For a birthday present last month, my wife and inlaws teamed up to buy me a complete set of seat cushions. Their thoughts are solely for the passengers that might one day brave a ride in this vehicle. They aren't exactly reproduction cushions, nor are they original cushions, either. They are made out of WWII tent canvas and sewn into patterns from jeep cushions. Evidently, there is a guy in Europe (Belgium, maybe?) that has a huge stockpile of WWII era tents and fabricates these cushions from that canvas.
All in all, I was very pleased with them. They don't smell as good (or bad, if you ask Sarah) as the repro's in my GPW, but hey, these guys are 70+ years old...and do have their own odor! They look good, as in old, which really fits the look of this jeep since I have been using so many original parts to complete this restoration and add to the fact that I left a magnificent assortment of dents, dings and rolls in the tub.
Actually, I was pleased with all of the cushions except for one. The back pad for the bench seat (in my humble opinion) needed one more row of stitches to make it sit squarely and not roll out from the bottom. Maybe that is one that I will keep one eye on a lookout for an original one. Maybe...
The other fun part for the cushions is that I managed to conjure up almost all of the needed original hardware to attach them to the chairs. In the end, I needed to buy four screws and eight donut washers to complete the installation. Luckily, I was able to place the new pieces in concealed areas where one would have to bend their necks to view.
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| Original hardware (left) and the newer pieces (right). The new screw is 1/4 inch longer. Cannot notice the length when installed...just the shine. |
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| Passenger back cushion: looking quite old! |
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| Seat cushions secured! I have the hip crash pads, but I need to straighten the backing panels before installing. |
OIL PRESSURE SAGA CONTINUATION...
I've been continuing the quest to figure out why I lost and cannot regain engine oil pressure. I removed the oil pump, check it's specs and the one part that seemed out of tolerance was the disc-like washer inside of it that is about the size of a .50 cent piece. I replaced it with another and did a simple bench test. I funneled oil through the intake port and spun the shaft until oil began to appear in the exit port. At that point, I place my thumb over the exit port, blocking the oil and continued to spin the shaft. The shaft immediately became harder to turn and tried to resist my sub-human strength. Alright, pump seems to be good. Thank goodness, because if/when I need to get a new pump, it will have to be modified to fit the engine. Bubba appears to have broken off two of the three studs that mount the pump to the engine. His repair was good, but he drilled out the broken studs, widened the hole that they screw into and re-tapped it for a wider bolt. Now, when a new pump will be installed, it's stud holes will need to be bored outwards to accommodate the larger bolts. No biggie, but just a bit of a hassle.
At this point, I must give props to my good friend David. Again, from three thousand miles away, he set me on the right path to figure this dilemma. He sent me a link on how to prime the pump. I had done it once, twice and thrice, but he gave me a different method to try. In the course of reading the link, it showed a picture of the flange of the oil pickup line and how it can warp. I had known about this and even checked it...but not all of it. I looked at the flange on the engine side of the line, not the actual flange on the pickup end! I dropped the oil pan (again!), removed the flange and inspected it. Sure enough, it had a subtle bend AND it was semi pitted. I used an extra wide file and slowly, patiently filed it so it became flat and level.
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| Sorry for the blurriness. The flat edge is resting on the flange of the pickup line. Hard to see, but there is a small gap in the middle. What you cannot see is all of the pitting. This, even though a gasket sits between this flange and the flange on the engine, will not seal off completely. When the pump begins working, it will only suck air through the lines and not the oil. This was filed to a smooth, level surface. |
After filing, I made extra sure to get ALL of the small metal shavings out of the pickup tube. I found the most effective method to use my rifle bore cleaning tools to clear it of debris, followed by a thorough washing and then compressed air to remove all of the moisture and whatever microscopic bits that remained.
I mounted the tube back to the engine, installed the oil sump and then refilled with oil. Again, I primed the pump and began hand cranking the engine. And then there it was...OIL flowing out of the line that leads to the gauge! Just to make sure, I popped the top off of the oil filter and continued to cranking. More oil was splashing out of the inlet tube to the filter!
Oil issue is resolved. However, I predict the next issue to be timing the spark from the distributor. Here's why...the engine came to me with the dizzy in the wrong position. Since the dizzy mates with the end shaft of the oil pump, I figured now would be the appropriate time to remove the distributor and position it in the same fashion that the technical manuals show...you know, since I already had the oil pump sitting on my workbench.
To do this, the engine needs to be at TDC #1 on the compression stroke. I popped tappet cover off of the side of the engine and got number one valves "on the rock" so they would both be closed immediately after #4 finishes its rotation. I checked the flywheel and the flywheel marks showed in the window. The dizzy goes in with the rotor pointing to approximately 5:30. The wide end on the tip should be to the left with the vertical separator pointing at approximately 11:30. It will mate with the wide end on the oil pump. The oil pump slides in from the bottom, mating with the gear on the cam shaft. Dizzy goes down from the top mating with the oil pump. Everything went together so well, I figured I did it wrong. So, I undid it two more times and every time it went smoothly. Well, I figured I've got it right then.
Next step was to check for the spark at the points. I attached the leads to the battery and flicked the switch "on". I slowly turned the dizzy counter clockwise until the points just began to open and I saw a spark flash. I then tightened the dizzy in place. However, I'm thinking I'll probably have to fine tune it a bit more once I actually get the engine started. While I was spinning the hand crank looking for my oozing oil, I did catch a glimpse of the rotor and it was spinning around inside the distributor, so that confirmed that the dizzy had been mated with the oil pump.
On another front...here's a bit of a teaser for what's to come: JEEP #2! This is the one where I will use the frame from one '44 MB and mate it with the tub of a second '44 MB. I'm thinking for this ordeal, I'll be starting a second blog. Supposedly, this will be the one I sell. (That's exactly what I said about the last one!!)
I mounted the tube back to the engine, installed the oil sump and then refilled with oil. Again, I primed the pump and began hand cranking the engine. And then there it was...OIL flowing out of the line that leads to the gauge! Just to make sure, I popped the top off of the oil filter and continued to cranking. More oil was splashing out of the inlet tube to the filter!
Oil issue is resolved. However, I predict the next issue to be timing the spark from the distributor. Here's why...the engine came to me with the dizzy in the wrong position. Since the dizzy mates with the end shaft of the oil pump, I figured now would be the appropriate time to remove the distributor and position it in the same fashion that the technical manuals show...you know, since I already had the oil pump sitting on my workbench.
To do this, the engine needs to be at TDC #1 on the compression stroke. I popped tappet cover off of the side of the engine and got number one valves "on the rock" so they would both be closed immediately after #4 finishes its rotation. I checked the flywheel and the flywheel marks showed in the window. The dizzy goes in with the rotor pointing to approximately 5:30. The wide end on the tip should be to the left with the vertical separator pointing at approximately 11:30. It will mate with the wide end on the oil pump. The oil pump slides in from the bottom, mating with the gear on the cam shaft. Dizzy goes down from the top mating with the oil pump. Everything went together so well, I figured I did it wrong. So, I undid it two more times and every time it went smoothly. Well, I figured I've got it right then.
Next step was to check for the spark at the points. I attached the leads to the battery and flicked the switch "on". I slowly turned the dizzy counter clockwise until the points just began to open and I saw a spark flash. I then tightened the dizzy in place. However, I'm thinking I'll probably have to fine tune it a bit more once I actually get the engine started. While I was spinning the hand crank looking for my oozing oil, I did catch a glimpse of the rotor and it was spinning around inside the distributor, so that confirmed that the dizzy had been mated with the oil pump.
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| The wider side of both the distributor and oil pump shafts are on the left. The male part of the dizzy (left) plugs into the tip of female oil pump (right). Note, these are not the actual units that were pulled from the jeep. After I installed the originals, I remembered that I should have taken a picture! |
On another front...here's a bit of a teaser for what's to come: JEEP #2! This is the one where I will use the frame from one '44 MB and mate it with the tub of a second '44 MB. I'm thinking for this ordeal, I'll be starting a second blog. Supposedly, this will be the one I sell. (That's exactly what I said about the last one!!)
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| Houston, we have lift off. For sale, as is. Ran when parked. |
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| Just a bit of rust-through. Salvageable? |
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