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1990 Willys MB Jeep - Mahindra based

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DAAN View Drop Down
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    Posted: 05 June 2019 at 8:46pm
Hi,

I have been lurking in for some time here, but I thought it was about time to put my project here, a Mahindra Jeep. 
I came across this when looking for a Willys MB jeep, which are by all accounts are very expensive, and not very user friendly, and pretty slow.

I want it to be able to get along with normal traffic. Which is 70 MPH in the UK and ideally a bit in reserve as well, say 80.

So then my mind goes into modifying ideas, but the problem is that this devalues the car, which just does not make sense to me if you spend a lot of money in the first place.
There is, for us in the Uk an alternative though: the Mahindra Jeep.

So what is it?
They were sold in the UK between 1990 and 1995. They were license build Willys jeeps, build in India with the blessing of Jeep. Their spec is based on the Willys CJ3B Jeep, which is the latest and greatest Willys jeep ever build; They have a 4 speed gear box (as opposed to 3 speed of the original Willys), hanging pedals with a brake booster, a Peugeot Diesel engine, A dana 44 rear axle (very strong) and a chassis made out of thicker material.

They seem to be out of favour as they were withdrawn from the UK market due to quality problems and a following dispute between the importer and the mahindra over who was going to settle the bill. Problem is of course that if you try to sell a car 50 years after it was originally was designed, you will have to deal with different expectations. 
I suppose it didn't help that Top Gear did a feature on the worst car ever made, and guess which car came out on top; The Mahindra. 

Anyway, That sounded like a recommendation (what do they know anyway) .
I decided it is worth looking into. The rolling chassis is basically identical to the MB, so a replica MB body bolts straight on. The only real difference is it being RHD, and there is no such thing as a RHD Willys MB. So a bit of modding will be required in this area.

Anyway, A mahindra it is, and this is what I bought:







From 1990, with a V5 on diesel and a body falling apart from rust holes, it was ideal for what I want with it. And it was very cheap. Engine did run, but the clutch was seized solid. 50K miles on the clock, these things don't travel far, as they aren't very quick.

with a bit of work I dismantled it into this:



Into this:



Attention so far has mainly been on the chassis. There is a strip spot welded to the bottom of the chassis rail, and this formed some rust sandwich of about 5mm think in places:

I removed the strip, by drilling off all the spotwelds. This also meant all the spring hangers had to be removed. 



After all this, I replaced the rear crossmember and front bumper for willys MB items:




So this is where I am now, plan is to fit PAS, discs, overdrive and more engine under the bonnet, topped of with a willys MB body, to become my modern day classic car.

Thanks for reading,

Daan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Joe Friday Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 June 2019 at 9:53pm
With the resources visible in your photos, converting the Left hand drive should not pose a problem.
just but a hole in the other side of the belhousing for your clutch fork, or with hydraulic, just move the pedals and fit a longer hose...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jasonbass Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 June 2019 at 9:54pm
nice rover! i like the trophy style decals 

i sell 80s camel trophy and other auto memorabilia on ebay  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Stev Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 June 2019 at 10:04pm
DAAN,

Welcome to the CJ2A Page!

It sounds like you are making a MB tribute vehicle with a modern power plant and running gear.

You might check out the modified section to see what people have come up with. 

Keep us posted.

Stev
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 June 2019 at 10:19pm
Originally posted by Stev Stev wrote:

DAAN,

Welcome to the CJ2A Page!

It sounds like you are making a MB tribute vehicle with a modern power plant and running gear.

You might check out the modified section to see what people have come up with. 

Keep us posted.

Stev

Cheers, I read most of the current threads on here before I started my project.

Daan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 June 2019 at 11:15pm
Originally posted by jasonbass jasonbass wrote:

nice rover! i like the trophy style decals 

i sell 80s camel trophy and other auto memorabilia on ebay  

Thanks,
The rover I had for 28 years and has seen a lot of off road action the world over. But I decided it was time for a change, so the Jeep is my new project. Less off road more of a classic car basically.

Daan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ol' Unreliable Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 June 2019 at 1:50am
So what kind of engine are you going to put in there and how will you fit it under an MB bonnet if it's too tall? 
There's a reason it's called Ol' Unreliable
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 June 2019 at 7:44am
Originally posted by Ol' Unreliable Ol' Unreliable wrote:

So what kind of engine are you going to put in there and how will you fit it under an MB bonnet if it's too tall? 
I have a VW TDI 1.9 ready to go in. I saw the thread of Millenium Falcon I think it was, so I know it should fit.
 
Daan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ol' Unreliable Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 June 2019 at 1:27am
Oh, you should have plenty of room for that powerplant.  Mr. Falcon certainly proved that.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Nov. 2019 at 8:43pm

A quick update on this project:

I did a mockup of the adapter plate:

I am trying to marry a ALH VW 1.9 TDI engine to the Mahindra gearbox. It takes some doing before they say 'i do'. 

To make it as easy as possible, I started with a longitudinal mounted version of this engine, from a Passat, as this has the starter motor on the engine side, as well as more favourable engine mounts, a vacuum pump at the side of the engine, rather than at the back, and an engine mounted viscous Fan.

At the heart of this is a Valeo solid flywheel conversion kit for a 130 HP TDI. The 130 HP engine has a larger diameter clutch, and this clamps the Jeep friction plate perfectly:

large.IMG_7403.JPG.04e25c7a3973c7224848552e68068d3d.JPGlarge.IMG_7399.JPG.295da12a3ec259f0b231062f7c582092.JPG

I don'e have much in the way of machining equipment, but I do have CAD. I also got the factory drawing with mounting pattern dimensions for the VW TDI, as well as a Factory drawing for the mounting pattern of the Peugeot Indenor engine that normally lives in the Mahindra. This gave me the bolt pattern for the gearbox.

On CAD, marying this up ended up looking like this:

large.IMG_7405.JPG.231c262f4a9a999e423ab5f1f898499f.JPG

The good thing is that this will be acurate by design, and via a waterjet cutter, I can get the adaptor plate cut from CAD. 

But first the plywood adapter:

large.IMG_7396.JPG.819ff7a852d61da9c05f696fda6856df.JPG

 

To this can the Mahindra bell house now be fitted:

large.IMG_7394.JPG.77a484642619b49df0fbb0891eecbb1e.JPG

So this is where I am now. next is dropping this lot in the chassis and see what obstacles we find next. It takes a while though..

Thanks for looking!

Daan

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ol' Unreliable Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Nov. 2019 at 12:18am
Progress is always good.  Keep it up!  Thumbs Up
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lee MN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Nov. 2019 at 12:27am
Interesting project If your going to drive an 80” wheelbase rig at 70+ MPH in traffic, good luck

Lee
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Nov. 2019 at 2:10pm
Originally posted by Lee (MN) Lee (MN) wrote:

Interesting project If your going to drive an 80” wheelbase rig at 70+ MPH in traffic, good luck

Lee

Cheers. I have no intention of going faster than 70 MPH, but any slower in todays traffic I find dangerous, if only because of other traffic users trying to overtake you on single carriage ways. I see this every day with agricultural traffic. 

I am looking for a comfy cruise of 70 MPH. I think it is perfectly feasible, seeing suzukis do it on the same wheel base. 

It obviously needs the steering, brakes and gearing upgrading to do it, but that is the part I find the most interesting on this project.

Daan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lee MN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Nov. 2019 at 3:55pm
πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote davidover Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Nov. 2020 at 7:58pm
Daan, hows your project going?  It's been some time since we've heard anything at least over a year. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec. 2020 at 10:46pm
Hi, In a word: slowly! I spend most of the year getting my Land rover back on the road. A lot of work, but It is now running and soon to be going for its yearly test. 
There are updates to show though: I got the engine and gearbox in and looked at mocking up the steering:



I dropped the bulkhead on as well, to see if it needs any cutting.




It is a reasonable fit, but the alternator is hanging outside the frame rail. I think it will go with a bit of modding on the wing.

The steering box is interesting for a Right Hand Drive due to the diff being close. It took me a while, but I found this box, which is a LHD Rangerover P38 steering box.

Not much work was done after this, but I went shopping and found this:


It is a willys body, of sorts, an M38 I am led to believe, but with an MB grille. It was imported from Thailand, and the owner realised the body was not the same year as the WW2 chassis. So he got a matching WW2 body and sold this on ebay. It is in mint condition and is a very close fit to the Mahindra chassis; The grille mounts fit and the crossmember bolts to the rear body. There is a clash with the shock mount and the mount under the drivers seat needs moving 1 hole. It is RHD converted, neatly done. The steering wheel will be replaced for something more in keeping with the willys jeep theme!


Thanks for looking,

Daan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sam16v Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jan. 2021 at 4:04pm
Cool project Daan, be nice to see some more progress on the jeep! im also in the Uk and have a few Jeep projects of my own. I couldnt find a sensibly priced willys chassis for my off roader, so ended up finding a Cj5 Chassis.
Did you buy the mahindra of  chap called Kev Morris? looks like one he had?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DAAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jan. 2021 at 10:22pm
Hi, good to see another UK member! The mahindra is a good way to go, as it tends to be cheap, and is the CJ3B chassis with thicker main rails. The name you mention is not familiar to me.

Daan
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