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Winterizing, primer pump, fuel filter, et cetera
I put a 100W heater on the lower oil pan, and a 25W heater on the oil filter housing. It already had a battery maintainer, but it had fallen apart, so I put a new cord on that and put it back together. I think the freezeplug heater is working. I replaced the existing duplex outlet with a new double-duplex on the inside right fender, led the plugin out to in front of the radiator, hanging behind the bumper. I ran all the power lines neatly, fastened them out of the way.
I changed the primer pump from the OEM style to a new Bosch pump. The description for the pump said it fit the large or the small threads: it did, and I needed the small threads, so I unscrewed the adapter. The new pump takes a 17mm wrench. I need to get some open-end crowfoot wrenches in metric.
I put a healthy dose of Hotshot Extreme fuel cleaner into the tank. I'll dose it with some anti-gel, too, before I put it outside for the winter.
I changed the fuel filter, and the o-ring on the bottom of the fuel filter bolt. At the top, it didn't have an o-ring, but a copper washer, gooped on with some RTV. I cleaned off the RTV, and put on a new, 5/8" washer from my stock. I didn't change the pre-filter yet: it looks pretty clean, and I'll run a tank of fuel through it come spring, then change the filter.
I checked the antifreeze. The refractometer shows protection down to -55F. That's about enough here. The test strips show the same, and a pH of 7, with no nitrites. My old International IDI engines require nitrites to prevent cavitation, but that probably isn't necessary in this machine.
I hooked up my little Mitey vacuum pump to the bleeder valves and pulled some brake fluid through. The first cup or two from each wheel cylinder came out pretty dark, so I kept on pouring more into the reservoir and pulling more through until it was coming out the same color I was pouring in.
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