Took me 6 years, but I finally got one

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Ever since ricco convinced me to go with pts211 in Lumpy to the FCT
in 2016 I’ve grown to love the mountains, and these jeeps.  I try
to go every year with Jeff and Arick and ride along in Lumpy and Bam
Bam.  I was planning on I was planing on getting one much sooner, but
life happens and we can’t always get what we want.  I’ve been
saving for a while, but in May I got serious.  Sold some things and
put the word out that I was looking.  Paul found a 1948 CJ2A on facebook,
so I contacted the seller and started asking questions.  He happened
to be in the same area of Colorado as Bruce, so I asked Bruce for a
huge favor and he delivered.  He met with the seller and gave it a
good look over.  It tub had had major work done to it, but there was
very little rust and mechanically it was in good shape.  It had the
wrong carburetor, but it did run.  I was able to talk him down a bit
and he told me he was in a hurry to sell, so I borrowed a truck from
a friend, rented a trailer, took some PTO, and drove down to get it.

I’ve spent the
last two weeks driving it around town and it’s been a blast.  I’ve
pretty much taken it everywhere.  I didn’t realize just how much
attention these little jeeps get when driving around town.  Pretty
much every jeep I pass waves at me, and I’ve had quite a few people
ask “What year is that?!?” especially when I have the windshield
down.  

I knew there were
going to be issues, and driving it for 2 weeks was part of the
rundown I wanted to do.  I have a large parts list and a huge to do. 
The big things are the alternator/regulator not working, a bad wiring
job, the wrong carb installed, high running temps, and an exhaust
leak.

I took it over to a
friends house who has a smoke machine and we connected it to the tail
pipe.  Smoke was coming out of the heat riser bearings (or lack of).
It was also coming out of the connection between the exhaust and
intake manifold.  We also removed the spark plugs, and it’s his
opinion that I’m running lean.  Which could be entirely true and
explain the overheating issues.  The carburetor is a Carter YF.  The
alternator uses an external regulator, and was not wired correctly. 
After hours of tracing wires, I was able to determine that either the
alternator is bad, the regulator, or both.  With a list of things
that need to be fixed if I’m going to Colorado in September I got
to work.

I got in touch with
scoutpiliot at oldjeepcarbs.com, and he agreed to giving me credit
for my YF core for credit towards a rebuilt WO.  So I took the carb
off and shipped it out yesterday.  I’m excited to see what the
right carb can do.  It idles super high, and I’m pretty sure I’m
running lean, which a rebuilt WO carb should fix. 

Next is the leaking
heat riser.  I was able to get the manifolds of relatively easily. 
Which was a shock to me.  The engine has been rebuilt, but I’m not
sure when.  It looks like it was done a while ago, but there are only
2200 miles on the odometer.  If I had to guess, I’d say someone did
a ton of work, took it out a few times and then either lost interest
or died… Then it sat for a decade.  How else do you only have 2000
miles on a rebuilt CJ2A???  I’m ready to drive this thing
everywhere.  Once the manifolds were off it became quite apparent the
issue.  The bearings in the heat riser are shot, and the gasket
between the intake and exhaust looks original.  I spent today
cleaning up the mating surfaces and deciding whether I should paint
this exhaust manifold with high temp paint.

Speaking of the
intake manifold, has anyone seen a gasket like this before?  It has
two metal pieces in the shape of a V coming off of it.  Super
interesting.

Well, that’s it
for now.  I also need to replace this alternator, and fix some
wiring.  I’ll be back to post updates.