"Little Devil" is the name given to my dedicated off-road racing Scout II by Pansy Comer when it was still two dead left-over junkyard carcasses lying in my driveway / yard. She seemed to think this little red devil suited me:
'Devil' is an evolving creature, changing as I break things, or as I have the time/money to upgrade them. My Old Index has some details on the beginnings of Devil.
Little Devil is currently based on a Scout II chassis - frame and body tub. The front clip is a skeleton of the original, featuring just fenders and a hood n' grille, held together by a relatively lightweight sub-frame built from .75x.75x1/8" angle. It's hinged at the front so it will tip-forward for ease of maintenance. Two hood pins keep it in place, two bolts in the hinges allow the front clip to be completely removed. The full tub and tailgate were retained. A chopped windshield frame hosts a pair of windshield wipers, but no glass (wipers are required to be street legal in Montana - glass is optional). The dash has been removed, all of the factory wiring is gone. A full rollcage includes a back-bar and tubular seat mounts for the plastic racing bucket seats as well as mounting points for the 5pt harnesses. The battery lives in the passenger footwell - the heater was discarded.
Motivation comes from a BUILT IH V304C from Gryphin Racing. This little 700lbs lump of dump truck power is built to handle 6000rpm and achieves it very quickly. Compression of 10.25:1 and a few other modifications result in a rough estimate of 350hp and 400ft-lbs through the straight-pipe equipped Stan's 4-1 headers. A Pertronix equipped points distributor, recurved by Gryphin Racing runs the ignition, with a stock coil, NAPA 7mm lifetime wires, and a junk starter rounding out things. A "junk" stock 37amp alternator keeps everything charged.
Headlights and tailights work.
Running gear is a hybrid. The front axle is a HD D44 from a '74 1/2T Chevy 4x4. This is the .5" wall tubing version. 4.89 gears from a '63 Scout were installed. On the spindles I mounted 1990 F150 hubs n' rotors, retaining the Chevy calipers and brackets n' spindles. '74 Chevy 2wd brake hoses connect to a new front brake "hoop" which then "T"s into the stock SII proportioning valve. Flat-top knuckles allowed the use of a TriCountyGear steering arm on the passenger knuckle, and a custom draglink from Gryphin Racing - built of 1" DOM tubing - connects the stock SII power steering box and pitman arm to the knuckle. This results in a very quick ratio steering configuration that is also above the springs and little bump steer. Front suspension is (as of 12/27/2000) currently being changed to a reverse shackle design with 1975 SII XLC front leaf springs in a spring-over-axle fashion. The spring perches were ground slightly to allow use of the 2" wide SII springs and U-bolts. The center pin holes were already "just right" for the SOA SII.
In the rear, a '73 Travelall Dana 44 houses 4.89 gears. The perches were moved and notched and it was installed. The rear truss was built by the previous owner of the rear axle. I chose to use it to mount the shocks to get a little more travel out of things.
All told the Scout weighs in at about 3700lbs, 3862lbs with driver (OK, so it weighs more like 3675) with an amazing 42% over the rear axle.
Of course, I couldn't have done it without help from many sources and in many ways.
The IHC Digest and Binder Bulletin communities were invaluable in helping me decide what to do with what.
I can't thank John Comer / Gryphin Racing enough for his and Pansy's help throughout the project. Gryphin Racing built the 304C, helped me build the 727 behind it, and has been extremely helpful every time I come up with a new problem and/or have a new "dumb" question.
John Glancy / Super Scout Specialists has provided support for my mental-problem with some cool decorations for Devil (including the all-important Scout flag), a bit of advertising, and discounts on (the many) parts. John's been great - even after I beat him at RMIHR in '99 (I think he got me in 2000 though).
Too many other groups and friends have helped - I might miss a few (remind me if I have).. 4x4Play, Willy Cunningham provided the driver's seat, brake booster, and mounting brackets. Blair Howse donated the passenger seat belts as well as the "blue racer" core and other misc. left-overs - not to mention pulling "Pit" duty a number of times. Mike Kelly setup both the front and rear ends and even had all the parts to do it. "Senior" Bradley donated the "camo" chassis to the cause. Tyler Gordon came by to help with some welding as "the hour" drew near.
Oh yeah, and my neighbors, for only complaining twice - but no thanks for doing it when I was cleaning up at 4am and had finished making noise (I guess the rattle of the hoist being rolled away was just too much to bear).
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-Tom
Copyright 2000, Tom Mandera, TMComputers