1980 U-50 (br Army Cj-5) Restoration

way cool, I was down your way in Sao Bernardo a year ago. Theres a lot of cool old iron in Brazil.
what web site do you use to look/buy old vehicles? besides facebook, i dont have that.

 

The best website would be Mercado Livre, which is similar to E-bay in concept, and OLX, but for more local stuff we usually use Facebook... Dad found his last Jeep through there

On the U-50, did some progress last week

Radio mocked up


We went back and put new brake shoe liners in the front


Dad did some travelling and brought home the engine!
This is from a '82 F-100, and therefore has the double barrel carb; we're leaving it that way for the extra ~9hp.
We will however have to change the bellhousing and clutch fork, since the F-100, Maverick, and the very last Jeeps, despite keeping the T-90 bolt pattern, have a "reversed" fork, with the cable pulling from the front.

T-90 empty case as a placeholder

Today we fired it up, and i have to say, it was one of the easiest times we've done that with a new (to us) engine.

 

Well, i have been away for a few months. between dad's 3B we worked on a bit, and a lot of farm work, the U-50 was on the background for a while.

Starting up, i reassembled the transmission. There was no reason for it, except for the fact this was the 2wd trans that came with the engine, and they use a different output shaft than the 4wd ones.


Originally we were going to use manual locking hubs, but we decided to keep it original and use AVM Automatics.
Cleaning up a set

Installed

Frame on stands for touch ups

After paint, we also drilled the body mounting holes, which were absent in the new floors we used.


Yesterday, we swapped the bellhousing, painted the transmission and joined them to the engine. We tried to match the original red oxide primer for the transmission as best as we could, and for the engine, we decided to leave it with its original paint; for the bellhousing, i actually believe they left the factory unpainted, but we decided not to follow that aspect

Later in the day, we mounted the drivetrain for the last time, and started working on the peripherals, so far, mostly clutch and brakes.




That's all for now, but we're progressing fast, so expect updates soon!

 

Awesome project and very interesting history!

Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks!

First of all, are the pictures in earlier posts missing or am i having issues at my end only?

We kept on working in the last couple of weeks, and achieved a lot!
First, we set up the engine to run in the chassis, improvised stuff just to make sure we had no leaks (found one in the trans, and the water pump was bad)

Then, the body got installed for real.

The next step was to install the steering gear, but that revealed an issue, and a part difference.

First, we tried installing the steering box i had cleaned up and painted, only to find out it interfered with the oil filter. we checked the other Jeep, and realized there are 2 styles of Gemmer boxes, one being lower to the frame and having a shorter shaft (the correct one for this Jeep).



We "unswapped" the boxes only to find out the issue with the filter persisted, and found out while checking a friend's Jeep, that on the CJ-5, the 2.3 engine needs an adapter to move it higher and clear the steering...


After sorting that out, we moved on to bolting stuff onto the body, we also did a trip for parts to sort a few missing links we had.

Steering wheel, dashboard

Speedometer, after cleaning it up.

Almost complete radio set. we are still missing a couple cables, and ideally, this would be a 2 radio set (as you can see by the piece of wood taking its place, but for now we'll keep it as is



Rear view as of tonight. Today alone, we mounted the radio, antenna (and the second mount on the opposite side), side reflectors, trailer receptacle, passenger seat and sorted out some odds and ends.

From now on, we'll have a lot of work to do in the front section... Next up, will probably be finishing up and painting the grill, painting the radiator, and on the engine we'll have to change the timing belt, and work out a throttle linkage, as Jeeps never came with the double barrel carb that we have.

That's all for now folks!

 

Very cool! That air cleaner is interesting. Is it a stock factory part?

I am able to see the pictures on my end.

 

The steering wheel is identical to the one in my '62 Wagon. What does the horn button look like?

 

Yes it is! It's what Ford called a "Heavy duty" filter, it's basically a Cyclone separator with a paper filter inside. There are actually 2 styles


The early one, up to 81, which would be correct for this Jeep in specific, made by Mann

And the later on, from 82-83, made by Fram, stock for the F-100 this engine came out of.

It is exactly the same wheel as the wagons. I can't remember from the top of my head the year, but Jeeps adopted this style in the late 60s here.

The horn button looks like this, pretty much the Willys button, but with the Ford Oval in the middle.


Nando.

 

It is interesting that Ford used a steering box similar to the original worm & lever Ross steering that Kaiser jeep used up till '71. The Gemmer looks like a stronger box though. Maybe Ford didn't want to be buying Saginaw steering boxes since they were a GM product?

 

The Gemmer box goes all the way back to the Willys days, just a supplier thing, Gemmer had Brazilian operations, Ross did not, and Ford kept it probably to avoid a major redesign. It's funny you mentioned GM products, because we had Ford trucks with GM engines (Detroit Diesel) here.

Minor update: new timing belt, painted pulleys and alternator bracket



Nando.