Ham's '48; Air Cleaner Project - DONE!

When the ’48 truck came out of the restoration process, none of us were really satisfied with the way the carburetor to air cleaner plumbing came out. In its pre-restoration life, the original L-134 at one time had a Chevy oil bath cleaner perched on top of the carburetor, but the vibration of that top-heavy rig ripped the screws out of the top of the carburetor. From that time on (about 1965) the air filter was a rag tied over the carburetor inlet. It kept the big chunks out and while it sat in the barn for 35-years the mice didn’t build a nest in it – so it worked.

I replaced the L-134 with an F-134 about 1973 and the rag stayed on. But, when we did the restoration, the air cleaner became a project. I found an air cleaner over at Toledo that I thought could work.

I’m not sure even today just what it originally came from; it is a flat topped, 3-inch angled outlet oil bath cleaner. It has no provision for a crankcase vent tube, so where ever it came from used an external tube with vent nipple between it and the carburetor.

The first rig looked more like a Cummings diesel than a Jeep. Most people who look at it just go Ooooh and Ahhhh, and don’t notice the wrong plumbing, but I KNOW! I bought a Donaldson air cleaner off eBay, but after I had invested an afternoon of cleaning and about 4 square inches of skin, I found out it didn’t fit. So I decided it was time to invent something that looked like it could have been the right air cleaner.

I ran over to Metal Supermarket (the handiest place you can find for little pieces of metal that are cut or bent just so) and got a piece of 1/2-inch OD tubing. I took the old Donaldson air cleaner and the flat-top cleaner to the local welder, described what I needed and the next day I had an air cleaner that looked like it could have belonged on a Jeep. The welder didn’t burn the decal and even painted it to match!

It went on just about as slick as any project ever does and it looks like it belongs there. It will take a real Jeep expert to tell that the flat-top cleaners did not have vent inlets – but the neat thing about Jeeps is that you can’t say “Willys never…”.

I need to add a couple of hose clamps just for decoration and I will declare the job DONE!

(Anyone need a Donaldson air cleaner that’s about ready to patch and paint?)