Bell Crank Differences?

[ECVJeeps]

I have some jeeps with different bellcranks and I am looking to see if
anyone else has come across these differences.
One bellcrank has threads on the lower end to accomidate a dust cap,
the standard bellcrank has no threads and the bellcrank bolt is open
and in view!
There must be an application for both of these bellcranks as I have found
them on both M38 jeeps and civilian. Yes someone could have changed
them over from one jeep to the other, however two of the M38’s that
I have worked on were purchased from the military and are with the
second owner. They should have original equipment from the factory!

The problem I am having is that one bellcrank uses a longer bolt in the
Kit and I would like to order the proper kit for each application.



Here are the jeeps that I have at my shop at the moment.

1950 CJ3A with the dust cap on the bellcrank
M38CDN CAR# 52-31925 Ser# missing: dust cap
M38CDN CAR# 52-31033 Ser# missing: no dust cap
M38CDN CAR# 52-30"848" or "747" It has been re-stamped
Ser# F-101"631" the last three numbers have been re-stamped also!: dust cap
M38 US Ser# MC 60093: no dust cap
M38CDN CAR#52-31933 Ser# F-102049: no dust cap

They both have the same WO part number 647008, however they are
different.

Thanks Wes for your help on this, I am just fishing to see if anyone
else has come across this situation.

[Ryan_Miller]

Here is an explanation I saw posted on the G503.com board. I thought I would post it here for future reference.

From cmpman:

There was a variation in the M38s and M38A1 bellcranks. I recall an old CFTO detailing that if a winch was being installed, then the longer bellcrank would have to be installed to clear the PTO shaft. All the later M38A1s (Cdn2 and Cdn3) that I ever worked on while in the service had the longer bellcrank.

There was also a priority A modification to drill a hole, and install a castellated nut and cotter pin to the top bellcrank bolt. On some of the un-modified bellcranks, the nut would work loose and the bellcrank would fall down, fouling the steering, I see in your photo this modification is done. We were getting bellcrank kits in the mid 80s which did not have the hole drilled, and the shaft was so hard, even our machine shop could not drill through them. We would usually just re-use the old bolt.

With the longer bellcrank, if the little ball wasn't worn flat on the draglink end of the bellcrank, you can get away with just replacing the 2 bearings (torrington B188 if I recall) and flipping the bearing sleeve upside down so the bearings would ride on a new surface. This didn't work on the older short bellcrank.

wesk wrote:

all the M38 manuals and the early A1 manuals show the same bellcrank WO# 800867 ORD# 7375183 thru MD87061 then MD87062 and on and M170 use ORD# 7971881.

[davem201m38]

I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but does that first bit mean that a winch equiped M38 should have a longer bell crank??
I ask because I have spent the last couple of days wondering how to get a decent clearance in the cross member/stearing gear area.
Or is it that regardless of fitted equipment there is only one bell crank and the longer one is only a CDN thing.
Sorry for being thick,
Thanks,
Dave

[wesk]

The first bit means that the CDN's with winches were switched by the Canadian Armed forces to the longer bellcranks. It must be a Canadian built M38/M38A1 problem since American built M38/M38A1's with winch use the same original bellcrank as the non-wich jeeps. Perhaps the Ramsey units the CDN's got were routed a little differently or had different shaft diameters.

There's nothing in the American unit's TB's and MWO's indicating we had any problem down here with them.