53 M38A1 Project - a.k.a Lil' Bastard

[53a1]

Filled gear boxes, lubed fittings and did alingnment. Installed brake drums and wheels and installed the brake pedal arm. Rolled it down into the driveway to test brakes and they work real nice by hand. Engine and trans goes in this weekend if I get my tranny input shaft seal.

[53a1]

Put in a new pilot bearing. After I installed it the ID was .006 under. Didn't have a reamer but I have a lathe so I bored it out.



Engine is not the correct block for A1 but it was a great deal and looks like it was recently gone through. Not much crud in the oil pick-up screen but took it apart and cleaned it anyway. Installed a timing gear spray nozzle with the smaller dia hole. Adjusted crank end play.



Installed engine today.

[wesk]

She's looking very good. Are you running a civvy distributor?

[53a1]

Thanks Wes. I owe part of the credit to you guys and the website.

I'm going to fire it up with the civvy distributor because It's already timed from when I tested the engine (one less thing to worry about). I'm going to fire it up with 24v generator and starter only and no regulator just to get it running. I'm going to crank the starter with two batteries and tap off of only one for the 12v distributor. Once it's running good I'll switch over to the 24v distributor and regulator.

I'm just afraid if I hook all this old 24v stuff up something is not going to work correctly and I'm going to be tearing it back apart anyway to trouble shoot.

[ocwd]

Nice work Dave. I need to get back to work on mine.

[53a1]

Get working Dave!

[ocwd]

The 4-week old little girl is starting to cramp my style

[53a1]

Pumped oil into the sender galley. Adjusted starter and cranked it over last night with no ignition to see if I could build oil pressure. It had 10lb in about 5 seconds I don't think pumping oil into the galley did anything but dump oil into the pan.

Starter engaged and cranked nice and smooth but didn't turn as fast as I'd expect. I was able to push it in by hand no problem. This is my first time seeing a 24v starter run so maybe this is normal.

Going to try to get it started this weekend. I'm curious to see what starts leaking first.

[53a1]

Here are some pictures of my rigged start-up circuit. I'm using two batteries for the starter and I tap off of one to power the civvy distributor. I dropped a fuel line and filter at the machine gun mount to a gas can. The storage oil in the cylinders smoked out the garage on the first start up. 30 lbs oil pressure at fast idle.- not bad for a used 200.00 engine.



Here is what you don't want to buy. Unlike the runner I got for 200.00 I got ripped off on the first engine I bought. I wised up quick after that bad deal.



I ordered one of the USMC bumpers and hardware from Surplus Jeep. Looks nice but has surface rust in places.

[GIJOE290]

Looking good!

[53a1]

Started working on the bottom of tub. I'm using the same good old Home Depot paint stripper to get the tar off. It needs some sections of the hat channel replaced but all-in-all it's pretty solid.

[53a1]

Test drive video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUhTBmnlY_M

[wesk]

Sounds good.

[53a1]

Thanks Wes.

I didn't put the muffler on yet because I like the sound. Probably will put one on when I get it completed so I don't get a ticket.

[TomM]

Looking good,
If the paint remover isn't cutting the undercoat, try using your propane plumming torch. A little heat usually allows you to scrape it it away easily.
Tom