1963 Us Navy Dj-3a

I've had a "CJ-2" that's been in parts for over 30 years. It needs everything. It's basically a bare frame with no suspension, motor mounts, steering, floorboards ...etc. See thread here: The 25+ Year Prolonged Build Of A "cj-2a"

I really want a flatfender, but I've decided that one's too much for me to get working in any reasonable time frame. Maybe it can be a retirement project. In the meanwhile, I picked up this flatfender from Craigslist and it seem like it should have it's own thread:


It's an interesting Jeep. It turns out was originally a 1963 2wd US Navy DJ-3A. I'll post up some of the interesting stuff related to that. I had no idea they still made low-hood flatfenders up to 1964. Of course, it's been converted to 4wd at this point.

It's non-running since the distributor is out. The brake pedal also goes to the floor. The first jobs will be fixing those two things so it's driveable. Then I can make a plan for everything else.

 

How long do you estimate before you buy one of these tops for it?



A fully decked out DJ3A similar to this photo, in Candy Striped turquoise, popped up for sale near me last year and I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat if I hadn't been moving at that time.

I've always wanted to see a 4x4 version of one of these out in the wild. So amazing. They're like the Rick Flair of Jeeps.

Whatever you do with it, It'll be a really interesting project for sure!

 

Here's what it would have looked like when new:


Here's a similar restored unit (with an automatic transmission!):






A decent amount of that history still shows.

Headlight protectors:


Later DJs had a heater fresh air intake port on the side of the cowl like 3Bs did. The brackets for the mirrors seen in the Navy photo above are still there:


Non-chromed Tuxedo Park style license plate light in the middle of the tailgate and bumperettes:


Factory rear tank with filler on the passenger side tail panel:


Some helpful reminders on the dash:




A centrally located CJ-5 style Speedometer that other low-hood flatfenders did not get (the small gauges were added by previous owners):


The back side of the heat vent hole showing the weld-nut for the bottom mirror mount brace:


Were the missing data plate went. I wish it wasn't missing:


That back of the top mirror mount:


Interesting top bow mounts on the rear fenderwells:


A factory brace where the fuel filler would be on a normal faltfender:


The front of the rear-tank. Sadly they are only about 10.5 gallons, so it's not a capacity improvement over the under-seat tank:


Back of the fuel tank:


The filler:


Another Navy decal hidden by the roll cage. You can make out part of a number on it:


It looks like it had sun visors at some point. Not sure if they were original equipment. They probably are because they have the blue paint on them:


Looking through the layers of paint, it appears it was delivered to the Navy painted gray, but the Navy painted it the light metallic blue some time during its service life. All the stencils and stickers are over the blue.

Interesting stuff, but not really important for its future life. It's never getting restored. I'll try to preserve what unique stuff I can because it's kind of cool.

 

My intended use for this Jeep is an offloading rig that isn't so nice I'm afraid to scratch and dent it. It's in about the perfect condition for a build like that.

Here's the inventory of stuff after going over it:

• Odd-fire Buick/Dauntless V6 with Offenhauser intake and Holley 470 CFM Truck Avenger carb.
• Fresh aluminum radiator with a dinky thermostatically operated pusher fan.
• SM420 transmission. Handle throttle mounted to shifter.
• Large hole, twin stick Dana 18 with the standard 2.46:1 gear set. Small V6-style U-joint yoke on the front output. Unconnected parking brake in place.
• Mid 70s vintage Dana 30 front axle with the thicker disk brakes. 3.54 gears, open diff.
• Power Saginaw steering with high-mount pump and tilt wheel.
• Tapered axle D44 housing with full float conversion (I need to pull a shaft out and see what the spline counts are). Same D30 disk brake setup that's on the front (with no provision for a parking brake). 3.54 gears with some type of auto-locker.
• A reasonably decent roll cage.
• Single circuit master cylinder. Brake pedal goes to the floor.
• A Maradyne branded heater.
• A Con Ferr rear seat with storage.
• AA chain-type clutch linkage.

There are plenty of bondo'd over rust spots and the hat channels are crusty in spots. The floors are surprisingly decent. I'm not making a show rig out of this, but I do want to patch any rust holes that leak to the inside. Definitely some work to do there.

Photos of mechanical stuff:

The V-6 and aluminum radiator. Nice how the fan thermostat is duct taped to the upper tank:


Steering install seems decent:


Carb:


Looks like someone did a crappy job of making the manifold clear and HEI distributor at one point:


Tiny pusher fan. I can't imagine this is going to do much when it's 100 degrees outside:


The heater that keeps the passenger feet warn:


Interesting single wiper motor that drive both blades via cable. I don't think this is original but I have no idea what it's off of:


Tilt column. Probably GM, but I've haven't investigated yet. Aftermarket wheel missing horn button:


One inch spacers on the crossframe. The plan is to remove the parking brake, cut the floorboards, and make a new crossframe to raise the back of the transfercase up a good 2 inches for ground clearance:


The SM420 adapter:


The SM420:


Large hole D18:


Standard 2.46:1 gears in the D18:


Single circuit Master cylinder:


Motor mounts seem fine. I'll probably improve the welding a little bit:


The radiator elbow is pretty close to the front diff:


They extended the bump stop and that side to prevent collisions:


I'll have to see if I can come up with something better that doesn't limit travel.

Advance Adapters chain clutch linkage:


Counting turns on the front diff confirms the 3.54 tag. The rear matches:


Small V6-type U-joint on the front output. Maybe to clear the SM420? It looks like a normal 1310 will fit with a tiny bit more grinding:


Rear disks, same as the front disks except rotated upwards. No parking brake capability:


Front brake hoses are shot:


The engine is surprisingly clean inside:


The goal for now is to get it running/driving and figure out what's next.

At the minimum for offroading:

• Some sort of parking brake
• Dual brake circuits
• Winch
• Spare mount with provision for more fuel
• Tummy tuck and skid plates
• Some sort of front locker
• Rock sliders
• Probably YJ springs with a shackle flip.
• Mechanical fan with shroud
• 12SI alternator and a complete re-wiring.
• Between the frame rail exhaust
• ????

 

Some of the rust that's bad enough it needs to be dealt with.

Bottom corners of windshield:


Bottom of the windshield in general:




Big holes around the driver side windshield hinge on the cowl:


Door opening brace on the passenger side:


Cowl brace passenger side:


Door opening brace driver side:


Hat channels:






Where the rear fenderwell meets the floor riser:


There is going to be a decent amount of patching to do. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it though. I just want it to be water tight and firmly attached, not pretty.

 

Looks like a pretty good start. I like it. Good pics too.

My $0.02 USD: the smaller u-joint is probably there because it's a later, ribbed SM420 and the PO didn't want to grind it [all the way]. You can fit a 1310 on there by grinding the case down from what I've read.

 

That's a really solid start on a wheeler!
1310 front shaft should not be an issue. I did not have to grind on Steve's Sm420 to clear a 1310 shaft.

 

It is the later ribbed case, but the rib has already been ground down and there is at least 3/8" clearance to the U-joint. That should be plenty to clear a 1310 yoke. It's not like you need much clearance since they don't move relative to each other. It's possible they used the small joint because it was already there on the large hole transfercase.

 

WOOOOW! I never knew the flatty DJs came with auto transmissions! So bizarre to see a tub with ZERO stick shifters anywhere!

The License plate holder is great! Also really cool to see the bumperettes! You seemilngly actually have a “safer” jeep than most people haha.

Loving the original decals and data plates. You better be darn sure to never park it “at Barracks Mess Halls”!

The rear seat with the storage bin is something I never knew existed either! Definitely going on my list.

Disks on all 4 wheels…. very cool.

 

Looks like you have a parking brake already on your Dana 18. No? Could you just run a cable?

 

Oh wait I missed this somehow.

 

Picked up a new battery today. The old tiny Group 55 battery that was in it would crank the engine about 2 revolutions before dying in spite if being charged for two days.

Spent the big bucks on an AGM group 35 battery. It barely fits, but it fits:


Maybe not the greatest for winching. 650 CCA vs 750 CCA for the group 24 battery that bolts right into a CJ-5. No way a group 24 is fitting under the hood of this Jeep. It's amazing how much less room there is in a flatfender compared to a CJ-5.

Once I had a battery, I got the distributor lined up, set the points, hooked up some temporary ignition wires, and started cranking. Lots of spark right off the bat but the fuel pump was just pulsing air. I added a couple gallons to the tank and it fired off with a little more cranking!

You can see the blurry pulleys and oil burning off the exhaust manifold:


I only ran it for about 5 minutes since I didn't have the electric choke hooked up and it was getting late. I'll get the wiring all hooked up and fire it up again tomorrow to check for vacuum leaks and get the choke, idle and timing dialed in. Hopefully the lifter ticking will go away with a little more running. This thing hasn't ran for a good 5 years and maybe more like 10.

Since the Engine is showing promise, I decided to have a look at the brakes. Nothing in the master cylinder. Not surprising the pedal goes to the floor:



There is less rust in there than I would have guessed. I'll get some fluid in there and bleed it to see if I have enough brakes to drive around the property.

With any luck, this thing might be mobile by this weekend.

 

Those are pneumatic brakes. Duh.

 

Ok, It's time for that thing we all do: Gearing calculations!

Here's the gearing as is with a stock D18, SM420, and 3.54 axle gears.

Notes:

• Sorted in ascending order
• Green rows are low range to help see the high/low range overlaps
• Speed is based on 2500 engine RPM and 33" tires

With the 7:1 low in the SM420, the crawl ratio is surprisingly OK for having 3.54 gears.

Highway gears are 3.54, of course, which is probably a little high for a Daunless and 33" tires. I thought the 3.73s in my old '69 with 31 inch tires were great highway gears. Although I think NorCal69 is running 3.31 gears with 33s and no issues on his V6 CJ-5.


Now let's start possible mods to improve things sorted by cost.

1) Switching the axle gears to 4.10s.

This involves a couple of gear sets and install kits and a couple of new differential cases since 3.54 is on the wrong side of the break for both the D30 and D44. I'm estimating the cost at $608


The crawl is approaching a decent number and the highway gearing is close-ish to what a Jeep with 3.73s and 31 inch tires would have. This isn't a terrible solution for the money.

2) Leaving the 3.54s but adding TeraLo gears.

This is by far the easiest solution and the cost comes in pretty low at $850.

This gives a pretty solid crawl ratio of 79:1 and still has nice highway gears. The 39.92: and 24.99:1 are also decent gears for offroading. Pretty good all around for the money.

3) Adding TeraLo and switching to 4.10 gears.

This is combining the two above options. The price compounds to about $1500:

Now we're getting some serious crawl gears at 91:1. Highway gearing is still in the realm of OK. This is an obvious future follow-on starting with the TeraLo gears if I feel a better crawl gear is needed.

4) Adding an overdrive and re-gearing.

None of the above solutions take the best feature of having a D18 into account; an overdrive! With the 3.54s, adding an overdrive requires regearing costs in addition to the cost of the overdrive itself. Now we're up to $1900.

I'm picking 4.88 gears to target good highway gears on the top end. This is with the standard 2.46:1 D18 low range.

This is a pretty nice setup. Lots of deep gear choices in low range, and also several good offroad gears in high range. Perfect highway gears.

Of course, it all comes at a high dollar cost and the overdrive is something else to break on the trail.

5) Adding an overdrive, regearing, and adding Teralo gears.

This is adding Teralo gears to the above for the total Cadillac solution. It comes at a whopping $2800 cost. (That's almost an Atlas!)

Look at all those crawl gears! This is a pretty amazing setup, but it's a lot more than I want to spend on just one aspect of this Jeep.


Summary:

In the end, it looks like popping in some TeraLo gears is the best way to start. It's quick, easy, relatively cheap, and will give me decent highway gears with a 79:1 crawl ratio.

I can follow on with additional mods if needed.

 

That would be the only thing I would do!
79:1 is a great ratio for Rubicon kinda stuff when running 31-35" size tires.
TerraLo with 3.54 and Sm420 would be an excellent combo behind a dauntless.
The only way to make it better would be fuel injection!

 

That's likely to be one of those round 2 things.

 

I really like the gearing combination of my CJ with the v6, T18, od and 4.88's
Not only do I have a great crawl ratio, but with the overdrive I have a lot of gears in between to choose from. Very useful with a low power engine like the 225.

 

The flat fender with an automatic is really interesting. AFAIK there were no automatics available with the L134 in any Willys/Kaiser platform. The earliest DJ with an automatic that I know of was the DJ-5A which sported a Chevy 153 and Powerglide 2-speed. Would be just fine to putt-putt around the base. GM had those components available in 1963, offered together in the Chevy II '62-63. The shifter looks like R-N-D-L which hints at the 2-speed Powerglide.

Jeep offered the Borg-Warner AS-8F transmission behind the 230 OHC six in the Wagoneer. This was a three-speed AFAIK, and was not offered with other engines, again AFAIK.

 

I think your re-gear costs are too low because you will undoubtedly be using selectable lockers with new bearings, gaskets, seals and speedometer correction.

Just Tera low would be the way to go. Then fuel injection later.

Fwiw even with 4.27's I need my overdrive.
3.2:1 FDR 60:1 crawl.... but I'm at 700' and it's flat with a 70mph.

I think your rear axle should have a powerlock if it is the original 19 spline. The auto was a military base DJ thing. Pop the cover and inspect. It's condition will affect your decision here anyway.

 

The original DJ rear axle would have been a 4-lug Dana 27 with a centered pumpkin. Since it's got a locker and full float in a tapered D44 housing, it could be anything spline-wise, but probably 19 spline. Maybe 30. Probably 27 spline outers. Need to pull an axle shaft and/or pop the diff cover at some point.

Here's the original source from ewillys.com: http://www.ewillys.com/2018/06/19/1964-dj-3a-navy-orange-county-ca-12500/

Looks like it was a Borg Warner transmission. The R-N-D-L makes sense. The old Borg Warners (and Ford-O-Matics) were 3 speed transmissions, but they normally started out in 2nd and shifted to 3rd when in D. You could manually select 1st by putting the shifter in L and it would stay in 1st. You could also engage 1st when in D by flooring it from a stop. It would still start in second, but then down shift into 1st before upshifting through all the gears.