IH 1969 Loadstar 1700 Shop Truck Build

[AirheadNut]

Tried to drive the truck 5 miles to town yesterday and ended up having the rear axle fuse blow at an intersection leaving the axle in neutral. Then the engine died and wouldn't restart and the hazards quit working. Fortunately my landlord was able to flat tow me back, though working the brakes was a little sketchy without any vacuum assist.

Today I decided it was past time to fix some of the issues this truck has. I started by pulling the carburetor off so I can do the rebuild I have been putting off for 4 months. Next up on the agenda is to track down a wiring diagram so I can figure out why the electrical system keeps quitting and popping fuses randomly.

 

[AirheadNut]

Drilled and painted the last parts of my generator mount this afternoon, then pulled the generator out of the truck and put it on a pallet in preparation for installing it (finally!). Really nice to have that extra space freed up.

Also utilized the little crane to take my rooftop tent off the Prado. Actually worked better than I expected, though I definitely need to brace it better to take that kind of load.

 

[AirheadNut]

Got the carburetor all torn down, then sent all the parts through an ultrasonic cleaner.

Put it all back together this afternoon and then found I didn't have a new gasket to go between the carb base plate and intake manifold, so installation is on hold until that arrives.

 

[AirheadNut]

Finally got my generator mounted, had to modify the frame I made since it overlapped the opening to remove the oil filter. Now it just needs battery cables, fuel line and filter, and the power cable run into the box and wired in to a breaker panel.

 

[AirheadNut]

Scavenged some OSB and dimensional lumber from some equipment shipping crates at work, should work to make some storage shelves in the box truck.

 

[AirheadNut]

Sunny and 71ºF today, so I figured it was a good time to finish getting the carburetor installed. Got the base plate gasket installed but had to buy longer bolts since it is significantly thicker than the one that was on there before. Hooked up the throttle and choke cables, the fuel line and the vacuum hose for the distributor advance. When I turned on the fuel pump to fill the float bowl gas started pouring out a little nipple on the bottom of the carburetor; I had forgotten to replace the cap that plugged it. The battery was dead so I pulled it out and put it on charge.

While the battery was charging I shifted to doing a service on the generator. First thing was an oil change, I was able to get the correct filter at my local auto parts store. I don't have spark plugs or an air filter for it yet, but those are next on the list.

As part of running a fuel line to the generator I changed the fuel filter for the truck and added a second filter in the line to the generator. The filter was past due for replacement, fine rust particles from the fuel tank had pretty much clogged it up:

With the battery charged and the fuel system buttoned back up I turned the key and the trusty 345 fired right up! It seems to run a bit better and idles very nicely without the choke now. Once I track down the electrical issues that keep blowing fuses and rebuild a leaky brake cylinder I will take it for a test drive and see if it runs better under load.

 

[Mike NXP]

Holy hell. Why is it that the deeper I go into Mud the more shenanigans @AirheadNut seems to be getting in to lol

Today I came into these forums looking to lean about old Scouts, and I think i just saw a commercial for a new Scout ?? But anyway then I saw this thread

Great to see folks out there willing to gamble on old vehicles , break down several times while driving home , and be seemingly unphased and ready to push on.

Have fun out there

 

[AirheadNut]

Sometimes I wonder why I get into all these shenanigans! Haven't really driven the truck much since I got it home this spring, it is running better with a rebuilt carb now but having the rear axle randomly shift into neutral and then pop the fuse isn't fun in traffic!

Scouts are awesome, when I was a kid we had a 1978 Scout II with a 304/4-speed. It was pretty cool but got very rusty being used in NW Montana winters. VW purchased the Scout trademark, there have been rumors of a new "Scout" being released for several years now but they officially announced it a couple of days back.

 

[Mike NXP]

Well it's like I always tell my wife, worst case we park it in the yard and call it a shed....But to actually plan a vehicle purchase around the concept of making it a semi-mobile shop, now you're thinking.

That old drill press you mounted is pretty classy too..Cool stuff , hope you enjoy it.

Yeah I want to do some more research on all things Scout. I think the new one is full electric, or maybe electric with generator on board. Not sure, need to do some more research one day.

 

[AirheadNut]

Pulled the spark plugs on the generator this afternoon, they were pretty grubby but cleaned up decently well with a wire brush:

Put everything back together with some dielectric grease in the spark plug boots and tried to start the generator; it will fire on a bit of starting fluid but won't run on its own. Fuel is getting to the carburetor, but I think it is probably all gummed up with old, varnished gas. I pulled the carb off and rinsed out the float bowl with carb cleaner, but that didn't seem to help. I have a new carburetor on order but will try putting the old one through an ultrasonic cleaner to see if that helps.

 

[AirheadNut]

Carb parts in the ultrasonic cleaner with some degreaser:

All cleaned up and set out to dry. I had a chainsaw carb torn apart so I put that through at the same time.

I figured while everything was all apart I would test the fuel shutoff solenoid on the float bowl so I hooked it up to my power supply and nothing happened. With a pair of needle nose pliers I was able to gently wiggle the solenoid pin and a bit of nasty, dark water came out. I filled the little well with WD40 to chase out the water and worked the pin up and down a bunch, then sprayed it out with carb cleaner to get rid of the WD40. Gave it 12v again and the pin now retracts fully and springs back when the power is disconnected. Pretty sure that was the reason the generator wouldn't run without starting fluid: the float bowl was full but no fuel was getting to the jets.

 

[AirheadNut]

Slapped the carburetor back together and reinstalled it on the generator, after a few cranks it fired right up and ran quite nicely. Better yet it even makes power! Haven't tried running my welder on the 240v circuit yet but so far the 120v works great.

I have 50' of 1/2" split loom on the way so I can tidy up the battery cables for the generator.

 

[mrsleeve]

Airhead are you taking some inspiration from the welding guy on YT form UT that set up a mobile fab shop a couple years go? YT channel 6061.com

If your not, check out some of his videos from 3 years or so ago IIRC when he documented his mobile set up. I like the IH and the direction your going with this.

BTW hows your brother doing.

 

[AirheadNut]

I hadn't heard of that but will definitely look it up, sounds pretty cool!

My brother is doing great, keeping plenty busy. We just spent last weekend helping some friends with some dirt work: burying old buildings, building some road and moving log piles.

 

[AirheadNut]

Haven't had much time to do much with the Loadstar recently, but I did finally get the generator battery cables strung up into the engine bay and tidied up. One of the wheel cylinders in the left front brake gave out and puked brake fluid all down the tire, so the truck is immobile until I can get that fixed. New wheel cylinders aren't available any more, but according to my research Napa UP-149 wheel cylinder rebuild kit is a direct fit, so I'm hoping that just the seals gave out and the cylinder isn't pitted.

The truck engine starts and runs much nicer since the carburetor rebuild, but I still need to go through and check spark plugs, timing and points. It started right up at 25ºF after sitting for several weeks. Ironically the generator is much more cold blooded, I have to manually hold down the choke to get it to start in the cold.

I finally got around to building some storage shelves inside so I can get some semblance of organization going. The end of the shelf will get sheeted with OSB to add some rigidity and a spot to hang stuff. The shelf boards need to be trimmed down a bit so they can sit about an inch lower and provide a lip so the blue bins can't slide off when the truck is in motion. Larger tools like my welders and tubing bender will live under the shelf with tie down brackets mounted to the load rails.

There is still no heat source in the box yet, I've been debating which route to take with that and finally pulled the trigger on a 12v, 8kW output diesel air heater yesterday. Really looking forward to getting that installed for the winter months.

 

[AirheadNut]

Had some trouble with the generator not running at a consistent RPM and stuff not running right when plugged in to it. I started by checking output voltage, it varied between 85-100VAC. Something is definitely wrong there. Also found I am getting 0V between the two lines that should be at 240V, and the aforementioned 85-100V between each line and neutral.

Since this generator runs the motor at about 2500 rpm and uses a belt drive to spin the generator head at 3600 rpm, I wondered if the belt might be slipping. Output frequency at idle reads 59-62Hz, so that part of things is ok at least.

 

[AirheadNut]

Haven't done much to the truck recently, it has been pretty cold and snowy and I don't feel much like working on stuff outside. The generator issue has been narrowed down to a carburetor problem, I added a can of SeaFoam to the fuel but haven't run it since then (subzero temps every night make for a grumpy generator). I did get the chance to run it a couple of times about a week ago and found that when I first start it, voltage is good (124VAC) but the longer it runs the engine starts pulsing and voltage falls. If I plug in a sizable load (10-15A) the rpms stabilize and output frequency and voltage are perfect.

The lack of 240V is almost certainly due to the two hot lines being wired up for only 120V operation inside the generator; these units can be wired either way. Once the weather warms up some I'll have to tear into that.

I also bought a cheap Vevor diesel air heater for inside the truck box, just waiting on a stainless thru-hull fitting to run the exhaust out and I'll be able to hook it up. Having decent heat inside will make the shop portion far more useable during the winter months.

 

[AirheadNut]

Got the chance to rewire the generator for 240v output rather than 120v, according to the manual two of the stator wires had to be swapped. After getting everything put back together I fired up the generator and it promptly produced a huge cloud of white smoke, so I shut it off again. Pretty sure the smoke was coming from the generator head and not the engine, so it may have cooked something inside. No idea why, I double checked my connections with the diagram in the generator manual and they were all correct. Seriously thinking about getting a standard job site style generator and deleting the fuel tank so it fits in the same spot under the truck box. Really tired of the way this current generator is acting up.

 

[AirheadNut]

Gave up on my current generator and picked up a used 7500W unit instead. The extra 1000W will come in handy for running my welders that can draw as much as 25A at 240V. The old generator put out 27.5A, the new one does 30A.

Also scored another tool to put in the already full mini shop:

It’s a Di-Acro No.4 finger brake, 24” with a 16ga steel capacity. Really looking forward to knocking out some projects on this thing, but I need to figure out how to transfer it from the back of the LandCruiser to the box truck first. It weighs 300-350lbs!

 

[Mike NXP]

What is that for, bending metal?