Zeph's '42 Ford GPW - (Restoration Started)

[Fat Albert]

Once again you are blazing a trail where I must soon follow! I'm keeping my fingers crossed on your steering box... I think I know what you feel about the using the grease... if they could make oil work with no leaks 70 years ago then I am bound and determined to make oil work with no leaks now!

And I trust you will get ahold of your travel guide soon... to miss that trip would be totally terrible!

[Ian Fawbert]

Hi Zeph,
I was able to fit 2 seals in the housing as a fellow over here suggested it to me quite a while ago before I finished my first resto. The box has oil in it and has had with out any leaks for over 6 years and near on 6000 miles. I'd recommend it as a safe guard. The 2nd seal hardly sticks out past the housing, maybe 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Ian.

[Fat Albert]

Hi Zeph,
I was able to fit 2 seals in the housing as a fellow over here suggested it to me quite a while ago before I finished my first resto. The box has oil in it and has had with out any leaks for over 6 years and near on 6000 miles. I'd recommend it as a safe guard. The 2nd seal hardly sticks out past the housing, maybe 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Ian.

You wouldn't happen to have any pics of this would you? I'm a visual type of guy!

[Ian Fawbert]

Sure thing mate. I'll try to get some for you today.

Cheers , Ian.

[zepher11]

Played a little hookey today. My wife and I took the kids (dogs) out on the Lake Shasta for a little R&R. I did get to squeeze in a little time this afternoon to clean and paint a couple of e-brake parts, however. I’m amazed how many parts are associated with the e-brake.

Also, I checked the steering box and it isn’t leaking…yet. I filled it full of 140wt oil and put it through its paces last evening, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It’s also been hovering around 100 degrees in the garage today, so the oil should be nice and warm and free to migrate.

Ian, I like the double seal idea, but seal I just received is a double lip seal. If I had two of the old ones I'm sure I could get two in there, but I would be a little leery about the pitman arm grooves cut into the sector shaft. They would probably be close to the second seal, based on my new sector shaft's configuration. The double lip seal I just put in is almost twice as thick as the single lip seal I put in originally. I pressed the double lip seal all the way in until it bottomed, and as one can see in the following photo, it doesn’t leave much room for a second seal. One can see how close the pitman arm grooves are to the second lip of the seal I just installed:


Here are the cleaned up parts for the e-brake assembly:



The new e-brake drum looks great. I’m a little concerned about the bolts for the propeller shaft. I think I see why Bubba had welded the bolt heads to the inside of the drum. I’m hoping I can get a wrench in there after it is seated:





The e-brake pivot bolt has a good ol’ F mark:





Hopefully, tomorrow I will figure out how all the e-brake stuff goes back together and maybe install the propeller shafts.

[thidisbogus]

Zeph,

If you figure out how that goes back together, can you take photos of it step-by-step? I have to put mine back together too and it sure would be a help.

[macaddict23]

Hopefully, tomorrow I will figure out how all the e-brake stuff goes back together and maybe install the propeller shafts.

Zeph,

I found the following two photos. I hope these help you.

Dexter

[zepher11]

I found the following two photos. I hope these help you.

Dexter

Those are perfect, Dexter! I was just looking for some good examples. I have photos of my grease encrusted assembly before I disassembled it (note to self: clean parts before taking documentation photos ), however with this project I'm never sure if I have the correct parts or not. In this case, it appears I have everything.

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

[Fat Albert]

Hey Zeph... glad to hear the steering box is not leaking. Gives me hope! And yes... i'd say that the oil ought to be sufficiently thinned at 100 degrees that if it were going to leak it would have done so!

Keep up the good work buddy. I'm watching anxiously!

[zepher11]

I worked on the e-brake today. Thanks to Dexter posting the above diagrams, it wasn’t bad at all. I went ahead and took some step by step pictures.

The first is the crank. In looking at it, I determined that it should probably be installed prior to installing the e-brake drum. I didn’t what to go to all the trouble of installing the e-brake drum only to find out that I would have to remove it to install the crank:



With the crank installed, I went ahead an installed the e-brake drum. I like to put a little thread sealant on the output shaft, right like I did this before. I just thought I’d say that so it sounds like I know what I’m doing rather than “winging it” which is what I’m really doing:



Drum installed and test fitting of the e-brake pad:



The “J” bolt fit in and everything looked like it was lined up, so full speed ahead:



Here are all the pieces and parts that make up the majority of the e-brake system all cleaned and ready to go:



There is the little spring on the passenger side of the e-brake pad. It’s a little tricky to get in there. There is a recessed hole in there and one needs to compress the spring and slide the e-brake shoe over it. Then insert the square headed bolt that is there for adjustment purposes:



Spring before installing the bolt:



With bolt installed:



Next are the two springs that fit on the “J” bolt. One spring on top and one spring on the bottom. The “J” bolt has a special nut that is cupped to fit the e-brake pad on the lower side, so if the pad is upside down it will need to flipped over:



Next up is the link to the fixed position on the transfer case to the two cam links:



Then come the two bent links that make the transition to the crank:





Another picture from the other side:



The adjusting bolt goes on next. I wasn’t sure if the slotted head for a flat head screw driver should be on top or the bottom. I don’t know how easy it is to get a screw driver in there if the slotted head is on top:





Rear shot:



All adjusted. There appears to be three adjustment options. It didn’t take too long to figure out. It works great. I’m sure I will be fine tuning the adjustment later:



Final configuration:



With that fun little project completed, I finally took the time to adjust all four brakes. That project has been hanging out there, so it was nice to get that done.
I then installed the propeller shafts:







It’s starting to look like a real vehicle now! Since all that was done, I thought I would go ahead and install the engine. I first had to get the clutch and flywheel installed. I also took Rodney’s advice and removed the pilot bushing to soak it in oil for 24 hours.

Bell Housing installed and now everything is ready for the engine:





Engine front and center and ready for the install:











The only difficult part was trying to push the engine back toward the bell housing and guide the transmission shaft through the clutch disc at the same time. I have long arms, but not that long! I kept working it and finally had success:



Looks like it’s ready for a drive:





I keep procrastinating on getting to work on the tub, but it is looming larger and larger on the project list. I think I will goof off and try to mount the two new tires I scored. Now I hear they may be ready to produce some “Ford” script tires this fall. Hmmm…I’m feeling the pull…likely my wallet. I doubt they will be in the $110 range, however.

Thanks for looking!

[zepher11]

Hey Zeph... glad to hear the steering box is not leaking. Gives me hope! And yes... i'd say that the oil ought to be sufficiently thinned at 100 degrees that if it were going to leak it would have done so!

Keep up the good work buddy. I'm watching anxiously!

Hey Dutch, I just checked the steering box again and all systems are go at the moment. I keep waiting for it to let go any minute. It's really keeping me awake at night , NOT.

The only leak in the garage today was me. I'm afraid that the frame may rust up after me giving it a good soaking all day.

[thidisbogus]

Zeph,

I am very impressed, especially you having to do all this by yourself. What type of gray did you use for your engine?
Thanks so very much for taking those step by step shots of your emergency brake. That is going to come in so handy when I put it back together.

Did your drum slide on to your output shaft relatively easy or did you have to put some real effort into it? My first go round I applied Permatex 2 to seal it, but after a quarter inch or so it would not budge. I then removed it all and cleaned everything off again on all splines and grooves. I figured the Permatex was putting too much resistance. So then I tried 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive, being as it is really slick. This time it did the same thing. After about a quarter inch or so it would not budge. I even hit it (not too incredibly hard) with a sledge against a block of wood, a rubber mallet and a plastic hammer and it would not budge. So again, I removed it and am cleaning everything up again. I am thinking maybe the tolerances are so close I may have to put grease on it? Stir Stick is a meticulous expert machinist and rebuilder and I am absolutely confident of the tolerances being correct.

[zepher11]

Zeph,

I am very impressed, especially you having to do all this by yourself. What type of gray did you use for your engine?
Thanks so very much for taking those step by step shots of your emergency brake. That is going to come in so handy when I put it back together.

Thanks, Rodney. I went to "Tractor Supply" for the paint. I don't know if you have those in Texas. I figured they should have a good idea on what Ford Grey should be. They had a brand called ValSpar which had Ford Grey in a rattle can. Figures, I went back two weeks later to get a couple more cans and they had converted their whole paint supply to a new brand! Oh well. The grey was a lot lighter than I would have liked. I wanted everything back to original appearance on this project. I will eventually get my GPW engine completed and replace this one. At that time I will do as they did in WWII...everthing back to OD. Then I will have run the cycle from grey to replacement OD.

Did your drum slide on to your output shaft relatively easy or did you have to put some real effort into it? My first go round I applied Permatex 2 to seal it, but after a quarter inch or so it would not budge. I then removed it all and cleaned everything off again on all splines and grooves. I figured the Permatex was putting too much resistance. So then I tried 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive, being as it is really slick. This time it did the same thing. After about a quarter inch or so it would not budge. I even hit it (not too incredibly hard) with a sledge against a block of wood, a rubber mallet and a plastic hammer and it would not budge. So again, I removed it and am cleaning everything up again. I am thinking maybe the tolerances are so close I may have to put grease on it? Stir Stick is a meticulous expert machinist and rebuilder and I am absolutely confident of the tolerances being correct.

I had a bit of trouble with the drum but not much. I had the stripped threads on the output shaft that I had to deal with. It was cross threaded to a 16 thread count, so I wanted to be careful. I had trouble just getting the splines to start when installing the drum coupler. I finally was able to muscle it on about a 1/4 of an inch onto the shaft. After that I used a wood block and hammered it on as far as I could which gave me about half the threads of the nut. I then marked where the drum currently sat on the shaft with masking tape to make sure it was moving as I turned the nut vs. the nut turning and nothing happening. I then carefully turned the nut. It took some muscle, but it eventually started and seated without incident after that.

That’s too bad you can’t get your coupler on there. I was worried about a little overspray that I may have had in there, but that didn’t seem to cause a problem. Mine is a replacement coupler on an original output shaft. Good luck with it. I hope you can get it on there!

[ILikePlanesToo]

Wow. Your e-brake looks really nice. Nice work. I'm trying to decide if I should replace my band lining or jest clean up what I have. My band lining is pretty saturated with transmission fluid, so it is a bit of a mess. Did you get a new band assembly or did you clean up the original? Yours looks great.

Michael

[zepher11]

Wow. Your e-brake looks really nice. Nice work. I'm trying to decide if I should replace my band lining or jest clean up what I have. My band lining is pretty saturated with transmission fluid, so it is a bit of a mess. Did you get a new band assembly or did you clean up the original? Yours looks great.

Michael

Thanks, Michael. My band was probably like yours. It was totally soaked and it was worn pretty good. That's probably why the original drum was so deformed. I ended up with a new band from a bunch of parts I bought from a guy, so I don't know where it came from. It did have a big label stuck on it that was a pain to remove and said MB/GPW. Plus, it was painted black! Now who would paint it black from the factory like that? Hmmm...maybe it was originally black from the Ford factory? I doubt it as most of the photos I see show them as OD. After I was able to remove the label, I just sanded it and shot some OD on it. I love that lustreless OD!