Sixty-seven pattern Jeep progress log

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by maple_leaf_eh

For Alex Blair - standby for "Jeff" to call wanting to buy ordnance parts and shop manuals for the M38A1. $$ $$ $$

After a year in the hands of Joel Bellerose in the wilds of Arnprior, the collection of manuals that was Alex Blair's is now in my posession and I will be happy to talk/e-mail "Jeff" about (Canadian) Jeep manuals.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

After a year in the hands of Joel Bellerose in the wilds of Arnprior, the collection of manuals that was Alex Blair's is now in my posession and I will be happy to talk/e-mail "Jeff" about (Canadian) Jeep manuals.

hi Grant..
No call from the varlet yet..maybe Terry can give us a number or get him to call us for some manuals...You 'da man....U...AL...!!

[rob love]

When a jeep (or any vehicle for that matter) sits for any length of time, the little check valves can either dry out or some of the particulate may keep them from sealing. The jeep has 6 of those little check valves in the pump if I recall, and the failre of even one will cause the pump not to pump. I found that by wetting the pump with some fuel (or priming the pump would be the better term) the pumps would normally work again.

When they were selling the M38A1s at auction in the mid 80s, I got one jeep with an almost brand new engine for only $1100 because they could not get it to run during the auction. A bit of gas from a squirt can into the pump quickly cured that and it was a beatiful running jeep. Replacing the stale gas made it run even better.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Tried to short circuit past the fuel pump tonight with a Coke bottle of fresh gas. I'm beginning to believe the last owner cross-connected a fuel line and a vaccuum line. There is no draw, and he has an inline fuel filter on something that just looks out of place.

[maple_leaf_eh]

The M38A1 CDN3 has: new plugs, new coil, new condensor, new rotor, new little rubber washers between the distributor cap and the cover (packed in Oct 1951), new fuel pump, freshly charged batteries. The wires spark. The plugs spark. The carb flows. The fuel lines flow. The gas is fresh. The only weak part is the starter isn't turning fast enough to kick over. I've tried ether spray, choke, stomping the accelerator, and turning it with the feeds back at neutral. But it just won't kick!

Short of starting under compression, what else can I do? Is there some electrical test I can do to see if it is getting 24v vs 12v?

[maple_leaf_eh]

Well, I towed it down the block to a now abandoned hospital grounds and tried starting under compression. No luck! But it does backfire. Merde!

I had it in the driveway afterwards and a half-ton pulled up. The driver dismounts and approaches with the fixed eye gaze, swaggering rolling gait of a gunfighter. Eyeballing the Jeep.

Smart alec me sez, 'You're not from these parts mister. You must be here for the Jeep.'

After trading one-liner questions, 'fifty-three?', 'seventy', 'runs?', 'nope', 'good shape?', 'yes and no', etc. We introduced ourselves and it turns out I've corresponded with the fellow over parts. He wasn't selling, but offered to stop by for the next few nights to help. I'll take any free advice given.

All 4 spark plugs and leads fire nicely. Gap tested and put into spec.

He brought a compression tester one night. #1 is 90 psi dry/96 psi with oil; #2 is 60/96, #3 is 110/114, and #4 is 90 and 104. The manual says 120 psi preferred.

Another night he interpreted the engine block dataplate. Bored 40 over, Mains 30 over, Rod Ends 30 over. Rebuilt Jul 84 by Bennett and Hanson in Smiths Falls, ON.

The backfiring and pulled plugs suggest it is running too rich. Time to teach myself about timing.

On another topic, how can I function the starter pedal mechanism from under the hood? A short bar or a long screwdriver?

[jim fraser (RIP)]

hi terry.a old piece of a broom handle.those bennett and hanson rebuilts arent a very good rebuilt.they were slapped together very quickly.no quality control.i have at least five of them here in arnprior and none of them are real good.all the jeeps i have had and those rebuilts gave me the most trouble.regards jim.

[jim fraser (RIP)]

hi terry.did you loosen the dist and turn it a little to see if it hits.regards jim.

[maple_leaf_eh]

My neighbour, who had been talking me through some steps, suggested I pull the carb and look for mouse nests etc in the intake. Stranger things have happened he suggested, leading into yet another rendition of his story about 1 of the 3 carbs on an outboard engine being plugged with mouse fluff, pink boat house insulation and old kapok life vest filler. As he says: spark √ ; black plug electrodes; strong spark x4 √ ; fuel √ (gassy fumes from the cylnders when turned with the plugs out); backfires √ ; enough air, dunno. Maybe there isn't enough air getting into the cylinders because of something in the intake?

There were mouse turds and leaves in the heater box where the big hose fits. The carb intake isn't very far away ...

[maple_leaf_eh]

The Jeep sat mostly untouched from end of June to first weekend in October, when MLU's favourite Jeep Whisperer (Rob Love) laid eyes and hands upon 70-08876. For a seat at the supper table and one serving of BBQ back ribs and salad, he got the engine running! Tick another box on the work list.

The problem was the oil pump had been reinstalled incorrectly at some point, and the distributor would never fire as shown in the manuals. The firing order was off from the diagrams. He tweaked the timing a bit, and then with a mist of ether in the intake, COUGH COUGH VROOM!!! and great clouds of smelly smoke exhausted as would be expected from a long idle engine.

He inspected the rest of the vehicle for obvious mods distinctive to Central Canada, observed various things that I will need to address and a couple of fixes that need to be undone. But overall he gave me the nod of approval and wished me well.