Blog – Page 16 – FarmJeep.com

November 12, 2011

Ole Yeller gets a brake

The 47 CJ2a we call Ole Yeller was and still is our working farm jeep. It lives in the barn and gets little attention. It always starts and runs well. It does smoke a little and the body is still in terrible shape. The major tasks this time of year for Ole Yeller involve hauling chainsaws and equipment into the woods and pulling a trailer full of firewood up steep trails. Last week, Barry climbed into Ole Yeller for another round of wood cutting. It cranked, but wouldn’t fire.

As stated, this is a reliable starter. Something seemed to be wrong with the fuel. Barry pulled the glass bowl on the fuel pump and saw lots of brown particles on the screen. He cleaned it as best he could and reinstalled the bowl. He cranked the engine again and it still didn’t fire. Time for the time-honored, but dangerous, technique of pour a little gas down the carburetor to see if fires. It works and Ole Yeller seems to be running fine. But maybe it is time for a real fuel filter.

There is no evidence of a filter ever being installed and it seems to be a cheap investment. The auto parts store wanted to do a vehicle look-up to get a part number. After suggesting that the jeep didn’t have a filter they finally came up with a “generic” model. That should work. It didn’t. The short section of rubber hose was too small to accept the filter. But Barry did discover that the inlet line to the pump was loose. When he removed the rubber line, the steel inlet line swung free! That would explain the fuel problem, but the filter still seemed like a good idea. Back to the parts store for a different filter. The parts guy paraded six different filters out, all with fittings too large to fit the line. Finally settled on a packaged model with multiple fittings.

Evan was scheduled for a “jeep day” and, while Ole Yeller was parked in the garage, it seemed like a good time to get another project done. On the parts shelf was a brand new e-brake cable. None of the farm jeeps Barry had driven had a working e-brake. But the working e-brake on Ole Blue was great, especially on the hills of Lawson Hill Farm.

e-brake screen door spring

While Evan installed the new fuel filter, Barry started disconnecting the e-brake cable. One of the many joys of owning an old jeep is discovering what changes the PO (previous owner) has made. In this case, we have the multi-part (tab with hole for wire attached to a spring) brake lever return mechanism replaced with an old fashion screen door spring and a couple of bolts. Perfectly simple and perfectly functional!

Getting the cable disconnected was much more challenging. By all appearance, it was the original cable installed at the factory. The cable cover (metal) was attached with clips at two points on the engine/transfer case and to the firewall. The cable was attached to the brake lever and to the “cane” handle under the dash. The adjustment clevis had been coated with leaking fluid over the years, so the nuts turned easily, but required some time since there was limited space for turning a wrench and ratchet.

Separating the cable from the handle took a hammer and chisel. Evan managed to get the clip off the firewall and Barry was able to get the clip out of the engine block. The last clip was on the transfer case and covered by the transmission/transfer case skid plate. As we took a look at removing it, it was clear that the PO had bend it on rocks or stumps or something. The easiest way to reach the clip was to drop the skid plate. However, there appears to be a rivet in one corner and 3 bolts in the other 3 holes. Our second option is to drop the cross member, but that would be a major undertaking.

The big wrench extension

The only other option was to reach in on top of the skid plate with a long wrench and use a socket through a hole in the skid plate. Luckily, Evan has long arms and by stretching could reach the top nut. Even luckier was the bolt breaking after a couple of turns.

At some point during this process, Evan asked if we should check and see if the e-brake was still operational. Barry had assumed that the frozen cable was the issue, but had no idea if the e-brake itself would still function. So Barry crawled under the jeep and activated the brake lever while Evan rocked the jeep. With both relief and surprise, the brake stopped the drive shaft from moving! If we could get the new cable installed, we could have a working e-brake.

The reinstall was much less dramatic. Evan noted that the install of the cable to the handle in the dashboard was much simpler that on the 3a. That was due to the hole in the dash were the PO had installed a radio. He could see what he was doing, With the handle reattached and the clips bolted back in place, Barry reattached the cable to the brake lever and hooked up the screen door spring. Evan pulled on the handle and we had a working e-brake!

Access hole to right of the e-brake handle

A test drive proved that we did have a working e-brake. It did require a hard pull on the handle on the steepest part of the jeep trail in the woods, but it did hold. We may do an adjustment, but for now we will enjoy our new safety feature.

November 8, 2011

Who needs wipers?

Our farm jeeps don’t have tops and, in the case of Ole Yeller, there is no windshield. So we have never worried about windshield wipers. That is until we decided it would be fun to be able to drive Ole Blue on the road. To pass the antique vehicle inspection, we had to have both a windshield and working wipers.

A 1949 CJ3A would have come with a vacuum wiper motor on the driver side and a manual wiper on the passenger side. Ole Blues windshield had no glass and an electric wiper on the driver’s side. The original vacuum motor was powered by the fuel pump. The fuel pump we installed in Ole Blue was a non-vacuum model. So the decision was made a couple of years ago to install electric motors.

We purchased a pair that matched the one that came with Ole Blue. The “universal fit” wiper kits had been setting on the parts shelf. With Barry determined to get Ole Blue on the road, he finally opened the boxes to begin the process. The only instruction were for the wiring. The good news was Ole Blue’s windshield was full of holes, including those needed for mounting the wipers and no drilling was required for the wiper installation. The bad news was the shaft of the wiper motor was much too long to allow the blade to contact the windshield and it would not allow the windshield to be folded down on the hood. We expect to have the windshield in the folded position the majority of the time.

A quick search of the Web yielded little help in the way of installation instructions. There were suggestions for how to shorten the shaft. One method was to use a hacksaw to careful cut through the threaded tube while not cutting the inner shaft to which the wiper arm attaches. The second method was to use a Dremel tool with a cut off wheel. We went with the power tool.
The kit contained some rubber washers, a metal washer cover and a nut. We inserted the shaft through the windshield frame using the provided hardware and marked where the outer tubing should be cut. Using the Dremel tool, we quickly cut through the outer tube. Next we measured the depth of the wiper arm mount and, again, used the Dremel tool to cut the

inner shaft. The second wiper was cut using the same measurements.

The motors were mounted and we began wiring the wiper motors according to the instructions. Since the wipers weren’t included in the wiring harness, we elected to run a wire from the positive terminal of the battery with an in-line fuse and a separate ground wire attached to the regulator housing. We used spade connectors to allow us to easily remove everything in case we want to replace the wipers at a later time with the vacuum/manual originals.

Since we wanted to have the windshield in the folded position most of the time, we used an improvised quick disconnect (a trailer light coupler).

The wiring diagram showed two ground wires, one switched, and a positive wire. The switched ground wire apparently allowed for “auto parking” of the blade. We wired the units according to the instructions and placed the wires inside wire covers. We tied the switch, for now, to the lower steering column. The wires to the passenger side tucked nicely in a channel of the windshield frame.

We reconnected the battery and flipped the switch. It works! Next we mounted the blade arms and blades. Even though the motors were supposed to park when switched off, we had a hard time finding the right spot to mount the arm so it stayed on the glass. After a couple of tries we did get them into position.

During testing the wipers would some times not shut off when the switch was off. The spacing on the terminals is so close that there may have been a short. In any case we choose to give up the “auto park” and moved the switch to the positive wire.

The wipers performed without a hitch during the inspection and that was the goal. There is clearly room for improvements and we will most likely buy a new motor for the driver’s side that has a built-in switch and a manual arm for the passenger side.

November 3, 2011

Red (and White) Letter Day for Ole Blue

After an almost year-long process, Ole Blue is legal to drive on the streets and country roads. It took a letter to a newspaper consumer reporter, visits to a lawyer, numerous trips to the BMV and four police inspections. Since Ole Blue had arrived stripped of all standard identifying marks, we had to establish ownership and give Ole Blue a brand new vehicle identification number.

This story really begins in April 2003. Readers interested in how Ole Blue got to this point can start here http://www.farmjeep.com/projects/old-yeller/cj2a-part8.html. By the fall of 2010, Ole Blue was ready to roll, but lacked a working 3 point hitch, good oil pressure (a new pump had been ordered) and minor items needed for on-road operation like windshield wipers. (These fixes and additions will be reported later.) We began the process of getting a title and plates with some research on the Web.

It appeared from the BMV Web pages that we needed to fill out some forms and have a police officer inspect the jeep for identification. We took the forms to the BMV, only to learn that our failure back in ’03 to obtain a bill of sale (BoS) was a big mistake. Without a BoS of some sort, we weren’t going to get Ole Blue on the road.

We came up with the idea of enlisting a local newspaper reporter who works on consumer problems. Within a day, she had gotten answer from BMV headquarters on how we could solve our problems. Basically, we needed an affidavit detailing the sale. After visiting our lawyer, we were off to the BMV again. Three months later, after three more police inspections, and a bunch of late fees (for not doing this in ’03!) we received a new ID number and a real title.

Indiana does allow antique vehicles to display Indiana plates for that model year. The real plate must be carried in the vehicle at presented upon request. We had been lucky enough to find a set of 1949 plates in excellent condition. So on a beautiful late fall afternoon we mount the red plates with white letters and took Ole Blue for a short spin. We are on the road again!