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Nice and warm today so played out in the shop with my instrument cluster. After removing all the guages I found some small stamped script to the upper right of the speedo (this is the backside): AC Sparkplug Div. Flint Mich USA ST Cluster 1581271 Ord No 7730977
Have to poke in the manuals and see what that tells me other than my speedo being the only original guage.
Then I got looking at the speedo and the case needs alot of help so I popped it open, very careful with the actual mechanism as it still appears to work. Found a bag of dessicant mounted under a little tab in the bottom of the guage.
Thought some of you might find this interesting.
Well went through the parts list, the cluster part number is in between the two given in the manual. I wonder if it was special order for the canadian ones, and if so what differences there were? The speedo is the one listed unfortunatly everything else was replaced with civy units.(the oil and fuel guages do have the light holes though)
i can't speak to the tags, but one guy in the local chapter here was telling me that some gauges were painted with radium, so that the numbers would glow in the dark. \i am not sure that others can add to it, but he warned me to be careful working with it.
The radium levels in the dials are minimal and actually quite harmless in the amounts you are exposed to with one set of gauges. The warnings take effect with the large volumes handle by repair shops. That speedo in the photo above has radium highlighting about half of the markings.
The instrument cluster is not original to your M38A1 or any other M38A1 for that matter.
The cluster assy AC # 1581271 was originally for the early Dodge M37 serials 80009428 thru 80037412, the M42 & V41 serials 80037420, -22, -23, -24, -25 & -26 and M43 serials 8009428 thru 8003878.
The ORD part number 7730977 applied to the even earlier AC# 1P13107 used on the first M37's thru serial 80009427.
Not an A1
All the gear on this that was not changed to civy was what it came with from the surplus auction. So this was either used by the canadians on these or it was field repair at some point. Hard to say really unless you have a canadian specific manual as we like to do things different.
On the backside its got a metal clip os some sort and the remains of something plastic. I have been through the albums and some of the manuals can't find a picture of them. anyone happen to have?
When I say not original I mean was not on that jeep when it left the factory. You obviously have a M37CDN cluster installed in your M38CDN by someone, weather it was before or after military service can only be ascertained if you personally have been the only civilian owner and bought it from military surplus. Bottom line is on this web site original to any jeep means it was installed by the factory or it is an original factory replacement part for that jeep. The panel you now have can be described as not original to the M38CDN or as supplied with the jeep when you purchased it.
M series vehicles produced from 1947 on were all meant to share as many parts as possible. If you look closely at the ORD 9 for the M38 you will see many parts with stock numbers prefixed with G740 but you also see many parts with G503, G741, G742 and on and on. When a part in the ORD 9 has a prefix G# for another vehicle it means that the first M series vehicle to use that part was that vehicle. For example if you look on page 150 of the ORD 9 for the M38 (G740) (MC) and look at cluster ORD # 7730977, AC# 1580553 you will see it is the correct cluster for M38's from MC10001 thru MC65042. Go back a page to 149 and look at the numbers for the early ammeter. You'll see that ammeter was first used on the G742 (Rio) (M35) deuce.
Back to your cluster assembly it was originally produced for the G741 Dodge M37 and it differs slightly from the correct M38 clusters. Therefore it was not a legitimate substitute for the original M38 cluster but by using the few items specific to the M38 from the original M38 cluster someone was able to adapt it to your m38CDN.
Last edited by wesk on Tue Mar 12, 2013 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
you keep saying m38a1, its just an m38cdn. still not the correct panel. Most likely had trouble at some point and someone just grabbed what looked right and put it in. probably a few running around with the wrong panels.
Now was the sheet metal the same and just different guages or is there an actual difference to the sheet metal?
My bad. There I have substituted all the M38A1 references with M38CDN and very little else changes.
There may be several components that differ between the two cluster assemblies. Remember that cluster assembly includes the gauges, lamps & holders and any associated brackets and fastener studs as well as the basic plate.
AC = AC Delco corp.
GL = Guide Lamp Corp.
SW = Stewart Warner
Cluster - AC# 1581271
Plate - AC# 1580676 (this plate will have a few more screw holes in it for mounting clips and circuit breakers to the back of the plate.)
