I'm hoping the overdrive works well. If anything I think it will be fun to play semi with splitting gears. Those m38a1 pieces don't look bad. Id restore them. I pulled the head off and took some other stuff apart. I will start another thread for this jeep. I'm now thinking of building it into some sort of trail buggy. But if that doesn't work I will swap axles.
Splitting gears would be fun for sure. You wouldn't have as much engine momentum of a heavy diesel flywheel as you would have in a semi, but it would be worth the challenge. The direct drive to overdrive shift would be a flick of the wrist, but the first gear high to second low then second high to third low would take some practice.
So on my 56 the pivot eye pulled out of the frame bracket. (pics attached) KW website says that for 56 i need a pivot eye c shape shackles# 802061. Vintage jeep parts has regular shackles they say fit 55-71. KW says those regular shackles # 916646 didnt start untill 58. Is there any real difference? And is one better than they other? Also the bracket on the frame that the pivot eye bolts to. KW has one that says unthreaded. But i cant find threaded ones. Are threaded for the pivot eye and non threaded for shackle?
I'm not exactly being super smart for this bumb in the road so any explanation on what parts i need would be great. I've never had to do anything with this style of C shackle before. So i'm kinda lost...
The spring hanger itself is worn beyond serviceability, because the eyelet has been eaten through on the top, as seen in your first photo. The sides of the hanger is worn out of round on both sides from the shackle being driven around for a long time loose, or repaired previously incorrectly. Not to worry, this isn't a huge deal to fix, and to answer your question, you can use the later closed shackles, as long as you use the correct bushings in the hanger and spring. You can do one of three different fixes;
I personally would go with the M38A1 style, because I like the originality of the 'C' shackle because they are greaseable for a longer life of the repair. The downside to this for your application, is that you would have to replace the eyelet with the threaded bushing.
Thank you for the information! I'm looking at the m38a1 style. One question, KW only has right hand thread. From what i understand the cj5 has left hand thread on one side. I will replace both brackets on the frame with threaded brackets. will the right hand threads work in my leafsprings. I'm not sure if the original left thread is in the spring or frame mount. Thank you again. Hopefully I can order parts and get the jeep operational again!!
I'm certain that the driver's side is supposed to be left hand thread for both the frame bushing and the spring. All I can find are the right-hand thread on a couple of different web sights. I can find the open C shackles in left- and right-hand thread, but not the M38A1. Maybe with the closed C design, they are all right-hand thread. If I get some time, I'll continue to dig. I would contact Mike at Kaiser Willys to see what he says.
This will help from the service manual. Of course it is sideways..... There are only 2 left hand thread bushings. It is a bit bizarre the way they are used. You can change to all right hand. Left hand thread bushings are rare. I think they were only used until 1956. They were phased out. The left hand shackles are available from KW.
I just pulled out the C shackle this morning. On the passenger side. The top that goes into the frame bracket was normal thread and the bottom into the spring is reverse thread. (someone must have had this apart at sometime and put it together wrong) Also the hole in the leaf spring that the shackle goes into is almost smooth. theres no threads left. When taking it apart The outer bushing threaded out with a ratchet. And would not pull out atleast not without force. Threaded it out and now it all looks almost smooth . I can see there was threads on the outside of the bushing, very faint. But i cant see any on the spring. I will defiitely replace both frame brackets as the passenger side is rotted as bad as the other side, that you saw pics of. Since there is no threads on the spring should i get the closed shackle. https://www.kaiserwillys.com/product...non-greasable/ That way i'm not relying on threads into the spring. Because it looks like its now a bit oversized so I might not be able to cut new threads for C shackles.
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