In-cowl battery box questions

[idiocrates]

I'm finally getting to the front of the tub on this m38a-1 and I have a couple of questions about the battery box. Besides the four bolts in the front and four bolts in the rear is there anything else that holds the box in the cowl? On mine it also appears that the box is spot welded to the cover lip in about twenty places (is this normal)......can these be removed with a spot weld cutter (without destroying the box or the cover lip?.....and if so......how does one get the cutter into the box? My reason for wanting the box out is to repaint it inside and out and to repaint the cowl area behind the box. Also looks like I need to do some work on the box bottom. Any help would be greatly appreciated....thanks.

[wesk]

Jim,
I just use an angle drill and drill out each of the spot welds. That is the stock setup for the top edge of the box.


This is John's (MWM) nice looking box floor.


This is what you see when you get her out.


The other side. Note the large holes for the box drain hoses.

[idiocrates]

I just use an angle drill and drill out each of the spot welds

so are you saying that you use a regular drill bit and drill all the way through both the box and the cowl lip? Have you ever tried a spot weld cutter in a right angle drive for a drill and tried to cut just the box from the inside?

[wesk]

Nope, I just drill all the way thru and when I remount it I have 1/8" holes I can use Clicos in to hold it in place while I weld each hole shut.

[idiocrates]

Thanks, Mr. K......that's a done deal......box is out....dissembled.....and half cleaned up.....well, at least on the ouside. I was kinda surprised to find that there was NO paint on the front of the box or on the area of the cowl immediately in front of the box....just rust. It'll get a good dose of primer and paint this time. So thanks again for the helpful words of advice. By the way......what is the black gooey stuff on the inside of the box.....some kind of asphaltic surface protector........and should I just leave it alone or sand it away?

[OKCM38CDN]

The black gooey stuff is more than likely roof tar applied by a maintenace shop to protect the bottom of the box from acid...

My M-38 had a box removed and the replacement I got had it all over the inside and I used a torch (Propane) to heat it up and spread it out mre evenly... the box takes a lot of punishment here in OK with the heat in the summer, and acid does not harm it much...

I would leave the stuff in the box an prime / paint the outside...

Hope this helps...

[wesk]

Depends on who and when the stuff was put in there. Could be tar, undercoat, or even battery box commercial liner.

If there's no evidence of serious corrosion in the box skin then leaving it is a good idea. My gut feeling is if as you said the bottom was pretty rusty then odds are it has started up the sides as well. If this is true then best coarse is to completely strip, repair as needed and then apply a quality modern acid resistant battery box liner.

I have found the same bare metal on each tub I have dealt with which came with any type of cowl battery box. This sure leads me to believe the tubs were sprayed assembled and not dipped

Now when you are ready to go back together you can put a few cleco's in the 1/8" holes and several bolts in the lower brackets and weld away on the spot weld holes knowing your box is in exactly the same position as before.

[idiocrates]

I'm guessing it was put there by whatever fire or forest service had this jeep last because as you can see in this picture the black stuff is on top of the red paint........

And I guess I'm just anal enough to remove it....just cause I don't like the way it looks........and what the heck......this will probably be its last chance to ever be nekkid again. So....since this jeep has been converted to 12v...and will stay that way.....is there a 6v battery made that I can put in series that will fit in this box?

Finally.......was the inside of the glove compartment painted a light color to make finding things in there easier.......or is the battleship gray color I found in there perhaps indicitive of this possibly being a naval unit?

[wesk]

Your box is in pretty good shape. I wouldn't try dual 6 volt batteries. Anytime you place batteries in series they become a matched pair and as such must be treated as a matched pair when performing maintenance or replacement. If allowed to sit for long periods unused they will chase each other down resulting in dead batteries too often. If it's reliability and power you want then use the same two 12 volters but connect them parallel. This will give the benefit of the double the number of cell plates. And you can treat these batteries as separates not matched twins.

Unless you found evidence of gray elsewhere on the body I would have to agree they painted it gray for visibility reasons. Dark USAF blue and dark OD interiors are great for combat vehicle use but suck when you use the jeep at night a lot. The hard top I am going to use with my Strata Blue M38 will be white in and out. When I get around to it the interior of my 24087 driver M37 will get lightened up as well.

[SledDog]

Do the same rules apply to removing the M38 cowl battery box as the M38A?
Mine looks as though there has been a lot of brazing done at the top just under the lip. I'm also having a hard time visualizing this thing dropping down and out because of the angle of the floor board.

Thanks.

[SledDog]

Never mind...two bolts on the firewall and the dremel with a cutoff disc for the brazing on the lip worked.

[wesk]

The lip is spot welded. I simple cobolt 1/8 to 3/16" drill is the simplist ticket to releasing them. If someone has actually brazed the lip then you will have a bit more difficulty removing the box. I pull them out the top.

[SledDog]

This one was brazed, probably an attempt by PO (father in law) to restore it back in the late 70's. Dremel worked great and it slipped out the bottom despite my previous worries.

[Bretto]

I pull them out the top.

How does is come out from the top? My box was missing when I bought the M38 but I'm installing one. I don't see how it would come out the top without collapsing it in a little to pass through the rolled in lip. It comes in and out fine from the bottom.

[wesk]

I left the bottom plate off the box.