September, 2005
Take a look at the old truck
   March
31, 2005
From Jake: I'm back, happy to be here.. Please pray for the family
of Tomas Garces. News? I am a Godfather to little Sarah Ella Wilkinson.
Got my belated Christmas present from my family, new Mizuno Irons. Moses,
the infamous snake catcher seems happy I am back. Do I miss anything
from Kuwait and Iraq, no. Maybe cigars..cubans. Thank you all for your
support and prayers, it made the difference, and allowed us to return
home with only one casuality. Thank you all again, and God Bless the
USA.
February 8, 2005  
The days are counting down..... and then back up. Remember I told you
that Jake would not be going on anymore missions? Well that was two
missions ago and it looks like he won't be home when we thought.. We
still prepare though.
Following -please keep up with the Pick-Up Chronicles...
Update 2: Jake, Hope all is going well. I haven't worked on your truck
in two weeks. I feel really bad that I haven't.
Your mom threaten to come up yesterday and help and I decided I better
go out and get something done. Why haven't I worked on it? I have tons
of excuses, none that is worth mentioning other than I have been a little
preoccupied with Anna and Dylan, my work and the usual fires to put
out. I just didn't feel like it sometimes. I took the oil pan, and oil
pump off to try and find out why it is having the oil pumping problem.
I believe I have found out why. It had an oil seal that fits on the
outer part of the pick up tube where it fits into the oil pump housing.
A compression nut tightens it, squeezing it for an airtight fit. The
seal appears to have been misplaced on the end of the tube. It was very
deformed with the inner opening restricted like the arteries of my heart.
The rubber seal had gotten very hard like hard plastic with a diameter
less than a fourth of its original diameter. Not good. I hope the engine
was not hurt by this problem. I cleaned all the gasket surfaces as well
as the inside of the pan. I went to get gaskets and a seal, but I didn't
have any luck. I may have to order a complete gasket set for 50 bucks.
Thats not bad. I need the pan cover gasket and valve cover gaskets as
well as others.
When you are sailing into the wind, you have to zig this way and that.
They call it tacking into the wind. Sometimes, I do that mentally when
I am working on a problem I don't have all the answers for.......This
is a round about way of saying I may have changed my mind about the
mustang front end for now. I may stay somewhat original for now and
just make it as dependable for as little money as possible. The progress
is slow I know, but we are making progress. So far you are only down
27 dollars. Love
from all of us, Uncle Neil
Update 1: Jan 18 From Neil - Fire in the hole.. umm. Baby steps : Today
I started looking at what or where to start on the truck. I wanted to
see if I could get the engine running to find out what we were working
with. I am trying to balance economics and reliability as opposed to
a total restoration. Right?????! I started with draining the oil and
removing the oil filter. The filter was a boogger to get off. I crushed
it with my remover because it was on so tight or for so long. I ended
up getting a large C clamp and moving it after chiseling it off failed.
If the engine was good I didn't want to run what ever had been sitting
in the bottom of the pan for the last several years. Mean while, I removed
the fuel filter and let the gas like varnish out. It was very stinky!!
There wasn't any rust in the filter. Wow! The gas tank might be another
story. I don't have a key to the gas tank so I ran a hose from the fuel
pump to a two gallon gas can.
Hooked up another battery and she cranked over but wouldn't start. I
checked to see if the spark plugs were getting fire and they were not.
I checked the points and they were burned up. I went and bought points
and condenser and installed them. Turned the key over and she started
right up. The engine sounded good except she ran a fast idle and a little
rough, which I would think would be due to carburetor problems. Neil
Update 1: Jan 18 From Neil - Fire in the hole.. umm. Baby steps : Today
I started looking at what or where to start on the truck. I wanted to
see if I could get the engine running to find out what we were working
with. I am trying to balance economics and reliability as opposed to
a total restoration. Right?????! I started with draining the oil and
removing the oil filter. The filter was a boogger to get off. I crushed
it with my remover because it was on so tight or for so long. I ended
up getting a large C clamp and moving it after chiseling it off failed.
If the engine was good I didn't want to run what ever had been sitting
in the bottom of the pan for the last several years. Mean while, I removed
the fuel filter and let the gas like varnish out. It was very stinky!!
There wasn't any rust in the filter. Wow! The gas tank might be another
story. I don't have a key to the gas tank so I ran a hose from the fuel
pump to a two gallon gas can.
Hooked up another battery and she cranked over but wouldn't start. I
checked to see if the spark plugs were getting fire and they were not.
I checked the points and they were burned up. I went and bought points
and condenser and installed them. Turned the key over and she started
right up. The engine sounded good except she ran a fast idle and a little
rough, which I would think would be due to carburetor problems. Neil
In '64, Grandad Jack bought a Black Ford 150, brand new. No, not a
step side but three on the tree and a V-8 271.. Neil and I spent many
hours in that old truck as pre-teens hunting with Dad, learning to drive
a standard. Later, well.. Neil took the old truck to California. Family
and a differnt kind of car interset and Jake acquired the truck. Drove
it through high school and although its never been wrecked, still classic
in body, and no rust, too much wear and tear to drive. So it has set
in our garage, the cab serving as racoon-free dog and cat food storage
and the bed as U-storage. Time seems right to bring the old Ford back...
Dad Bob loaded the truck on the trailer, despite the locked up rear
left wheel via a 2 ton come-along. Mother and grandmother say WOW. Uncle
Brian let us borrow his 2 1/2 ton Ford for the tow so Bob and middle
son Johnathan drove it to Fort Worth. Uncle Neil, in a moment of brilliance,
fashioned a support for winching it into his substantially not-level
driveway.We kept Jake aware of the process through IM, his comment?
He hated missing all the action and "would have combat dropped
it, like we do the dead M1 Abrams here, no just kidding."
************************************************************************************
Anybody want to do something for the Iraqi children? Check out www.operationiraqichildren.org/
Jake says a very special thanks to Denise and Tommy
Londrigan who send him the most thoughtful care
packages. A big Aggie Howdy.
  
 
Thanks to the Ellisors, David Cook, Lorraine Coomes,
Tammy Naron, Brian and Dorothy Siefert, Rusty
Lanin,
Grandmother... for making Jake's leave really good.
NEW MOVIE!!, open in explorer:
NEWFOOTAGE or
Damn, its hot in the desert (Janet's title)
******************************************
New additions at the bottom!
A personal list of patriots serving our country in time of war.
Christopher Brawley
187th Infantry Regiment and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
and the United States Army."
Jason Holstead, Arkansas roots, serving in Afghanistan.
Pat Frasier and he is with the 1st CAV 2-7 serving in Iraq.
Byron Dewey - IT Specialist, contractor.
Check out Scott Garrett's
website, Jake's buddy in Kuwait/Iraq. His wife
Donna did this. We are all keeping her and those two sweet little children
in our prayers!
Jeff Kasting's good friend from PA
L Cpl Cunning, Brandon T
2/5 H&S Co Motor T Section
UIC 40350
FPO AP 96426-0350
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