What did you do on your jeep today - March 2018

cool pic with the cannons.

ndnchf wrote: I took my '48 out for its first long shakedown drive, about 45 minutes. It was chilly, about 40 degrees today, but it went well with no major problems - Yay!

I envy you bro! I’m in Pa... total bs here. 

SE Kansas 46 CJ-2A wrote: OL' RED LIVES... Finished up the 11" brakes (46 Willys truck style) change out, bled the brakes, made some adjustments to the brakes shoes and test fired the job on the street in front of the house. She's never had brakes like these brakes in her whole existence! I was amazed at the difference in braking that the 11" brakes provide. Anyway, I put about 25 miles in all kinds of traffic (small town Kansas traffic) and never felt like I wasn't going to stop when I needed to. That wasn't necessarily so with the old 9" brakes. The Willys truck set up only has 2 adjustment points as opposed to the 9" stock brakes which should to be adjusted with 4 adjusting points and a feeler gage. I could never get it right! I am impressed. Temps are in the 70's tomorrow...I can seriously see me out putting some miles on the old girl...

...and I did put some miles on the old girl.

After making a minor adjustment to the left front brake, my brother and I took off for the backroads in the county and put 55 miles on her, including 5 miles on extremely non-maintained trails that are around the lake near where I live. These are trails that have limestone shelves that have to be negotiated slowly...so I test fired the low range both down the trail and back up. The transfer case in low range was pretty quiet since I had replaced the case, intermediate gear and shaft with the 1 1/4" setup. The old transfer case had howled like a banshee in low range.

The weather in Southeast Kansas has been unseasonably dry and warm for March. It would be nice if we got at least part of the snow that you guys in the Northeast have had dumped on you. You don't need it, and we sure could use it here. There have been Red Flag Warnings posted here for the past couple of weeks.

With 50+ miles on Ol' Red, I've only found a few minor issues to work out and I'm beginning to trust her more with some daily driving around town. With some more daily driving locally, I'm sure I will have the kinks worked out enough by fall to attempt my first Fall Color Tour in Colorado. That's what I'm shooting for this year.   

Today I worked on the construction of my Paint booth. I built two of the doors and hung the lights that go on them. I also got one of the Exhaust Fan panels done and the parts cut out for the other. I found someone to sand blast the Windshield frame. The guy that did my Frame his ph # doesn't work any more so I called the big commercial outfit thats been in North Salem since the late 40's and the guy said he figured it would run about 50 bucks (I'll budget 75) With less then a week turn around. He said a little job like that they just fit in between a couple other things. This will be the last thing I need to strip that won't fit in my sand blasting cabinet so I think its going that way. I just don't feel like spraying a big bag of sand all over the driveway again doing it myself.

Like Les....more like a week's worth of work...

Edited by nofender - 17 Mar. 2018 at 3:07pm

I went to a yard sale this morning where they had listed "Willys jeep parts". A lot of good parts were already scooped up by early risers. But I picked up this pair of axles for $30. I belive they are a Dana 25 and 44.

Upon closer examination of my yard sale find, I noticed the the front axle has the drums on the outside of the hubs. So I think this is an M38 front axle. It looks to be a standard Dana 25 with Sears locking hubs otherwise. The rear axle is definitely a 44.

Removed everything off the back of the transfer case (parking brake, bearing seal hub),