Restoring Ham's '48 Willys - Progress and Frustrations; Part 2

Well, the truck looks beautiful - but it won't start and run. One would think getting an F-134 running would be easy after all these years, but 'tisn't the case.

The list is long, but we've had distributor issues. The engine builder had the oil pump drive gear several teeth off of where it should have been and that led us down the distributor path. That seems to be fixed now.

The fuel/vacuum pump was bad (vacuum side was bad), so we replaced the pump with a KWAS pump. I had rebuilt the old carburetor and I had doubts about my rebuild, so when the carb started to flood badly, I decided to replace the carb with a KWAS rebuild rather than do another tear down. The rebuild flooded too. It turns out the KWAS fuel pump puts out about 10 psi of fuel pressure; the carb won't handle but about 4 psi. SO, add a fuel pressure regulator.

We've had starter issues - it just won't crank over fast enough. The starter went back to the shop and sure enough, the starter guy found a problem. But - even now it won't turn over fast enough to start. We're checking battery, cables and grounds. I suspect we're way too small on cables and there may be ground issues as well. (I don't want to have to go back and replace that bushing in the bell housing...)

There were questions about vacuum as well. Ask about ported vs. unported vacuum on Jeeps and you'll start a real discussion. The answer, as far as I can decide, is that on this F-134 installation, the distributor vacuum advance will run off the vacuum port on the carburetor and the vacuum boost pump will run from manifold vacuum.

I think we're close; just one "ah-ha" moment from getting it going. But it's frustrating.

But, she's beautiful.

Pictures follow. We've got just about everything gauged in these pictures - fuel pressure gauge to carb and a vacuum gauge on the carb vacuum port. She looks like she's on life support (kind of is,...).