Rudycon's 1947 CJ2a rolling restoration

[rudycon]

Hiya. Yep. OK. Took some time off to visit with family. Time off for me is best when I leave all the "E-gear" behind. (electronic gear like computers) (My Dad brought enough e-gear for me to repair anyway, like one of his ham radios and a laptop...)

Emblem:
My little Jeep's Engine is the only Studebaker experience I've ever had so I can't say that is a Studebaker part or not, Haines. It doesn't look familiar to me. Studebaker designs seem to be all over the place and pretty far out there for the time. (Think bullet nose Champs and the Avanti grills) They also had some pretty bold logos. Like the Golden Hawk wings that make the Bandit's Pontiac Trans Am seem pretty tame.

edit: I think that emblem reminds me of a bottle opener that lets you open 2 bottles at once. Handy to have when ya got a friend!


Summary: Still around. Back feels better, no new Jeep news. (I did pat the little feller on the hood this morning if that passes for anything.)

[Haines Garage]

Glad to hear from you Sir Rudy.
I am also glad you had some time off with your family.
I would really like to know what that hood ornament is...I was hoping Studebaker...there is a story of course...
Let me do some research.

[rudycon]

Did you know that a cj2a fits in a shed?
Sure now I need to find a place for some bicycles and the snowblower but lookee there, this IS a 3 car garage facility!

I'm not sure what holds up the floor in the shed. I know the PO installed the plywood over the original dirt floor and was quite proud of his flooring results that make the shed more user friendly. I imagine he leveled the dirt, then set 2x4 joists right on the dirt, then screwed down the plywood.
The shelves on the sides are mostly supported by the walls so that when the willys falls through the floor, the shelves will probably stay up.

It was supposed to rain then snow last night and I don't scrape windows. Had to get the JK to fit in the garage last night, so I put the willys in the shed.
It didn't rain, just a windy brief blizzard while I crammed the willys in the shed.

I think this is how those "barn find" stories get started. Now I should just lock the door for 25 years or so...

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[rudycon]

Haines: No. No close family in SC. Some in NC though.


Willy's work/fun on a Friday night:

Friday was a beautiful day. Lin had friends over for dinner, so I hijacked the visitors into Willys Work.
We spooled up a new winch cable. (Acutally, I had saved this job for these kids. Show 'em something "different.") I opted for a long 5/16" galvanized wire rope instead of a thicker, shorter rope. This way, I can skid fire mitigation trees up my backyard hill in fewer sets. I put a guy from Argentina behind the wheel to run the clutch while we spooled in the fresh cable. We "winched" in second gear. That old open chain, homemade, PTO was zinging around pretty good in 2nd!

Everyone went for a spin in the Willys around the neighborhood. The 8 year old kid loved it and whooped-hollered the entire way with the wind in his face. His Dad was amazed at how smooth the Studebaker Champ6 ran.

Then, back in the shed. We received 1' of snow on Sunday. It was 2 degrees F last night too!

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[rudycon]

Nope. I'm not dead.

Finally, a nice weekend and I'm using it.
Last night I found the rest of the windshield and put the glass in.

This morning, just after dawn I pulled the Willys out of the shed and slid the windshield in. I'm missing the swing out arms, but I do have enough windshield parts to keep the bugs out of my teeth.

Shakedown run time.

Put the tow bar in the Jeep Jk so my wife can come get me if I don't make it back home.

Cranked right up and off to the hardware store 5 twisty downhill miles.

ran well. Kept up with traffic.
Ran into an old friend who had driven up from aurora while breaking in a new set of 5.29 gears in his toyota hilux pickup.

After a quick spin with him, I pointed 'er home and blasted up the hill. She'll hold 3rd in the 40mph sections, but needs 2nd on the steep twisty part (yellow sign speed limit is 25 so 2nd is just fine with me.)

Temp hit 150 running mostly floored for 4 miles. I don't think there is a thermostat.

Got home and you can hear fuel boiling back into the gas tank.

Then I jacked 'er up and painted 2 more wheels, 2 more shocks and a little more frame rail.

Ready for another "long" trip tomorrow. I'll get up early and double check the toe before I go for another hardware store nut and bolt run.

The idle rpm is getting higher and higher as the engine finally gets a chance to run long and hot enough to burn off some carbon.

[Haines Garage]

Glad to hear from you.
I missed reading your posts.
You really have to meet Tim Hawkridge...he is in Arvada.

[rudycon]

Checked/adjusted the toe, made a list of some nuts and bolts I need and went to town.

Ran well until town, then, not as well. The farm class throttle linkage won't let the butterfly close so she idles way too fast and the occasional exhaust burble seemed to be much more frequent in town. even a stumble once.

Nevertheless, it was a great day. I turned and went up the highway. yep... 55 mph zone. 2 lanes so folks can get by me safely too. Upgrade, 45-50 is about it so far. on the last grade I pulled, she seemed to loose power. OK, time to go home!
Turned around at a nice safe overpass and headed downgrade. Bucking and surging. uh oh. Much like one of the earliest trips on pavement. Well, I backed off a bit and let the engine cool down a little and the surging faded away.

I can't say I buried the 60 mph speedo needle, because it chickened out around 55 mph and started reporting 30-40 MPH as I closed on a pickup truck ahead. It was probably 60 or more. The studebaker was singing.

OK. maybe the fuel gauge is wrong and I'm low on fuel? Gas station, put in 4 gallons. Nope not low on fuel. and...won't restart. starter is cranking slowly, carb must be boiled dry, fuel pump is weak or broken...2 guys pushed me 10 feet and it started on the clutch no sweat. The rest of the trip climbing 1000 feet or so to the house was uneventful at 40-30 mph.

Now I get it. 45 is a good top speed for these machines.

I'll keep working on it.
Summary: Our fastest trip so far, but not our best trip so far. At least we looked good out there and no one had to tow me home, eh?

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[Haines Garage]

Love that last photo you posted....calendar material for sure..

[rudycon]

Last night I walked into the garage to spin a wrench or two on the Willys. I could sense tension in the air so I feigned puttering around the workbench instead....eavesdropping.
I heard a wheezy grumbled whisper from the old Willys towards Lin's Audi.
"My older brother fought your grandpa in THE war."

The Audi smugly replied, "Get with the century, old timer. That war has been over for close to 70 years." "You want some of this? Let's take it outside." "Oh wait?! You don't even have WHEELS, you CAN'T go outside!" "Even if you could I can outrun you 6 ways to Sunday grandpa!"

I think I saw the rusty hood on the Willys settle down a little bit lower over the 6 volt headlights and maybe even saw the corner of the bumper turn down a little bit.
"You better watch what you say sport. I know my Grandson the Rudycon is right outside that door. He's bigger than you and me both!"
"One of these nights the Rudycon will spend the night in here with me in the garage. I'll keep him up all night with the war stories my big brother told me. I'll tell him of the days I spent working on the ranch and the fun I had going hunting and camping after I retired from work."

Lin's Audi hissed a sigh from an emissions control system.
"Enough of your stories old timer. Go back to sleep and leave me alone."

[Haines Garage]

To got to love those Colorado Fellas.

Great story...You have been watching too much of the movie "Cars"
Or..............hahaha

[rudycon]

Last night I burst into the garage with a smelly bag of garbage destined for the trash can. I surprised Grandpa Willys and the Audi A4 in the middle of a heated discussion. This time, the topic was fashion.

Lin's Audi was rev'ed up about something for sure.
"Style? What do you know about style? You have a boat cushion wrapped in a towel for a seat! Oh you drive me crazy old man."

The Willys coughed and choked a laugh. "One word for you sport. 'lederhosen!' The Teutonic contribution to fashion." And 'Style?' Isn't that night rider guy David Hasselhof HUGE in Germany?!" I think I've made my point. There is no way you can tell ME about style buddy. And just because I haven't been to town in 10 years doesn't mean I'm out of touch." The AM radio clinging gamely to the dashboard issued a burst of static to back up the statement.

Lin's Audi was quite flummoxed; secretly harboring a soft spot for 'the Hoff.' "Hey here is one you might actually remember Grandpa. We've got Marlene Detrich."

Willys' headlights brightened, "Oh yeah...you HAD Marlene Detrich...she became an American citizen in 1939." "My brother's friend took her to a USO show in 1945." Willys was quickly lost in a senility enhanced, foggy recollection of his older brother's war stories mixed with Marlene Detrich acting along side his personal hero, John Wayne in "The Spoilers."

"Still with us over there old man?" I think Lin's Audi was actually concerned about how quiet old Willy had become.

"Huh? Whatzat? Yeah yeah I'm still here." Willys trailed off in an old man tirade about punk kids and wrapped up with a mumbled classic 'get off my lawn' before speaking back up to the Audi.
"Ah Marlene....But you know who really had style? Rita Hayworth...."

[Haines Garage]

Sir Rudy..love the stories, very creative...you smoking that funny legal stuff..

Maybe write a book?
You and Sir Leaker....
I want 10%...

[rudycon]

_
Yesterday we had a little party. My Dad flew into town and some other friends came up to our house. Lots of Willys joy rides. I didn't have to drive. I let other folks drive.

But today was a WORK DAY!

My lot is steep, and close to 9,000'. The forestry guy didn't think a Jeep would drive up the hill. Well a Willys can!
We used the Willys to haul slash up to the slash pile where the chipper can get it, and I bucked up a windfall from last winter, but just the effort of moving logs from the hill to the back of the Willys was making work no fun, So the next old snag we hooked up to the winch, and in 2 sets pulled it up high enough that we could just tug it up to the slash pile with a chain where I could buck and stack it so the neighbors can come get the firewood.

Couple of pictures of a fun day working with the Willys.

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[rudycon]

Worked on the ignition system yesterday.

Points, condenser, cap, rotor, coil. Same old plug wires still.

Points: When you buy points today, you will find a steel spring in the box. It is not optional. Don't ask me why they don't install it for you. you slip the steel spring in UNDER the copper conductor so it latches on the back of the breaker arm. now you have a real spring. The copper conductor isn't a real spring. the copper is only good for about 1500 RPM on the engine before you get point float...bad. So bad that the backfires blew a chunk of rusted out perforated pipe from inside the muffler out the tailpipe! (I thought it was getting louder before this anyway. I see a muffler in my future.

None of this may be applicable to real Willys engines, but an autolite distributor isn't that rare so maybe you will see it on your stock engines too. Don't forget the steel spring. Also, I still haven't found a set of points that fit right. The holes for the adjuster are always in the wrong place.

Next up: crappy rotors. friggin 21st century and rotors seem to keep getting worse. New import BWD rotor had the rivet hole too big or the rivet too small. Either way, the metal part of the rotor moved out, gouged the crap out of the terminals in my new BWD cap. I re-set the rivet so the conductor doesn't wobble anymore and kept using the gouged cap. NOS might be the way to go until I find a GOOD cap, rotor, point set. Frustrating that new parts are possibly WORSE than the USA made Delco-Remy parts from what? 50 years ago?

One good thing I did was move the throttle linkage to an existing, lower hole on the throttle shaft arm. Now the throttle shuts all the way and it idles on the idle screw and...I get the butterfly to open 100%. More ZOOT on the test drive is probably a result of the throttle linkage change and not the ignition system changes.

I didn't check the dwell angle yet either.

Once I get enough parts to build my own plug wires, the ignition system maintenance will be done. Hopefully this will help with the misfire I still have. Everyone says it runs great, but...I think there is more to fix. I haven't looked at the valve adjustment yet. I haven't checked compression for fear of what I might find. and I think the carb is jetted about 15% too rich. Too bad you simply can't get jets for this carb. Gotta fill and drill a used jet!

Summary: Willys is running faster now, but still not as well as it could. I have steering bellcrank parts to install some evening.

[Deleted]

10-4 on the extra points spring, LOL, many of us have been bitten in the ass by that! . It does make a nice rev limiter if you need one , but I prefer power

Lee

[rudycon]

Thanks, Lee. I think I just saw another thread around here with point float. could be missing that steel spring.

[rudycon]

Jeep Fuel Gauge = not as good as a stick.

Well it was bound to happen. "Hello Honey? I need a rescue mission implemented!" I went for a Willys spin, explored some nearby dirt neighborhood roads, then hit the big hill on pavement, hammered up it, felt some bucking at the top, and feared a fuel issue. "Did the pump finally die? Vapor lock? Can't be out of fuel; Instrumentation (optimistically) reports 1/2 tank!"

Hmmm. Stopped on the side and safely off the road. Used the starter while in gear to help me back up somewhere safe. Make the call. "Please bring the 2 gallon gas can."

Lin rescues me with the Audi. I dump almost 2 gallons in the tank, 1 tablespoon dumped on my hand (dang it!), 1 teaspoon down the throat of the carb to get me going. Started back up, engine ran on fumes long enough to get fuel pumped back up to the carb and I blasted home without further contemplation.

Root cause: Possible voltage regulator adjustment needed. Gauge varies wildly from running to not running with key on. Tip: If the gauge stops flicking around while you drive, the float is probably resting on the bottom of the tank.

[Haines Garage]

This fuel gauge this is Serious Business !
Who can we talk into making good ones !?

[athawk11]

Rudycon...been there my friend.

HG...food ones??? Shouldn't you be hiding from the in-laws?

[Haines Garage]

Oooppps fixed it....and. I am!!

[rudycon]

Fill and Drill:

Jets for the Carter BBR1 carb simply cannot be obtained. My plugs were soft black carbon rich with the 242 marked main jet in my carb. This number seems to correspond to the flow rate in CCs.

I also have a parts carb with a 272 marked jet.

I estimate I need 213 CCs for life at 9000'.

So...I silver soldered in the 272 marked jet and drilled it to 3/64ths. This is a little smaller than the 242 marked jet. I don't have a complete set of tiny drills, so I can't show you a lot of math and I don't know the test conditions in which the flow rate was calculated on the original jets. All I know is 242 is too big. 213 would be nice, so drill it smaller than the 242.

the image below shows my plugs now.

I think I am a little too lean now. There is a lean surge at cruise and even a lean misfire.
I might be able to tune some of that out with the idle mixture screw (I try to run that as lean as possible for the stink factor at idle) I'm going to set the idle mix on the rich side of "runs nice" instead of on the lean side of "runs nice" and re-test.
The idle mix does contribute to running mix so that should help on the lean cruise misfire.

I also think I have more room for ignition advance and I still haven't checked the valves or replaced the plug wires. I don't know if more timing will help/hurt/or do nothing to the lean cruise misfire problem.

The Carter BBR1 is not known as a great carb. There are no metering rods so there just isn't much you can do tuning between idle and max flow. I also might be wasting my time working on tuning an engine with other problems like mal-adusted valves and leaky, cross-firing plug wires.


Whaadya think?

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[Haines Garage]

Sir Rudy!
I love reading your post. I find it very interesting that you are able to repair parts you can't find. Silver Soldier and drilling, how awesome!!
Did you take any pics of that process?

[rudycon]

Sorry, Haines. No images of how I soldered and drilled a jet.

Advancing the timing and a 1/8th turn on the idle needle took care of my lean misfire and surge.
I also finally ordered up parts from 3 different vendors to build the solid core, soldered ends, plug wires I want to try out.

But before that, I'm going to have to get a bigger fire extinguisher!

Wanna see something scary? My carb whistling like a teapot, fuel running down the outside of the carb and sizzling on the manifold after shutting down with a hot engine, and the spookiest of all? boiled gasoline vapors.
I simply have to do something about this.



Crank up the volume. See that fog? not water. Gasoline. Anybody gotta spark? I could show you the world's fastest willys jeep hood removal. Boom.

My plan:

Disable the exhaust deflector flapper that directs exhaust gases up against the floor of the intake manifold for better cold weather operation. (completed)

6 volt electric fuel pump up by the tank. Re-route fuel lines under the front cross member instead of under the crankshaft, bypass the stock fuel pump;Part of which is located 1/2" from the exhaust manifold.
Insulate fuel pipe hoses as required up in the engine bay, retest.

[rudycon]

DIY solid core plug wires

Maybe you like the idea of splattering RF all over the place from your flatty? Maybe you think solid core wires are what your engine was designed to run with so you should run them? Maybe you are just an old motor head who likes the old ways.

I took a stab at building my own plug wires instead of using a kit/set of modern RF suppression wires.

I used a solid core, silicone insulated, cloth wrapped plug wire for that old time look with modern silicone performance.
I used solder on Rajah #2 ring terminals. No boots at all! Probably a terrible idea and it won't run at all in the rain, but we'll see.
I could also crimp on connections with my Rajah model 1951 plug wire tool, but I just soldered them for now. I don't know if it is right or wrong without the crimp.

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[rudycon]

3 more images to give you an idea of what you can do to get your plug wires back to looking like 1950s tech.

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