Just picked up this 1949 Jeepster and need to become more educated with what I have, not looking to change, just restore to as original as possible. My knowledge is that this is the 6 cylinder with OD, but how do I verify this?
Attached are pictures of my Jeepster, engine, engine stamp and data vehicle data plate.
Any and all comments and verification info will be greatly appreciated.
I’m in N San Diego.
Thanks, Dave
First; WOW - what a beautiful Jeepster. The little flat snout and the step mark it as a '48 or 49. The L-161 6-cylinder makes it a '49. Nothing else looks like that.
That is backed up by the nameplate. In 1948 and 1949, Willys shared model designations of Station Wagons and VJ2's. They were not all that great at what we have come to know today as configuration control.
I went to the model/serial number list in the front of the KWAS catalog. (By the way, much the same list can be found several other places. Have Mr. Google look for you if you wish). The 4-63 is Willy's designation of both 1949 Station Wagons and VJ's.
In 1949 4-63 serial numbers ran from 84826 to 107895. I can't find a breakout of which were VJ2's and which were Station Wagons. If we assume a fairly flat production run rate, this puts your vehicle as a second or third model month VJ2, which could have made it being built in late 1948.
You can verify six cylinder, OD easily. Count spark plugs, yep - six of them. There should be an overdrive unit on the transmission. Get underneath and take a look. If it looks almost like it has two transmissions - yep - OD too.
Of course, that brings up more questions. Does the OD still work, or has it been disabled over the years? Is there an overdrive kickdown switch under the accelerator pedal - that's a starting place?
Get us a picture of the underside...
Oh, by the way - the color looks like Tunisian Red - like the '48 truck
Thanks for the information. Yep, 6 cylinders was always verified, was wondering if the numbers on the block can tell me more about the date of this engine? Wondering if this is the engine she was born with.My OD has a pull knob, no kick down. Does not work and will be checking out the solinoid and underside this weekend. Other than that, she runs pretty smooth, 3 on the tree works as it should. image.jpg
I've never dealt with OD transmissions, so my switch was just a guess.
Not many folks have success in tracing engine numbers back to original or not. Willys didn't keep really good records on entire vehicle serial numbers, and so far as civilian vehicles go, even less on them.
I suggest you get a KWAS catalog - the first 50 or so pages are a great summary of Jeepology.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will get the catalog. Would seem if there are numbers stamped to the engine, there should be a way to decode them, right?
The journey has begun!
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was always verified, was wondering if the numbers on the block can tell me more about the date of this engine? Wondering if this is the engine she was born with.My OD has a pull knob, no kick down. Does not work and will be checking out the solinoid and underside this weekend. Other than that, she runs pretty smooth, 3 on the tree works as it should. 