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M3 Scout Car

WillWagner

The Person You Were Warned About As A Child
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We need to get this ready for a holiday event or Vets coming up next weekend. It hadn't been lit off in a few years. Dumped fuel in it, checked the brakes, no fluid in the MC but clean, no rust. Put a battery in it, cranked it and it fired right up! Didn't run so well though, the last time I remember this running was at an event at County Park in Arcadia 10 or so years ago, I remember it running poorly, but we looked it up and the notes said it ran good. Moved it to the shop and took a look at the brakes. No leaks seen at the wheels, maybe an old small leak at the MC pushrod. WTH, put fluid in the MC and used my trusty Recovery4X4 bleeder...GOD, I love that thing! Thanks Kenny! Bled the system, no air, no leaks, good pedal! I love it when things are fairly simple!

On to the poor running. Looked at the points, they were new-ish, but were not sitting correctly, only 1/2 of the pads were touching. Used a points file and cleaned them up and re set the gap from the .030 where it was to a snug .019. Fired it, popping out the exhaust, black smoke. Hmm it had more than 1 issue. decided to start electronically. Looked at the number on the points and looked in the parts bin, Cool, there were a few sets of points/condensers! Put those in, moved the engine to where the rotor was pointing at #1 and looked for the timing mark on the flywheel, moved the engine back and forth, no mark seen, Oh well, time by ear! Put the points in, gaped them and fired it, moved the timing, Still pops and backfires out the tailpipe but the distributor needed to be moved ALOT to make run even the slightest bit better. The whole tome it is running, the WP is leaking slightly. The gland nut has a split in it....

Decided to look at the carburetor. Attempted to adjust the idle mixture, no change. completely removed the screw, no change, no vacuum! Something is amiss in the carb. Asked Craig if it was OK if I removed it and gave a look see since parts are hard to find for it. He gave me his blessing and off it came. Full of .....stuff. Pulled everything out of it, cleaned all the passages and jets and then found the issue. The gasket is hand made, the hole for the idle circuit was not made into the gasket. Pulled out some new gasket material and made a new gasket, put it all back together, fired it off, MUCH better!!:jumpin:. Adjusted the carb, better, messed with the timing, much more better, but, the distributor is not aligned with a lock down hole, I think it is off a tooth.

The engine runs fine, so, we have another WP, need to get a kit to rebuild it. Decided to leave it as is for the event. When it is back at the Museum, we will get a kit to rebuild the WP, the distributor needs to come out to do the pump, so we can re TDC it when we do the pump. As for the timing mark, I don't know if the flywheels can be put on correctly or 180 degrees out or put on any way, guess when it goes back together we can try checking timing using #3 cylinder if the flywheel can be put on only correctly or 180 out, i'd rather just time by ear. Took it out of the shop and drove it around the compound, has good acceleration and, most importantly, it stops :driver:

On to the next project!
 

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WillWagner

The Person You Were Warned About As A Child
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
8,370
2,326
113
Location
Monrovia, Ca.
OK, a bit rainy here today, soooo, had a chance to do some bench work today. I SHOULDA taken pictures before disassembly, but, most of the time when I get to "work" I just start on the planned project :whistle:. Today I tore down the replacement W/P for the M3 Scout car. The shaft is a little pitted at the seal area, but it uses 4 graphite coated cord type seals, not a rubber lip style seal. I have used this type of sealing before, so, IMO, it should seal fine. There is a cork seal under a retainer in the oil side of the pump, but the retainer will not come out unless the front bushing comes out of the housing, I do not want to remove that, so I will make a new seal and slide it in before the shaft gets installed. After disassembly it was found that the only parts needed will be the graphite seals, the cork and the gaskets for the mount to the engine and the volute of the pump [thumbzup]. I will be able to make the gaskets and cork seal and the graphite packing is available from Mc Master, BUT, Steve from the Ft Mac Arthur Museum in San Pedro has some spare packing, He donated the W/P, it was a spare from a searchlight with a Hercules JXD in it. When this is repaired/rebuilt and installed, the timing will be checked to see if the flywheel was indeed installed incorrectly, the TM shows a doweled flywheel, but if the dowel was not installed or the flywheel was put up and just run up with an impact, the dowel could have been pushed into the crank. Pics of the disassembly and installation of the pump to follow...
 

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WillWagner

The Person You Were Warned About As A Child
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
8,370
2,326
113
Location
Monrovia, Ca.
Some updates. Went through a manual the Museum has, a hand written, hand illustrated, British, complete overhaul manual for the M3 Scout car. It is truly a piece of art. So easy to understand and visualize how things are put together. Found what size rope seal to use for the packing. Got it from McMaster, 1/4 inch square, graphite seal. Ran into a small snag when it came to the cork oil seal down in the housing and under a cup/retainer that keeps engine oil in and dirt out. The manual shows removing the bushing from the housing, but that would be for a complete renew of the pump. Bushings are like hens teeth, so, I had to extract what was left of the cork seal out without removing the collar and bushing from the housing. After pieces parts were removed, got a measurement for the cork. There is a place that rebuilds these pumps and installs a modern seal in place of the cork, but that isn't in the budget, and this does not see too many hours. The cork was 1/4 inch thick, no cork sheets on hand that thick, so, I just doubled up some 1/8 inch sheets. Got the OD cut out easily, but had to figure out a way to punch a clean hole in the center for the seal lip. The shaft is 3/4, an 11/16 hole punc would work great, but, who has one of those? Then I had an idea. What would happen if I used the packing gland as a guide. Tried it on a non cut piece of cork, put the cork on the gland, used the pump shaft as a punch and just pushed it through the cork. It came out PERFECT! Nice round hole and a good drag on the shaft for leak control. Punched the cut pieces and then proceeded to assemble the pump. I had already cleaned, media blasted and painted the parts. Some pics for your enjoyment :beer:
 

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WillWagner

The Person You Were Warned About As A Child
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
8,370
2,326
113
Location
Monrovia, Ca.
Pulled the old pump off. Found a freeze plug starting to leak, so pulled that. The block was full of rusty sludge. Normally all the stuff that runs has water and perry installed, no antifreeze, so if it leaks, it isn't a toxic mess. The perry stops the rust from happening, but, since the pump shaft was leaking, only water has been used to top off. The reason the pump was leaking is that the packing gland nut was split. Keep in mind guys, they are LH thread! No, I didn't do it, been that way for as long as I can remember. Looked at the rest of the freeze plugs, all were starting to show signs of leaking, so, all new freeze plugs were installed as well as a good flush out. After the new pump was installed, we used cooling system flush on it to get it real clean, installed perry, a NOS cap, had to make a new cork gasket for that too.
 

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