Internet Security, music, and Dad Jokes. And pets - it's a blog, after all.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Seen oot and aboot
The Costco parking lot got a pretty sweet visitor.
It looks like a Willys MD, otherwise known as the M38A1 Truck, although repainted in Florida beachy colors. If I'm right on the model it would be from the mid 1950s.
It can be mitigated, but not really fixed without rebuilding the entire geometry of the steering system. The mitigation simply involved a helper leaf spring to prevent so much axle wrap. The steering idler on these was axle mounted, so under a hard stop, as with any leaf-sprung setup, the axle tried to rotate back under the vehicle. With leaf springs, they resist this, but they're springs - by definition they allow a certain amount of movement before they stop it. With the axle-mounted idler, the rotation of the axle under the vehicle caused it to steer left. The "mitigation" effort simply added an additional helper leaf to the back side of the leaf spring, to give it more ability to resist the rotation force. But it still allowed it to a certain extent. You still pulled left, you just didn't JERK left.
The actual FIX involves a complete rebuild of the steering system, using frame mounted steering boxes and idlers, and never mounting anything on the actual axle, itself. It takes fabrication skills that your average shade tree doesn't have. I've done it once on a buddy's Ford GP (same rig as the willy's, just made by Ford because WWII).
I'd love to get my hands on one of these some day, although my plans for it would mean that I couldn't bear to get an "all-original" like this one, because my intent would be to do a triangulated 4-link with coil overs and probably 38" tires for a rock-crawler, probably including a swap to a modern engine like a small block or LS. You don't do something like that to a beaut like that thing.
As soon as I finish building Mom's house I'll probably start looking for the right rig. May even go with a 70's vintage CJ, too, if the right rig popped up.
5 comments:
My fourty-year-old daughter would dearly love that Willys!
Bonus points for that front bumper.
So it 'might' stop straight rather than pulling to the left... LOL
Old NFO, LOL. I hear that can be fixed.
Borepatch;
It can be mitigated, but not really fixed without rebuilding the entire geometry of the steering system. The mitigation simply involved a helper leaf spring to prevent so much axle wrap. The steering idler on these was axle mounted, so under a hard stop, as with any leaf-sprung setup, the axle tried to rotate back under the vehicle. With leaf springs, they resist this, but they're springs - by definition they allow a certain amount of movement before they stop it. With the axle-mounted idler, the rotation of the axle under the vehicle caused it to steer left. The "mitigation" effort simply added an additional helper leaf to the back side of the leaf spring, to give it more ability to resist the rotation force. But it still allowed it to a certain extent. You still pulled left, you just didn't JERK left.
The actual FIX involves a complete rebuild of the steering system, using frame mounted steering boxes and idlers, and never mounting anything on the actual axle, itself. It takes fabrication skills that your average shade tree doesn't have. I've done it once on a buddy's Ford GP (same rig as the willy's, just made by Ford because WWII).
I'd love to get my hands on one of these some day, although my plans for it would mean that I couldn't bear to get an "all-original" like this one, because my intent would be to do a triangulated 4-link with coil overs and probably 38" tires for a rock-crawler, probably including a swap to a modern engine like a small block or LS. You don't do something like that to a beaut like that thing.
As soon as I finish building Mom's house I'll probably start looking for the right rig. May even go with a 70's vintage CJ, too, if the right rig popped up.
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