Sometimes, it’s the little things that make a person happy. In this case, eBay served me up the perfect vintage knob for the racer. I did have to resize the threads, but that was trivial. I’m really happy with it (even Ann was excited about it, and pretty perplexed about why she was happy about it, lol).

In other news, I figured out why’d the brakes on the FC weren’t working quite right. The custom-built pedal assembly is rubbing in a way that keeps it, even with springs, from returning to its standard position. So, I need to rebuild the swing pedal assembly, but that also entails rewiring the cab. It will likely take me a good week to sort all that out. It’s really a good thing, because there were some electrical items yet to be hooked up, along with working through the speedometer cable, which isn’t quite long enough to reach the speedometer.

Looking out over the pasture, I see lots of green, but don’t see all that much cow shit. So, I didn’t think I’d hit all that many piles racing around it. Welp, those tires found plenty of piles and threw it all over me and the jeep.

This was the first time I ran it in 4WD. That worked flawlessly. As for control and driving, I found the racer felt really balanced and smooth, despite the bumps (the pasture isn’t all that even). The steering is a little stiff, but that feels great when going faster.

It seemed like it was missing a bit as I hit higher RPMs; I couldn’t decide if that was caused by the bumps disrupting the gas flow in the carb or by a timing issue. We’ll figure it out.

At the end of the video I realized that the fan wasn’t working (it turned out to be a loose connection), so I was trying to get Ann to open the gate, but she decided she would film me while pretending to not hear me, lol … she is a merry prankster!

UPDATE: Solved the oil spillage issue. The oil was coming from the back of the engine where the oil gauge line attaches to the engine. I had made the hose a little too long, so it didn’t tighten down correctly. Trimming the line fixed the issue. So, I got to drive around the property yesterday instead of doing updates for today ….

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Gassing up the racer.

The good news: I rolled the racer out of the garage, put in some gas, and tried to start it. Naturally, it didn’t start straight away. After fiddling with it, finally figured out that the manual choke needed to be opened (the choke was never hooked up on the old racer, so I never thought about it). Once I adjusted the choke, the jeep started right up! So, I will be adding a choke cable.

Unfortunately, while looking for the starting problem, I ran my forehead into the tall air cleaner bolt. It was only a large scratch and some blood, so not that big of deal. I was more made than anything. This highlights the problem with the bubble in the eye; sometimes it screws with the depth perception.

Starting the racer.

The bad news:  Once it started, it sounded as great as it did last year. However, for some reason the fuel pump didn’t stop pumping prior to starting the engine (that’s how I remember it working). This suggests to me that maybe something isn’t sealed correctly, so it’s not building the pressure needed to shut off the pump? I will have to research the pump to double check this. I’m sure the fix will be fairly simple.

Discovering the rear main seal likely needs to be changed.

The ugly news: The worst issue was underneath the jeep; I discovered that a significant amount of oil was leaking out the back of the engine. My guess is the rear main oil seal needs replacing. Ugh! It was fine when I parked it last summer (and this highlights the risk of “ran-when-parked” jeeps!). I’ll let it sit for a day or two and see if things magically right themselves.

That pretty much ended my garage time yesterday.

I have been wanting a set of 5 lug aluminum rims that match the six lug aluminum rims for the racer. Yesterday, while fuming about the oil leak, I went on FB Marketplace and did some searching for local motorhomes (pondering the idea of getting a gently used, older motorhome to take to races). After looking through ads, on a lark, I entered a search for Desert Dogs. Lo and Behold, these three popped up for sale for only $400! Check out all that barely used tread!

Even better, the dogs were mounted on the style of rims I had been seeking!  I made arrangements to get them, which meant driving to Boise today.

It turns out they had been an extra part of a Suzuki Samarai purchase.As a bonus, they threw in another desert dog, though it doesn’t have much life left.

This rim has a little cosmetic discoloring and the tread is slightly different, but no bid deal. On the left you can see the other rims. The COOP tires on the green rims will be transferred to the other matching six lug aluminum rims that I have.

This is the worn tire. It has enough tread for racing.

Helpers helping …

Despite the sauna-like temps, and with ice-water-bottles in front of my sho- fan blasting at full speed, I nearly completed the wiring (a couple things left to do). The principal goal was to secure it to the firewall to limit movement while racing, which should keep connections intact and stop cables from rubbing to bare wire. (On the yellow race jeep I could see where the battery cable had rubbed through the protective outer layer at some point, then it had been patched).

I decided to add a second jumper connection which solely handles the lights. I’ve now got most of the wiring in place in case I want to later add headlights and turn signals. I still need to add a switch to power the gauge lights and rear driving lights (in case I need them for some reason). I also didn’t think about adding a fuse for the rear lights until just now .. oops.

Ann helped me put the body into place to make sure the wire dropped under the lip of the cowl from the rollbar:

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