I have an early 1950 Willys Jeepster with the 49 body style that has the Dana Model 23 rear end with 4.56 gears. I understood that all Jeepster can with 4.88 gears. The are some that say they also came with the 5.38 gears, although I have not seen any, but I have not heard of any coming with the 4.56 gears. This one has the L148 six and does not have the overdrive. Any thoughts? Thanks.
I have not counted the gears but the tag on the housing is clear 41/9. I have contacted an expert on Jeepsters and he said he has seen some 4.56 gears on Jeepsters but mostly the model 23's with 4.56 gears were on wagons.
It is quite possible it is the wrong tag or not a 23 axle. The 41, 44 or 53 could be in there. You never know what could have happened back in the early 50's. If you have the 2 wheel drive Planar front suspension, it should be a 23. As I said however, I know of only one ratio used in the Willys for the 23, a 4.88 ratio. Studebaker used the 23 also. I have seen a few ratios for them. The Jeepsters and the Wagons used the 23 in the rear with the 4.88 ratio. It will be interesting to see that axle.
The axle is stamped 23 on the back passenger side of the housing. I know this is an old vehicle, but I now have the body off (doing a frame off restoration) and everything I see suggests all the parts are original. Thanks.
The Jeepsters were the unicorns of the Jeep world - rare and marvelous creatures.
Willys-Overland wasn't too particular in configuration management on even the "standard" vehicles and since Jeepsters were batch built, consistency wasn't one of their strong points.
Rule 2 of Jeep is "What you see is what you have", and just because everyone says "Willys-Overland never did that" doesn't mean they didn't - we've just never see it. (Rule 3: Never say Willys -Overland never would have ________________. Fill in the blank - they probably did.
We will take your work as evidence that, in some cases, WO did put 41/9 rear ends in Jeepsters.
Be careful, you could become our resident Jeepster expert as you get deeper in the job.
I followed the instruction, but no luck. I cannot log in most times either. When I do, it takes several minutes to give me permission to do anything. When I upload the screen goes dark for a few minutes and then comes back with the cursor in a line below, but no picture. Thanks.
Nope? Anyway the pictures only show the number "23" on the lower passenger side of the casing, and a metal tag with "W41/9" attached to one of the lower bolts. Thanks.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote