52 M38a1 Motor Pool Resto

And dam, I should have given you the choke bracket when I saw you today.....

 

Front hub seals and bearings. The existing seals felt spongy so goodbye. Rummaging through my stash, I found crappy imported seals (to the left) which are now in the trash. Compare to the National seal on the right with the tensioning spring. Obvious choice. The National seal feels so much heavier in the hand. FYI, all of the original seals I've replaced on this jeep have been Nationals. Good to see an American company doing things right for such a long time.

Also replacing the front wheel bearings and races. I had some older stock, looks like from the 80's. I'll keep the existing bearings/races as trail spares.

DeBella had NOS flange gaskets which were pretty cheap in the grand scheme. I haven't bothered with them in the past but it's totally worth it for this project. NOS hub cap rubber seals installed onto the outside of the flanges. Waterproof as it can be for all of my deep water fording exploits (or not).

'S' lines installed prior to backing plate installation. Easier that way when practical. When I had the backing plates off, I neglected to loosen the eccentrics which I paid for. They were a bit of a pain to break with the plates already installed. Oh well. They're adjusted properly now.

Ready to button things up. So happy to be assembling.

Pro tip: If you flip your wheel bearing socket to the smooth side and use a rubber mallet, you will not damage your hub caps when sending them home. Same tool also works for installing pinion seals FYI....

Now onto the hard lines and brake hoses.

 

One word... Never-Seez

 

That's two words Pete...Magic stuff. I'm working on the same jar I bought in the mid-90's.

 

I remember the first time I had to attack those adjusters, in my youthful ignorance. It wasn't pretty.

These days it's a piece of cake. I like cake.

 

Nice Work.

Dave

 

Guys, Taylor Swift has JUST entered the stadium...OMG! Seriously, for your half time viewing pleasure, I offer repro master, embellished with NOS rod boot and topped of with vented NOS cap....

Fist air it's breathed since 1953.....Ahhhhhh, so fresh. I broke the seal.

I love the smell of cosmoline in the evening....Smells like victory.

Crush washers and various and sundry despicable old parts.

I feel like I have to break another seal! Original push rod, blasted. Master was bench bled per Blalp"s instructions, all the way down to the red solo cup....

Implements of destruction. My plan is foiled since my looming is too big for 3/16th brake tube. Bit of a setback. Dam.

Tools that I rarely use and bought in the mid 90's but really need on occasion. Get's the job done...

Action as promised.

More action. Double flaring at it's somewhat finest....

Female brake switch. Not military but I'll get there one of the days when I can afford a harness and all that other stuff. I had to rifle around to find the harness I'm planning to use. Needed to see which bullet connectors are built into the harness to avoid headaches later (male or female). I had a small box with several different brake switches and was VERY happy to find the the correct one. That took a while to find too.

Not done with the brakes but getting closer.

Piece by piece...the only way to do it.

But what's most important is Taylor Swift. Give me a break. The sausage and peppers are in the oven. That's my priority now. More soon! Pete

 

You can take a guy out of New York.....Man I'm starved!

 

Not liking the Titan for line flaring?

 

I used it for two of the flairs. I guess I'm old school Shaun!

 

A daring feat for a jeep that worth $15-20K. It would take a 12 pack to convince me to do that....

 

We can make that happen...

 

What brand of beer should I bring?

 

Nice......

 

Don't think I'd test that either. Too many places for water to get in. Nice to know it's waterproof, but testing it opens up another can of worms.

Dave

 

All right. After recovering from last nights festivities, I felt like something straight forward and non pretentious (in other words, not looking forwards to). Since the body was off a few weeks ago, took the entire exhaust out in one shot.

This is the real deal original exhaust. Let's see how this goes. No doubt decades of rodent feces/bedding, filth and grime...It did not disappoint! There was no unbolting the flanges. Whiz wheel helped. Too bad about the original brass nuts...It wasn't happening. Broken down;

The underside/inlet side of the muffler needs some a little work. The product of 72 years and moisture. Most people would toss it but not me. That old steel is much higher quality than todays. I've traced out where I plan to weld a patch when time permits. This is going on the shelf for a future trail rig. See part number....

When I got this project, I was fortunate enough to get two NOS mufflers. The NOS is in the foreground.

Not that pretty, but prettier than the hantavirus infester original.

You can see from the original (on the right), there was some serious blowby in the last engine in the jeep, perhaps contributing to the decent condition the exhaust is in. That engine was hurting for sure...

 

Yeah, wonder if speedometers, gauges, light bulb sockets, master cyl vents, wheel bearing grease seals, gear box/axel vents are all sealed well enough to prevent water intrusion problems?.Maybe for a brief creek fording, but not for an extended cruise around the lake.

 

Military protocol, according to the manual, was that after fording all drain plugs are to be removed, all lubricants changed out, etc, etc. Not a small task.

 

Several years ago a friend of mine hauled his Maxx (6-wheel drive floating bathtub) over to my pond. It took all the will I could muster to actually, purposely, deliberately drive it off dry land into 6' of water. Completely contradictory to every driving instinct. It floated.