Restoring Ham's '48 Willys - Auld Lang Syne

Thursday closed out 2015 and the folks at the shop were working a half-day. I went by to pay my respects and thank-you's for all that had gotten done this year.

The glass guy had come in since my last visit and had reinstalled the windshields and the weatherstripping. It looks right now. The interior trim pieces fit as they should. Photos show the two different installations.

Left picture is wrong, right picture is correct.

Getting the truck to run is still the prime issue. After it sits for a day or so with the plugs out, letting things dry out, it will start on the first couple of revolutions (4-6 cylinders), but the idle is rough. It runs for about five minutes, then starts to miss badly. At this point, there is liquid fuel in the carburetor throat. Shortly thereafter, it just chokes itself to a stop.

We called the folks who rebuilt the carb and we had a discussion that told us everything that could cause an engine to run rough. Valve timing, point gap, ignition coil, valve settings, distributor settings, and - oh yes - using "new" plug wires instead of the original copper wire core wires. Notice that a misadjusted or defective rebuilt carburetor wasn't one of the topics.

We made one more check of everything. The carburetor is in a box to go back on Monday, January 4th. When you've tried everything, check what's left to check. Understatement of 2015; "This is really frustrating".

Monday when nothing else can get done, I'll go over and work on the temp gauge issue. It reads backwards. No, switching the wires won't make a difference, the bi-metal gauges don't care which direction current flows, just so the element heats up. We're going to find something that makes us go "DUUUH". There have been a lot of those in this project. Old Jeeps try to keep a lot of secrets.

Happy New Year to all, and keep on Jeepin'.