Orange 1946 with f-head

or pull that f head.  I bought mine with an f head as well.  I found a Holley 1904 carb that allowed me to close the hood with a bit of grinding here and there.  After driving it around for a year, I pulled the f head, sold it, and found a nice running L head and a new hood.  

Nice buy, like I said if you want a set of stock cj5 springs I have them.

My plan for this jeep involves keeping it usable most of the time and moving in the general direction of authentic as things need to be replaced.  If the f-head dies or if everything else is finished I will seek an l-head, but for now there is enough work to be done without removing an engine that is working fine.

Thanks Bubba!


He welded the side gears to the carrier, the side gears to the spider gears, all the gears to the cross shaft.  It looks like I will be looking for a front end soon.

Fabbed a new battery tray this morning.



I'll be the first to admit it is only 5% less bubba than the old one, but it will let me use real battery hold-downs instead of the bungee cord it came with.  I didn't want to spend $$ on an original repro that would weld to my incorrect frame. I think he put in an oversized battery.  I may revisit this if the battery dies.

I also installed a fuel filter so I can either clean the carter YF that I have and not have it clog again, or not have my new carb clog - I put up a wanted ad for a holley carb to let me close the hole in the hood.


Ben

It was a productive winter and early spring for this jeep.  As of today, it is legal and on the road.

Winter projects included the expected:
New exhaust
New tires
New springs and shocks
Rewiring the lights
Patching some holes cut into the floor
Swapping in oil for the icy/watery goo that filled the entire drivetrain
Disassembling the carb and re-assembling it correctly to enable the idle circuit + accelerator pump
Connecting the air-filter again
Adding a fuel filter
Adding a tow-bar

The not-unexpected:
replacing various oil seals
draining the diluted coolant in the dark ahead of a cold snap and refilling with 50/50

and some unexpected work:
Replacing a bent pushrod
Replacing a piston that looks like it lost a fight with a lock-washer
Replacing cylinder rings
Replacing rod-bearings
Rebuilding the parking brake
 
The carburetor replacement and hood-hole closure have been postponed due to the unexpected internal engine work.


I drove about 12 miles today in several short trips.  There was some good news :
No death wobble even after removing the steering stabilizer installed by the PO
The jeep is as fun to drive as the MB that got me hooked originally
I didn't need the tow-bar to get home

And some pretty minor, not-so-good news:
I have the typical rear main seal leak and the jeep pours oil on the ground after shutting it off when warm

I will be crawling under it and inspecting things before I order the rear main seal to see what rattled loose, broke, or fell off.  No pictures today, but I'm sure I will get some soon.  Various build pictures are scattered here: http://www.jeepingben.net/zen/zenphoto/index.php?album=2014

Edited by Mark W. - 29 Dec. 2014 at 9:55pm

Since the tailgate was removed, this was a good time to clean it up.  There was a box brazed to the bottom with a funny looking aluminum trim piece.

Under the trim piece was a healthy layer of bondo which went on before the orange paint.  Under the bondo was an old piece of sqare steel that seems to date back to the last major rebuild of this jeep (dark blue).

The square tube was a pretty clever and well executed repair considering that it happened before a nice replacement was available on ebay, but it rusted through and was bubba'ed up with bondo and aluminum.


I cleaned the inside of the top roll of steel with a 20ga shotgun brush, washed it out, and will spray some cold galvanize in there before painting.

Well done! Yay for beer and ice cream!