Engine manufacturer for M151A2

[Bob Phillips]

Pardon me for an abreviated message, 3rd time ive typed it on
this GD computer ...
- M151 under rated and getting a bad rap, have been involved in help scrap
200+, biggest issue lousy carburetion- running rich then starving, when sold to
locals military carb is scrapped and an updraft or downdraft installed- then
work just fine
- some design flaws on engine, exh manifold, starter location etc
- have had M151 running on propane using pipe plug ports in the intake
manifold, no issues
- transmission is heavy duty, seems well designed but often criticized, anyone
got horror stories?
- I do have a jeep with an M151 engine and trany attached to original
transfer case. It was an easy fix esp by removing rear transfer case portion
and using the long output shaft. Cut and welded original gear onto centre of
jeep transfer case gear and added 3/4 inch adapter plate. Need to have a
shorter driveshaft made up for the rear. Reposition motor mounts etc.
- Have not had it driving yet.
BP

[rob love]

There was nothing overly heavy duty about those transmissions. Failures seemed to occur starting at around 25000 miles.



When I built my M151A2, I used the best components out of the 30 that I had salvaged. I used a fairly freshly rebuilt transmission which had been rebuilt by Wes-trans out of Winnipeg. It started to fail after less than a thousand miles. On tear down, I found that while everything still fell within specifications, they were all at the outer tolerances, and combined together, it just didn't work out.



The main weaknesses I always found with the M151A2 were all those u-joints (and operators who thought it was somebodies else's job to grease them), and a big weakness was the poorly designed rear suspension hangers. They were basically a 3/8 bolt going through two 1/8" plates. The holes would elongate, causing a dangerous slop in the rear suspension.

[Bob Phillips]

So Rob, what kind of transmission failures did you (or others you are aware of) find most often? Again I have seen caarping about theses transmissions on other sites but my limited experience has been favorable. How does it compare with a standard jeep 3 speed ? I do agree that the mounting of rear suspension is underwhelming!

[rob love]

Sorry Bob, but too many years have passed since I was dealing with the M151s, but in my memory I was not overly impressed with those transmissions. One of the things I do remember was that as they wore, they would howl like a banshee. I saw one Mutt get it's rear differential replaced twice before they figured out it was the tranny making all the noise.

[John Genereux]

I had one transmission failure on exercise in Valcartier. I got an MRT call that the transmission would not shift into any gear. It was getting dark as we arrived and quickly found the jeep. As always when starting a manual transmission, I pushed in the clutch, main switch on and went with my right hand to make sure the tranny was in neutral. First pass with my hand, not there. Ok then, its in gear. Tried another location, nothing. Looking over, there was just a hole in the floor where the shifter was supposed to be. I found the shifter after a brief search, on the floor in front of the back seats! Not the usual location, but I guess that is where it ended up as someone shifted into high gear and it came out with his hand.