This was my mother and Jim's truck. She gave it to me when he passed away--she doesn't drive. Mine has a topper on the bed that matches the truck color. Very nice. It's the 4-cylinder, kind of underpowered but gets pretty good mileage and has hauled a lot of stuff for me. I've put front brakes in it a couple of times, and new rotors last time. Switched it to Mobil-One synthetic as soon as I got it and change it on the 10,000 mile mark.
Replaced the power-brake boot because it is in such a location as to get salt and water on it in the winter, so it rusted out.
ReplyDeleteI used the truck to take a trip to Canada in 1997, when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. I put booster springs on the leaf springs in back so that I could carry a slide in Skamper. Worked very well. Tucker and I also took the Skamper to Colorado elk hunting that next summer.
ReplyDeleteThe rear end was dripping oil on the driveway down in Pass Christian our last winter there. We had had a garage sale, packed everything we had there into the truck including some potted plants sitting on the tailgate, and tied on. Headed for WI. The rear end started making noises and I, ever ready to pay good tuition money to learn lessons that I should already know, ignored it, thinking I'd take a close look at it up north.
ReplyDeleteGot as far as central Illinois before the rear end went out. Cost about 700-bucks to have a guy put a junk one in, but it has worked a couple years now with no problems.
May 3, 2012 Replaced the windshield wiper blades, which were totally shot, with a pair I bought at Mendard's. The truck started right up after sitting at the end of the driveway all winter while we were gone to Florida. Just had to drive it in to Kwik Trip and fill the tires up to 35 lbs pressure each. Used it then to haul a load of mulch, and lawn stuff from a Menard's shopping trip. Only issue I can think of right off is that the brake light on the dash is permanently on. I think that is a sensor for the hand brake and probably is just crudded shut or shot altogether.
ReplyDeleteBeen noticing a little noise in 1st gear...sounds like the rear end. Took out the plug and added quite a bit of 80-weight oil today...we'll see if that takes care of it. The plug comes out with a snap-on drive.
ReplyDeleteWhile I had it parked in Madison, picking up a bed for Josie, a bread truck clipped the driver-side front end and scratched up the fender and plastic front piece. I would like to have overlooked it for the poor kid, but couldn't leave it that way. I'm sure he got a ticket, and the insurance from the bread co. is paying it all...no deductible for me. An agent came out and wrote me a check for 1200-bucks. I got an estimate in Sparta for 1500 or 950 just to cobble it together, so I went to Onalaska and got an estimate for the whole thing for 1200 including the paint matching and fading-in.
ReplyDeletePicked up the truck at Onalaska. They did a real nice job.
ReplyDeleteSpent pretty good block of time underneath trying to figure out the wiring to the passenger/rear turn signal. There is no impulse to the green wire, which controls the blinker part and I was unable to trace where, even though I checked everything almost up to the engine. Gonna have to take it in to Kenworthy. There is a lot of rust in the frame. This buggy is gettin' pretty old underneath.
ReplyDeletePicked it up at Kenworthy. It was parked across the street and was covered with road dust from the work being done on the street, but they fixed the signal lights! Took it over to the car wash and rinsed it off and sprayed wax on. Sprayed the tires with wet & black.
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