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Restoration of my 1942 Ford GPW Jeep


zepher11
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Zeph,

Have you run into any original markings on your jeep?

Jon


Jon, this is the only one that I found which was on both sides of the hood (HN: 20104134):

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It seemed to mesh closely with the 5-1-1942 date of delivery of my GPW. However, I will be duplicating this '42 GPW pictured here at the 91st Bomb Group in Bassingborn, England in late Septermber 1944:

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This my relative, Kelly, on his way home after spending two months in occupied France before evading with the assistance of the French Underground. He was piloting "My Baby" when he and his crew were shot down on September 5, 1944. Kelly turned 90 in January and is in better shape than me! Last year, I stopped by his house when the temperature was 105 degrees....he was outside weed eating. A remarkable man.

My goal was to complete my GPW in the 91st BG markings with the hood number in the above photo by the time of our local 2012 Veteran's day parade. I was hoping to surprise him. He doesn't know I am building this project as I have kept it a secret from him. I am having doubts about completing it by then, but I am working hard to get it done! Actually, just writing this is getting me pumped up! :thumbsup:

Zeph
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I worked a little more on the brakes and installed the master cylinder and the pedal shafts.

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Henry's mark on the pedals:

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Almost forgot the axle bumpers:

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I also was able to install the bell crank and the front tie rods:

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Almost looks like a real vehicle chassis now:

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I also greased all of the fittings, tie rod ends, spring shackle bolts and the pedal shaft. A lot of zerk fittings on a Jeep.

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Yesterday I separated the bell housing, transmission and transfer case. I can't believe that I am at the point that I will be rebuilding these. I'm sticking to my guns here and will rebuild them myself. I have no idea what I'm doing at this point, but with the manuals handy I'm moving forward. Here are some photos of the exploratory surgery of GPW 23515's T-84 transmission. Warning: it isn't a pretty sight... :ermm: If you wince from some of the sights here, I understand, I did the same on more than one occasion. :pinch:

Here is the whole assembly ready to be separated:

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Happy to see that it is an authentic GPW transfer case. I knew the T-84 transmission was GPW, but hadn't discovered this mark yet:

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The bell housing is marked as well. This is all happy news to me as the more GPW parts makes it a more historical correct project:

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Here they are all separated and ready for disassembly:

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Awww, my first peek into the T-84's internals:

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A good view of what I am up against:

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My gosh, what have I done, it's enough to make one queasy :w00t: :

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Evidently, from what I can tell. The T-84 wasn't feeling very well. I think I have an idea of why it grinded, and probably belched, a bit when shifting:

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These little giblets were both inside a shaft and at the bottom of the transmission case. They ride on the shaft in this picture that has a unwanted groove cut into it now. If one looks closely it is easy to see that the roller bearings are anything but round :pinch: :

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I found some transmission parts that came with some other items that I purchased a few months back. :thumbsup: I will need to order or locate at least one new shaft as well as a number of bushings and other parts and pieces.

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Next will be cleaning all of the parts and the case. Then I will be time to assemble. A little scary, but I'm looking forward to saying I have rebuilt a transmission!

Zeph

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AAF_Collection

You are a brave man Zeph!. Your project looks great,I wish I could make the same progress with one of mine!.

 

Matt.

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You are a brave man Zeph!. Your project looks great,I wish I could make the same progress with one of mine!.

 

Matt.

 

Thanks, Matt. I appreciate it. Progress is slow, but I keep plugging along!

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Was that the only shift dog you found? That mainshaft is scary worn. You make me feel happy after seeing I only had pitting and chipped teeth in my transmission!!

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Was that the only shift dog you found? That mainshaft is scary worn. You make me feel happy after seeing I only had pitting and chipped teeth in my transmission!!

 

Yes, that was the only "whole" shift dog found. I think I found enough pieces to account for a second. The third was vaporized at some point. When I first looked at the mainshaft, I thought that the goove was supposed to be there, since it was cut into the shaft so prefectly. However, after looking at the roller bearing wear it was apparent that they had been working on the shaft for some time. Fortunately, new mainshafts are available at a fairly reasonable price. So far the gears look pretty good. One of the blocking rings was chewed up pretty good, however.

 

Zeph

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I really love watching your progress. Thanks so much for taking the time to show all of your hard work.

 

How often do you get to work on the jeep? Is this a weekend project? Couple of hours during the week?

 

I also loved the picture of your relative. That is amazing he is still going strong at 90.

 

....Kat

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I really love watching your progress. Thanks so much for taking the time to show all of your hard work.

 

How often do you get to work on the jeep? Is this a weekend project? Couple of hours during the week?

 

I also loved the picture of your relative. That is amazing he is still going strong at 90.

 

....Kat

Hi Kat,

 

I work quite a bit, so I only get like a 4 hour block of time about once a week. I wish I had more time, but it is good to have a job even though it's between 55 and 65 hour per week. Now, if they paid me overtime, I would have a number of MV's frolicking in the yard. :lol: Of course my wife wouldn't like that too much. :rolleyes: I have found that posting allows me to relax and see what I have accomplished. It also motivates me to get back at it! Which this time of year is tough. I pulled a Slat Grill engine yesterday afternoon from another '42 GPW that I have and it was 102 degrees. Happy to have a pool which should be standard issue in this area.

 

Yes, Kelly is a remarkable man. Here is a link to an account that he made of his experience being shot down over France on the 91st BG Website

 

Thanks,

 

Zeph

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I worked on cleaning the transmission in preparation of rebuilding it the other day. I clean everything and then wipe it down with lacquer thinner and then use a fast etch product that kills the rust, etches the metal and leaves a coating for the primer.

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This is after the fast etch is cleaned off. It leaves a phosphate coating according to the instructions and is ready for primer:

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Here are the parts primered:

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I found another F mark on the shift plate located under the transmission top plate. Pretty cool:

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Sorta time consuming, but I find it a great stress reliever. Well, at least until something goes wrong... :unsure:

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I tried to pull some parts out of a donor transmission to replace some bad parts in my project transmission. Long story short, it didn't work out. I spent most of the day dinking around with this project. I thought I would have my transmission together today, but I discovered I need to replace a number of the gears. I was hoping that I would get by with what was in there, but nope. Not going to happen. Oh well, lots of other little projects to work on until I get some gears. Here are some photos:

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Here’s the input shaft and it has all the giblets (roller bearings) in it. When I pulled apart my T-84, the roller bearings were vaporized for the most part:

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Looks like the roller bearings haven’t rolled for a while:

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I then spent about an hour cleaning and removing the rust. It actually looked pretty good…for a while. Removing the bearing from the shaft. The snap ring, well, actually snapped:

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The bearing had to be separated. Not too bad even though it was quite rusty:

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Comparison of the input shafts. The donor is on the left and the one removed from my project’s T-84 is on the right. One can see how much the shaft on the right is eaten up inside where the roller bearings go:

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Starting to look pretty good. The replacement is on the right in this photo. One can start to see little differences like where the snap ring goes. The section on the upper side is a bit thinner on the right input shaft vs. the one on the left. Overall the gear section looks pretty good here:

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Here is the new input shaft bearing vs. the old one. The old one doesn’t move at all. The new one moves, but not as good as I would have hoped:

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Next I spent another hour and a half working on the cluster countershaft gear. I have the one that has the “slip fit” bushings with a spacer in between. After reaming and reaming trying to get them to fit the countershaft gear and shaft, I posted in the Knowledge Section of the G503 asking if they were correct. I was beginning to get that “great, what did I do feeling”…I knew something just wasn’t right because it seemed I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole! Of course, I was informed that the bushings where the totally wrong parts for my applications. Here's the cluster gear. It's a brute:

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The transmission project quickly went downhill from here. I started to get good clean looks at my gears. Hmmm…they appeared to be perfect for grinding meat or some other substance, but not the smooth operation of a motorized vehicle transmission. I posted in the Knowledge Section of the G503 for opinions, and I was basically told to pull a towel over them and make arrangements for their last rights and a proper burial. Here is a couple of photos. I’ll understand if you have to gasp and look away. I almost lost my lunch, so I don't blame you:

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Here’s the donor input shaft. Remember how nice it looked earlier. Now I think it has the flesh eating disease that’s going around. It isn’t pretty:

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Yes it was a sad day. However, there were a couple of last minute bright spots. I found a front bearing retainer from the donor transmission marked GPW. That’s cool. I may use it instead of the one I have marked T84G. Or maybe I can sell it and backfill for the cost of the replacement gears I will be ordering. It has its original Ford grey on paint:

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I was able to clean my propeller shafts (drive shafts) and I found an F mark on the piece that bolts to the transfer case. Love those:

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I also found an arrow on one of the propeller shafts. I remember reading that this had some significance, but I can’t recall why:

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Hopefully, I can get the propeller shafts painted tomorrow. Monday I will order gears for the transmission. Reminds me of my favorite saying when I raced cars. "Do you know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large fortune!" :lol: :w00t: ;)

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At least you are keeping your wits about yourself, and some good humor!! :thumbsup: PATIENTS.

 

Yes, patients is hard to maintain sometimes. I have small windows of time and want to maximize it, but when things go wrong I don't want it to be a frustration. It's supposed to be my stress reliever, and thankfully, I still find it wwwwaaaaayyyyy more enjoyable than going to work. ;)

 

Zeph

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Reminds me of my favorite saying when I raced cars. "Do you know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large fortune!" :lol: :w00t: ;)

 

My Dad has always worked on sailboats. I think they are the same way!

 

At least you are having fun and learning lots. Your work is amazing! I love to see the progress.

 

.....Kat

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Cobrahistorian

Yeah, I think I see this in my not so distant future. Hoping it isn't too terrible, but since water got into the transmission, I'm expecting a bloodbath...

Jon

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My Dad has always worked on sailboats. I think they are the same way!

 

At least you are having fun and learning lots. Your work is amazing! I love to see the progress.

 

.....Kat

I bet sailboats are very similar. I have learned a lot. I learned to hide my wallet from myself. :w00t:

 

No, I really am enjoying this project.

 

Zeph

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Yeah, I think I see this in my not so distant future. Hoping it isn't too terrible, but since water got into the transmission, I'm expecting a bloodbath...

 

Jon

 

Yes Jon, be prepared. These were actually in operation before I started disassembly. I wished I would have paid attention to what kind of noise, if any, came from the transmission and transfer case. I really didn't think anything about it when I drove it. Most I talk with indicate that pitted gears like this would cause a great deal of noise. I did take note that the PO elected to forego a transmission boot and used duct tape. That should have been my first clue... :think:

 

Zeph

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have had a few days off and dedicated some time to working on the project. I finished up the transmission rebuild, propeller shafts, steering box and dug into the transfer case. I continued to take some documentation photos. I hope everyone enjoys.

Cleaned up and painted the propeller shaft and steering box components prior to assembly. Of course it is time consuming cleaning all the parts. I’m really becoming an expert on what does and what doesn’t work to get things clean and ready for paint. The steering box project went fairly well with the exception of brass horn contact ring that supposedly slides down the shaft for the connection to the horn button. I barely got it started on the shaft when it split. That set me back as I had to order a new bushing. I filed the inside of the bushing and then epoxied it to the shaft. That seemed to work fine. I had ended up with three steering boxes and actually used parts from all three to complete one. Although the cover was F marked for GPW, none of the boxes I had were F marked:

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Here are the donor boxes. I believe that oil should be used in the boxes, but it seems everyone uses grease. I gather that it is due to leaks. I used 140wt. oil in the completed box:

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I found one sector shaft that was in tolerance as denoted in the TM:
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Top of the steering column:

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More cleaning;

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F mark on the tube:

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Rebuilding the horn contact at the top of the tube:

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Here is where the horn contact bushing split:

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Had to wait a few days until the new contact bushing came, so that slowed me down a bit. Here is the new contact that rides on the bushing:

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Meep, meep...the horn button pushes in and feels like a horn button should...fingers crossed:

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I didn’t have enough shims to set the bearing preload, so I had to go back to one of the donor boxes and snag some extra shims:
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I painted the shaft as well before I put the tube on. Hate to have it rust after cleaning it all up:

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I had to message the horn contact on the steering tube. It isn’t factory, but I made a gasket to help make it seat flush on the tube. I then installed the box and hooked up the drag link. Looks like it just might work:
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Next was mopping up the transmission project. I ended up getting all new gears. Hopefully, it will be kind to me. First was the bell housing:
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Looks good with the stick all painted up and installed. All GPW’s came with the engine, bell housing and transmission painted grey. Although my restoration is considered a lower class motor pool restoration, and is far from a factory restoration, I liked the grey.

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I also completed the propeller shafts as well:

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One u-joint was super tight and could support the weight of the shaft. I took it apart three times and it would be fine until the last circlip was installed in place. I finally gave the two circlips a minor haircut and all is well:

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I made my own seals out of some nylon rope. The original NOS cork seals I had broke as well as shrunk over the years leaving a large gap for dirt entry. I think these will be a lot better:
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