Are you the one been driving over all of those possums and skunks lately?
My mothers uncle bred dogs for hunting for 30+ years, also our various cats used it as a home since roughly 1997. It's madness, i was cleaning it for the first time about a year ago and was amazed at the chunks of grease and fur i would scrape off the undercarriage. _________________ 1955 M38A1D - work in progress
That's a large frame starter on your engine and no timing window. So you have only one choice for establishing an accurate timing mark.Use a properly attached wiggler to rule out sloppy handling errors and find the true TDC as I have explained in many prior posts.
Dr. Vern's Treatise will get you close. I prefer perfect which means pulling the head and using a dial indicator.
Quote:
The service manual has a good picture of the marks on page 51. Adam's suggestion to pull the starter is a good idea for better visibility to mark them. You gotta love the list for all the things a guy can learn.
Even if you find your the flywheel devoid of all marks, don't despair. You can make your own marks easily where ever your little heart desires. You could paint them on the flywheel like original or put them up front so you don't have to hire a contortionist to read them.
Let's go on the premise that you have a flywheel devoid of any marks. It is more vacant than a Mensa booth at a Country Western music festival. With a little ingenuity and fresh coffee, you will have easy to read timing marks in no time.
Pull all the plugs to make the engine easy to turn. Turn the engine in the direction of normal rotation with one hand. Place your thumb or digit of choice over #1 (front) spark plug hole. When you feel pressure building, that means #1 piston is rising with both valves closed. That is the compression stroke, after which the ignition will fire near Top Dead Center (TDC). When you feel the pressure stop building, you should be pretty close to TDC.
Here I must respectfully disagree with Jerry's suggestion to check the piston's position with a thin screwdriver in the spark plug hole. The L134 engine has the piston offset towards the passenger side away from the spark plug hole. You cannot see the piston, nor can you reach it with any sort of straight object.
But more importantly, IF you could, a guy could break off the screwdriver or do other damage as the piston rises. We won't go into how I know this. Let's just say a good, very close and personal friend did a similar thing years ago. Only at least it was a dowel that my close personal friend broke off inside. My close personal friend luckily was able to retrieve all the pieces without pulling the head. Since then, my close personal friend has made me promise to only use a soda straw or soft copper wire for finding TDC.
But enough of that. We can't reach the piston directly through the spark plug hole. That is where you need the Vern-O-PistonFinder(tm). Granted, that name is not quite as catchy as my other inventions, but I'm digressing again. Bend a piece of soft copper wire into a stairstep shape. You will feed this into the sparkplug hole and over to the piston. The wire is bent is such a way that one leg hangs down over the piston. That leg only needs to be .25" long or so, as the piston comes nearly flush with the cylinder block when at TDC.
Insert the Vern-O-PistonFinder(tm) into the spark plug and carefully fine tune the crankshaft. As the piston reaches TDC, you will feel the Vern-O-PistonFinder lift up. Rotate the crank back and forth slightly to find exact TDC. If you feel the Vern-O-PistonFinder(tm) binding, it means the piston is pushing it against the cylinder head. The leg over the piston needs a smidge of trimming.
Should you really want to get precise, you can fill the combustion chamber with oil from a turkey baster. As you fine tune the crankshaft position, the oil level will rise and fall at the sparkplug hole. Then suck the oil back out when done. (Thanks to Nate Steiner for that tip.)
Either way you do it, you have now determined that #1 piston is precisely at TDC. If you want to duplicate the marks on the flywheel, I'd suggest a quick dimple from an automatic center punch followed by a dab of paint.
If you want the marks up front, carefully file a small, rounded notch in the crankshaft pulley and you are almost done. Fabricate a little bracket that can mount to the timing cover bolts. Make it just like the timing mark pointers found on newer vehicles. I'd suggest making the pointer adjustable, with elongated mounting holes for example, so you can fine tune it. Or if you don't want to make a bracket, you can line up two fixed points on the engine. Line up these two fixed points like a rifle sight aiming at the crankshaft pulley, and place the pulley notch accordingly.
One last thing, as we are not quite done. We found exact TDC, but not the 5 degrees before TDC where the ignition fires. Think back to how you didn't pay attention in math class, thinking you'd never use that boring (Sorry David) stuff. Well, now, your math teacher is getting the last laugh. Measure the diameter where your TDC marker is, either the pulley or flywheel. (Maybe a fellow WT member has a flywheel they can measure for you. You'd need the diameter just inside the ring gear teeth) From that diameter, convert 5 degrees into a linear measurement around the cicumference and make a second mark. Figure 68 on page 51 of the manual shows which side of TDC to place the mark.
Voila! You're done. It sounds complicated but really isn't.
Thank you Wes, I don't think I had read what you just quoted. I had heard of the wiggler but could not find a picture or description of one. I also did not think to take all the plugs out to make it easier to turn by hand. Duh.
Also, your album is so helpful I've saved most of the pictures from it on a local drive.
I'll be back, going to go do that. _________________ 1955 M38A1D - work in progress
I have a 1953 m38a1d as well it is a great thing you are asking around for info I have a log book saying mine was in k town Germany, I sure would like to know the guy seen who said he had one in Germany. Someone left his initials in the steering wheel. I will be following your posts. It's alot of work. My pics are under jim14513 on this site. My son posted them years ago. I set it up to look like a m38a1 just because the armory parts I could not find. I hope to find the parts or someone to buy the jeep, what ever comes first.
Good luck with yours .
Jim
How are making out? Have you got Tm for M38a1d or found any parts like the gun mount or barrel hold down ,drawnings or any kind of contacts for these kind of things. Give me a call if you have, would like to talk about it.
315-945-9855
Thanks jim
I have a 1953 m38a1d as well it is a great thing you are asking around for info I have a log book saying mine was in k town Germany, I sure would like to know the guy seen who said he had one in Germany. Someone left his initials in the steering wheel. I will be following your posts. It's alot of work. My pics are under jim14513 on this site. My son posted them years ago. I set it up to look like a m38a1 just because the armory parts I could not find. I hope to find the parts or someone to buy the jeep, what ever comes first.
Good luck with yours .
Jim
That's nice to have a log book, all I have is the recollections of older family members. I've looked for the histories of these jeeps but the information online is a bit lacking. I have folders on another machine with the vehicles grouped by hood numbers, ordinarily this wouldn't be an option but as there were only about 50 made it narrows the searching a whole lot. I have no idea where the one I have was stationed. I believe there was one at Fort Knox and have been looking for side pictures of it, as this one was purchased surplus in central KY a long time ago, it may be the same, but it may not. I found pencil markings that looked like initials on the other side of the dash data plate, but could not make them out.
JimM38a1d wrote:
How are making out? Have you got Tm for M38a1d or found any parts like the gun mount or barrel hold down ,drawnings or any kind of contacts for these kind of things. Give me a call if you have, would like to talk about it.
315-945-9855
Thanks jim
Making progress, I have not gotten the tm for the m38a1d. I have an original m38a1 users manual that i received as a tip from an older gentleman I performed a service call for about 10 years ago, he said he'd had 3 m38a1s. Also have a Chilton manual that covers the m38a1, and pdf copies of the m38a1s service manual. I have not found very much m38a1d specific material. I'm have not been actively looking for any weaponry or dupes, as this will probably never be a show quality vehicle. It will look like an m38a1 to most, and that's fine, only a select few that know what to look for will know the truth! If I do see anything, I have your number, and I'll assume you're interested and let you know.
*edit* Also, not quite sure how to secure a top to it without a mounting bracket on the passenger side. Don't want to drill holes, but would like to be able to have some shielding from the elements after I redo the seats without a tarp being involved.*edit*
I've thought about going back to the gentleman's house because he seemed to really be in-the-know, and I think he would be a good person to ask about weaponry as he had a collection of guns and gave me a copy of some demolitions pdfs on dvd. Two problems with this, I generally don't go back to customers houses for social calls, and I defiantly don't show up unannounced at someone who may not remember me that has loaded weapons and demolitions manuals laying around. It may come to that, but it hasn't yet Updates incoming. _________________ 1955 M38A1D - work in progress
Last edited by Wade on Sat Dec 31, 2016 2:29 am; edited 1 time in total
In the last 10 months (I'll try to stay in chronological order)
I got the last of the body mostly rid of the brown paint, it looks fantastic, especially when rubbed down with a greasy rag. There are still trim pieces (rear bumperettes, pintle hitch, nooks/crannies/crevaces) with brown, but mostly unnoticeable with the exception of the bumperettes which I've left because there's faded white paint I'd like to really take my time on.
I took the drivers front fender off and coated it with spray rubberized clear coat. I'm doing this as a trial on a piece of the body that has white and green paint (plus the many different angles of the blackout light) to make sure it doesn't peel off any color or harm the paint in any way when I remove it. I'm thinking about doing this on the body as a kind of preservative. What doesn't peel off is supposed to rub off with soap and water so it's definantly not permanent. It has been sitting in my backyard for the last 9 months. 6 months in the sun in the middle of the yard, 3 months under a tree. I'm going to let it snow on it and go through a winters worth of freezes and attempt to peel it off. After 9 months, it still feels like rubbery orange peel and still beads up water. It has not been washed. Part of the final removal process will be a pressure washer test and dry to see how it holds up/looks after a year of neglect. I'm going to video the fender bit and will post to YouTube when the time comes.
I can't remember what specific numbers the cylinder pressure tester said, but the first was dead, second was low, and 3 and 4 were pretty good.
I took the head off, inspected everything I could see, bent a valve back into place (cyl #1 intake),timed it and made timing marks on the crank pulley, lapped the valves and cleaned everything up, adjusted the valves, cleaned everything up again, and put the head on. One of the head studs was eaten off at the bottom and when put back in went a bit further down in the block then I realized, and when I put the head back on it was to far down in the head to get more then 2 threads of the top nut on. Front center nut that goes over the oil filter bracket as well. Didn't try to start it, will take it all back off.
Took the intake/exhaust header off to clean the heat flap, work on the engine valves, replace the studs, and just clean everything up in general. After I realized I'd need to take the head back off, I decided I'd replace all the studs for the head and the i/e manifold. I got all the i/e manifold studs out except the one next to the firewall, which of course I snapped off at the block. At this point I'm looking at either taking the body off the frame to get it out, or taking the engine out and doing it that way. Due to not having an engine hoist or stand, and the fact that I still need to rebuild the braking system and do maintenance to the underbody and frame, I'll probably lift the body off and set it in the yard this spring. That will allow me to do the frame and easy out that stud at the same time.
I plan to just get the brake kit that replaces everything, I may use the old drums if I'm able to, but brakes are something I don't really care to use all the original parts off of.
Like so many projects, I've gotten busy and have had to put it on hold for a ltitle while. I started a new job, put a new suspension on my daily driver, totaled it, just got a new vehicle, found out I'm going to be a dad, november/December for my family is hectic, etc. Hope to get back to it as soon as it warms up a bit outside. _________________ 1955 M38A1D - work in progress
All times are GMT - 6 Hours Goto page Previous1, 2
Page 2 of 2
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
Updates incoming.
