Your Scamp sounds amazingly like mine!
We got a '77 last
fall and wanted to use it at least once before the end of the year.
First thing I wanted to get working was the
propane furnace and stove.
(No camping in MN in the winter without some form of heat.)
Just like yours I found the regulator had rusted through, water got into the copper and it was burst in three places. All copper replaced and a new gas-grill style propane tank and regulator were installed.
The
furnace was a mess. I drilled out the rivets and removed the whole assembly.
Wasp nests in every opening. Yuck.
The capillary tube for the temperature control was broken off right at the bas valve. BooHoo. So I took the valve completely apart, cleaned and lubed everything and put it back together without the temperature sensing bellows. All gaskets and seals were in great shape.
I hooked the furnace up to my gas grill propane tank regulator output and ran it in the back yard just in case there were problems. I got the pilot to light and to stay lit right away, so I knew that part of the gas valve worked, but when I started the main burner, all the flames came OUT of the air intake ports at the base of the burner. ???
I found out that the burner is in two parts that unscrew from one another, so I could get it apart and found a spider nest in there. Ugh. Cleaned it out and the burner ran GREAT!
So now I have a working manually-controlled furnace!
Removed and re-sealed the ceiling vent. Used bolts and acorn nuts since the
fiberglass is a little fragile up there.
Then we went camping on Dec 26 in "Northern" Minnesota! It was fantastic. Well, it was 45F outside during the day, so it wasn't exactly a typical MN Winter day. The first evening it was so windy I couldn't keep the furnace running at full gas pressure. I kept starting it and it would run 15 minutes and then blow out, cool off and the gas would shut off. (It was scary hearing the gas go SSSSSSHHHHHHHH for 90 seconds or so before the thermocouple cooled enough to snap off, but that's what it's supposed to do, and it worked.)
I learned that if I didn't turn the gas valve fully on to "ON" that the burner would stay running. Maybe I have too high a gas pressure from the gas grill regulator. Any ideas?
Second night, my son's sleeping bag froze to the front window, but we were all comfortable.
This spring, we put on new
tires, replaced the water tank, tuning and pump and drove 1,200 miles (and back) to New Orleans for spring break. Learned a lot about tire pressure and bouncing. The closet door opened and tore right off the hinges before we reduced the tire pressure to 20 PSI.
Camping in MO, MN and LA was fantastic.
Mosquitos in LA were also pretty fantastic, and I come from MN!
Since then I removed and resealed one side window. Used rivets this time.
Yesterday, we tore out the carpet, sanded the floors and plan on replacing it with sheet linoleum.
Owning a '77 sure is a lot of fun!