Willys MB Jeep - MB365678

I really shouldn't spend so much time on the internet looking at pictures of jeeps, it only leads to trouble!
I noticed something horrific the other day - my fuel gauge and oil pressure gauge were in the wrong places - Oh No! Illustrated by this incriminating photo from last year:

So, that doesn't look like a tricky job to fix, I'll whizz through that in no time at all.
Ok it was no issue removing the fuel gauge and getting the oil gauge off also went smoothly but after that it was a nightmare.
What I didn't realise was that the NOS oil gauge I had fitted was just barely hanging on to the fitting on the copper tube that comes up from the sump. How it had actually stayed on that long is a miracle! When I tried to re-position and re-fit it, no dice! Worse still, given that I have only a limited intellect and no patience, I ended up forcing the gauge on and hoping for the best. I fitted it and started the engine - all OK for about 15 seconds then a strange warm feeling on my feet, look down and there's the contents of the sump flowing nicely onto my shoes. Crap, the fitting's popped off the gauge and the footwell is full of oil. Nasty clean up job, lots of swearing - job abandoned.

So, jeep can't drive in this condition, what to do? Call an expert, Steve at Dallas. His advice was to blank the pipe if I couldn't refit the gauge. OK, good advice, especially as I needed to get the jeep running so I could drive it up to Newbury for its MOT.
Then I realised that there was another end on the tube - the sump end other side of the firewall.

Why didn't I just do this when I first hit the snag? Anyway, cracking the tube from the flex hose near the sump allowed me to extract the whole tube and fit the repro gauge that I took out last year back on to it. I then bent the pipe just enough to shove back through from the from the dashboard side and re-connect it. The repro gauge and NOS gauge have different threads - the tube fitting is for repro only.

So, somewhat redeemed I was back in business to run the engine, all went well, no leaks. The NOS gauge is now useless with stripped threads
The moral of the story is that patience is a virtue and threads ain't all the same!

However, in my defence the fuel gauge went back in its correct spot perfectly and worked first time - phew!

Having got back to serviceable condition I drove up to Newbury today via Romsey, Stockbridge and Andover without any trouble at all. Jeep can now get its MOT (and a new copper tube!) from the experts
On reflection, I think leaving well alone is good advice (that's what the Wife told me to do.....)

For all your Jeep and Dodge needs AND BRILLIANT ADVICE WHEN YOU SCREW UP!

http://dallasautoparts.com/index.htm

Great weather for a spin this morning. Off down the post office depot to collect a parcel and then round and about to get the battery charged up and cobwebs blown off. Next week the jeep goes off to Dallas Autos for MOT and a few other bits and bobs. So today I stripped off all the bits that aren't needed - axe, shovel, gas can, bags, back seat and general stuff that I had accumlated in the stowage lockers.
Whilst the back seat was out I took some pics of the inside of the tub

The tub is a very close copy of the late war ACM Type 2 tub, it has flat toolbox lids like the Willys. Apparently the footrests are different and so is the folding of the joins on the wheel arches. See if you can tell

The trip to the Post Office depot was very fruitful, I collected my latest acquisition from the ether

This was kind of an impulse buy, seemed like a great partner for the entrenching tool. It was sold as WW2 but I doubt that it actually is, none the less it will no doubt look cool when I eventually decide what to do with it!

For all your Jeep and Dodge needs:

http://dallasautoparts.com/index.htm

This weekend I attacked the headlight brackets which have been bugging me for a while! The brackets are fine but the bond straps aren't right.
What was on the jeep was a very efficient modification which I think is commonly found on French Army jeeps, however it looks quite different to WW2 spec. The late war Willys should have grounding wires not bond straps on the brackets. The "French" mods look like this:

At Stoneleigh Militaria I collected a set of WOF (Willys Overland France) headlight brackets from Tony Sudds (TS Autos). I re-painted them in my favourite flat OD from Dallas Autos (aerosol spray) and drilled 4mm hole on the inner side of each one:

I've looked all over and asked all the usual suppliers if they had the bond wires, no luck and they weren't included in the bond strap kit that I bought last year. So no option but to create a facsimile of them. I used 6 inches of copper core wire (I only had red/white in the tin!) and vintage car type connectors, large at one end and small at the other.

I wasn't sure if the bond wires were a set colour so I painted them black (Tamiya waterbased flat black model paint), the photos I've seen show a variety of colours - black will do for me.

When I came to fit the new brackets I found some really nice big star washers on the fixing bolts (which were all imperial sizes) so I cleaned them up and used them again. I made sure all the contact surfaces were sanded to bright metal to help the grounding and then fitted the new brackets. The big ends of the bond wires were fitted between the bracket and the grill and the small ends fixed with a machine screw and small star washer to the hole on the bracket.

Looks pretty good for now, maybe the real stuff will turn up one day! I was totally amazed when I turned on the headlights and they still worked

More photos at:

http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=498

For all your Jeep and Dodge needs:

http://dallasautoparts.com/index.htm

Visited the Stoneleigh Militaria fair today. Quite impressive, lots and lots of good stuff on sale and all the jeep suppliers present. Bit short on refreshment kiosks though!
Got myself a few little mementos to make the trip worthwhile, well you can't go all that way for nothing can you?