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My friend Blair had emailed me in February or March about an add in the Mini Nickel for a '74 IH crewcab HD. I never bothered to call on the truck, until early June, when I finally thought I'd give it a try.
I spoke to Chris on the phone about it, and it was still for sale. I talked Blair into making the 30 mile drive to Livingston to have a look-see for me. The feedback was favorable.
While going to Billings for their rally around June 23rd in 2001, Michelle and I borrowed Blair's Bronco (leaving my loaded Travelall and trailer in town) and headed to Livingston to see the truck in person.
After an hour of looking and putting around the trailer park and discussion, I wrote a check and received a title. Chris threw in a couple 2wd 727s and a few carbs, while I fixed a sloppilly installed driveshaft U-bolt and crossed my fingers, along with scraping some of the carbon off of the distributor cap - that made a big difference!When I pulled into Livingston to put gas in the truck, I ended up making a 3pt turn to get out of the gas station.. wow, it's a mile-long and wants 40-acres to turn around.
We drove it as far as Mike's Offroad in Belgrade, where I parked it for the week while we went racing. Thanks for the storage spot, Mike!
On the 4th of July, we went to Bozeman in Michelle's Toyota pickup, with a case of oil, a new filter, a package of plugs, new points, etc.
We arrived in Bozeman around 1pm on the 4th of July. I changed the plugs, cap, rotor, plug wires, oil, and installed light bulbs in the taillights and fuses in the fuse panel. We then timed it, and it ran like a top.
Topped off the left tank and checked tire pressures in Belgrade then cruised to Three Forks at about 55mph. Stopped in Three Forks to wash my windshield and noticed a small coolant leak. I cranked down on the lower radiator hose clamp and it started shooting MORE coolant. I grabbed another clamp from my toolbox and doubled up and finally got it to stop leaking everywhere - but not until after I'd dumped a gallon of coolant on the ground.
I put 2.5gal of gas in (for a 25 mile trip, roughly 10mpg!!) and another gallon of antifreeze and we motored home without incident.
I still need to wire up the turn signals and install some mirrors. The column is a tilt/telescope unit from a Chrysler. The ignition has been wired up, but the turn signals n' such still need spliced in.
All of the doors and windows work. The wipers work (it needs blades badly). headlights work. Heater doesn't work, and as noted the turn signals are non-op.
There's a horrible howling at speed - it sounds like something rubbing on the driveshaft, but it's clear. The PO thought it was the exhaust being "solid mounted" without rubber isolators. I'm a little suspicious of the carrier bearing on the rear driveshaft - I've never dealt with one before, so I'm not really sure what a good one looks like vs. a bad one, but it's another candidate for the noise. Once I can eliminate the noise I'll be able to exceed 55mph - since I'll finally be able to hear the ENGINE at speed.
Still - it rode great and handle great for the drive home. It definitely needs new tires though.. and at least two of the wheels are split-rims still.
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