-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Burke <julianb@esper.com>
To: Military Chat Group <mil-veh@skylee.com>
Date: Thursday, May 27, 1999 9:13 PM
Subject: [MV] M151A2 Manufacturing
>Hello all, OK, Back to a little segment about AM General's M151A2's. This
>won't be complete tonight but this is what the Director of Contracts from
>AMG told me:
>
>A question was posed to me about whether Ford sold or gave their tooling to
>AMG. Ford manufactured M151A2's for just under 1 year. AMG was going to
>show everyone that THEY were in the Jeep business of which they certainly
>did! Remember, AMG is the descendent of Willys and Kaiser jeep. Ford and
>AMG were in DIRECT competition over the A2's. The answer is NO, they did
>not. It also would makes sense that Ford would continue to woo the Gov't
>for the production of jeeps and it would be foolish to dispose of the
>tooling when perhaps, a contract would pop up in the future and guess what,
>AMG would have your tooling! Ford was very much "miffed" over this deal and
>would not have much if anything to do with AMG. AMG had all of their own
>tooling and ALL body parts were made IN-HOUSE in South Bend, Indiana in the
>former Studebaker production facility. (This may have something to do with
>the drain holes in the side of the jeep of which I will later cover.) The
>building is still there but is now a moving-storage facility however, the
>test track ajacent to it is still the property of AMG and is used for the
>testing of Hummers and training drivers for Hummers. It is 400 acres of
>Indiana wilderness with every obstacle that could confront a Hummer. (Test
>track, two foot chunks of concrete debris, 22" steps, straight ups and
>downs, throttle-modulation points, breeching ditches, 40" swamp-2 acres of
>it, and much, much more) If interested, I'll go into that later-I've been
>through all of it with a test track Hummer. The test track is about the
>only thing original for a M151A2 jeep. A jeep was driven for 6 miles and
>then checked for any problems before it was checked off by a Gov't official
>as then at that time, it was Gov't property and no more warranty. Warranty
>was during the 6 mile run-in.
>
>Regarding the fuel canaster. This was part of the emission control and came
>on the scene in about late 1974. The Gov't wanted to to be emission
>compliant along with other auto manufacturers. Remember, the Gov't is
>exempt from this restriction for tactical vehicles but wanted this to be
>incorporated into their system. This also included positive crankcase
>ventilation back into the intake manifold.
>
>AMG made only three (3) M151A2 variants. The M151A2 jeep, The M718
>ambulance and the M825 armament carrier. ALL three of these were made
>IN-HOUSE. All were complete and shipped to the Gov't with the exception of
>the guns for the M825. The other variants ie; searchlight jeeps and other
>such were done by other contractors but were not in any great numbers to be
>bothered with by AMG. (Only the add-on parts, not the jeeps themselves)
>
>As far as anyone knows, no jeeps from AMG were galvanized. I think only
>Ford may have done a few of their later ones. At this point in time (1970)
>rust was not an issue but later, AMG made "kits" called "extended service
>life kits" which were channel pieces which were welded on top of the
>existing unitized frame journals and cross members of the frame to extend
>the bodies' lifespan. This was meant to be done out in the field. In 1977,
>AMG started ZBARTing every jeep after that point.
>
>While some unit numbers had the year in its' unit markings, AMG had nothing
>to do with that. Anything additionally painted on the vehicle was solely
>done by its' unit commander. NO dates and I mean NO dates of manufacture
>were stamped on ANY AMG vehicle in any place because this is an additional
>manufacturing step that was not in contract protocol. If any date is filled
>in on ANY AMG jeep, it was done by someone else after it left the factory.
>However, many componet parts had dates stamped on them by their
>manufacturer mainly for warranty purposes and if they are original to the
>jeep, this might put it close to its' year.
>
>I will be asking one of the body engineers about the drain holes in the side
>of the jeep and see if I can clear up this long awaited answer!
>
>
>Well, this is all for now and it is late and don't want to make any mistakes
>by being tired. Email me with more questions of specific items if I didn't
>cover it. Also, I might cover how they installed the wiring harness in a
>M151A2 through the frame to the rear-they used a whip antenna to pull it
>through! By the way, the seam "glue" which is used in all of the seams of a
>Hummer body is called "Cybond". It is of a peanut butter consistency and is
>cured by baking it in an oven. (The whole body) It has microscoptic glass
>beads in it and makes the body extremely rigid. If you replace body panels
>on a Humvee and don't use it or something similiar like "seamseal", the body
>will lose its' integrity and water tightness. Your Jeep Friend, Julian
>Burke
>
>
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