Trip Report

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

OK, so it's not the drawn out full length trip report like I want to post to
my website (after RMIHR, NWBRU, blah blah gets done) but...

Came home from Missoula Saturday night.. read some email, did some other
stuff, caught some Zs (tho' Fleck called me around 12:30 or so...)

Up early Sunday morning, grab the tweaked axle shaft, toss it in the back,
and all I had lying around was a rear driveshaft from an auto equipped Scout
II... better n' nothing, so it got tossed in as well (BTW, can someone
re-explain the difference between the rear driveshaft on a 727 equipped
Scout II and one on a 3spd/4spd Scout?... ).

During the 90 mile drive to Norris, MT (near Ennis, south of ThreeForks,
South-west of Bozeman), I managed to foul #6 spark plug again... but on the
fun side, we (myself and my friend Mike in his '74 Bronco) had the chance to
drive through a herd of cattle being driven down the highway.. and here I
thought at first it was that Bronco in front of me leaving little droppings...

Changed the plug out while filling the gas tank in Norris, waiting for some
of the Bozeman wheelers to show up (this trip was a "scouting" trip to find
trails for our "Divide Ride '99" jamboree for this summer).

A quick jaunt to the trail head, and over one more hill, and I fouled the
plug *again*.  First stop for air-down/lock-up, I changed the plug out.
Scout ran like crap the first half of the day... under load, the exhaust was
very staccato, very sharp, and underpowered... also, any sort of incline
would cause it to load up and eventually stall... or I woudl stop, rev it,
let the clutch out... gee, kinda like when I ran the 4cyl...

Adjusting the float down a good bit (center hung, rear) fixed most of the
tilting bog... but it wasn't until around 2pm when I cleaned the #5 plug as
well, did the 304 start running strong again, and performing like it should.
I guess I'm still fouling those two plugs... both cold fouled with black
carbon on 'em... other plugs were proper coloring.

I was next to last in the pack most of the day, so I didn't get to bust the
4' snow drifts or anything... though I did take an offshoot trail with
another friend in an early Bronco (actually, a former Scout driver... he's
the person that donated his old racer to me)... I let Blair (EBronco) go
first, with his open/open 31s, so that I was behind him to yank 'im out
after he got sideways.

While busting snow, one of the better built Jeeps in the group blew a front
axle shaft U-joint... guess those brand new 35s and that Dana 30 don't get
along too well... particularly when you throw a 350 in the mix. :-)  At
lunch, Erik was caught asking for a tape measure, to measure my spring perch
width to see how easy it'd be to slap some Scout axles under the Cheep.

We finally found a "Primitive Road - not maintained for public use" to
explore... which then forked off in two trails.  I led one group (Scout
leads the way) with Blair's Bronco and Erik's 2wd Jeep behind me... just as
we finished exploring our offshoot, Blair put a tree branch through his
radiator... 

Patch that up, and it was time to head home... stopped at the gas station in
Norris - no air.... so we had two ARB compressors running for a while, and I
had a little 12V Campbell Hausfield compressor that was given to me... oh
how I should've finished hooking the York on-board air back up!

Aside from fouled plugs, lots of gas, and a motor that wasn't behaving...
the only damage I incurred was a slow leak in the driver's front tire I need
to look at tonight... might just be the valve stem, might not... I'm due for
a rotation.. and maybe some roadhazarding anyhow...

I'm looking out my window at the Scout... and there's mud on the rocker
area... but the funny thing... it runs almost perfectly along it... that is,
it reaches the same height, almost making a perfect horizontal line, the
entire way back from the front tires to the tailgate.  It looks to be just a
little higher than the factory side moldings on my '72.  IMO, I think it
looks good that way. :-)

I guess I'm fixing my on-board air tonight and locating a longer fan
spacer.. I'm tired of being compressor-less.  Also need to break out the
welder and start practicing more... I need a big-game downing, air-holding,
front bumper...

oh, we climbed to a mere 10,100 feet yesterday... most of our trails don't
reach into 14,000, or 15, or 17k like the Denver area.  ;)

Oh, took a co-worker's 17yr old son with me for his first real wheelin'
trip... as I stop in the middle of a snowy/icy hill climb, pause, then take
off from a dead stop (locker & tracklok... heh), climbing over large rocks,
through big dips, over fallen trees.... Ben comments, "Y'know... if you had
told me that cars can go up and through stuff like this, I would've told you
you were insane and there's no way".... I commented that, "cars *can't* get
here" and he then chimed in, "Yeah, anything less is just a car"... I'm
starting him early... he still wants a '72 K-Blazer, but maybe I can
convince him out of that... after all, a Scout isn't all that unlike a
K-Blazer.. just not a Chevy, and a bit smaller for navigating those tight
trails...

Fun fun!

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'72 and '77 Scout IIs