I've been spending again! My '43 GPW

[Noel7]

14 hours ago, Chris Hall said:

do you know where the photo of the Wellingtons was taken? It looks like they are about to be inspected as each aircraft has its air or ground crew at the front stood at ease. And all the props are set with the 3rd blade pointing up.

Wikipedia's entry on the Wellington has the same photo and identifies the aircraft as being from the batch of 30 Mark 1s obtained pre-war by the RNZAF, transferred to the RAF 8/1939, and used by 75 squadron. Wikimedia Commons identifies the location as RAF Stradishall 10/7/1939  "Ready to fly to Brussells and Paris as a show of strength from the RAF" and then gives the date as "September or August 1939" 

[MatchFuzee]

75 (NZ) Squadron was the 1st Commonwealth Squadron to be formed in Bomber Command – took part in the early Bombing Offensive against Enemy-occupied Territories.

More information on RAF Stradishall:-

https://masterbombercraig.wordpress.com/post-war-raf-career/raf-stradishall/

[Jessie The Jeep]

February 15th - Fuel Filter & Power Supply

Like on Jessie, I also removed Hope's fuel filter to prepare it for the decal set Christmas present I bought last year, It was time to make a start on applying them. Both filter bowls were quite scruffy on the outside and the Ford one was a bit corroded on the inside from its time abandoned in Texas before restoration. I'd given it a clean up during the 2012 rebuild, but at the time, I couldn't get the metal filter element out. This limited what I could do at the time. This time around, I managed to free the filter.
  


The filter itself was in reasonable condition, but the spring below it was severely corroded and snapped. Over the last six years, the filter had been corroded in place, so all the metal elements were tight together anyway. The bowl was put in an electrolysis bath to deal with internal corrosion again. 



The drain plug was still in good condition apart from some slight rounding of the corners of the square drive and the threads needed cleaning. I couldn't find any suitable replacement springs in the workshop, so went to the model shop and bought some piano wire to wind my own.



It was quite a fight to wind the 1.5mm piano wire around a drill bit as a diameter template, but got something moderately presentable at the end. Both fuel filter bowls were cleaned externally, wet sanded, sprayed silver and left in my curing cabinet to bake the paint hard. 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

New Power Supply to Fit

The following picture is a little gadget I picked up for "Hope" from Ebay. It's a three output power supply and combined volt meter. "Jessie" has already got a 24 volt to 12 volt converter so I can power a sat-nav and charge my phone. "Hope" had nothing, so I got this 12v cigar lighter socket and twin USB output set to mount in the glove box. That will need a mounting box made to both attach the electrics and protect the wiring from other items in the glove box. I'll also want a power cut off switch.



February 16th  - Fuel Filter Decal

The paint had fully hardened overnight, so it was time to try the decal. I had already applied the Willys set filter decal to the other filter and all went well. I'd mixed a little PVA glue with the water as this helps the decal to adhere to the surface. A little of the solution was also brushed onto the filter. 

The decal was dipped in the water for the 30 seconds stated on the instructions, but showed no signs of releasing. It was left several more minutes and still didn't release. After half an hour of prodding and poking it began to lift a little around the edges, but not easily.

Slowly I worked a thin piece of styrene between the decal and backing paper easing it away from the paper. It took a long time, possibly another 15 minutes and eventually it was free. Some pieces of the backing paper remained attached to the back of the decal.

With the handle end of a modelling paint brush, I was able to gently work them free from the decal, leaving it clean and ready to apply.



The decal must have stretched a little during my fight to release it and once laid on the filter, had a few small wrinkles around the edges. To fix this, I used a modelling product called Microsol. It is a mild decal solvent which at first wrinkles and softens the decal and then shrinks a little as it dries. Along with a little gentle pressure with a small paint brush, the wrinkles were slowly flattened.

Close inspection of the Ford decal sheet showed them to look more matt than the Willys set, as if the ink had soaked through the decal film. While there were no signs of ink on the backing paper for the fuel filter decal, something is stopping it from releasing properly. The paper was also slightly wrinkled as if by damp, even though it arrived in a sealed bag. I have messaged the seller and sent some photos, so hope to get a replacement set, as I don't want to fight the other three Ford decals for the oil filter.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

February 28th - Fuel Filter

The original main fuel filter gasket had become hard and after seeing the Hotchkiss filter, I discovered the smaller gasket was missing. I'd bought some gasket sheet so cut some new ones. The filter was then refitted to the Jeep and it was given a short test run.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

February 29th - Oil Filter Decals

The oil filter on the Ford was still in decent condition, only needing a few paint touch ups where the mounting rings had worn through the paint. After trouble with the first set of Ford decals, the replacement set were behaving themselves. I began with the decal on the lid. There was only a slight double curvature on the lid and so there were only a few small wrinkles to treat with Microsol. 

Before I applied the other two side decals, I thought I'd have a quick check of my reference photos for positioning. I'd found a few recent restorations on the net, but hadn't given them much of a glance until now. It was at that point where I noticed that some had the Ford 'f' badge at the top of the can, while others had it at the bottom. It took quite a long time searching the net to finally find some black and white original wartime photos showing the oil filter and used those as reference.

The other two decals were on a single curvature face and so were applied without problems, but plenty of Microsol to get them to settle into the painted surface. After several applications of Microsol had done its thing and I'd gently rolled out any air bubbles with a cotton bud, they were left to harden overnight.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

March 1st - Fuel and Oil Filter

On March 1st, I refitted the oil filter. I'd done the whole job without draining the oil from the can, just taping up the inlet and outlet connections. Like on Jessie, the hardest part was to connect it all back together, supporting it with one hand, tightening bolts with the other, all without scratching the new decals! Once it was all back together again, the engine was given another test run to check for fuel and oil leaks and all seemed well, though I'll give them both another check on the drive once the weather warms up.

March 7th - 12 volt and USB Power Supply

Over Saturday 7th, I made a wooden box to mount the power supply unit into and to hide away all the wiring. I decided not to fasten the box into the glove box as I didn't want to drill any holes through the glove box floor. There was a small gap between the glovebox floor and the firewall, just big enough to pass a positive supply wire up into the glove box. The earth wire is attached to one of the glove box hinge bolts. The other end of the positive wire goes through an existing cable hole in the firewall and off to the battery isolator. There's a switch on the box to cut off power to the three outputs and when it is not needed, it can be pushed back into the glove box out of the way. The cigar socket can now be used for powering a satnav if required and there's a 1AH and 2.1AH USB output for phone charging or other USB accessories. It's nice to have the voltage indicator too.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

With the coronavirus lockdown tightening, "Hope", has followed "Faith" the Dodge and is now up on wooden blocks to take the weight off the tyres. The prospect of getting out is fairly low, especially since I need to move a normal car and the other Jeep to get "Hope" out of the garage. So for now, the Dodge and GPW are off their wheels and off the road and taking a rest until this all blows over. "Jessie" is still accessible and able to be driven, so I have the option of going for a drive should conditions allow, or to take the vehicle out, turn the wheels and park up again. 

Until the virus situation takes a turn for the better, two thirds of my fleet are hibernating.

[Chris Hall]

You do need to be careful. They say the over 70s are most vulnerable. My March 42 GPW has underlying health issues so she probably won’t be coming out this year.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Happy birthday "Hope" - 77 years old today.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[private mw]

Nice going to try to start mine today fingers crossed 🤭

[Jessie The Jeep]

I ran both of mine a few days ago to make sure they'd both start for tomorrow's VE Day garden party.

[private mw]

Yes same reason Steve if doesn't start at least we can fall back on the toylander 🤭

[Jessie The Jeep]

It's the big day! Peace at last. USAAF on the left and RAF on the right.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[private mw]

Nice one 👍

[Jessie The Jeep]

We had a great and memorable VE Day. See my other Jeep page for the full report - 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

After the VE Day drive around the block, the GPW engine died while pulling up the drive to be put back in the garage. It wouldn't restart, so had to be pushed away. It sounded very much like fuel starvation, but after a long day out in the Sun, I was too tired to start pulling things to bits. I had a bit of a poke around a couple of days later, cleaning the fuel pump bowl and blowing out the pipes and got it running. But a couple of days after that, it wouldn't start.

I'd checked the electrics for sparks and loose connectors, but was sure it was a fuel issue. I pulled the pump off and stripped it for a full clean and checked the diaphragm which looked ok. Once back together, the pump still didn't seem to be pumping well, so continued following the pipe back, checking connections. Once up to the firewall fuel filter, I noticed staining down the back of the bowl and suspected the bowl wasn't sealing properly against the top and so allowing air in.

I rigged up a rubber pipe from the tank to the fuel line to the pump and the engine started fine, idling ok and power when demanded. So that appeared to be the problem. To confirm the gasket wasn't sealing, I pulled the filter bowl off and made a temporary gasket from some 1/16 inch cork gasket material, attached to a ring of 1/16 birch plywood to hold the floppy gasket in place. Another test run on the drive and all seemed to run as it should again.

So I ordered a new gasket set yesterday, a spare set to use on either Jeep in the future, plus a fuel pump rebuilt kit to keep as a spare. The GPW had a new pump fitted during the rebuild in 2013, but my M201 pump was fitted with a new diaphragm many years ago. I can't find evidence of a date, but probably at least ten years ago, so I figured while I was spending money on post, a spare fuel pump kit was a worth while spend.

ATTENTION! Anyone who has replaced a diaphragm before, knows what a tricky job it can be to hook it onto the lever inside the pump. When I replaced the diaphragm on the M201, it just wouldn't hook on. After much wasted time, I noticed the slot in the diaphragm plunger was smaller than the one that came off the Jeep - too small to fit the lever in fact. It was never going to hook on. After opening up the width of this slot with a needle file, it hooked straight on first go!!! It's worth checking the hole before swearing at it.

The gaskets should be here in a couple of days and once fitted, I'll go on a short test drive to check things out. We recently got a little GoPro type action camera, so I'll probably clamp that on the GPW and shoot a little video of the trip out.

[ruxy]

Age fatigue cream-crackered or ethanol attack   ?

[Jessie The Jeep]

Just age hardening of the cork gasket.

[private mw]

Im having same problem jeep won't start again . Am I right thinking one of yours is a Hotchkiss m201 if so is it still 24v or changed to standard spark plugs is so what spark plugs do you use or recommend and what antifreeze . cheers 🙄

[Jessie The Jeep]

@private mw

The Flying Control Jeep is the M201. It is still 24 volts, but I replaced the original sealed ignition system and HT leads with a standard distributor, coil and leads, but with an electronic ignition system inside the standard distributor. Originally I had Champion plugs, but they couldn't take the heat of the electronic ignition spark and the electrodes distorted to the point where they closed up the gap and shorted out. I switched to NGK plugs after that and all has been well since ( I can't recall the plug code number ). For antifreeze, I use the wartime brand - Prestone.

[private mw]

NGK b6s that's what's in mine and yes I thought prestone 50/50 ready mixed been looking at that thanks for your quick reply just got to get it to start again ☹️

[Pete Ashby]

21 hours ago, Jessie The Jeep said:

ATTENTION! Anyone who has replaced a diaphragm before, knows what a tricky job it can be to hook it onto the lever inside the pump. When I replaced the diaphragm on the M201, it just wouldn't hook on. After much wasted time, I noticed the slot in the diaphragm plunger was smaller than the one that came off the Jeep - too small to fit the lever in fact. It was never going to hook on. After opening up the width of this slot with a needle file, it hooked straight on first go!!! It's worth checking the hole before swearing at it.
 

Good point well made Steve I've had a couple like that and done exactly the same fix.

The other thing worth mentioning perhaps is that before the body screws are tightened down the cam shaft operating lever needs to be held in the raised position while the body screws tightened evenly. 

Doing this draws the diaphragm down so that it locates properly and ensure maximum deflection without stress around the screw holes as this may lead to premature failure  

Pete

[Jessie The Jeep]

After fitting new fuel filter gaskets, the GPW needed a test drive. For a few days after the work was done, there were gales with gusts over 40mph, so I put off a test until things settled down. By the bank holiday Monday, there was a gentle breeze and a nice sunny day, so after blowing up all the tyres, my daughter and I went for a seven mile test drive. We didn't plan it to be so precise, but on logging the miles once home, it was exactly seven miles door to door.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

May 27th - Under Seat Locker

Most Jeep owners know that the two rear wheel arch lockers and the glove box aren't enough to carry all the stuff you want to carry. Under the rear seat is plenty of usable space. However, without making some changes, there's nothing to stop anythings from sliding forwards each time the Jeep is slowed. On the M201, I built a steel locker under the back seat, based on a wartime Canadian Army modification. I didn't want to go to that much effort on the GPW, but I still have things I could do with storing. I didn't need it to be as secure as on the M201, so just used a strip of 1/8 plywood, bolted across the front of the seat supports. I can now put stuff under there and know it won't move around.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep