From: Kenny Reed (kreed@pintoeng.com)
Date: Thu Jul 14 2005 - 16:53:00 PDT
I had what you could call a bad weekend while out in my deuce. I got home
from my girlfriends house Saturday morning planning on taking the deuce to a
antique farm engine show. Flipped the switch, got the buzzer and tried to
hit the little red button for ignition. Nothing. I got maybe one piston to
TDC. So got the battery charger and let it charge for about 5 mins and
tried it again. This time we have ignition. Shut it off a few times just
to see battery charge level. no problems now. After getting fuel I stated
on the 3 hour trip and everything seems good. 10 mins down the road a cop
is sitting in the shoulder on the right with his right turn signal on.
Stopped. No big deal right? Wrong. Just as I was about to pass him he
sees the house number he is looking for and whips wide into the travel lane
and I have to slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid hitting him. I lay on
the air horn and I think his butt sucked up the seat. He followed me into
the parking lot nearby where I checked everything out. Not problems on my
part. He told me how sorry he was and that he was glad i was looking since
he didn't see me. I guess the od green blended with the country side. So I
proceed down the road glad that the brakes didn't let up. In about an hour
after cruising at 52mph. for about 15 mins i have to let off the go peddle
for a little traffic. The big problem starts here. I lift my foot off the
pedal and the engine accelerates. Scary huh?? I freaked a little at first
but then turned the main switch off and brought the truck to a stop my using
the eng stop. After a few choice 4 letter words I get under the hood to
diagnose the problem. while walking around the truck i notice the left turn
signal bulb burnt out too. It took a few mins to remember what i am looking
at as far as the injector pump goes but finally get it. The pin that holds
the pedal rod to the injector pump feel out or broke. since the arm was
open when the pin fell out it acted like a vaccum and ran wide open. I had
one extra bolt in the glove box that was supposed to be for the heater box.
perfect fit. A quick turn of the wrench and we are in business again. Once
back on route I start to pay real close attention to my gauges. the oil
pressure stopped working all together, temp reading near 240, amp way in the
red, and fuel bouncing all over the place. I figured that everything was ok
so i kept goin. I couldn't imagine that all that would go wrong right away.
I get to the show finally and have a really good time. when getting ready
to leave I flip the switch and get buzzer again. Good sign. I hit the
magic red button and we have ignition followed by a sweet whistle. A
bystander walks up and says that when i hit the starter button a big long
spark shot out the bottom of the truck. So while looking for the problem I
yanked the battery box out and grabbed the ground cable where it attaches to
the frame. Well what do you know. It is loose and rusty. I remove bolt
and clean the terminal as best as possible given the tools i had. Tightened
the bolt and tried it again. Success. Everything seems fine. The whole
trip home gauges worked flawlessly. I think i got everything worked out
now. So it turned out pretty good. Moral of the Story... Check battery
connections from time to time. and keep a close eye on all linkages and
pins that are needed to get home.
Kenny Reed
1968 M35A2 W/W, Whistler
Hopefully Ring Mount and .50 cal soon
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Oct 28 2005 - 23:22:17 PDT