[ihc] Starter in 75 Travelall -done Sunday

[Joel M Brodsky <jmbrodsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Binders,
      This weekend I managed to get the starter out of the '75 Travelall.
The trick?  Remove one of the bolts for the AC compressor bracket, put a
longer bolt in with a chain connected.  Put the chain on the engine hoist,
remove nuts from the passenger motor mount, and lift engine about 3".  The
truck raised up significantly too, but it gave me enough room to move the
box end wrench 1/2 of one of the 12-points and then put another wrench on
that has the 12-point staggered by 1/2 point, so it only took me 24 wrench
changes per revolution of the bolt.  About three revolutions later I could
crane my hand in there to remove the bolt.  When I put the old starter from
the truck back in, I was tightening the nut for the high current lead, and
the rear cap of the solenoid broke.  Ummm, yeah.  repeat.  Remove starter,
then I rebuilt one with 5 cores I had lying around, and I put it back into
the truck.  Now I have all these other parts and I'm going to rebuild a
couple more in conjunction with take the 'new' starter back to AutoBone and
get a refund of the $50 plus the core charge.

      So, the old 'rebuilt' starter is back in the truck it starts fine,
but doesn't pull fuel (I think it's because the gaskets in the mechanical
fuel switching box are bad).  It acted like it was only pulling air, and I
was able to drain about 10 gallons out of the passenger tank via the
fitting INTO the switching box, so I know there was gas in there.  Now I
think I might have to go with the electrical switching solenoid for the
fuel tanks, and then see if I can break in the cam on the new engine.  Oh
yeah, I haven't even begun to deal with the leaking passenger side valve
cover.  Not looking forward to THAT at all.  Seems like I had to take half
the truck out of there to get to it last time, A/C, alt, heater core,
hoses, battery, wires, belts, etc. etc.

does it ever stop?  here I'm trying to put some money into these things to
limit failures, and I'm getting further from my goal as the trucks each go
'down' from their running condition.  Nice huh?

Just thought that I'd tell y'all that I finally got the starter out.  I
think a well placed crowbar with the motor mount loose, might do the trick
on the road.  Either that or jack up the truck and let it down on a stack
of wooden blocks under the engine somewhere to tilt it up.

-JoelB