[Bob Carriere]

Notwithstanding the miserable 7 nches of white fluff we got in the last 24 hours...... Grant and I worked on the cab 11 after we managed to blow some of the snow out of the driving area.

At this time of the year I have to take the snowblower tractor out of the barn to get the cab 11 stored out of the sea can and into the barn.

Weather warmed up and at one point Lucifer was cranking so much heat we had the place up to 75F..... and worked in our shirt sleeves.

The issue is to fit the engine cover back on the truck. Both side panels have been eaten away by rust so before cutting an welding new patches to the panels we need to clearly establish how long should the patch be at the bottom where it bolts to the floor.

Fitting the engine cover panels after the nose panels are in place MAY be the wrong sequence. One step forward 3 steps back. Next Tuesday will remove the front external engine cover and see if we can coaxed a few more 1/8 or 3/16 of travel so the engine cover will fit best.

First frustrating discovery.... the engine side panel will not fit with a 261 c.i. and the civilian road draft tube..... it hits the the captive nuts of the removable panel that gives access to the plug wires and dizzy.

Luckily Grant had salvaged a CMP cab 13 very short draft tube with a threaded fitting for the PCV. Removing the draft tube in cramped quarters is a nightmare. I crawled underneath and using a cut off broom handle was able to tap the underside of the draft tube enough to loosen it. We installed the shorter model and gained considerable clearance. The shorter draft tube required a piece of 3/8 rubber hose to extend the metal PCV pipe. Next week we wil flare a new complete steel line for the PCV system.

Next step backward. My dizzy is equipped with a Pertronix system and has the typical 261 tall dizzy cap and rotor. Now we realize that the cap is way too close to the engine cover. The apparent solution, yet to be applied, is to replace the tall modern cap and rotor with a shorter 216 cap and rotor...... we will gain over one inch of clearance.

It is also obvious that the spark plug wires are one too long and will need to be shortened by quite a few inches. Also some 90 degree plug boots will be beneficial for cyl. no 6 and 3. Angled boots for the dizzy on about half the cyl. will also help routing the cable as short as possile and without touching the engine cover. Fortunately I bought a full large grocery bag of ignition wiring at a flea market so I can mix and match until get the right fit.

Finally quite proud with having fitted almost perfectly the two sides and back panel of the engine cover..... and about to start/drive the cab 11 out of the barn..... the starter lever we had screwed off the starter stomper would not fit back on as it was about 3/8 below the oval hole.

Reason.... as we assembled what will be a cab 11 1/2 due to all the mix and match panels salvaged from other trucks most being cab 12. Now I know why the original engine panel of my cab 11 had the starter hole all enlarged and beaten and twisted..... of course we choose a better panel and the darn hole is now too high. Part of the solution is when we have the external panels from the nose removed and the floor panels tweaked we may have enough clearance to fit the starter handle back on.

We keep reminding ourselves of the wise words of Phil Waterman when he talked about re assembly of his cab 12......." assemble every cab panel loosely then drive it around so parts will shake themselves in place... " theb tighten the bolts. Boy was he rigth!!!!!

Once we have the engine cover properly fitting, they will still need to be removed for welding the rust patches...... see how they fit..... removed to paint them and install some heat/sound insulation and re installed with proper machines screws and the finishing cup washer and yards of antisqueaking gasket material.

For that matter ALL the front end cab panels will need final removal for proper machine screws and gasket material installation, touch up of all the scratches on the paint and a final readjustment of the valves ( one seems to be ticking more than needed) and to subsitute a 216 valve cover with proper 216 air filter instead of the existing 261 4 bolts modern GM cover...... it will better disguise the 261 as a 216....after all it the same digits just sequenced differently.

On the bright side we drove it in low gear 4x4 in 2 feet of wet snow and at a fast idle and the wheels do not even spin...... front and rear axle gouging a nice round center furrow in the snow bordered by two herringbone tracks in the snow.

One day..... one day it will be all done.......

Just remember when they say a 261 will just bolt in a CMP they did not particularly meant a cab 11.

Cheers