1953 Off Road Rescue/recovery Jeep

In the 16 years I've known Ken, he has always had a well mannered Shepard rounding up all the good parts at shows. If you need to find Ken, you ask the kids where the big fluffy puppy is.

 

chemical bonds are better than a mechanical one (applied over sanded cured substrate).

 

Willys Group Index 17 Transmission

With this Jeep my plans were mainly as a work Jeep and possibly for use as an old school rock crawler. Here is where my biggest changes from standard 3B began. Years earlier I scored a 1956 (first year) T98-A in pristine condition.
You can read all about it here…..

Sorry looks like all the pics are gone….

It was removed from a 1956 cj-5 along with all related special parts. It is “THE” grandfather of all rock crawling transmissions. The very first and remains to date as one of very best.
Here’s a look of the custom tunnel cover.







I find this transmissions gearing to be well ….very impressive.
I might add this shifts every bit as smooth as a T90. That said you must be at a DEAD stop to engage the first/ reverse sliding gear.

Willys Group Index 18 Transfer case

Standard in 1953 was the 1-1/8” intermediate D18 with 2.43 ratio. But I feel the 1-1/4” intermediate D18 with 2.46 ratio to be a notable improvement. I certainly considered installing 3.15 Tera low gears but I wanted to stay with the original quality Dana gears if it performed as required.

It currently has a crawl ratio of 85/1 which can be lowered to 108/1 via the 3.15 gear set if I need to slow it further. So far I am very impressed and content as it is at 2.46.

Willys Group Index 19 Propeller Shafts

Short rear and longer propeller shafts as taken from the donor CJ-5. New greasable Spicer universal joints.

The rear is the shortest it can possibly be without limiting the standard suspension droop. If I was to droop any further the “U” joints would begin to bind. In fact I had to opt for late type companion flange yokes to get enough articulation at the rear joint. Shown here are the early and the late type companion flange yokes for comparison.

 

i'd make the argument for the SM420, even if it wasn't in many 4x4 vehicles. it was in production in 47, virtually unchanged through '67, and holds up to even modern standards.

anyhow, i'm loving your approach to building a jeep.

 

I could be wrong but to my knowledge the T98-A was the first transmission used in a 4wd to slow down ground speed whereas the SM420 was intended to increase torque.
We had a 1957 Chevy 2 ton dump truck with a 230 I-6 High Torque. The 420’s low 7/1 gear plus split final drive was required if trying to start 16 tons of sand up a hill from a dead stop.
Me personally I thought the 420 was a sloppy shifter.
No sloppy shifts with my T98-A.
That said I suppose the Synchromesh could the transmission of choice for guys that are 420 friendly.

 

My 420 had the sloppy shift cane in it, so I bought the Novak shift cane for the 420 and now it's nice and slop free!!

 

Cold snap today so yesterday I hauled out my last mini load of firewood for the season.
Not much room room for logs with that boom taking up the middle of the bed.

 

I hope you bring that Jeep to the next Fall reunion so I can get a close up look at it

 

I have no choice since it’s my one and only driver at this time. Directly after the reunion it looks like I may have to drive it out to the Colorado Fall Color Tour if I can’t find somebody with extra trailer space. No problem, I drove a standard 2A Willy’s out to Death Valley back in the day. Besides me many others have pulled some long hauls in a Willy’s.
I know Joseph took his up to like NY state from KC
Area. Not the first Willy long haul, surely not the last.

 

You're nuts!

 

NY to MO 999 miles
Fall 07, no overdrive or accelerator pump, bike inside jeep
Fall 08, roof rack, holley 1940 carb 14mpg
Fall 09, with the rebuilt carter yf overdrive and trailer in tow with the snow plow. 16mpg

MO to NY
Spring 08 (bike inside jeep) and
Spring 09 (bike on roof rack).
All with the f134 but it was done after that last trip.

 

I guess I am a sissy for not wanting to drive a Jeep from East TN to Fulton MO, but driving on the interstate that far in one would wreck my nerves. I have no doubt that my Jeep would hold up for the trip, just not sure I would.

 

I have not had more than a 1-1/2 day vacation for well over 10 years now so I’m WAY overdue.
I tend to look at it this way: I built the Jeep; every nut and bolt. If by chance I don’t make it then I’ll have to figure that it’s my own darn fault.

 

As a teen when I got my drivers license at 16, I had already bought my 64 3B and had finished rebuilding it. With the Factory T-90 and a warn overdrive. My friends and I routinely drove it on trips of 200-300 miles on long weekends. Fishing and hunting trips. Never found it uncomfortable, really enjoyed it. After I married the wife and I had the 74 in my avatar. I know it is not the same jeep as the 3B or a 2A but we thought nothing of loading our camping gear and taking off on cross country trips of 2-6 weeks. We went on trips from Georgia. to Montana, Washington, California, the Dakotas, Arizona, the virginias and everywhere in between. The only mechanical problem we ever had was a rear u-joint near Cotton wood Calif. We never thought we were uncomfortable, cold or hot. But we were a lot younger then too. I still have my pipe dream of driving it up the Alaskan Highway to Fairbanks and maybe up to the Arctic Circle.

 

It isn't the distance that bothers me, it is the idea of driving a vehicle that "cruises" at 50 MPH on the interstate getting buzzed constantly by folks going 70-80 MPH.

 

Food for thought...
What was the speed limit of semi's and the average performance of cars back then vs now? In just 2010 the typical midsize ford had a 200hp 3.0l motor where now it's a 300hp 4cyl.
A ford explorer today has either 300hp or 400hp and just a few years ago an explorer with a pushrod 4.0 would be 190hp.

You also didn't have cell phones, in dash distraction centers, cruise control, and the heartattack-to-go. I70 isn't too bad if you can keep up with the semi traffic. Most people at the ramp don't realize they need to speed up to get ahead of you and the 30 cars stuck behind. The cars on the ramp assume you can and will move over for them to get on the highway. That was my biggest issue followed by the amazing stopping power of 9" drums and there ability to randomly teleport you three lanes to the side when applied.

 

Yeah, me too. We aways take the long way around on county roads. It usually is not any longer much in miles just takes somewhat longer. We try to avoid the interstates as much as possible even on cross country trips. We can see the real America up close. If we see a little country store we often stop to just visit and buy drink or something. Have met many interesting folks that way. People always want to tell their story.

 

We commonly take the backroads when traveling for the same reason. Not nearly as much for scenery when fightin interstate traffic.

 

Right. I do still have to drive much of the local interstate just to get around locally because of the “big” river bridges around here. (Missouri and Mississippi)
But heading out for the Fall Color Tour I’ll plan to use the U.S and the State hiway systems for the improved scenery if nothing else.