After 7 Years of Dormancy....
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:49 pm
Another M38A1 runs. Barely.
I bought this jeep a few weeks ago from a fellow in Utah, who had it for 5 years stored in his horse stable. He bought it from a local who had to move east. The story is the original owner (the guy moving east) was driving it when he noticed an exhaust manifold gasket leak. He removed the manifold but broke off the #1 stud in the block. Apparently he did try to fix it at some point, because I discovered a broken off Ease-Out in it. But he let it sit for two years before selling it. Anyway, I dug it out with a diamond bit and got it all together again.
After repairing the exhuast system my Dad and I worked through the fuel system and did the best we could with the carburator. We resealed the gas tank, blew out the fuel lines, and primed the fuel pump. We nearly died from the stale gas fumes when we blew out the lines....
Poored a little gas down the carb and hit the starter, and it finally hit and began to run. But very, very rough. At first, we thought one of the spark plugs wasn't firing. While checking the plugs, we noticed that plugs 1, 2, and 3 were wet with gasoline after immediately shutting down the engine. #4 was dry. It looks to us like the carb needs to be rebuilt, however my dad's read that the YS carb is extremely difficult to rebuild correctly. We've had a carb rebuild kit on hand for some time now, but we're reluctant to tackle the job because of what we've heard.
Is the YS carb as difficult to rebuild as we've heard, or is it something that can be done by someone with average mechanical abilities? Or should we send it off to someone. My dad's philosophy is that you don't send anything off until you've failed to fix it yourself, but he's giving that a second thought this time.
Another question...how fast is the 24 volt starter supposed to turn the engine? This one doesn't bog down, it just seems to turn slower than what we figured it would. It's slower than our 12v starter on our M38.
On a positive note...the jeep did move under its own power today. It drove about 15 feet back into the garage with a plume of white smoke behind it....
I bought this jeep a few weeks ago from a fellow in Utah, who had it for 5 years stored in his horse stable. He bought it from a local who had to move east. The story is the original owner (the guy moving east) was driving it when he noticed an exhaust manifold gasket leak. He removed the manifold but broke off the #1 stud in the block. Apparently he did try to fix it at some point, because I discovered a broken off Ease-Out in it. But he let it sit for two years before selling it. Anyway, I dug it out with a diamond bit and got it all together again.
After repairing the exhuast system my Dad and I worked through the fuel system and did the best we could with the carburator. We resealed the gas tank, blew out the fuel lines, and primed the fuel pump. We nearly died from the stale gas fumes when we blew out the lines....
Poored a little gas down the carb and hit the starter, and it finally hit and began to run. But very, very rough. At first, we thought one of the spark plugs wasn't firing. While checking the plugs, we noticed that plugs 1, 2, and 3 were wet with gasoline after immediately shutting down the engine. #4 was dry. It looks to us like the carb needs to be rebuilt, however my dad's read that the YS carb is extremely difficult to rebuild correctly. We've had a carb rebuild kit on hand for some time now, but we're reluctant to tackle the job because of what we've heard.
Is the YS carb as difficult to rebuild as we've heard, or is it something that can be done by someone with average mechanical abilities? Or should we send it off to someone. My dad's philosophy is that you don't send anything off until you've failed to fix it yourself, but he's giving that a second thought this time.
Another question...how fast is the 24 volt starter supposed to turn the engine? This one doesn't bog down, it just seems to turn slower than what we figured it would. It's slower than our 12v starter on our M38.
On a positive note...the jeep did move under its own power today. It drove about 15 feet back into the garage with a plume of white smoke behind it....
Even the vacuum wipers work as they should. Turns out the motor had recently (mileage-wise) been overhauled, with pistons 0.040 oversized.
John