Minion Missile - 1973 Colombian Patrol Project

Builds, refurbishments, restorations, upgrades

Postby Flaggoni » Fri Oct 25, 2019 3:27 pm

If I remember correctly, a few years back, someone here discovered that the apparent rear seal leak was actually a leak through the splines on the output shaft. The cotter-pinned large nut was not torqued tightly.
I removed and cleaned the nut, then put a little silicone gasket goop under it before tightening. My brake band has been dry ever since.
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Postby mad4hws » Fri Oct 25, 2019 3:52 pm

Thanks Bill. That is good advice. It's not leaking a lot. In-fact, none has hit the floor of my garage yet. It's just a drop; however, this will only get worse and I need to rectify immediately. Your solution is something easy enough that even I can do it!
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Postby mad4hws » Sun Oct 27, 2019 5:47 pm

Raining all day today. didn't get a chance to get the Patrol out on the road. This Dapper lighting kit has been sitting in the corner for a while though:
6502

It hooks up pretty quickly. There's a lot of parts in there though. The wiring lengths is such that I think the idea is that you put all of this stuff in the engine compartment.
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I'm going to move all of these components to the cab. There's not enough space under the dash to put them all and I don't want to use up the glove box, so I'm going to mount these components to a board and place it under the Pax Seat. I need to get some more wire to complete the job. These lights are also pretty good in that there is an auxilliary bulb beneath the main bulb. Not sure what I'm going to do with these yet, but it's neat that they're mounted in the same light casing.

6501
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Postby Esteban » Sun Oct 27, 2019 7:01 pm

Will be very interesting to see the performance of those lights. Your decision to move the electronics into the cabin I think is good.

What about the space behind the instrument cluster. In your Patrol that part is open. Older models are closed and only accessible if you remove the instrument panel.

You still have to install the heater components. Bear that in mind.
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Postby mad4hws » Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:06 am

I guess I could try to get it all in behind the instrument cluster. But space is tight. There's not much going on under the Pax seat, so it's easier and also easier accessibility for everything later on. I'm going to mock this up before I make any final decisions. So, it's possible that it could end up back under the dash somewhere.
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Postby mad4hws » Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:53 am

Hi everyone.
I got the Minion Missile back from Gus the mechanic this week. It hadn't been driven since we replaced the axles and driveshafts and fixed all of the linkage. I was a bit nervous, but she made it home okay, which was about 10 miles away. My wife was following me (thankfully). At one point, there is a pretty good sized hill that I had to downgear to first for. It was really sluggish until I put it into high gear. I don't think this is as much of an issue with the truck as it is an issue with me needing to learn how to drive it.

I had Gus put in new shackles, taller ones, that raised it by 2" so that I can put a little bit bigger tires on. This meant new shocks, much bigger shocks than the ones I had just put on that have zero miles on them (anyone need brand new shocks?). He also put on the header that was shipped in from Australia a few years ago that was collecting dust on my build shelf and tuned the new motorcraft carb. - including putting in an electric choke. He also mounted my Koenig series 100 winch, but it's a little bit different from the ones that I have seen on Patrols. The mounting bracket is much taller. If we were to mount it upright, the shaft would not fit. So, he mocked it up with it upside down (this still requires the shaft on the winch itself to be reversed. We need to complete this set-up, but I'm not sure I'm in love with it yet. It is sitting really low and if I were to ever to offroading with it, the winch would be the first thing to hit the ground/rocks. I think we might need to reconsider our set-up. I'll send pics later, would love some feedback from the forum.

Also, got the dapper Zenon lights in - it's like the sun. I ended up putting all of the ballast components right behind the headlights. After I had moved them to the cab, I consulted with the folks at Dapper lighting and they said that there really shouldn't be more than 30" of cable between the ballast and the light because of the amount of voltage that is going through it and the voltage drop that would occur over an extended length. Good to know - i could have saved myself a lot of time had i asked the question up front.
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Postby mad4hws » Sun Feb 16, 2020 8:01 am

I also was fortunate enough to have received two windshield wiper motors from PetrolPatrol. Earlier in this thread, some of you may remember what a mess my windshield frame is currently. It's a 2 wiper set-up with a single motor and the linkage connecting the two is in the frame; however the PO decided he would like to have the 3 wiper set-up, so he drilled a hole in the frame and did a less than stellar job in fabricating the linkage to make it all work. Rather than try to fix this mess, I found a new/old windshield frame that is in perfect condition. The only issue is that it is from a 1967 truck, which is the two motor set-up. That frame has been sitting in a crate in my garage for 2 years now. In that time I have been trying to find these windshield wiper motors. I had almost resigned myself to using aftermarket motors. Then, last week as fate would have it PetrolPatrol let me know that that he had a set of the original unobtanium motors. Wow! Things are starting to come together. With the patrol and running gear now working, I will be able to cut off the aftermarket colombian top sometime in the near future and return her to factory soft top set-up.
6913

6912
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Postby RiverPatrol » Sun Feb 16, 2020 12:06 pm

Great progress! Moving in the right direction. :D
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Postby mad4hws » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:33 pm

Some Pics:

The upside down winch mockup
6914

Long Shackles
6915

Monroe Magnum shocks
6916

PTO Shift Lever - hole in Floor
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Header/Carb
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Electronic choke installed
6919

Dapper Headlights installed - These have running lights in them too. Not yet hooked up, but I ran the wires to do so.
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Dapper headlight ballasts installed inside engine compartment on fender wells close to lights.
6921
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Postby RiverPatrol » Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:18 pm

Yeah, that setup isn't going to work for the winch, although he was very creative trying to make it work. The only way that winch will work correctly is if a hole is cut in the cross member behind the front bumper for the drive shaft to go through. The early Patrols - that the winch was designed for - had the hole already in the cross member, later models didn't. I had a '68/'69 that had the winch correctly mounted and they had cut the hole in the cross member for it to work. I thought I had pictures of it but I can't seem to find them right now.

The rest looks good!
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