1943 MB (picture heavy)

Create a thread to track the progress of you MB/GPW restoration progress. Previously a General Discussion board.
minkforce1
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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Wed Apr 05, 2017 5:22 pm

Robb wrote:Depends on what starter is in there. It could be a 6 volt starter still, a lot of guys will just use that on a 12 volt system conversion with the caveat that you need to be careful not to crank too much on that starter, like more than 6 seconds worth, at a shot. It supposedly will spin the that 6volt starter pretty fast though :) Youd want to trace all that out. Between the 2 diagrams above you should be able to piece together whats going on , and what you need to do next though.

Have you tested the compression on the engine, or otherwise fired it up yet since you got it ?

Right now, it seems like you would need to dremel away all the existing marine epoxy and jb weld to expose the crack again and the area around it, really scuff up and maybe grind a slight V into the crack with the dremel, and then clean the daylights out of it so you dont get any contamination on the clean surface and give another go with the JB weld really pushing it into the crack and then letting it completely - completely cure before adding coolant back in. Maybe even add in a little bit of screen material with a top layer of JB on that, to give it a little strength like you would do with a concrete slab and rebar...

Then if it still leaks, you know youre kaput until you can get a welder ( a welder who knows cast iron) on it and after first determining just how far the block is damaged internally, maybe that crack is "only the surface" and there are internal cracks leaking between the water and oil passages. I dont know.

BUT I sure would be careful about making sure you had a cell phone with you anytime you get out for a drive in case the patch decided to give out on you.
definitely a 12v starter, or so says my electrically inclined friend. We've had the engine running for up to 15 minutes at a time without too much of a problem from leaking coolant, though it goes from a slow overnight seeping to an infrequent drip. I imagine the PO's JB welded it for one of two reasons: its about to blow on me, or it was so minor that it wasnt worth it for them to tear down the engine and properly fix it. I've kept an eye on the oil and its coming out clean, no coolant getting in there at least.

Hopefully that primer isn't bad enough to cause me problems, I generally only sprayed on new primer in areas that got really roughed up during fitting :shock:, so many of my parts were NOS so I just sprayed paint directly on those.


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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Mon May 08, 2017 8:46 am

Quick update while waiting on brake parts, mounted the M1919 pedestal from WW2 Fabrications, seems pretty nice. Looks like we may be ready to drop the body on by the end of this week if nothing else goes wrong.

Engine has been run for more extended amounts of time, and the crack is leaking very very minimally. We're starting to look for options on rebuilding or starting from a new block. The distributor shaft is seized in its port so we can't rotate it to adjust timing, so another big part of the engine solution will rely on the condition of the distributor when we pull it.

We also noticed the oil gauge had a pool of oil inside the gauge, so my vendor of choice is sending me a new replacement. Oil pressure was consistent while running though, so the engine is about as good as we'll get it before the full overhaul.

I tried rebuilding the alternator by replacing the regulator for a jumped single-wire configuration, but it didn't seem to be working. Took the whole alternator to a generator shop and they confirmed it wasn't putting anything out, so I had them rebuild it (again) and hooked it up last night, and saw that it was putting out 14.25v at idle. Most of my reading has suggested that it should be 14.75v, so I'll double check it with a second set of hands helping out. All the other electrical has checked out so far, including the gas gauge. Only thing I haven't been able to check is the trailer socket, but I feel pretty confident on that one.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by Seff » Tue May 09, 2017 8:13 am

How much your alternator puts out depends on your battery voltage. It can be as low as 13 v if the battery is fully charged - and around 15 v if the battery has a poor charge.

When I wired my alternator I added a warning/activation light in one of the dash light bezels, to tell me whether I was charging or not.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Tue May 09, 2017 7:13 pm

Seff wrote:How much your alternator puts out depends on your battery voltage. It can be as low as 13 v if the battery is fully charged - and around 15 v if the battery has a poor charge.

When I wired my alternator I added a warning/activation light in one of the dash light bezels, to tell me whether I was charging or not.
thats good to know, I keep the battery on a tender almost all the time so it's pretty much always topped off. Because I had no charge running back to it before now, I always had it fully charged up before we tested the engine.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Thu May 11, 2017 9:48 pm

Managed to lift the Jeep on to the body today, took five guys to lift with two of us guiding it in and making sure we were on target and not binding up on cables or anything. Had a small problem with the steering column when the horn contact was moved, but that was easily fixed. Had a chance to check the remaining electrical that I hadn't been able to test well with the body off, high/low headlights, brake lights, marker lights. Got most of the connections made, only missing a few small pieces and waiting on stencils. Should be able to bolt on the body fairly quickly, and once the missing elbow on the fuel strainer is installed I'll be able to gas up the tank and take it for a quick spin.
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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by Mark Jesic » Thu May 11, 2017 11:24 pm

That jeep is looking awesome, regarding your axe, i had the same problem, i ground the blade down by 1/4 inch and it fitted, (still a bit tight) . Cant wait to see the finished article.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by Robb » Sun May 14, 2017 5:01 pm

looking nice !
'43 Willys MB (just got it Aug 7 2016)

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Sun May 14, 2017 8:32 pm

The list of missing or unknown parts is dwindling down to the final few as I fit and finish and test. Almost had the jeep moving on its own power before discovering I was missing a brass bushing for the fuel strainer, but I finally found that home depot is a better resource for this car than Napa or autozone. Hard to believe that as I finally get into this hobby, all the auto parts guys I remember as a kid have retired and left people whos sole ability is to look up a part number in a computer.

The only part I found I was missing today aside from the bushing is the throttle cable stop to hold the wire inside the linkage, and a clip to hold the outer sheath. Lots of those floating around, but I don't want to bubba the wire into staying put. I also was unable to make the horn work properly since the brush was damaged in the body move (should have taken it off first) and the solder I had on the brass ring inside the column didn't want to stick. If I had the right tools for it I'd keep at it, but it was easier for me to draw the horn wire through, doing it with the fenders on would be miserable so I felt it was an acceptable solution in the name of finishing up for a big event this upcoming weekend.

Once the fuel lines are complete, and we take it for a quick spin, it'll be time to finish putting on the fenders, drill for the blackout light, and mount the resistor for it. Glass will be going in the windshield, and stencils are on order. I haven't decided 100% what the unit markings are going to be, but I do know it will have nothing to do with the 101...probably.

Looking forward to bringing this stage of the project to a close and having it running for the summer, but I'm also excited for this winter when I'll tear down the engine and see if the block is salvageable. I know wartime buyback blocks are in short supply along with just about every other L134, so hopefully we can keep the original block instead of having to go new manufacture.

Image2017-05-14 17.49.27 by Alex, on Flickr

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Tue May 16, 2017 9:02 pm

Well, it was an eventful week for the Willys. We managed to take it for a few quick spins before we ran into the major problems we had hoped to avoid.

Fuel line: having trouble getting it to fully prime from the tank. Filled the strainer, fuel pump and tank, but it seems to empty the strainer without continuing to draw fuel up from the tank. Do I need the strainer to be full to overflowing to make it get enough vacuum pressure to draw it up the line?

Fuel Pump: working, but the gasket is wrecked. I had to remove the pump to tighten a loose fuel line elbow and the gasket came off in two parts. I slapped it back on to continue testing, but it definitely needs to be replaced. Not sure how much fuel is supposed to stay in the bowl while running, but its coming through in bubbling spurts, but that may be related to our workaround for the strainer, which is to shove a soft fuel line dangled into a gas can into the hard line just past the strainer.

Transmission: when we checked the transmission before filling it with gear oil, everything looked nice, neat and clean. The transmission is now stuck in 2nd gear while the stick itself can only move to neutral and 2nd. Going to pass the buck on this one and have it rebuilt, no knowing what the previous owners did wrong, and I'd rather have it professionally tested and maybe even get a warranty on the repair.

Engine: leaking oil out of the bell housing at a pretty fast rate. Oil pressure during driving never got higher than 30, was about 20 at idle. Assuming the main engine seal behind the flywheel is to blame, hoping it's an easy replacement with the body off.

Rear differential: pissed all over the garage. New seals.

Front differential, transfer case, propeller shafts seemed good.

Something: making a dragging sound/feeling friction-y while slowing down in neutral

Smells: like burning oil off the flywheel or clutch plate maybe? engine leak related presumably.

Wiring gets everything working, but I'm not so sure if in the correct order on the push/pull switch. going to pull it and triple check that I don't have my wires confused. Headlamps work high/low, marker lights work, brake lights work, blackout light works but is not yet installed.

Carburetor may need tuning: the car would lurch back and forth while driving at about 10-15mph, my mechanically inclined friend suggested the fast circuit was in need of tuning. We've only worked on the slow idle/air mix at this point. Engine only ran with the choke pulled pretty far out, so we may need more adjustment there as well.

Horn: beep beeping.

Wife: Disappointed she didn't get to go for a ride.

Brakes: seem to be working well. Was able to stop without feeling like it was taking too long/far, though I've never had a car with drum brakes before. Emergency brake was also working well.

We're planning to pull the body back off to easily get to the transmission and engine. Trans goes to the shop, engine gets checked for seals. We'll miss a soft deadline for an event this weekend, but the important thing is progress is still being made while learning from the mistake of not having EVERYTHING the previous owners did checked out by a professional. We should have gotten the jeep up on jack stands to run it instead of just testing the engine in neutral, but I'll admit I was getting excited and impatient to be able to try driving it.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by Mark Jesic » Tue May 16, 2017 11:44 pm

I can understand the impatience minkforce, but keep at it, in the long run you will be glad you did, keep us posted please.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Thu May 18, 2017 8:43 pm

Had the guys over and they were just delighted to help pull the body back off. Either that or they were glad to see pizza and beer. After removing the body, I got a good look at the rear diff, which looks like the yoke was never tightened down properly. My fault for not checking. I'll need to check the seal installation and make sure that it's on the proper way, then refill and check for leaks.

I also did some research on the engine rear oil seal and was heartened to see that what I figured was engine oil may have a chance at just being gear oil from the transmission. The flywheel looked clean and I didn't note engine oil dripping all over the place after we removed the transmission, so we may have a shot at not having to replace the engine oil seal after all. We'll check in the morning after I drop off the transmission to be check and/or rebuilt, but the less mucking around we have to do, the better. I may have cracked a pipe on my radiator by not having the engine properly supported when we pull the transmission off, so that comes off as well now, but at least there were some other small issues that can now get fixed. It's not an original part, but it is an F marked GPW radiator, I'd hate to be the one to break it.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:58 pm

So it's been quite a while since the last update, but progress has been made and lost. We were indeed able to get the jeep up and running for a few days before the main engine seal gave up and started leaking oil on the road on the way home. Knowing the seal was busted, and knowing that the block had the unfortunate JB weld slathered crack, we decided it would be best to leave the Jeep alone until we could pull the engine and devote serious time to it.

Then we had a baby. Three months later, I was able to remove the major components from outside the engine and get good access to the cracked area. We took a scraper to the JB weld and it peeled off in huge chunks. A dremel brush removed the remnants and exposed the crack. The photo only shows about 3/4 of the crack, we removed more JB weld below and traced it down about 4" overall, starting around the distributor shaft. I'm not sure if the little disk in the middle of the crack and the two sloppy disks on either side of the crack are previous repairs jobs, but that seems likely. Overall, we don't think it's a particularly salvageable block, but I was able to get a good lead on two engines in various states of disrepair that may be better candidates for rebuilds than this poor guy.

Once we have a block selected, we have great access to several machinists/engine rebuilders in the area to do the major work before we start reassembly. I'm glad that theres always the (expensive) option of new manufactured blocks, but hopefully one of the two we're looking at will work out with less risk.

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by Mark Jesic » Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:48 am

Good luck with the rebuild Minkforce, and congratulations on the baby. Just a note from experience, babies are messier than jeeps. :lol:

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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by minkforce1 » Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:35 am

slow day at work, and its been almost a year since I posted about the engine troubles.

First: The crack in the engine that had been covered and painted by the PO's was indeed fatal to the block. It had already been repaired once, possibly twice, and the engine shop was not optimistic about being able to weld a crack of that size with unknown material hardness.

First was to find a new block, which was thankfully inexpensive and not too far away.
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This required lots of new internal parts and only some things from the original engine could be reused. It's basically a brand new engine at this point.

I didn't remember to buy engine enamel in the proper OD green, but the local autozone had an approximation of GPW grey. I do have a GPW radiator, so it didn't feel too horrific to have a swapped engine.
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We did have some minor problems with the rebuild, and one major one. the dipstick tube was installed backwards (easy) some tubes I had given them were missing (annoying) and the timing was 180deg out (thought we were screwed until we just lifted it out and rotated it). We missed one important detail though, which is towards the end of the post.

Here in Detroit, we have the yearly Dream Cruise in august-a huge weekend of classic cars driving up and down Woodward. Dream cruise had always been the moving goal to get the jeep done by. With the first engine, we had it done and running when the engine seal blew and we missed our goal, despite being running ahead of schedule.

This year wasn't much different. We picked up the engine on monday, hooked up parts on tuesday, installed the engine on wednesday and thought we were home free-all I had to do was put on the fenders and finish some connections, easily done.

Then when we fired it up and tried to back it out of the garage, it wouldn't shift. We knew the transmission was good because it had been driven plenty after being rebuilt. A furious night of google led me to suspect I had installed the clutch plate backwards-the very first part we put on the block. Looking through the inspection cover indicated as much, but we weren't 100% sure. We could explore other causes, or pull the engine out to check.
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On Thursday, the engine came out, and the clutch plate was indeed backwards. I flipped it, and got the engine back in to position, but without help, I couldn't align it and get it fixed back in place. Our options were to spend friday night mounting the engine and fenders to get ready for saturday, or to instead drive my 5 ton truck friday night-the only time they let us do so.

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We ended up driving the 5 ton friday night, and riding in my friends Willys saturday morning. In the afternoon, we finished mounting the engine, and I spent sunday bolting the fenders on, replacing little parts and finalizing everything. The jeep was done, 364 day early for next year.
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The jeep was assembled, driving, and working great. The unit markings were done, 9th Air Force, 349th Troop Carrier Group stationed at Upottery in England-the guys who flew the 101st to Normandy. We were enjoying the jeep, showing it off to the family and going for rides when I noticed the thermostat was running at 190-200, way too hot. upon returning home from a short drive in hot weather, I got out and found coolant spewed everywhere in my engine compartment. Took all night to clean it off, but the underside of the hood is still gross. Driving it more, it stayed extremely hot, and was continuously losing coolant even when slightly underfilled.

I went digging through the box of returned parts and found my old thermostat, which was in fact a new one I had installed. The engine rebuilder had taken mine out, assumed it was old and broken, and installed a new 180 thermostat replacing my 170, but with the weather as hot as it was, the engine was dangerously close to overheating, to the point of venting coolant. I drilled a tiny hole in the old thermostat to approximate a 160 thermostat and reinstalled it, which was a huge pain in the ass. By this time the weather was cooling off, but I pushed the jeep hard on some straightaways and never got higher than 180. No more coolant leaks, though a new gremlin has popped up in the oil pressure gauge not wanting to work.

While I didn't quite get to enjoy the jeep as much as I would have liked during the summer, I spent a good amount of time on the weekends going for rides as the weather cooled off. We put up the top and bought some jeep caps for the guys to wear, and we kept it out until it finally started getting wet in November. The speedometer ended up dying as well, but it was CJ replacement, so I finally replaced it with a wartime styled speedo. The last remaining part from a CJ that was thrown in is the air cleaner, which is an easy fix when I get around to it, along with a new battery that will work with the hold down strap to finish off the engine compartment.
Last edited by minkforce1 on Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Mark Jesic
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Re: 1943 MB (picture heavy)

Post by Mark Jesic » Fri Jan 04, 2019 1:00 pm

Perseverance paid off Minkforce, but my god she put you through it, a lot of guys would have given up on this, fair play to you that you didnt, nice job.


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