She Followed Me Home

[Wasilla]

Hi Newbie to this Forum. I have owned flat fenders, trucks and a wagon or two. I have always wanted a Jeepster after driving a friends, even offered him 3 jeeps, he said no. ;-)

Found this survivor that had been sitting in storage barn since 1990. Yes there are some screwups, but all are fixable. Surprisingly there is no rust.

I am looking forward to working with this group and on the Jeepster

[Wasilla]

The 1st item to repair is the driveline. It is a stock OE driveline and needs replacing.

I would like to upgrade to a Dana Spicer type driveline. Any recommendations or sources?

[gmwillys]

Welcome Wasilla!

Great looking Jeepster! To have no rust is a darned good starting point.

Let us elaborate on exactly you are looking to do with the driveline. The L134 will be a waiting game on finding a suitable replacement. Your Jeepster should have a T-96 transmission being that it should have a column three speed and an electric overdrive. This leaves you with a Dana 23 rear axle and a Planar 2 wheel drive front end. What direction are you wanting to go?

http://www.ewillys.com/category/engine/

We look forward to seeing more of your project(s).

[LarrBeard]

Wow! Jeepsters are rare and unique beasts indeed, only slightly more common than unicorns. We don't see many of them, so we all might be in a learning mode.

What year is it? the "T" grille piece says it might be a '48 - '49, but things get swapped and Willys-Overland did a lot of swapping on things in the early days.

You mention upgrading the driveline. The Jeepster shares the ball and trunnion U-joints with the early 2WD trucks and it turns out that they are readily available as MOPAR parts - most Jeep folks, even the really sharp ones, scratch their heads and go "Huh?" when they see those joints.

But, if you want to upgrade to a Dana Spicer driveline, BMorgil (AKA Doc Dana) is the go-to expert on that.

[Wasilla]

The Jeepster is mostly original and complete with no rust. The paint is acrylic from the 80's.

Runs and drives, but needs replacement of worn parts and pieces.

Thanks for the info Doc Dana

[

[bmorgil]

I have to look at the drawings LarrBeard has provided on the mating flanges at the axles. The only "trick" to it, is an adapter will have to be fabricated by a machinist to mate the Detroit pinion flange to a standard Spicer 1310 series flange. From there we will find you a drive line shop. Once you have the standard Spicer 1310 series flanges in place, the rest is fairly straight forward. There were some parts that I picked out for LarrBeard's that would work well with the 1310 flanges. First I have to remember where Larry's sketches are!

[Wasilla]

I have to look at the drawings LarrBeard has provided on the mating flanges at the axles. The only "trick" to it, is an adapter will have to be fabricated by a machinist to mate the Detroit pinion flange to a standard Spicer 1310 series flange. From there we will find you a drive line shop. Once you have the standard Spicer 1310 series flanges in place, the rest is fairly straight forward. There were some parts that I picked out for LarrBeard's that would work well with the 1310 flanges. First I have to remember where Larry's sketches are!

I found this information, as I do not have the part, not sure if it will work for the rear diff
NEAPCO N2-4-2791 Fits Jeep CJ, Willys Wagon, Willys Pickup, Jeepster VJ with Dana 41 REAR*axle, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950

[bmorgil]

There was some one else who posted recently that had a Spicer style yoke on a Timken Axle. I have to find it. There may be some yoke that will fit the Timken. If not, a flange adapter will have to be machined. It is not a complicated part. Any good machine shop should be able to make one.

I do not know the spline size, type or general dimensions on the Timken pinion. If a Spicer 1310 style End Yoke cannot be found, the adapter would be the way to go. In addition, an adapter would allow you to do this without removing the original end yoke from the axle.

[Trailabite]

Nice find.

[Wasilla]

[QUOTE=gmwillys;12273]Welcome Wasilla!

Great looking Jeepster! To have no rust is a darned good starting point.

Let us elaborate on exactly you are looking to do with the driveline. The L134 will be a waiting game on finding a suitable replacement. Your Jeepster should have a T-96 transmission being that it should have a column three speed and an electric overdrive. This leaves you with a Dana 23 rear axle and a Planar 2 wheel drive front end. What direction are you wanting to go?

Is it possible to change the drive line to a spicer? maybe a 1310 series?

Have you seen any Jeepster frames available?

Thanks for the time

[bmorgil]

If that is a Dana 23 and not a Timken that changes everything. Take some pictures of the pinion to drive shaft connection. I'll get back to you after I see some pictures. Good thing Wasilla is paying attention!

I missed that part of gmwillys post! Getting stir crazy.

[bmorgil]

This is the end yoke you need to put in a 1310 series Spicer U-Joint. https://www.kaiserwillys.com/pinion-shaft-yoke-fits-41-66-jeep-willys-w-dana-25-front-27-41-44-53-rear The 23 should use the same yoke as the 25, 41 etc. The yoke you found should also work. Lets see what you have first. I was thinking it was hooked up like Larry's. I can't believe I missed that in gmwillys post. He pumps out so much info it's hard to catch it all!

We will need some good photos of the underside, specifically the drive line. This is fairly straight forward if it is a 1 piece driveshaft.

[gmwillys]

I get that a lot when I ramble on. The Long Suffering Misses tunes me out after the first couple of minutes of dialogue as well, so I'm used to it..... Bmorgil has you on the right path now.


Frames are out there but usually by the time you find one available, they are in sad shape. The following links can lead you to some resources to post up on for a frame search, or any other specific information that is unique to the first gen Jeepster.

https://www.midstatesjeepster.com/index.html

https://jeepsterclub.com/

http://www.ewillys.com/?s=jeepster

[bmorgil]

More like you give out a lot of good stuff gmwillys! Sometimes I need to read it twice

[Wasilla]

Hi Is there any difference between the 2WD Jeepster and Wagon frames?