Scout work..

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

Grrrr.. stupid Scout started acting up after work today... wouldn't stay 
running.. spitting.. *backfiring*.. and just being really obnoxious.. 
naturally, right in front of the office windows.. and i was leaving a 
little early to take a co-worker to the alignment shop to pick up his 
car.. 

I think it was eavesdropping on the phone... since I ordered a Pertronix 
and Accel coil from Summit today.. to replace the aftermarket magnetic 
pickup of unknown lineage and impossible to find rotor.. 

Oh.. and then mom calls me to tell me there's a '74 IH 3/4T 4x4 for sale 
in Great Falls for $400 obo.. I just happen to be heading that way this 
weekend.. maybe the Scout overheard me thinking, "Yeah.. get the pickup, 
and I don't have to worry about making the Scout run top-notch quite so 
badly"..

So instead of calling on the pickup, I tore right into the Scout after work..

I did the home-alignment trick.. toe-in was actually toe-out, by 1.25"!  
(on 33" tires)  I took a lot of it out.. at 10pm though, it was snowing 
pretty good, I was cold n' tired.. and I'm still toe-out by.. 1/4" wider 
up front than back?  Better.. 

Re-adjusted the timing.  Does the timing mark on the balancer stand still 
for anyone else when they put a timing light on it?  Is it my light or my 
eyes?  It's not that the mark *wanders*.. just it doesn't seem to stick 
out like I think it should... when the light flashes, it's not making the 
mark seem like it's sitting still.. makes it hard to figure out *where* 
it is.

Adjusted the acclerator pump and choke more, too.

The Acc is *better*, but still not "right"

What I did find, however.. if I go from idle to WOT, it only hesitates 
for just a second.. and then ROARS.

If I go from idle to half-throttle, it's a much worse hesitation.. even a 
stall.

I guess it's just telling me it wants to be driven hard.. none of this 
sissy, half-@$$ed (half-throttle) stuff... it's WOT or nothing. ;-)

The 304 was starting hard, which is what caused me to touch the timing 
two days ago...

To make it start, I crank the starter... it catches.. spins a sec.. 
dies.  Do this a few times.. put your foot to the floor, and maybe you'll 
get lucky.. it'll spin, catch... pause.. and catch again.. then you're 
good to go.

<scratching head>  Doesn't seem right to me... 

And at work today, it was spitting and backfiring when I did it... grrr..

I'm hoping installation of the Pertronix next week helps things out a 
bunch.. at lest it'll eliminate the aftermarket ignition setup as the 
culprit.

Oh.. measured dwell.. 26 degrees.. and it's the same when I rev it.. of 
course, this is the magnetic pickup setup still..

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'77 Scout II, '72 304A w/ aftermarket magnetic pickup that you can't find 
parts for