willysmjeeps.com

After all these years, I have finally decided that I need to add the NATO connector to my M38. Seeing Wes's photo of factory M38's with the plug was the straw that broke the possum's back. Has anybody purchased a bracket & plug lately? Who and how much? Thanks.

Chuck,

Are you talking about the plug on the passenger side fender that has the cutout in the hood.

The receptacle is common to all the M series back then. The bracket can be had at Midwest Military and several other vendors. The wires are almost equal length which is why you see so many incorrect installations. The Plus wire goes to the terminal on the starter's switch and the negative terminal goes to the starter's front support bracket bolt. They were early production factory installed and later left Willys without them. If they were needed in the filed the field unit procured and installed them.

Hello Wes,
These things crop up on vendors stalls a lot this side of the pond but I doubt they are for the correct application.
1. Which wire is slightly longer?
2. Approximately what is the length?
Thanks,
Dave

Correct original equipment M38 = 33" (neg) and 29" (Pos)

Generic M series replacement sets = 40" and 11"

The receptacle is the same and the bracket is peculiar to the M38.

Yeap, looks like I bought a 'generic' still, now I know what to look for, so who knows one might turn up.
thanks,
Dave.

They were early production factory installed and later left Willys without them.

I don't think my jeep ever had the connector. The holes are there in the fender, but don't look like they have ever had a bolt in them, and the hood has a blocking plate bolted in that is very well made (factory?). SO...I will leave it off and be different!

Chuck, my bonnet plate has a slight angular rise along the bottom where it sits on top of the wing, this looks 'factory' and not hand-bashed.
My guess is the wires from the socket went flat across the wing and under the little rise in the cover plate. So I would guess the cover plate was in position when the socket and wires were fitted and that the cover plate was only removed when the snorkle was in place.
But I could be wrong.
All the best,
Dave

The cover plate was removed when the NATO / slave plug was applied to the jeep... as the wires and receptical would not fit if the cover was in place.

If the Cover plate is installed no Slave receptical...

Dave, the cover plate has to come off to use the NATO plug, it actually sits partially under the hood.

Ah well, I have a quandry then,
my wing has the 4 holes brazed up and smoothed, it then had two 1/4 bolts though the wing thread upwards that looked like they were meant to take a bracket with two biger holes not 4 little ones. The panal had a raised part on the lower edge, just like the slightly raised part where the blackout wire goes under the bonnet (but obviuosly bigger for bigger cables.
As I've never seen a bracket on the wing I assumed that was the set-up.
the question is now, what would sit where that bracket sat, that mounted with two 1/4 bolts about 3.5 inches apart . The base plate that sat on the wing judging by the paint was about 4 inches square and had to have the plate bolted on the inside of the bonnet (very expertly) modified to allow clearance for a cable to go into the engine compartment.
Obviuosly what ever had been there was missing by the time I got it.
Any ideas??????
All the best,
Dave

Dave - maybe this will help:



Here's a photo from Clayton Sikes's web site that shows the slave connector mounted to the fender.
While the mount is outside of the hood, the back part of the plug sticks through the hood, so the cover plate has to be removed.



While you can't quite see the plug, you can see how the wires stick out the back of the plug and come through the hood.

To answer your question, I have seen some photos of what I thought were CDN M38's with blackout lights mounted on the left AND right fenders, could this be what is missing on yours?

All images credited to Clayton Sikes

Dave are you referrring to the two holes just aft of the slave connector on the fender?
Those would be for the bracket that holds the fording tube.

Now I'm sure my M38 never had the slave recepticle, there are no holes in the fender, old or welded up. So it stays off.