Restoring Ham's '48 Willys - Progress Shows!

Well, things are getting done and progress can be seen. Pieces and parts are coming together from boxes, bins and off shelves in the shop. Late last week the rear end went back together - and as with just about every Timken differential, the question was "Is the pinion setup right?" And - since it was a Timken rear end, the only way to find out was to take it back apart, put grease on the ring gear teeth, put it back together, rotate the pinion, then take it back apart. The good news - the tooth engagement looked like the "Desired" picture in the old shop manual. Now, put it back together the third time. It does get easier with practice. There was a bit of work to get all of the nuts on the pinion shaft properly torqued. The old shop manual shows a lot of neat tools to do just about every step in servicing the rear axle. Of course none of those tools exist any more, so we needed to make a special tool to tighten the rear nut on the shaft. The good news - it's done right and it won't have to come apart before the truck's 100th birthday.

With any luck, the chassis will be rolling by the end of today (Monday). Brake drums and hubs back together, bearings packed and wheels and tires on so that the chassis can roll around the shop. This lets us set the cab, mount the motor and transmission and start on the other little chassis tasks. The transmission is going out to the transmission shop today - we're hoping for nothing worse than a lot of dirt and crud in the bottom of the case and replacing the seals. We need to get over to the Toledo Jeep shop and pick up the "new" steering column and shifter. The steering column will need an overhaul kit for the worm gear bearings and then the cosmetics (strip and paint). There are about a zillion little and not so little parts we need yet, but we think we have a line on most of them. Still - no one knows anything about the rubber bushing in the drive shaft bearing support bracket - it's like no one ever had to replace one.

There was a discussion about what to do with the carburetor. I decided to tear the old Carter YF down and see how badly it was corroded and gummed up. Aside from needing about 15 minutes with an industrial grade heat gun to get the accelerator pump to come out of the body, it cleaned up nicely with a can of carb cleaner and several fiber brushes in a Dremel tool. I ordered the master carburetor rebuild kit - the one with the most parts and looked on-line for how-to instructions for the YF. The Carter manual from 1949 has more than I ever wanted to know about putting it back together and making adjustments. Just follow the step-by-step directions (it says there).

I'm going down to the plantation in Tennessee and sit in a bush for a week and wait for a turkey to walk by. The guys in the shop get a week off without me sticking my nose in and asking "What and Why?"