From: F. Brian Mead (brian@hardscrabblefarm.com)
Date: Wed Aug 14 2002 - 16:35:16 PDT
First! A REALLY big THANK YOU to my wife for putting up with her very
grumpy, single minded, sometimes whiny husband! I guess she could compare
this to a bad baseball or football season for most other wives!
A Big THANK YOU to everyone who offered help & advice on my 1944 MB
project! The jeep has got the new tub on, and even though it was raining,
I drove it around the barnyard!!!!!! WAHOOO!!!!!
Now that it's safely back in the garage, I'll fill everyone in on the last
stretch. You may remember I tried to get it running about 2 weeks
ago. After checking the battery and all the grounds, I took the starter
off & had it rebuilt. Apparently the bendix had failed, along with some
other parts that needed replacing. Not bad for $50.00! I knew it was in
good hands when I walked into the shop, and from across the room, the owner
started chirping "jeep, jeep, jeep, jeep, jeep!" I was right in assuming he
had done a few in his time.
Last Sunday afternoon, I got the old starter bushing out of the bell
housing (that's a LONG story in frustration!), and put the new bushing &
starter in. All seemed to go well. I pulled the plugs so I wouldn't have
to fight the compression and proceeded to crank the engine over a few times
to fill up the fuel lines that I had replaced. (I didn't replace all of
them, some were already fairly new when I got the jeep) I put in new spark
plugs (and the cool little umbrellas too =^) and hooked everything up.
I put the battery in, and fired her up. All seemed to go well for about
5-10 seconds, until I saw the smoke coming from the engine!!!!! I stared
in disbelief, with visions of rebuilding the engine floating thru my
brain. As the smoke & oil settled down, it seemed the long oil line going
from the block to the oil filter had failed at the bottom fitting. That
fan did a WONDERFUL job of coating my engine compartment with oil...at
least now I don't have to worry about the engine compartment
rusting. =^) So, I spent a while cleaning up the engine compartment, and
headed back to the house for a drink. Mmmm, nice to see you Captain Morgan!
Monday I stopped by Richard Grace's house to pick up some new oil lines. I
put them in about 1 hour ago, topped off the oil, and started her up. I
swear she runs better than she ever has! The idle is smoother and
quieter. I still need to deal with the accelerator return spring because
it doesn't really want to return that quickly, but that's easy!
Thanks again to everyone for the great help & advice.
BTW, I'm going to name the jeep "Sadie", after my horse. I rode Sadie the
horse in CW reenacting, and now I'll drive Sadie the jeep in WW2!
Now on to get Robin's CJV-35/U running! =^)
Later,
Brian (grinning like an idiot!) Mead
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