve, console, roll bar

• In order to start the engine a while back, I hooked up some heater hose and by-passed the heater all together (since it wasn't installed yet). But the heater is in, so I started to re-route the hose. I lifted the center of the loop of hose I used for the by-pass as high as it would go to let the coolant drain down, and cut the hose. I pinched the end of the segment coming from the water pump with some needle-nosed vice grips to keep it form leaking, and attached the free end of the other segment to the bottom of the heater core. I was about to put the heater control value in, when I realized I still needed to clean it up.
• I really didn't want to haul out the sand blaster just for the heater control valve, but it was pretty rusty. Instead I took it to the bench grinder and used the wire buffing wheel to remove the rust. I worked pretty well. Next I gave it a coat of high-temp black enamel. I'll install it once its dry.
• I started to install the Tuffy center console a few days ago. I trimmed the rear mounting bracket so it fit over the tranny hump better. I mounted the cup holder to the front of the console (it can be mounted on the front or back of the console), so I needed to raise the front off the floor about 1.5" so it wouldn't be resting on the cup holder.
  To make a front support bracket I took two 6" pieces of angle iron (the stuff with the holes already drilled every inch or less) and bolted them together to form a "C" shaped bracket. I primed and painted the bracket, and will install it under the front end of the console when dry.
• I put the main "loop" of the roll bar in place, and drilled mounting holes. For now I will just bolt the roll bar into the fiberglass floor. In the near future I will find a way to tie the roll bar into the frame to provide real protection. Kentrol (the makers of the fiberglass body) offers a kit to do just that.
  I put three bolts on each side, leaving one hole empty. This hole is where I mount the "spool" for the front seat belts. Behind the bolts I used large fender washers to distribute the load.

• Before installing the roll bar I wanted to clean up a few rust spots on it near where is bolts to the floor. I removed the cover and padding, and decided it would be easiest if I removed the rear "legs" of the roll bar. One bolt on each rear leg holds it into the main bar. With the legs off I ran a wire buffer wheel over them to remove any rust. Most of the rust was on the "feet", but there was a little along the tube from where water must have been soaked up by the padding, and held there.
  Once these were cleaned up, I primed them with Rustoleum clean metal primer.
  Next I stripped the cover and padding off the main bar and did the same clean up and priming. The paint was solid from the middle of the front legs to the center of the roll bar, so I only did the bottom half of these legs. Once the primer had dried sufficiently I painted all the legs.
• When I had the inside of the door inserts Rhino'd they (correctly) did not Rhino the "tab" where the outside piece overlaps the inside piece. For looks I masked off this tab and shot it w/ black paint so if any of it is visible when the two pieces are put together it will be less noticeable.
• I t looks like Al has been busy, too. He put in a new PCV valve, and ran the appropriate tubing. He also bolted in the throttle linkage.
• The washer pump was mounted on the bottom of the washer fluid reservoir. It is very rusted, so I'm going to replace it. I wanted to bring it to the parts store to be sure and get a good match, so I removed it by loosening the nut inside the reservoir.

5/18/97 - Heater duct, shifter, front seats, center console.

• Before I installed the heater duct box, I stuck a drop light into the opening for the heater box, and turned the lights out in the shop. When viewed from the engine side of the firewall, this showed me a few leaks between the heater box and the firewall. I filled these w/ silicone caulk.
• To install the heater duct box I had to trim a little of the fiberglass lip around the hole in the firewall. With this done, the duct box fit in place pretty well. There is still a small gap between the duct box and the heater box, but not much air leaks out, so I'll deal with it later...
  Next, I needed to drill mounting holes in the firewall for the duct box. I temporarily screwed the duct box to the heater box, and marked the location of the mounting screws on the firewall under the dash. I removed the duct box, and drilled the holes. I then reinstalled the duct box, putting the original spacer between the box and the firewall, and put two bolts through the firewall. On the engine side I put some silicone caulk on the back of the washers used on these bolts to prevent leaks. Under the dash, I put a screw through the duct box into the lip of the heater box that sticks through the firewall. Once in place, I connected the cable that controls the defrost "flapper" inside the duct box. That's it.
• I got some 1/4" x 1" bolts, and finished installing the shifter. First I put the shift cable in place, and put in a "shifter clip" (a fancy cotter pin). Next, I positioned the shifter so the shifter-light came out in the right place, pulled the rubber boot down over the shifter, and bolted it into the shifter plate (the one that covers the big hole in the floor over the tranny).
  I also installed the rest of the screws for the shifter plate, and the little metal strips that hold the rubber boot in place.
• Next, I started working on the center console. I got a "Deluxe Stereo Security Console" from Tuffy as a birthday present from Bonnie. Very nice. I had to trim the rear mounting bracket so it would fit over the tranny hump. I cut a template out of cardboard, and once I had it right, traced it onto the bracket. I cut the bracket with the "wizzer" (and air tool w/ a cutting wheel). I bolted the bracket and the cup holders (yes, my Scout now has cup holders :-) onto the console.
• I was running out of time, so I paused on the console, and threw the base on the driver's seat. I really wanted to see it w/ a seat in place. I put the seat in position, but didn't bolt it in because I need to put the inside part of the door insert in place before the seat goes in.

5/11/97 - Prepped seats, installed heater, brakes, shifter panel.

• The seats I have are in decent shape. I grabbed them off a '79 Scout II in a junkyard a while back. The bottoms were all rusty, so I took a wire brush to them, and the "hinge" mechanism (these seats fold forward). Then I hit the bottom with some Rustoleum "rusty metal primer". Next, I masked off all but the bottom and "hinges", and painted them with gloss black enamel. Once it dries, I just need to wipe them down, re-install the sliding tracks, and they're ready to install.
• I installed the heater today. I started working on it the other day, and had a hell of a time getting the heater box in place. I finally just decided to widen the hole in the firewall a bit (toward the drivers side). This did the trick. I really wanted to ensure a tight seal to I made to re-enforcements for the attachment points on the firewall. I used simple flat steel stock, about 3" wide. I cut two 6" long pieces, and drilled a hole in the middle of each for the mounting bolts. I also had to drill a hole in the bottom brace for the "air flow" control cable (it works the little "flapper" door inside the heater box).
  Next I put closed-cell weather stripping on the heater box around the firewall mount point and the inner fender mount point. Then I put the heater box in place, and stuck two bolts through the firewall, end then through the mounting "plate" on the heater box. I then added the two braces which sandwiched the mounting "plate" between them and the firewall, providing a better seal. Then I added two bolts through the tabs on the top of the heater box into the inner fender. Once all the bolts were tight, I attached the air-flow" control cable, and sealed it all up with silicone caulk.
  I still need to hook up the hoses.
• al had some free time so we decided to do the brakes. He went around and tightened/check all the connection I made between brake lines/hoses, and I filled the brake fluid reservoir. He opened all the bleeder screws, and we let the system gravity fill for a few minutes. Once we started getting fluid out, we closed all the bleeders, and bled the brakes normally. Now I have breaks.
• I started to install the shifter floor plate, but I didn't have any 1/4" bolts to attach the shifter mechanism.
• I also installed the dash pad, but I ran out of stainless steel screws, so I still need to add a few more.

5/8/97 - xfer case switch, door hinges, heater

• I finished installing the xfer case switch. I needed to heat the heat-shrink-tubing (I didn't have any matches last time), and test it. It works fine.
• Someone on the digest is converting their Scout II to an SS II but doesn't have any door hinges. They wanted to make some, but don't have any to work from. So I put together this info for him.
• To wire up the heater, I had to make some small leads with appropriate connectors. The connector on the end of the wiring harness wasn't designed for a three speed heater, so I ran wires from the low-speed and high-speed connectors on the resistor block to the wiring harness, and ran one from the resistor block to the fan motor. I plugged it all in and tested it out, works great.
• With that done, the heater is ready to install. It should be as simple as sliding it in place, drilling a few holes, and throwing in some bolts. but, as usual the Kentrol fiberglass stuff sucks, and makes things more difficult.
  When I went to put in the heater it wouldn't fit in because the hole in the firewall (the one that the heater box sticks through) is too close to the passenger's side inner fender. This means the heater box itself doesn't fit in. What a PIA!
  I trimmed a little fiberglass from the edge of the hole, but was cautious because I didn't want to make the hole too large, and have gaps/leaks. It still doesn't fit correctly, so I will probably have to trim more, and deal with the gaps.

5/6/97 - Installed xfer case switch

• I installed the new transfer case switch. Its a real pain to get out since you must use a (7/8") socket to remove it, but there isn't really enough room to get the socket wrench in there. But I finally got it out, and to be sure, I tested it. The switch was permanently closed. The new switch screws right in place of the old one, but the plug connector on the top of the switch is different, so I had to splice that into the harness.
• I also painted the "new" rear differential cover. I had to order a (used) replacement because the original was so rusty the sandblasting cause a tiny hole.

5/5/97 - Received xfer case switch, door inserts didn't get painted, question answered

• I got the xfer case switch I ordered from Giddum' Up Scout. The electrical connection (into the harness) is slightly different (Giddum' Up Scout warned me about this), so I'll have to remote the existing connector on the harness, and splice in the new one.
• I swung by the shop late at night and the door inserts which were supposed to get painted hadn't been.
• While working on the heater, I noticed these two coils (like light bulb filaments on steroids) mounted on a small board in the bottom of the heater housing. I had no clue what they were for. I grabbed this heater off a '79 Scout II in a junkyard a few years ago. It was a perfect fit, except the "new" fan motor only had one contact, where the original had two (one for "high" and one for "low"). So when I installed it, I just had one speed (high). It turns out that these coils are the resistors used to provide the different speeds with this motor. No coil is "high", the smaller coil is "medium", and the larger coil is "low". Unfortunately My fan switch only has two positions, so I'll just use "high" and "low". (I got this answer from a bunch of people on the IHC Digest).

5/4/97 - Stripped, primed and painted case of heater fan. Stripped "new" dash panel. Installed heater core in housing.

• I'd already cleaned and painted the heater housing, but not the motor. So today I cleaned up it using the "brush" on a grinding wheel. I didn't want to sandblast it for fear of getting sand inside, so this worked out well. I primed and painted it as well.
• When the door inserts get painted, I'm having the small, top level dash panel painted the same color (the body color). I needed to clean a little surface rust of it, so I used the same grinding wheel brush.
• I painted the heater housing the other day, and now that its dry, I started to put it back together. First, I caulked all remaining holes or gaps in the housing. I'm not exactly sure why this is necessary, but they were all caulked before I sand blasted it. I guess it makes the system a little more efficient, and might keep engine fumes from getting sucked in to the heating system. Next I set about installing the core back into the housing. When I pulled the core it had the remains of some rubber weather-stripping-like stuff holding it in place inside the housing. This stuff was mostly rotted away, so I found some waterproof (closed-cell) weather stripping, and used that. The ends where the tanks are (on the core) need to be padded so they fit tightly into the slot in the housing and the cap that hold the core in place. A small strip is also needed along the top and bottom edges of the core to make sure that all the air goes through the core instead of around it.
  I'm a little concerned about how the weather stripping will hold up under the high temperatures. I know it won't burn, but it may get hard and crusty, and fail to provide sufficient padding. But I didn't know what else to use. I'll keep an eye on it...

5/3/97 - Installed radiator support, tacked down front electrical harness, and speedo cable. Removed door hardware from original door inserts, and drilled holes in new door inserts.

• details soon...

5/2/97 - Sandblasted/primed/painted radiator support, heater housing, a "new" front shackle, and anti-sway bar.

• I found someone (actually, Al found him) at the Lexus body shop next-door to paint exterior of door inserts, and dash panel. He said he'll do it Monday. He also said he'd buff the body once I'm done.
• Since everything else has been stripped and re-painted, I had to do the last few pieces as well. I had the radiator cross support (the piece Bonnie is holding in this picture), the heater housing, a replacement front shackle, and a replacement anti-sway bar. (When I got the Scout the anti-sway bar had been cut off by cutting the attachment point on one of the shackles, I grabbed a replacement from the junkyard).
  I sandblasted all this stuff. It went pretty quickly, and I even got the inside of the heater housing. I primed it with "Rustoleum Clean Metal Primer" (the same stuff I used on the frame), and painted it with "Rustoleum Gloss Black Professional Enamel".
• Oh, before blasting the heater housing, I removed the fan (just a couple of screws hold it in the housing, and the core. The core is held in place by a small metal "cap" that the inlet/outlet pipes stick through. The heater core is in good shape (I pulled it off a junkyard '79 when I first got the Scout) but the weather-stripping/rubber-gasket that cushions the core inside the heater housing was toast. I peeled off all the rotten rubber, and cleaned off the core. I ran the air hose over the fins to blow out any crap, and ran a hose though the core for a while to remove any loose crap.

5/1/97 - Ran front end electrical harness, sandblasted back of dash pad

• A while back I reconditioned the headlight electrical harness, today I put it back in the Scout.
  When I first bought the Scout, I had a lot of electrical problems, so I replaced the headlight harness firewall connector. Unfortunately the plug I replaced it with does not mount on the firewall, so I just stick the plug through a hole in the firewall.
  The headlight harness provides power for the headlights, front turns signals and marker lights, the horns, windshield washer pump, and the "brake failure" detection wire to the brake block mounted on the driver's side inner fender. There is also a relay the harness plugs into mounted on the same inner fender, this is for the horn.
  Parts of the headlight harness need to go through the front portion of the inner fender, so I cut a small hole in each inner fender with a hole saw to let the wires poke through. (Look at the black circle under Bonnie's hand in this picture for the same holes in the original inner fenders).
  The harness runs from the firewall (just above the lower, fat part of the inner fender forward) along the inner fender, behind the battery, and makes right hand turn following the corner in the inner fender (behind the battery). Soon after this corner, the wires for the driver's side lights and horn sprout off and go through the hole I cut. The rest of the harness turns upwards to the top of the inner fender, and runs across the radiator cross support (the piece Bonnie is holding in this picture). I don't have the radiator support in place yet, so I just draped the wires over the radiator for now. On the passenger's side, the harness goes back behind the inner fender, and pokes through the other hole I made in it. There is one wire (now two, since I added a ground) which sprouts off here for the washer pump. I'll tack the harness down once I get the radiator support in place.

4/28/97 - Ordered xfer case switch

• The "Front Axle Engaged" switch seems to be dead, its always closed, so the light is always on. I ordered a replacement from Giddum' Up Scout, $14 plus shipping.

4/26/97 - Repositioned the windshield frame, ran ground for wipers.

• I was about to put the dash pad in when I realized there was air space between the WS frame and the weather stripping between it and the tub. Further investigation made me realize I didn't position the weather stripping close enough to the top of the lip the WS frame sit on to be completely effective. So I bit the bullet and removed the WS frame again. (I was afraid if I left it the way is was I would get wind and water blown in from the vents in front of the WS when on the road.) I pulled up the weather stripping, and filled all the holes I made originally for the weather stripping "pegs". I cleaned the old adhesive off the weather stripping, and re-drilled holes for the "pegs" in the weather stripping. This time I positioned the weather stripping as high on the lip/ledge that the WS frame sits on as possible. I put the weather stripping adhesive on, and squirted a bit of silicone caulk in each peg hole to avoid leaks. Then I put the weather-stripping in place. I put the WS frame back in place, and it sat much better.
  Someone asked for some more detail on this, here it is.
• As I was putting the WS frame back on, I realized that the reason I couldn't get it quite centered last time was that I was using body washes on the head of the bolts which hold the WS frame brackets (to spread out the weight/force), and one was so big, I kept the bolt from sliding over (the edge of the washer hit the edge of the door column where the bolts are). I flattened out the edge of the washer, and I could perfectly center the WS frame.
• I had a ground wire running through the wiring harness to the plug in the wires just before the wipers. So, I ran a ground from the wiper bracket to the plug. I put a plug in connector so when/if I disconnect the wiper motor plug, I can also disconnect the ground.

4/26/97 -

Yahoo!!! The Engine Runs!!!!

• Well, we finally got it started!! I've been waiting for this for a long time.
• First, I had to fill all the fluids. 5 gallons of gas added to the fuel tank. We put in quite a bit of oil (4-5 qts) when we primed it a week or so ago, but I needed to add almost 3 more. I added a qt of automatic transmission fluid. Then I turned to the radiator. A friend suggested using distilled water, which made sense, so I picked up a few gallons. I also grabbed 3 gallons of the high end Prestone anti-freeze/coolant. Soon after the first gallon of water went in I noticed a drip from the passenger side of the radiator. It turns out that the lower drain plug just wasn't tightened. A few turns, and no more drip. I added some antifreeze, then some more water, and it started to drip on the driver's side. Turns out the other (higher) drain plug was only finger tight. Easily fixed, then I filled it the rest of the way. A few minutes later I noticed another leak. This one was coming from the end of the pipe that comes from the water pump into the engine, by the engine end. I tightened the bolt on that joint a little, but it still dripped slowly. It was slow enough that we decided we'd deal with it later (Al was hoping the heat from the engine would help the O-ring in that joint seal a little better, and it would just go away).
• I also realized I forgot to connect the hard (steel) fuel lines to the fuel pump. So I added a piece of 3/8" fuel line between the two.
• Then we were ready to go, we threw a charger/booster on the battery, and, Al poured a little gas into the carb to prime it since the fuel line was still empty. I was working the key, and Al (the professional mechanic) was working the carb. Basically I would turn the key until he told me to stop. I was also keeping an eye on the oil pressure. If it did start, and there was no pressure, I was to kill it immediately. We tried this for a few minutes, and it cranked, but wouldn't start. Then it back-fired through the carb, we knew something was wrong. Al checked the spark plug wires against, and popped the distributor open.
• Al thought maybe the distributor was in 180 degrees out of whack, so he pulled the #1 spark plug put his finger over the hole, and I turned the engine until the pressure leaked from under his finger, and #1 was at the top of the compression stroke. Then we checked the distributor, it was dead on. We tried it again for a few minutes, and again it backfired out of the distributor. I started thinking about how the engine is timed on the #8 cylinder, and grabbed my trusty shop manual. I found the section on removing/replacing the distributor, and of course we had been using the wrong cylinder to position the distributor, and therefore the spark plug wires. the distributor was in the right way, but all the plug wires were off by one. So we repositioned the wires, and tried it again. I should mention that even after all this, we still weren't getting any fuel, so we were still filling the carb by hand.
• We tried again, and it really sounded like it wanted to go, but it wouldn't quite catch. Al kept adjusting the timing, and then he noticed that the distributor cap didn't seem to fit right, it wiggled a little. We popped the dist. cap off, and realized the little plastic cap under the rotor wasn't sitting correctly. We just pulled it out, put the rotor and dist. cap back on, and tried again. It fired right up. The plastic cap was causing the rotor to bind.
• When it was running it was damn loud because it still has open headers. We let it run for about a minute (oil pressure was fine, about half-way on the stock gauge, higher than I've ever seen on any Scout), and then shut it down because the fumes were getting bad (I'm in the back corner of the garage).

4/23-24/97 - Radiator hoses, temporary heater by-pass hose, and transmission fluid cooler line installed, dipstick

• When I ordered the radiator from Giddum' Up Scout, I also got some new radiator hoses. I put those on today.
• I wasn't ready to put the heater in yet, but I want to start the engine soon, so I put a piece of heater hose in to by-pass the heater.
• I bent 2 five foot pieces of 5/16" brake line to make transmission fluid cooler lines (run from the transmission to the radiator). 5 feet was just right for the line that runs fluid from the transmission to the radiator (from the front most port on the transmission to the upper port on the radiator). It was a little long for the line running the other way. I may go back and replace the second one with a shorter/neater run some day...
• I ordered a new dipstick from Giddum' Up Scout ($25+shipping) since the original was in rough shape. To make it work with the headers, I had to slightly straighten the lower half of the tube, and bend the last 2" towards the engine slightly. I still need to figure out where to bolt it since the bracket doesn't quite line up.

4/19-21/97 - Installed windshield, inner fenders, radiator, windshield wipers; tested gauges; drilled holes for brake block; removed tranny lines; made grommet for parking brake cable; temporarily installed original coil.

• I installed the windshield frame. There are little brackets that bolt into plates in the bottom of the frame, and then attach to the body. The tough part is getting it in the right place. See here for details. I got it back for enough, but it still wasn't as centered as I wanted. But it was the best I could do (off by less than 1/8")..
• The inner fenders go on very easily. They sit on the frame in the front, and slide over tabs that stick out from the firewall in the back. There are four threaded inserts in the tabs for each fender (two on the outside, two on the engine side). With the fenders in roughly the right place, I marked the location for the holes, and then drilled. Four bolts with fender washers, and they were in... I measured the diagonal from the rear of one fender to the front corner of the other for both sides and compared to determine how square they were relative to the firewall. They were within 1/8" which is fine for now, since I'll tighten them later.
• Next was the radiator. It attaches to the front of the inner fenders with four bolts, two on either side. I went through a lot hassle to guess and mark the location for the bolt holes in the inner fenders when I realized the holes were already drilled in the metal, but not in the fiberglass. (the metal supports within the fenders are covered on the engine side with fiberglass. Once I drilled through the 'glass I was ready to go. Four bolts with lock washers, and the radiator was in place.
• I had the windshield in place, but I still had to wrestle with the wipers. I actually put the wiper motor bracket in place (it bolts to the WS frame) before I mounted the WS frame. But I knew I was going to have to work with the motor to keep it from rubbing against the firewall. I ended up using three 3/4" metal "sleeves" to move the wiper motor forward enough so it didn't rub. I'm not proud of the fix, but it seems to have solved the problem. It really pisses me off how some of this Kentrol stuff fails to fit together...
• Now that I have the ground strap in place, I threw a battery in and checked the oil pressure gauge and temp. gauge. To test them I simply grounded the wires that run to each sensor for a second to see if the gauge moved, both did. I can't really check the fuel gauge easily (the same tactic would work, but the wire is a pain to get to) or the ammeter, so I'll wait till its running. I also checked all the dash lights. Everything seems to work...
• I bent the last two pieces of brake line to connect the brake block with the master cylinder. Then I marked the position of the brake block on the driver's side inner fender, and drilled two mounting holes in the fender. I'll tighten this down after I check all the brake lines for leaks.
• The hole in the floor for the parking brake cable was to large for the PCV grommets I used on the holes in the firewall, so I made one from a large rubber washer and two metal washers with holes just large enough for the cable, but outer diameters large enough to cover the hole. I cut a slot in each metal washer to get it around the cable, and a slice in the rubber one. I made a sandwich with the rubber one in the middle, and drilled two holes through on opposite sides. Then I put the rubber washer in first from the inside around the cable, so it was against the floor, and then a metal one (painted black to match the Rhino Lining) on top of it. I stuck two small bolts in the drilled holes (I also drilled matching holes through the floor) through the washers, and through the floor. I put the last metal washer on from the outside with the bolts sticking through the holes. Put nuts on the bolts, and its done. Click here for a pic.
• I'm planning on putting an Accel coil in eventually, but just to start it up, we threw the original coil in.

4/18/97 - Got my Wet Okole seat covers, and picked up door inserts from RhinoCoat of Concord.

• My water proof seat covers from Wet Okole arrived today. I went for the "custom" made ones, which, according to the brochure, are cut from factory seat patterns. While I haven't "used" them yet, so far I'm very impressed. The quality of the materials seems good, as is the quality of the construction (good, solid, neat seams, etc.). There is even a little added padding in all the right places to help soften the old seats. I slipped them on the seats temporarily and they fit well. (I'm using a pair of hi-back buckets that I pulled from a '79 Scout II in a junk yard).
• A week ago I dropped off the door inserts at RhinoCoat of Concord (MA). Today I picked them up. I had them spray all of the two inside pieces so they match the rest of the interior. I also had them spray the door "sill" on the outside pieces because I figure people will step here getting in and out, and RhinoCoat will wear much better than paint. Next I need to find someone to paint the rest of the outer pieces.

4/17/97 - Oil pressure sending unit, WS weather stripping, trimmed/cleaned/painted inner fenders, ground strap, grommets in firewall

• I got a new oil pressure sending unit (~ $20), I don't remember the part number, but it must be somewhat common since the local parts place had one in stock. It screws into the block on the driver's side, near the dipstick.
• There's a strip of rubber weather stripping that goes between the windshield frame and the tub (top of the firewall). Here's the details on installing it....
• I needed to trim the inner fenders yet again (this is like the 5th time). I think by now I must have trimmed al least 1-2" off. But, they finally fit correctly. So I cleaned the dust and dirt of them, and sprayed them with black Rustoleum.
• I added a ground strap to ground the engine to the frame. I connected it to the top and bottom of the engine mount on the driver's side. Very out-of-the way.
• There are many cables and wires going through the firewall, and the original grommets were all shot. So I was poking around in the auto parts store, and I noticed PCV grommets. They were exactly the right size, and have a nice thick groove so they fit around the thick fiberglass wall well.

4/17/97 - Which distributor do I have?

• I was confused about whether I had the Prestolite or the Holley distributor. But, according to Gary at Giddum' Up Scout, if you have the box on the firewall, you (and I) have a Holley.

4/16/97 - Ordered a new dipstick and tube. Checked electrical stuff, worked on WS weather-stripping.

• Today I called Giddum' Up Scout and ordered a new dipstick and tube, the total was around $30. They say I'll have to bend it a bit to get around the headers.
• I put the battery in the other day, but didn't get a chance to thoroughly check everything, so I did that this evening.
• First, I still need a ground strap between the engine and the frame. I used jumper cables for now. The dash lights all worked, except for one in the speedo. Simple testing showed that the socket had a loose grip on the bulb, so that was easily fixed.
• Next I tested the parking brake light. Once I realized I forgot to plug the wire into the switch down by the parking brake pedal, and plugged it in, it worked fine.
• Turn signals were next. Only the rear ones are installed right now, and the both seem to work fine normally, and with headlights, or brake lights, or both on.
• Brake lights were stuck on, so I adjusted the switch a bit, and they work fine.
• I checked the high beam indicator, and it didn't seem to work, but I had forgotten to hook up the floor dimmer switch. Plugged that in and it worked.
• Next was the "Front Axle Engaged" light. I shifted into 4lo, and nothing. Then I looked down, and realized I hadn't grounded the two ground loops in the wiring harness right by the shifter. I applied a little conductive grease, and bolted them to an unused hole in a bracket sticking off the transmission. Then the "Front Axle Engaged" indicator light up. This is the first time I've ever seen one work. However, even when I shifted the xfer case back into Neutral, or 2wd, the light stayed on. I pulled the connector off the xfer case, and the light went out. I didn't have my multi-meter handy, so I'll test/fix that later.
• Next I wanted to determine if the oil and temperature gauges were going to work. To test them I tried grounding the leads that go to each sensor. I got no response. I'll diagnose this once I get the engine running.
• I couldn't check the ammeter or the fuel gauge easily, so they will have to wait.
• Next I started working on the rubber strip that goes between the windshield (WS) frame and the body. This strip goes in front of the dash (on the engine side), across the full width of the vehicle, and has about 15 little plastic pins sticking out of it. These pins stick into holes in the body and hold the rubber weather stripping in place. The holes for the pins aren't pre-drilled in the fiber glass body, so I line up the weather stripping, marked the holes, and started drilling. I will have to get some weather stripping adhesive before I can put this in permanently. Then the WS frame can go in.

4/15/97 - Installed distributor, hooked up battery.

• We needed to ensure everything was lined up correctly to install the distributor, so we needed to turn the engine with the starter. But first we filled it up with oil, and Al put the blade of a flathead screw driver in a drill. The blade was then stuck into the slot at the bottom of the distributor hole. He used the drill to prime the oil pump, and pump oil through out the engine while I hung out underneath looking for leaks. The first one was found when oil shot out of the engine all over the headers. I quickly realized I hadn't put the oil pressure sending unit back (and there appears to be plenty of pressure). Once that hole was plugged, we kept going. There was a small leak around the oil pump, but I just snugged up the bolts, and the leak disappeared. Once we were sure the whole thing was primed, we moved on.
• Next, we put in a battery. As I hooked up the second wire, I saw a small spark, meaning something was drawing current. So I hooked it up, and looked at the dash. The flashers were on, and the brake lights. I turned the flashers off, and had to adjust the bake light switch.
• Then we tried the starter. Turned the key. Nothing. We pulled on the shift cable (the shifter isn't in yet), to make sure it was in park. Still nothing. With a test light, we began to check for current at the starter. The started was getting current, but the engine wasn't grounded. I haven't installed a ground strap between the engine and the frame yet. As a temporary solution, we used some jumper cabled to ground the engine to the frame (which is grounded). Another try, and viola! The starter turned! Al put his finger over the #1 spark plug hole, as I turned the starter. As soon as the pressure leaked from under his finger from the hole, I let the starter stop. Then I used the starter to turn the engine slightly, as he watched the distributor rotor turn, until it was lined up perfectly with a mark on it.
• Then he finished installing the distributor, and I ran the wires for it. I'm trying to conceal as many wires as possible to make it neat looking, so I ran the distributor wire through the valley under the intake manifold (they're wrapped in heat-proof wire loom).

4/14/97 - Picked up new windshield

• I took a week, but they finally finished my windshield. I had a new one cut using the old one as a template, and I had it installed in the windshield frame. The total cost was about $160, $110 for the glass and labor, $50 for the gasket from Giddum' Up Scout.

4/12/97 - Worked on electrical system

• I installed the alternator.
• I ran the wire from the alternator to the battery, concealing it down around the edge of the oil pan.
• I anchored the ground cable coming from the dash to one of the bolts holding the driver's side engine mount to the frame. I anchored the ground wire from the battery to the other frame bolt on the same engine mount.
• I installed a new battery tray by bolting it to the little shelf on the driver's side inner fender.

4/11/97 - Dropped off door inserts and windshield gasket.

• I dropped off the door inserts at the Rhino place. They will spray it next time they are shooting black Rhino stuff (hopefully in the next week, or so).
• I also dropped off the windshield gasket and frame at the auto-glass place. They still haven't gotten around to cutting my new windshield (gave me some crap about being busy, and just getting the glass) even though they promised to have it done Monday or Tuesday. They said the whole thing will be done Monday...

4/10/97 - Sanded door inserts

• I'm going to Rhino the inside piece of the door inserts, as well as the "sill" (the part where people might step) of the outside piece. And the Rhino stuff sticks better if the gelcoat is roughed up (or removed), so I took a sander to these parts.

4/7/97 - Got parts

• Today I received the door inserts and tailgate pins from Kentrol. And I got the windshield gasket from Giddum' Up Scout.
• The auto glass place where I took the windshield hasn't gotten around to cutting mine yet, hopefully in the next day or two...
• And I need to make arrangements to deal with the door inserts. I want to paint the outer half with the same paint I had used on the body. Unfortunately I no longer have access to spray equipment, so I'll probably ask the guys at the body shop next door (to the shop I'm working in) to paint them for me. The inner half in going to be RhinoLined, like the rest of the interior.

4/5/97 - Parking brake, brakes, inner and outer fenders.

• I connected parking brake cable by drilling a hole in the floor, by the headlight high-beam switch. I ran the parking brake cable through the hole, and connected it to the foot pedal. I also got a replacement switch for the parking brake warning light, and installed that. Then I adjusted the parking brake cable.
• I replaced the wire loom on the wires to the windshield washer pump (I added a ground wire), and on the wires going to the distributor.
• I ran all new brake lines (a while ago) but had some trouble finding adapters to make the 3/16" and 1/4" brake line fittings screw into the brake block. I finally found some today. I had to put the final bend in the line from the rear now that I can line everything up. I still need to bend the lines from the brake block to the master cylinder, as they are a little long.
• While I can't mount them yet because I don't have the windshield frame ready, I began working on the fenders today. The inner fenders mount to tabs sticking out of the firewall, and rest on frame body mounts in the front. The inner fender must be trimmed so the front edge is 35" from the back edge of the front lip of the cowl. So I trimmed quite a bit from the back edges of both inner fenders. This is a lot of trial and error. You've got to put the inner fender in place, make sure its in the correct position left-to-right, then measure from the front edge back. If its greater than 35", you find out where its hitting the firewall, mark that spot, take the fender off, trim it, and start again. This took a couple of hours to get both sides done.
• Once the inner fenders fit correctly (I still haven't bolted them in place), I started on the outer fenders. I haven't bolted anything in place because I'm not quite done w/ the engine, and its easier w/o the fenders in the way. The outer fenders needed a little trimming up front, where they meet the front edge of the inner fenders. There is also a tab that sticks out (forward) from the body that prevented the bottom of the outer fenders from going in (towards the engine) far enough. I trimmed these as well.
• Again, getting the fenders to fit correctly took a lot of time, trail-and-error. The passenger's side now fits perfectly (or pretty close). On the driver's side, most of it fits well, but you can still see the bottom edge of the inner fender in the wheel well. This might be fixed once I get a few bolts in place...

4/4/97 - Dropped original windshield off to have a new one cut, and ordered windshield weather-stripping.

• I took the old windshield to a local auto glass place. They said they could cut me another for less than $100. The original is in one piece, but has some serious scratches, and pitting.
• I also ordered the weather-stripping that goes around the windshield from Giddum' Up Scout. It was almost $50! A little more than I was expecting.

4/3/97 - Ordered more stuff from Kentrol

• Ordered a new set of door inserts for $275, and some pins for the rear tailgate, $45 (plus $14.21 shipping). All in stock, should be here soon.
• The original door inserts are in really rough shape, I thought I could save them, but they are beyond hope. And the original tailgate pins don't fit in the tailgate they sent. (They claim IH made two sizes, and they use the smaller, but no one else seems to know about this...).

3/29/97, 3/30/97 - Windshield frame, and headlight wiring harness

• After spending many hours examining exactly how the windshield (WS) frame fit on the body, and how the outer fenders fit in relation to the WS frame, I figured out that the WS frame would not fit on without more modifications. The problem is documented below, but to summarize, if the WS frame is not mounted back far enough, the outer fenders will not go on. There is very little play in the WS frame mounting bracket. I eventually realized the only way I was going to get enough play in the bracket was to slot the holes in the steel bracket. The steel is pretty thick, but with the help of some sharp drill bits, and a cutting wheel, I managed to make slots twice the length of the original holes.
• This little modification did the trick. I now have plenty of negotiating room to get the WS frame to correctly align with the outer fenders. I also had to grind down the rear, outer edges of the fiberglass lip on the left and right sides, behind the dash. The WS frame was leaning on these once moved back, and its supposed to be supported by the adjustment bolt that screws into the WS frame behind the mounting bracket.
• The next step is to get the glass put in.
• I also spent some time this weekend reconditioning the headlight wiring harness. I removed all the electrical tape, inspected all the wire, and cleaned all the connectors. I also added three 14 gauge wires from the firewall to the driver's side headlight connector area, and another three from that point to the passenger's side headlight area (basically following the harness). When and if I get around to upgrading the headlights, it will be convenient to have these heavier wires already in place. With the new wires in place, I re-wrapped the harness with fresh tape.

3/26/97, 3/27/97 - Bought some paint and an alternator, working on windshield frame, taillights. Al: put in carb.

• Eventually I need to paint the smaller dash panel, and touch up some other spots, so I picked up another quart of body paint. I also got a new alternator with a slightly smaller pulley, for higher output at idle.
• I finally got around to putting the taillights in. I had to pick up some stainless steel screws...
• I decided to get the windshield frame set up before putting the glass in. Once I'm sure it will go in, and line up correctly, I'll take the frame and glass to a auto-glass place and get them to put it in. (I've read a bunch on how to put the glass in yourself, but it sounds like if you do it just wrong you can crack the glass pretty easily.)
• The windshield frame attaches to the body with a bracket ( click here for details). I decided to replace all the bolts here. The ones that hold the bracket to the WS frame are 5/16-18 and 3/4" long. There are four per side. The bolts to hold the bracket to the body are 3/8-16 and 1.25" long. I also got new bolts to mount the wiper motor (5/16-18 1"). Getting the windshield frame in exactly the right place is going to be tough. Centering left to right should be pretty easy. The tough part is getting it in the right position front-to-back. The holes in the bottom of the windshield frame are slotted so the frame can be moved relative to the bracket (which is bolted to the body). The difficult part is that you can't put it in the right place, then tighten the bolts because with the windshield frame in place, you can get to the bolts in the slotted holes. You have to eyeball it, tighten the bolts (attaching the bracket to the WS frame), then put the whole thing (WS frame and brackets) on the body.
• To determine how far back the windshield frame must go, I put it roughly in place, then grab one of the outer fenders, and try to put it in place. The outer fender has "tabs" on it which go behind the door post, but there's also part of the outer fender which goes in front of the WS frame. This is around the top of the fender, at the corner of the WS frame. The WS frame must be back far enough to let the fender fit in front of it here, and let the fender tabs reach behind the door post. I've discovered the WS frame height adjustment bolt also effects how far forward the front edge of the frame comes.
• I played with this for a while, and still haven't gotten the frame back as far as it needs to be, but its close. I think I need to enlarge the slots in the WS frame (the ones the bracket bolts into) so I can slide the frame back relative tot he bracket (and therefore, relative to the body).
• I also started playing with the inner fenders. It looks like quite a bit of trimming may be needed to make these fit correctly. (The directions mention that this may be needed.) According to the directions, the distance between the front edge of the inner fender and the back edge of the front lip of the cowl should be exactly 35". Without trimming, the passenger's side inner fender comes out to about 36", and the driver's side is about 35.5".
• Al has the carb bolting in place, but the throttle cable, transmission linkage, and fuel line are not hooked up yet.

3/22/97, 3/23/97 - Original IH radio, speedometer cable and lens. Al: Fuel pump, intake manifold, distributor

• A while back, I found a '79 Scout II in a junkyard, and cleaned it out. One of the things I grabbed was an original AM/FM radio, still with an IH sticker on the case. I decided to put that in the dash, and maybe I'd add another somewhere else, if I ever got around to it. The hook up for this is really simple, one power wire, its grounded through the case, and I'm only putting in one speaker (its not stereo anyway) in the spot in the dash.
• The stock speaker mounting spot in the dash takes a 4x6 speaker, but make sure its one of those designed to fit "any application", in other words, make sure it has a variety of mounting holes to choose from.
• I also grabbed the speedo and all the other gauges from the junkyard Scout, as they were in slightly better shape than mine. The lens on the front of the speedo was scratched, so I made another by tracing the original onto a piece of plexiglass, and cutting it out with the dremel tool. The plexiglass comes with a thin plastic film on each side. I removed the film from the back, and put the glass in, but left the front, until the dash is completely together.
• To install the speedo, I had to cut a hole in the firewall for the speedo cable. I cut this directly behind the speedo, to avoid unnecessary bends in the cable.
• Al, the mechanic helping me out, has also been busy. He cleaned, painted, and installed the intake manifold. IH red, of course.
• He also cleaned, painted (black) and installed the fuel pump, and cleaned up the distributor.

3/19/97 - Engine wiring, mounted "gold box", starter relay, grounded dash harness, connected ground wires to gold box

• I mounted the "gold box" (electronic ignition module) in more-or-less the stock position on the fire wall. A few 1/4" bolts did the trick. This box needs to be grounded, so I put together a simple ground strap anchored around the bolt (using a loop connector) in the mounting hole that has the ground wire coming from the guts of the module.
• While I was there, I also decided to see what I could do to clean up some of the wiring nest. The rear wiring harness had two long ground wires coming out of it which I added (one provides ground for the rear, one provides ground for the wipers), and the portion of the engine harness that goes down to the tranny (to support the reverse/parking switch, 4WD indicator, and shifter light) had one also. I added loop connectors to the end of these, and terminated them on the same mounting bolt.
• I also tacked the rear wiring harness and starting wire against the firewall using wire clips. And the alternator wires originally wire in the same wire loom that held the wires to the coil. I split these into a separate loom so the alternator wires could be run in a more out-of-the way place, while the coil wires still run over the top of the engine.
• While I was grounding things, I took another look under the dash. I found that I had not grounded the starter relay or the dash wiring harness it self yet. The starter relay has two holes in it which seem to have the same spacing as two holes on the brake pedal assembly, right over the fuse box. I don't remember if this is where it is supposed to go, but that's where I put it.
• There is also a ground wire for the dash harness, I think they are numbered '16', but I'm not sure. I grounded these to one of the mounting posts for the radio in-dash speaker.
• While I didn't connect them all, I also ran most of the wires in the engine wiring harness to their destinations. While the wiring isn't too complex, the labels I put on the wires when I removed the harness, and the factory service manual helped a lot.

3/13/97 - "New" marker lights? Gas pedal in. Replaced transmission reverse/parking switch.

• I've emailed with someone who is parting out a Scout, and may be getting some "new" marker/running lights. The lenses on the ones I have are in rough shape. So I will put off installing these for a while...
• I put the gas pedal in. Very easy. There's a slip ring that goes in a groove on the little shaft the pedal pivots on. Remove that ring, put the pedal in place, then replace the ring. The throttle cable comes through the firewall at the top of the pedal. The cable has a little mounting bracket that bolts through the firewall to hold it in place. Inside, the cable goes through the top of the pedal, and is held in place with a small hard plastic grommet.
• At one point or another, the pins on the reverse/parking switch got bent. An attempt to straighten them caused them to snap off instantly. It turns out this switch is a common part, so I replaced it. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the tranny still had quite a bit of fluid left in it. The switch just screws in on the driver's side of the tranny.
• After the switch was replaced, I connected the wires to it, and the xfer case (for the 4WD indicator light). The plugs on these wires look the same, so, for reference, the 4WD plug only has 2 wires going in to it, while the tranny reverse/parking switch has 3.

3/7/97 - Hooked up steering column wiring, started engine harness wiring

• I put the dash in a while ago, but never got around to hooking up all the wires. There are two plugs from the dash harness that plug into the steering wheel column, I cleaned, greased, and connected them. I also found a heavy insulated black ground strap with two finished ends to use in grounding the dash. On end is attached to one of the heavy screws in the dash frame right near the fuse box, and the other end is in the engine compartment.
• I also started hooking up the engine harness. I cleaned and greased the firewall connectors for the rear wiring harness, and the engine wiring harness, and plugged these in.
• I drilled holes in the firewall for the heater fan wires, and the blue starter wire, and ran these through.

3/3/97 - Engine painted, engine tranny and headers in.

• I've been on vacation and sick for the last few weeks, but Al (the mechanic helping me out) has been busy. The engine has been painted (IH red, of course), and bolted to the transmission. The two have been placed back on the frame. The exhaust pipes have been cut, and the headers have been bolted to the block.
• Also, the steering pump is in.
• I haven't spoken to Al yet, so I don't have many details, but it looks great. Here are some of the pics I took.

2/8-9/97 - Rear wiring harness, and dash

• Saturday I finished the wiring in the rear. I plugged the modified tail-light wires I made up, the marker lights, and the fuel sending unit into the rear wiring harness.
• Note: The connectors on the back ends (driver's and passenger's side) of the rear harness have 5 "plugs" in them, but only 3 wires. It is shaped like this: (the black ones are female, the gray one is male). The top two "plugs" are for the brake light and reverse light (I forget which is which), and at the rear of the connector, you can see the wires going in). But at the back of the bottom three plugs, you see only one wire going into the center plug. However, all three are "live", and connected to that wire. That wire is power for the taillights (the one that comes on when you put your "parking" lights on), the marker lights, and the license plate light. You will have one empty plug on one side, depending upon which side you plug the license plate light into.
• On the passengers side, there are also three other connectors, two female, and one male. One of the female connectors is for the fuel sending unit. The other two connectors are for the rear dome light circuit. I didn't have a rear dome light originally (since it had no hard top from the factory), but I plan to put a light in the wall of the bed. If you don't have a rear dome light (e.g. if you have an SSII), DO NOT plug these two together, as you will blow the fuse. (Yes, when I first got the truck, I saw these two, one male, one female, hanging side by side, and assumed they should be connected).
• After connecting everything, I needed to tack all the loose wires in place. With simple metal wire clips (a short band of metal with a hole at each end, bent around a bunch of wires so the holes line up, then put a screw through the holes) from the local parts store, I held the wires to the body.
• With the back end complete (wiring, brakes, fuel lines, etc.), I started to move forward. Al has the engine and tranny painted (engine is IH red, tranny is silver), and bolted together. Hopefully he'll get them in this week. I'm now working on the "interior", specifically, the dash and gauges. I've swapped the gauges for some slightly newer ones I picked out of a junkyard. (For the record, swapping the speedo shaved 500 miles off.) I need to cut some new plexiglass for these.

2/3/97 - New Pics

• Messed up my back and couldn't do any real work this weekend, so I snapped some pics of the engine. you can see some of the masking tape, as its about to be painted....

1/25/97 - Worked on taillights and rear marker light wiring

• Finished up conversion to newer style (all plastic) taillights. All connections were waterproofed by first coating all bare wire in conductive "grease", all connections were made suing insulated crimp-on butt connectors, and the ends of the butt connectors were filled with flexible epoxy.
• Also added new ground connectors on rear marker lights.

1/21/97 - Blasted valve covers.

• I wasn't happy with the job the chemical paint stripper did on the valve covers, so I decided to sandblast them. I used low pressure (~40-80psi) to avoid pitting the metal.
• I also found replacement sockets for the reverse lights, part # S67.

1/18/97 - Finished up fuel lines, rear wiring harness, stripped valve covers. Al put the new lifters in, oil pump, and water pump. Also worked on firewall connectors..

• When I was last working on the fuel lines and the rear wiring harness, I was attaching them to the frame and body (respectively) and ran out of the rubber encased metal clips I was using. So today I picked up some more and finished the job. The fuel line is now complete, and the rear wiring harness is in place. I still need to install and plug in the taillights, and the marker lights.
• During the week Al (the mechanic who owns the shop I'm working in) put in the new lifters, the water pump, and the oil pump. He's now waiting for me to clean up the valve covers and intake manifold so he can paint the engine IHC red. He also cleaned up, and painted the transmission and xfer case.
• Trying to avoid using the sand blaster in the bitter cold (about 12F this weekend), I tried some paint stripper on the valve covers. While it works pretty well, they really need to be cleaner. I'm either gonna have to sand-blast them (with very fine sand, so as not to damage them), or take some steel wool to them.
• I also worked on two of the firewall electrical connectors. The ones on the passenger side which connect to the rear wiring harness, and the engine harness (the one on the driver's side connects to the headlight harness). I had to enlarge the holes in the firewall to allow the male connectors from the inside to fit through. The male connectors have little "fins" on them which stick out when the female connector is plugged in. These fins keep the connector from sliding back through the hole in the firewall. Also (I wish I had know this earlier), the female side of the connector has little "teeth" which click into holes in the male side to hold it in place. If you ever go to disconnect one of these, squeeze the sides of the rubber boot on the connector on the engine side of the firewall (this is the female part) to dis-engage these teeth.
• The holes in the firewall need to be 21mm high by 33mm wide for these connectors. Any larger, and they will fall back into the dash, any smaller and they won't fit through.
• And if you're converting to a fiberglass body, you need to trim the "feet" on the connectors from the dashboard side (the male plugs). These feet keep the connector from falling through the hole into the engine compartment. However, the are designed for the metal firewall, which is considerably thinner than the fiberglass version. Just trim a little off each side until the plug goes through far enough for the little fins to catch on the other side of the firewall, and hold it in place.
• I cleaned the female connectors with a small drill bit (I'd already done the male side when I cleaned the dash harness) and I also greased these connectors.

1/4/97 - Finally got the engine back from rebuild shop, swapped tail-lights, worked on getting taillights to fit (again), "greased" rear wiring harness connectors

• The engine is back!! It looks great, and the guy did a real nice job. He did leave a bit undone though. The new lifters were still in the original box. And the water and oil pumps were not on. Not a big deal.
• I didn't poke at it too much, but I cold see the shine off the pistons through the spark plug holes. I'll try to get some pics up soon...
• I greased the all the connections at the rear end of the rear wiring harness. This includes the two connections at the fuel tank, the other end of those wires which plug into the harness near the passenger's side taillight, the taillight connectors, the rear marker light connectors, the license plate light connector, and the rear dome connector. With the exception of the fuel sending unit wires, none of these are connected yet, but I wanted to do them while I remembered...
• The original taillights were the older style which is made up of a metal cup which screws to the body and holds the bulbs, and a plastic lens which screws into it. They're in decent shape, but not perfect. The '79 Scout that I put a plow on and gave to my folks has the newer style, one all plastic piece with the new style bulb holders that "screw" in to holes in the one piece taillight. Being all plastic, these are in much better shape, so I swapped. The unfortunate part is that while they are exactly the same shape, the wires aren't easily swap-able. The bulb sockets on the older style are permanently attached to the metal cup, and the wires from the bulb sockets are also permanently attached. They (the wires) are about 2 feet long, and terminate in some plugs which plug into the rear wiring harness. To make the swap, I cut the wires coming from the older, metal taillights about 6" from the bulb socket, and splices them into the other Scout. The sockets that screw into the all-plastic taillights are standard, so I just picked up some new ones (for about $2.50/ea) at the local parts store. Once I can figure out which wire is which, I will splice these new sockets onto what's left of the ~2 foot lead that used to come from the older taillights. This will let me just plug the new sockets into the wiring harness.
• While the newer plastic taillights fit into the body a little better than the others, they still weren't to my liking, so using the dremel tool, I worked on the holes in the body which hold the taillights once again. They're still not perfect, but they look pretty good.

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