1952 M38a1 Build: Not For The Purists

I have an old 1 ton truck with a Hydrovac and a M38a1 with the Bendix 11" brakes.
My vote would be for manual 11" brakes on your a1. They work so well that if you stomp on the brake pedal, you bettah have your seat belt on.

 

Thinking if I should put this back in. I've cleaned up the unit itself and it looks decent now. I've also cleaned up the brackets but haven't bolted the mounts back up. It was sorta jerry-rigged to fit up there. Brackets on brackets and adapter fittings on adapter fittings... I figure since I've got the purests mad at the right side of the engine, I might as well have them mad about the left side as well! It's a period piece though. It's crazy what these HydroVac's cost when rebuilt. Core's aren't cheap either. With 9" drums this might help till I convert over to 11" drums. I don't think I'll go disc brakes with this Jeep. It's supposed to be relatively stock with period mods. The newest part is the starter that's from a '92 TLC. Delco's '70s parts.

Still thinking about the distributor. I think I've overthinking it and it doesn't matter if I index #1 or not. Thoughts?

 

Threw on some black paint to the back of the housing and put it back in. I hope I can get it bled.



Apparently, this is what you do when you don't put the boots on the wire before crimping them?



So, stabbing the distributor in wasn't a big deal. It only goes in one way which I thought it would. I did clock the engine over to #1 @TDC since it was pretty easy to do now that I have the correct socket. Looking at the rotor #1 is down and right. (I keep seeing people say #1 is up and left though?) According to the wires which probably isn't the best indicator, #1 is bottom right.

I also have to figure out if I'm going to keep my oil pressure sender in the stock location or put the coil there. Interesting that the military uses a sender instead of having a line go to the dash like all of the CJs.

 

Yeah, I've driven a CJ2A and a CJ5 with 11" drums and they will put you through the windshield. Especially with no seatbelts. I've also driven a CJ5 with 9s and was going down hill and took it out of gear to downshift but then realized it wouldn't go into 1st. That was a bit of a ride.

 

I thought these gauges were waterproof but they aren't. While the bezel is sealed the backside isn't. The internals on this one were locked up. This is the speedometer that was in my Jeep. I swapped for one from the donor which had fewer miles but also worked.



Also, bolted the floor back together as I didn't need to get to the back of the block anymore. I also left it open in case I wanted to return the brakes to manual but I also didn't want to deal with the fittings down there.



Slowly, I'm getting closer to firing it up. Although I checked my stash of parts and turned out Amazon screwed me over and sent the wrong spark plugs. Of course I checked 3 months after buying them. Luckily, I only paid $6 for 4. Now they're $3.20 for 1. And of course I have spark plugs for nothing I own. I did mount the coil and moved the oil pressure sender to float in thin air as there's no place to put it right now. I'm going to switch to a mechanical gauge so that will go away in time. It's looking pretty tidy in there.



Fired up the modified TLC Starter for the first time. Worked exactly like it should! Gonna have to drill some holes in that battery plate and mount it. Trying not to drill any additional holes into the Jeep so I'll have to get a little creative.

 

Measure twice and drill twice... Yup, planned out everything and yet still screwed up. Not really a big deal since it's not a restoration and no one's going to see the extra holes under the battery tray anyway. The Barnes4wd tray had a few holes already and I couldn't use them. Wish it was blank really.



Drilled two new holes into the bracket on the frame but it could easily be fixed if someone really wanted to do that. I reused the two inner holes on the frame bracket that didn't have nuts welded to them.



The battery cables temporary. Once I get everything where I want, I'll measure and route all the cables. For now though, they allow me start the Jeep. I still need to cut the ground cable and use it to wire the alternator to the battery.



Kind of a big milestone. The Jeep requires keys! Next will be to see if the engine can start.

 

Several years ago I stumbled a cross this video where this chick was working on a VW van. She removed "newer" layers of paint with Goof Off Graffitti remover to reveal the original paint underneath. I'm going to try on my 2A one of these days. Maybe it would help you to reveal the numbers and original paint.



Do you still have access to the parts A1?

 

Peace signs and flowers?

 

I'm using an '88-92 Toyota Land Cruiser starter. It requires some modifications but they're pretty minor. You have to drill out the holes to 1/2" and slot the upper hole 2mm. You could also use a pre-88 and not have to modify it but it's about as big as the 6v.

Yes, the other M38A1 is nearby.

 

Cut the "ground" cable to make an alternator cable so I can try to start it. This was after a few tries. I'm setting the timing by ear. Tried a can of started then resorted to gas in a used water bottle. I've now gutted the old fuel lines. Turned out one of them had a hole. There was some watery old gas in there as well. Horrible smell! Bought all new hardlines and ponied up and got the in tank filter on a stick. Ouch, those aren't cheap but I shouldn't have to replace it ever. Also, changing from a dual-action pump to a single-action. Decided to splurge and get one with a priming handle. I think they're for MBs and GPWs. So, I'm giving up the vacuum wipers which isn't a big deal as they suck. Those vacuum motors aren't cheap to fix either.

 

Part #?

 

Bravo, sounds like a good runner!

 

I went with this one. I think it's correct for MB's and GPWs. https://www.kaiserwillys.com/produc...dle-fits-41-71-jeep-willys-with-4-134-engine/

 

Thank you.

 

Did some more work. Bled the lines. That cap on the pipebomb looking thing on the right was really on there. Why have so many threads on the cap? I think the cap said Sears so I guess the HydroVac was from Sears? I might replace the resivour with a Willwood later on. While I was futzing with it, the plastic line going into the bottom cracked. It was a press fit connector so I was able to cut it back and push it back together. I think the main reason for this reservoir was to make it the highest point to it's easier to bleed the system. Otherwise you have to use that bleeder valve on the top but then refill the reservoir down by the frame. It's a two-pumper now though. I need to bleed the line at the wheels once I get it driving.



Also, fixed the pedals. The brake was crashing into the steering column and making a horrible sound every time you applied the brakes. Not sure if this is correct but I swapped the pedals. They are offset inward so I swapped them do they offset outward. You can barely tell by looking at them but they no longer sound like Yoko Ono.


Now that I'm getting closer to driving it, I'm noticing other issues. Like the shifters crashing into the heater controls. I guess the Army didn't really care if they interfeered with each other.

 

Running into some issues with fuel line fittings. Are these really supposed to be the same size? The problem I have is that they the shint new one doesn't seat as deep so it's till on the weak tapered section and the fittings leak. I don't want to strip them out. Is this normal for Omix-Ada fuel lines? I was thinking that they were a different size but I'm not so sure. They're supposed to be 1/4" NPT. Anyone ever run into this problem?



Here's another problem I ran into. The MD Juan tank had a mistake in the frilling of the fuel pickup ring. For as much as this gas tank cost there should be no issues.


Replacing the old radiator hoses and there was some prizes inside. All of this was on top of the thermostat. I cleaned it up and put the old thermostat back in. I'll replace it some other time.



For anyone interested in the hoses. Here's what I used. Funny thing is that Gates recommends a different top hose but it has a weird twist in it. The ones I got is the Gates version of the Dayco that KaiserWillys recommends. It's a perfect fit. The bypass hose is Gates 20191.


I'm hoping to get all of the fuel lines sorted so they're not all leaking and get ris of the Rube Goldberg on top of the engine. I'm using M37A1 fuel lines with a YF carb. I have a YS but this is the one that was on it and they're a good carb.

I rigged up a gas can to the fuel line going to the fuel pump and it runs. I've still got some vacuum lines to cap off, like the one going to the side valve cover.

 

Ended up cleaning up the worse off pickup and using it because I think the threads on the good one is toast. The worse one had a lot of rust and the clamp on the bottom rusted off. It cleaned up pretty good. No before pics though. The plate at the top was still in okay condition and I doubt the pickup is going to really need the support.



Trying to get the fuel lines from leaking. For some startups I shoved some 1/4 fuel line onto the 5/16" hardline. The M38A1 has a shut-off valve and I figured I'd reuse it. Problem is a PO decided they needed to use all of their adapters. 1/4" pipe to 3/8" flare and back to 1/4" NPT... I'm trying to decide if I want to take the shut-off valve out and then use a universal inline fuel filter. Would clean things up but not be original. Not that I'm trying to make it all factory original. Haven't decided on what I'll eventually do but at least it's not leaking.




I also got around to freeing up the original hand throttle. The choke is a repop as I couldn't free it up and needed it so I didn't need two people to try to start it. It's nice to be able to reuse some of the old parts. New stuff just stands out.



With the gas tank not leaking, I dumped 1-2 gallons into the tank and took it for it's 2nd drive, ever. For the first drive I had the fuel line going straight into a gas can. One of the problems is that the faster I go the more apparent it is that the tires are square. I've also noticed that the water pump leaks at the front seal. not a big issue right now. I'm just glad the radiator doesn't leak. The water pump is still cheap. Also, the transmission I swapped in from the donor Jeep works great. I haven't tried 4wd or 4lo yet. The speedometer does work but none of the other gauges do. According to the odometer I've put 2 miles on the Jeep. Not sure if that's accurate though. I also need to buy a timing light.

The wheels seem to have waves in them. Not sure how important that they're true as the Jeeps top speed is only 50 mph. The other problem is that the tires are +60yo and out of round so when they spin up they start throwing their weight around.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N9ijrDfrLOY
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