After I sold the DJ5 I started looking around for something else. I found an advertisement in the newspaper (remember those days?) for a 1973 IHC 1110 pickup. I had a memory from childhood of walking down the sidewalk and seeing a yellow 1110 parked in a driveway. The tailgate proudly proclaimed “International”. I had a sudden epiphany that this was one of the true examples of classic American engineering. That memory has stuck with me all this time. So of course I had to have it!
When I got there to look at it I found it to be a faded turquoise metallic a bit lighter than the one pictured, with low profile tires, and in great condition. However the owner said it needed the carburetor rebuilt. He also said it had an AMC 401 engine. It was the first time I had heard of it but International used the AMC 401 and the 258 six for a time during the 70’s. It’s a bit mystifying since their own 392 and 264 were some of the finest examples of light truck engines ever produced. My guess is that it might have been quite a bit cheaper to use the AMC motors. [Ed: Maybe emission regs?]. And cheaper they were, but more on that latter.
We fired her up and it popped and spit at low to mid RPM. I figured it was fixable so I drove it home. I rebuilt the Motorcraft two barrel car but it still did the same thing. A trip to the old fellows at the good ol’ auto parts store (not a franchise box store) and some brain picking got me the info I needed. It was decided that it needed a new distributor.
Ah, but what distributor did it have? Being that it was an AMC motor it could be any one of either, AC-Delco, Holley, Delco-Remy, or something else I can’t remember. An awful lot of the parts on all things AMC were like that. It seems they just shopped around for the best deal on whatever parts they needed and then bought a bunch of them and stuck them in until they ran out, and then repeated the process regardless of model year.
With the new distributor (Holley, by the way) it ran like a champ. I took to driving that truck everywhere. It was far more road worthy than the DJ5 and had a lot more room. Sure it ate gas like Fat Albert eats french fries but gas was still pretty cheap back in those heady days.
I was still hanging out at the coffee shop even though I had quit because the boss couldn’t pay us. When I got the truck it had an AM eight-track deck in perfect working order. One of the hippie girls saw it and wanted it really bad. So I sold her the deck and put in a more modern unit. She proved to be a jinx. One day after tuning out, turning off, and dropping out, I offered her a ride home to Independence so that she would not have to ride her bicycle all the way back from Salem. So we threw the bike in the back and set off down Hwy 22. I stopped and got some gas. I religiously checked the oil and water. Both were up to snuff, so on we went.
We were coming up to a bridge over a cattle pond and were in the right lane behind an RV. Well with that 401 under the hood, I could not be bothered with such things. So I mashed the gas and set to pass. But it seemed a little weak. I dropped back and then… You know that feeling you get just before you hit something really hard with your face? Well, I suddenly got that feeling.
A cacophony of expensive noises spontaneously erupted from under the hood. I instinctively looked at the gauges (which I had been regularly doing any ways). The oil pressure read zero, the temp was pegged in the red! I pulled over and as I did, I could hear parts hitting the ground. I figured I would get as close to the next town as possible so I kept going on the shoulder. I knew what the writing on the wall spelled, and I knew I couldn’t make it any worse. It only took about ten seconds to lock up. And then we coasted for about a mile. My passenger said, “I know enough about cars to know that it’s broken isn’t it?” “Yep” I said. When I got out to walk to town I saw a big black oil and debris field stretching back down the road behind us.
I got it towed home and she rode her bike the rest of the way. Of course in the time between, someone had stolen my battery, the only good part left on the truck. I sadly put a sign on it that said “for sale $300.00”. I would have taken ten cents for it though. One day a ratty looking guy on a bike came by and asked about the truck. I told him what was wrong with it and he said he wanted it. He said he would have the money next week when he got paid, yeah right, I thought.
To my surprise he returned the next week with the money. I had to give him a ride and call a tow truck. He said he was going to put an engine in it and use it for a small engine repair shop he wanted to start, yeah right, I thought. To my surprise I saw him some time latter running a little engine shop and using the truck every day. It just goes to show, sometimes you never know. I for one am very glad that truck saw a renaissance and I would like to believe it is still out there serving someone well.
[1973 IH 1110 shots by PN, who just happened to have them handy]
Yes a trail of oil and engine parts does blunt performance somewhat, I owned a much older 110 an AL series and it was much too well made very over engineered but that was the reputation IH had their whole truck range was good I got the engine rebuild on mine done in time for weekend petrol sales ban over here real convinient one thing that truck loved was gas it went well with new rings bearings and valve job but economy whats that and the brakes never did much but a great truck for towing or carrying things maybe the quality dropped in later years?
That’s the longest sentence I’ve ever seen!
didn’t even no they made pickups. i talked my brother into (over)paying form my friend’s scout ii. it has a six but i don’t know what kind. it’s been reliable for him so far. i suggested he change out the distributor for electronic ignition but he can’t be bothered. he painted it orange and declared that it’s his fishing car…. wish i had a fishing car.
Some of them had diesel Nissan six cylinders!
I remember the ad copy, ran a lot in Popular Science…wordy ads by IH about how to buy your first pickup truck. As an example of how dishonest and abusive they were, they were heavily promoting the beam-axle/leaf-spring-front-end units.
I say “dishonest and abusive” because the front axle didn’t have any kind of track control; according to Smokey Yunick, who had an IH franchise, the beam axle would shift side-to-side sending the truck gawd-knows-where. He wrote that it was so unstable he quit selling that model.
Anyway…on the paragraph on engines…the IH people observed that when manufacturers use engines in light trucks, they borrow from other lines. Which meant Ford and Chevy buyers were getting passenger-car engines. But…International! Their other lines were…HEAVY TRUCKS! So the lucky International Pickup buyer got a TRUCK MOTOR!
Lies, damned lies…ad copy. What IH was selling them, was, obviously, an engine purchased by a small on-the-ropes manufacturer for a bargain price…a manufacturer of CARS. You were getting a parts-bin-engineering passenger-car engine as part of IH’s parts-bin-outsourcing.
It’s no wonder they failed in the end. And it’s well and good that they did…I hate to see a great name disappear; but I’d hate more to see this sort of dishonesty perpetuated.
The vast majority of IH trucks came with IH engines. As far as a beam and leaf axle with nothing else, thats what all commercial trucks use up to this day. I never had any problems with it and don’t on my IHC work truck now.
Hmmm. I never had an IH pickup. But my Postal Jeep had the same front end…dead beam axle and leaf springs. And yes, the axle did shift side to side about a half an inch in use. I could make it do it in the driveway by just cranking the steering wheel.
My Jeep YJ had the leaf springs, but a Panhard rod to locate the axle. Which is what the other vehicles needed for stability in tracking.
As far as a beam and leaf axle with nothing else, thats what all commercial trucks use up to this day.
Size and weight make a difference. I hold a CDL and have driven large trucks…recently…but in such applications the axle doesn’t flop around. As I noted above, with Jeeps and Postals and IH pickups, it has been seen/reported as doing so.
I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana where International Harvester had a big presence until they closed the plant around 1980. They built heavy trucks and Scouts there, not sure about pickups. But because of all the employees, there were a lot of Travelalls, Scouts and pickups around.
I never knew about the AMC V8s, although a friend’s family had a 73 Scout with the AMC 6. They had also owned a 71 Travelall with the 392 V8. The IH V8s were very well regarded units. The dash and steering wheel in this unit takes me back to the many rides in that Travelall, which I really liked.
I always considered this final generation of International pickup as being a really good looking and hard working truck. These tended to have some rust issues, but so did all of the other pickups at the time (none worse than the 73 Chevy/GMC). I never really understood why IH never got better market penetration with these. Maybe it was mostly a thin dealer network better suited to selling big trucks.
The AMC engines-in-International trucks is well established and verified. Obviously at the time, neither party wanted to advertise the fact; but the truth will out and has.
The problem with IH’s truck offerings were much the same as what Kaiser Jeep was going through: Poor quality control on a low-production item out of a small concern.
(IH was a big company but trucks were only part of it; and their total vehicle output compared to even AMC was very, very small. Even today, Navistar, Peterbilt, all the rest…don’t make many units per year. Markup per unit is tremendous.)
The dealers, most of which were ag-implement dealers, found the light-truck line an annoyance. Heavy truck specialists likewise…what a professional driver or fleet manager needs, and what Joe Sixpack wants, are vastly different things needing different approaches.
IH, in the mid 1970s, was in a sea of rising red ink. Trucks were not paying their way; so – and with more government standards in the wing – they exited.
Scouts continued, probably because the per-unit markup was higher and because the company saw what Jeep was doing for their engine company, AMC. But in the end it too was deemed a distraction.
The company wanted to become another Peterbilt. And they did…gawd love ’em. As an aside, I’ve driven Navistar heavy trucks; and they’re notorious for design problems, specifically electrical. Quality control and engineering excellence is STILL not a priority there.
Agreed, most dealers found them an annoyance, just ask for parts at a Brattain shop. You can still get some, but they don’t like to sell them to you. But there was never an issue with quality control that I have ever heard about. The quality of these trucks was certainly better than anything the big three were offering.
Can’t speak for the pickup. But I have driven IH/Navistar road semi-tractors in 1990 and again recently.
You can spot a well-worn International…then and now…by how much of the wiring harness has been melted, on fire, and patched around.
FWIW, Freightliner isn’t much better; but you’d think in this day and age, they could make a wiring harness actually WORK without bursting into flames…
True, I drive medium duty trucks and have wondered that myself. But the light line stuff was always bullet proof in my experience.
Just tell the guy behind the counter Cree told you that they would help you. Cree Brattain is still a fan of the light line usually bringing out some big trucks, sponsoring and hanging out at the annual Binder Bee held at antique powerland. I’ve spent a couple of hours talking with him about the good old days when he was a district rep for IH LL dealers calling on the late great Ernie Bisio proprietor of the world renowned Bisio Motors.
I went and saw Ernie several times. What a place, with those shelves full of nos parts, IHC heaven!
The AMC 401 was marketed and sold as the V-400 when installed in an IH pickup. The reason they made it into a few 73 1010 and 1110 models was that the Loadstar was selling like crazy and they couldn’t keep up with the demand for 392s. They had already been purchasing 232 and 258 6cyls for a few years and the fact that AMC also used 727s purchased from Chrysler so it was easy to spec it all so it dropped in and bolted up pretty easily. It was to be a stop gap until the new MV series of engines the 404 and 446 were in production. However for what ever reason the start of production was delayed and the 401/V-400 stayed on the light line option list. By the time the MV came into production the Light Line pickups were on their last leg and IH never bothered to put them on the option list in the pickups/Travelalls. That would also end their association with AMC removing the 258 from the Scout option list to be replaced with the Nissan SD-33 sourced from Chrysler the then distributor for Nissan Diesel engines in the US.
I would give my left nut for a Traveller or Terra diesel.
I was hoping for a good AMC engine failure story and you didn’t let me down… Again, they have an oiling system second only to Briggs & Stratton.
@Just Passin and Scoutdude, sounds like we could have a nice chat about IH and what really killed them.
Scouts and small trucks were made in IH’s Chatham plant in Canada too. 20 or so years ago I worked with a fellow who’d been a buyer for IH in Chatham. He said that the reason they rusted so badly was that they were such a small player they could not buy good quality steel competitively, it was all sucked up by the big 3.
Also he said that the tailgates were put together by arc welding using a brazing rod as the electrode. That doesn’t sound like it would work, maybe I’m not remembering it right..
I’ve had that somethings wrong here feeling. To see piston rods hanging out of the block isn’t good. My VW van was going over the big bridge with the pedal all the way to the floor, when I heard a pop and saw an oil slick behind me. The #3 cylinder decoupled from the engine.
Oh just wait till I get to the VW vans!
Well, Mike after you are done telling stories about your cars, you can start on mine. I always wish I could have kept every one. Especially the 1973 Crew Cab IH we dug out of the mud one horrible evening down the road. Too bad the 345 had a broken crankshaft. It was a straight truck. It would have been nice to drive.
Or was it a 392?
I think it was a 392
i have a 1973 international harvester pickup 1110 series can someone please help me with the firing order?
I have a 73′ I H pickup 1110 W/ the 345 and the wiring harness had a melt down at some point and some one had rewired it and not with a new harness but rather with what looks like a large spool of green wire. The orig. harness is I think stll there at least the part of one going into the steering column and that’s where I noticed melted wires. Any way the gauges don’t work except one the alt. gauge and after market ones have been put in and again except one, the fuel gauge. I had to put a new alt. in and the two gauges both the factory and the after market were not reading the same even though one shows numbers and one is + or -. The factory gauge was showing every thing to be ok or normal and the other was showing it to be dramaticly charging one minute and then discharging the next. With all that in mind I removed the two gauge cluster alt. & fuel gauge to see if I could test and or get the fuel gauge working. In doing this I noticed that the factory alt. gauge had at least 6 maybe more heavy gauge wires running to it. There are 2 to the + terminal and at least 4 to the – terminal and so testing these with the multi meter found that all were hot and all the time, key on or off doesn’t matter. One coming in on the + terminal is the hot lead and the other just goes to the cig lighter. And so the – post on the gauge is also hot and because for some reason there is continuity between the + and – post and those wires hooked to the – are ones that operate the lights and ignition and what ever else and once apart or unhooked nothing at all works it won’t even turn over. I unhooked all the wires from the gauges and tested them finding that the alt. gauge has continuity between the + and – post. And since the fuel gauge shares it’s hot and ground by way of the board that these gauges share, this means that both + and – on the fuel gauge is hot. I need a diagram or something to aid in figuring where these wires are suppose to go
i need help, i want to know what engine does my truck has its an international harvester pickup 1973 1110, 4×4 step side..
shortys_38@hotmail.com please send me an email if you know!
From Wikipedia:
“As IH’s own engines were temporarily in short supply due to the success of the Loadstar medium-duty truck, some 1973 and 1974 pickup trucks received AMC’s 401 ci V8 engine instead (called the V-400 on International’s option list). The crew cab Travelette was only available on the 1210 series.”