WellFedHobo's '48 CJ2A project (#158011)

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   I picked up a spare T90 case from TerryB, which was awesome since he was local and I don't know that Little Rock has much of a vintage Jeeper population that I've been able to find. (I also got a skid plate in the deal, which my Jeep didn't come with. Very glad to have one now. Gives me some more off-road potential once I finish the shakedowns.
It has a date stamp of 12-1-47 whereas mine has a date stamp of 11-26-47, so it's five days newer. Doesn't really matter at this point but I thought it was cool to have something close to "correct" to put back into the Jeep.

It sat out in a shed for a while with a mouse nest in it so the cluster gear and reverse idler are pretty much guaranteed to be toast. But that's ok since this is meant to replace my cracked case anyways and I have all new internals (with a whopping 10 miles on them so far). I'll just swap over all of the internals to this one at some point. 

The new T90 case got hosed down with Lysol, vacuumed out, stripped down, and soaked in Evaporust for over 48 hours. The cold didn't help the chemistry do its magic very fast but it cleaned up really well for a low effort soak and a scrub with a Scotch Brite pad afterwards. (Though it flash rusted very rapidly.)

With the heavy rust gone, I've already put it in the blasting cabinet and cleaned it up, primed it, and painted it. It just needs some finish work. The machined surfaces need to be cleaned back up, especially the two where the thrust washers sit inside between the case and the cluster gear. I may have to finely sand them or stone them down. 

In the past I dreaded rebuilding the T90. Now that I've had to do it 5 times to find the right mix of parts, I've learned to enjoy it and am actually looking forward to the eventual swap of all the internals to this slightly newer case. 

I also got a new cork gasket in for the dipstick. The old one disintegrated as I removed it. The new one actually fits tighter and feels like it "locks", though I still have the wire in place to hold it there. It's been cold, rainy, and blah in Little Rock so I haven't taken it out since then. But dad and I got the passenger seatbelt installed so there's a slight safety increase. 

The one thing that's bugging the heck out of me is not so much the lack of a top and a heater, but the suspension. The passenger front spring is collapsed from a hard landing long ago, and the passenger rear spring is similarly collapsed but not nearly as bad as the front. It makes the Jeep lean noticeably when parked. It evens out visually when the drivers seat is occupied but the suspension is just shot. That'll likely be a focus to overhaul this year.