Ike’s way of saying “Drive me dummy”

Old vehicles have a lot going for them. They have loads of character, idiosyncrasies that sometimes aren’t readily apparent, and more times then not, they have ways of “talking” to their owners.

Ike has a way of doing just that.

One of the not-so-great side effects of getting a new job was my “Jeeping” time has been cut drastically. Before, if the weather was cooperating and it wasn’t 115º outside, I could drive Ike to and from work. This brought with it some challenges as that is how I found out the gas gauge isn’t working, my radiator was plugged, and I needed a cup holder. It also brought with it some nice aspects in that I didn’t have to worry about little things like the battery dying down from underuse because of the less then stellar electrical system.

If you’re following along at home, you’ve probably guessed that Ike’s electrical system, and most recently his battery, have been rather needy lately. At some point, either with my cleaning and repairing or as a result of some of the short off-road jaunts, something has gone wrong — or more wrong — with the electrical system. Part of me thinks that it has something to do with my lack of appropriate grounds. The ground strap going from then engine to the frame is really showing a lot of wear, and may have actually finally broke.

In any event, Ike’s battery had run down again, this time enough that I didn’t even get a few turns of the starter before having to jump it. Instead, it was 100% dead. When pushing down the starter pushrod, nothing but frustration would result. Rather than pulling it out to the drive way and jumping it off the car, I used a trickle charger with 2 five hour cycles. In between the two cycles I disconnected the positive side of the battery to keep it from running down.

After these cycles, and with a little adjusting of the choke and a little extra throttle, I was able to get a nice start. With the engine purring away, Ike was begging for a nice trip to the desert. I pulled Ike down the driveway, went down the street, and entered the large field that already has some pretty decent trails cut through it.

When coming up to the wash, there was a deep and rather steep dip. Now, in a normal Jeep trip, this wouldn’t be an issue. However, the soft sand, steep approach and departure, and lack of another way out should Ike not be up to the task gave me a half second of reservation; not that Ike couldn’t do it, but that I was unsure if he would let me put him into low gear on the transfer case. A few weeks ago, I tried to get it into 4-low and was unable to get the transfer case past neutral. This time, the transfer case slipped right into low and the front axel engaged flawlessly.

As I started down the path by slipping the clutch a little, everything seemed wonderful. Then when I got to the bottom and had to pull Ike out of the ditch. Only one word can describe the feeling I had when all that torque was going to those four wheels: “WOW”

Ike took the hill like it was nothing more than a freshly paved city street. It was actually so much fun I had to turn around and do it a second and third time before continuing on the trail.

All of that is a long way of saying that between the consistently dying battery and the amount of fun Ike is to drive off road and on, the old guy was just trying to get driven. It’s certainly going to be far more bitter than sweet when it comes time to tear it down to his axels, but once he’s back together, he’ll have a new lease on life ready to take on even more trails.