Category Archives: Cars & Trucks

Spare tire of the Jeep

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Paul is very particular about the tires he puts on vehicles. They must be the right tire and they must look great. Including the spare which he had to track down out in Colorado.

While I could have lived with this tire as a spare, Paul insisted it get a fresh coat of paint and gave me the privilege of getting all the old paint off.

This involved a few hours with sandpaper and some time in the sandblasting box. A very wax on, wax off experience. This simple chore gave me an appreciation for the time and effort that goes into restoring an old vehicle even though that was never the plan for the Jeep.

When I went to pick up the tire after mounting and balancing, the young man asked for the key so he could drive the Jeep into one of the service bays.

“Might be best if I do that since the transmission is a little… wonky,” I said. “Oh, I think I can figure it out,” he replied.

When he finally did get the Jeep in gear (first instead of reverse) he almost drove into the front of his building. I drove the Jeep into the service bay. (On the topic of shifting gears, I’ve discovered the Jeep is happiest when I double-clutch between gears.)

Fast food run in the Jeep

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I’d love to know what the designers of the Jeep had in mind with the fold-down windscreen. Perhaps easier to carry more equipment or people?
Barb got her first ride in the Jeep today.

I’m still getting used to just how small the Jeep is.

And here’s the boy with his new toy, decked out in his anti-tick treated wood clearing outfit.

Jeep: First check-up

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Most people who buy or restore an old vehicle don’t plan on making it their “daily driver,” for a lot of practical reasons. Reliability, comfort, financial… just to name a few. But for the last few years I’ve driven the Land Rover or the pickup every day. Leaving a cherished vintage vehicle in the garage would be like having a good dog you never played with. So when I added the Jeep to my little fleet, I knew I wanted to drive it regularly so a trip to the mechanic was high on my list. Just to make it safe-ish to drive. After an agonizing six weeks I got the Jeep back this week.

  • Lube, Oil and Filter change
  • Replace front and rear differential oil
  • Replace steering bell crank
  • Replace drag link repair kit
  • Replace headlight switch
  • Replace brake light switch
  • Replace brake master cylinder
  • Adjust radiator fan
  • Reseal right rear wheel (losing air due to rust on bead)

The parking brake doesn’t work and the oil pan is leaking bit so we’re not quite finished but it’s about as good as we can make it for now.

AM radio is being removed from many cars

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Following are excerpts from a story in The Washington Post:

Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla and other automakers are eliminating AM radio from some new vehicles, stirring protests against the loss of a medium that has shaped American life for a century. […] Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.

Some station owners and advertisers contend that losing access to the car dashboard will indeed be a death blow to many of the nation’s 4,185 AM stations. […] From the 1950s into the 1970s, Top 40 hit music stations in many big cities maintained astonishing shares of the audience, with 50 percent and more of listeners tuned to a single station. […] Ford says its data, pulled from internet-connected vehicles, shows that less than 5 percent of in-car listening is to AM stations.

Of the $11 billion in advertising revenue that radio pulled in last year, about $2 billion came into AM stations, according to BIA Advisory Services, which conducts research for broadcasters.

Some of the best years of my life were spent in and around radio. But I haven’t listened in years. The Land Rover doesn’t have a radio and the pickup truck has one but it’s never worked.

It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that radio –in one form or another– paid for every stitch of clothing I ever wore and every bite of food I ate. But it changed and I changed. I suspect FM radio will disappear some day.

Chevrolet 3600 (Advanced Design)

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“The Advance-Design is a light and medium duty truck series by Chevrolet, their first major redesign after WWII. Its GMC counterpart was the GMC New Design. It was billed as a larger, stronger, and sleeker design in comparison to the earlier AK Series. First available on Saturday, June 28, 1947, these trucks were sold with various minor changes over the years until March 25, 1955.” (Wikipedia)

“Do you smell gasoline?”

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Gasoline has always been a bit of an issue with Minty Fresh (my 1977 Ford F-150). When I bought it (4 1/2 years ago) Paul warned me it drank a lot of gas but no more than you’d expect for a 40-year-old truck.

The gasoline smell reached a peak last summer when I noticed a stream pouring from the rear tank (the truck has two). Less smell after I had a new tank installed.

But it’s gotten stronger in recent weeks/months and I chalked it up to “old truck.” Oh yeah… and my gas consumption was worse than ever.

I mentioned this to Paul yesterday and he popped the hood to take a look. What we saw was a stream of gasoline coming from a carburetor hose down onto the manifold. Which gets very hot. Why I never had a fire is a nice mystery.
Paul replaced the ancient leaking hose in about five minutes (and adjusted the idle for good measure.)

“Your gas mileage will probably double,” Paul speculated.

High tech car theft: Relay attack

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A friend of mine had had his truck stolen recently while on a business trip to Dallas. He parked his truck in the parking area of the motel where he was staying. When he came out the next morning, his truck was gone. Obviously stolen. Here’s what the police told him probably happened.

One of the thieves stays close to the vehicle to be stolen with an electronic device that connects to the electronic ignition system. The other thief –armed with a different electronic gizmo– walks up and down the hallways of the hotel, sending out a signal that connects to the electronic key fob of the truck. A signal is then sent to the device in the parking lot, unlocking the truck and starting the ignition. It’s called a “relay attack” and here’s some video of a car being stolen from the owner’s driveway.

The key was probably on a table near the front door so the thief didn’t have to get any closer than the front porch.

My friend asked the investigating officer what could be done to prevent this kind of theft and was told his best bet was a Faraday pouch. Amazon has hundreds of them.