Friday, June 9, 2017

The consensus was that the rear rubber brake line had failed and closed up. Seems that this is a thing with rubber brake lines. When they get old, they fail by closing up inside. You can sometimes push pressure through them, but they won’t let the brakes release. So its back to ordering more parts.



By now I’m getting ground down. I’ve been pretty much flyin’ solo on this project. The family is supportive, but they’re not big on spinning wrenches. They each have their own deals going on.

This is where Guy Masters enters the picture. Guy is a popular character in my narratives. We were all at dinner together and I was entertaining them with the stories of my truck woes. Guy said he had the next day off and would love to drop by and get the machine running.

Not being one for idle talk, the next morning he showed up. I installed the last rubber brake line and we bled the brakes again. This time it all worked!



Guy and I piled in, crossed our fingers and we were off! The important part was the entire “We got it running and driving” thing. The first ride around the block was max speed of around 5mph. “D” shaped tires do not work well.


Then we stole a wheel off Theodore the M37. Those tires are new. Huge improvement! This was enough to get us into town for its first lube job in years.


One nice thing about living on an island. The Jiffy lube people are now somewhat used to me having army trucks, so they no longer completely freak out when I bring one in.


We drove around coming up with lists of quick fixes we needed to do. Bypass leaking heater, swap out the rest of the M37 wheels, tighten radiator hoses. As we fixed the small stuff, the drivability improved markedly. By the late afternoon we were doing alright. Guy went home and I texted the rest of the family. “Franklin’s running! Lets go camping!”



And we did!

We didn’t go far. With the little outboard tank we had an effective range of about 5 miles. And, I didn’t want to go further than I could walk home. Luckily there is a campground on the seashore close to our house complete with a gas station/food mart next door.

Franklin at the campsite. The machine makes a great RV. Its big enough to sleep two and long enough for me 6’3” to stretch out in.



It was totally great to be able to do that camping trip. I thought it would be years before we could drive the machine.

Franklin’s no longer this static unending, “ran when parked” project. Its now a really cool running truck.