Ham's '48; Air Cleaner Project

Ok guys, I need some advice.

First, some background. Originally the ’48 had an L-134 engine. Over the years a lot of the accessories disappeared from the engine room, including the air cleaner and all of the plumbing attached to it. When I started driving the truck in ’65, it had some sort of big coffee can air cleaner atop the carburetor.

It was so top heavy that the vibration wore most of the screws out of the top of the carburetor. The top finally came off the carb one day, so I took the top heavy air cleaner off and retapped the carb body for some size screw (I don’t remember what). From ’66 through the end of its second life, the air cleaner was a couple of layers of rag tied on with a couple of wraps of wire. It kept the big pieces out.

After I ran out of L-134 engines, I found an F-134 laying in a barnyard and I swapped it into the truck. It still used the rag air cleaner. Now, the L-134 and the F-134 have intake manifolds and carburetors on opposite sides of the engine. When I restored the ’48, I kept the F-134 because it was the engine that had been in the truck most of its life. It wasn’t historically accurate, but I kept it.

As part of the restoration, I found a Houde air cleaner in Toledo and we cleaned it up and installed it in the alcove on the passenger front fender. For the first time in my memory, it had an air cleaner!

The particular F-134 I have is probably a combination of parts – remember:

Jeep Rule 1. What you see is what you have

The rocker arm cover has an oil fill cap and the dipstick tube is also an oil filler tube with the little spout for a hose to the carburetor air plenum. (Why do you need a filler tube when there is also a filler cap on the rocker arm?)

But, we rigged up some parts and pieces to make things go together and while they work, the rig isn’t right. It looks more like a clothes dryer vent than a Jeep! I would like to get back to a more original air cleaner to carburetor set of plumbing. (The air horn may not even be a Jeep part...).

There is going to be a hose from the air cleaner to a sleeve with a spigot to connect to the oil filler tube vent, a second hose to the air cleaner horn and an air cleaner horn for the Carter YS. There may well be a support bracket in there somewhere. The L-134/F-134 combination may make the installation a bit awkward, but I want something that looks a bit more like an original Willys setup than the rig I have now.

Here's what I have now. Advice?

The set up you are running now looks good. It looks factory, being that The air cleaner fits into the recess of the passenger side fender.The dryer vent doesn't look too out of place. The fresh air vent hose on my wagon was essentially a dryer vent, much like what you have there. The original air cleaner was most likely the big housing that ended up wearing out the carb.

The set up you are running now looks good. It looks factory, being that The air cleaner fits into the recess of the passenger side fender.The dryer vent doesn't look too out of place. The fresh air vent hose on my wagon was essentially a dryer vent, much like what you have there. The original air cleaner was most likely the big housing that ended up wearing out the carb. The carb horn on there now looks like it came from a Studebaker.