Day three. May 23rd.
The wind the previous night had made me stop a little south of the
Idaho border. This day was the only real day I had a firm plan on
where to stop. I was going to be staying at my parents ranch in Idaho
for the night, other than that no big deal.
The night before I had given the Willys a good look over. I added a
bit of fluids to the transmission and transfer case. I had a few new
leaks but nothing too bad. I think this old jeeps just leak. You just
need to stay on top of it.
I was packed up early and headed north. I think I killed a few minutes
NOT wanting to be the first person to fire up an engine in the
campground. The V6 in the old Willys just isn't the most quiet
thing....
The drive up and over the Idaho state line went well. I have driven
this route on the interstate many times but never on the old highway
and back roads. It is amazing the difference in the stuff you see.
Lots of small towns, random stop signs in the middle of nowhere, a
cool old car collection, or whatever. I was using paper directions so
there where a few street signs that didn't match or where missing. A
few wrong turns. A few times I second guessed myself on where the road
should go or be. Nothing major.
Once I got into Pocatello, Idaho around noon I had my first 'issue'.
The drivers side front wheel was squeaking. My disc brakes drag a
little sometimes and make an odd noise but this sounded more serious.
I pulled over and jacked up the offending wheel to see how it felt.
Nothing was loose, nothing felt that bad really. I thought it was the
brake dragging or maybe a piece of something on the brake pad. Packed
back up and on the road again I didn't make it 5 miles before I knew
it wasn't just the brake. I figured I better stop and take a better
look. I found the closest parts house and pulled in the parking lot.
This time I tore down that front corner a bit more. I had it down to
just the bearing hub and was still getting the noise, even with no
load on the bearings. Everything was tight, but it just made that bad
squeak noise. I decided to tear it down and see what I could see. The
parts house had a spare bearing and race which I picked up just
in-case anyways. They didn't have an outer spindle seal that was the
right size though.
I ended up pulling the outer bearing and scraping out all the old
grease. I cleaned and repacked the outer bearing along with trying to
work as much new grease into the inner bearing that was trapped behind
the spindle seal. It only took an hour or so and almost a complete
roll of shop towels to complete the project. I could have probably
driven on it. There was grease in the groove between the bearings but
the outer bearing looked a little dry and gritty so spending the time
on it was probably best.
Just north of Pocatello I found a super cool old junkyard full of
1950s and 1960s iron. It hadn't been crushed, I was amazed.
Lots more miles that day but nothing exciting happened. A few wrong
turns, a few more old roads, a corndog for lunch, and then I was at my
parents ranch just south of the Montana border by about 4pm I think. I
stopped off at the local tire shop to pick up an emergency tire tube
and some larger tire patches. I don't carry a full spare tire because
of tight space and weight. These BFG Krawlers are pretty dang tough
tires and I wasn't THAT worried about it, but having some insurance
was probably a good thing.
I had dinner out with the folks, took a nice long shower, and fixed a
few little annoying issues with the Willys in the garage. The rear
axle was leaking a bit where the full float axle meets the bearing
hub. I had some flat gasket stock so I decided to make a few gaskets.
I also weighed the Willys in there somewhere at a random weight
station that wasn't manned. It was 3460 total I think. Slighty front
heavy, but I didn't have my extra 15 gallons of fuel in the cans yet.
I think the total for the trip was just under 3600lbs with all fuel
and about 40-60lbs rear heavy (booo!).
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