No, they are in exact alignment.

 

Here is the latest. My son called me and said he couldn't get it into reverse. That made it inconvenient parking down town and pulling out of his driveway. We couldn't resolve it over the phone, so HUM WEE Jr. came back to the shop. It didn't take long to figure it out, the gear shift handle would go into complete circles. There is a little alignment bolt that is common on just about all top cover trannys that wore out or broke. So I pulled the tunnel off the floor to take a look.



So then we pulled the top cover



I pulled the alignment bolt out and found that it was a grade 8, and like lots of grade 8s it was brittle and broke. So there was a piece stuck inside and it was tough to drill.



I had to let it sit for a couple of days, so notice I put a rag over the tranny to keep the dust out of it since it was sitting outside at the time.



It started to rain a couple of days later, so in a totally blonde moment, I hit the starter and pulled the Mite into the shop. And then realized I managed to suck that rag down inside the gear box and wrap it around the gears several times

So here is half a partially digested rag. The other half came out the bottom.



OK, so I got it back together. Not sure how that happened after considering the rag incident.:stars:

So while I was at it, I decided to do our first modification. This goes under the heading of cheap mods.



There is a piece of linkage that connects the top cover to the transfer case linkage. Its purpose is to keep you from shifting into what passes for low range on these, a 5.87 first gear, unless in 4 wheel drive. With a whopping 60 squirrels under the hood, sometimes you need this gear on pavement. So, I did the same thing as a $200 Tereflex mod in a NP231 by drilling a new hole in the linkage so it is in position to allow it to shift into 1st gear while in 2WD



The nice thing about this one is that we can put it back if we want it completely original.

 

haha at the rag thing.... luckly it didnt get all ripped up! but i guess u did a little tranny flush?

 

It was ripped up. Those gears do a real good job of that. It came out in well, rags. But yeah, tranny was flushed. Real clean inside now.

 

When I pulled HUMWEE Jr into the shop, we had a new revelation ... A nice big puddle of engine oil on the floor. A little investigation revealed the oil pressure line for the mechanical oil pressure gauge had given it up. Where it flexed, it was rubber. Not sure how all this came about during the conversion, but it was steel line out the back of the gauge and then had a fitting with a rubber line to another fitting. Trouble was, it was not nylon reinforced or anything. I am surprised it lasted this long. So, Paul just happened to have bought a gauge set that had a new oil pressure gauge in it. But it was mechanical and had one of those little plastic lines that is just begging to fail. So when I installed it, I took a few precautions. I got some wire loom armor and wrapped it.



Where the line attached to the back of the engine is where it would flex the most, so I double armored it.



Then I wrapped it with tape and zip tied it down with some cute little itty bitty ties.



Now we are ready to go again

 

My son called last night to say he was coming for the weekend and that he wanted to hit some mud in HUM WEE. So I thought maybe I should put it back together. First I started with changing tires so we could get his US Maypops off. They had more cracks than a 100 year old chain smoker. So in a senile moment I went to put the Sammy tires on it that were on mine. It did not take long to remember that I had turned down the center of the hubs to accept Jeep wheels. The Mite hubs are about .1" larger than a Jeep hub and just large enough you can't get the wheel to seat properly. So I spent most of the day hogging out the centers with a die grinder. Well, on to the interesting stuff.

I went to Oregon to get my old rear driveline so we could remove the Borg/Warner overdrive that someone had put in. It hangs down too low for a good wheeler and only works in two wheel drive and is notorious for popping out of overdrive going down hill. So I have been investigating putting in something a little better.

Here is the back of the tcase with the inspection cover off. If you have ever had a D18 or 20 tcase this should look very familiar.



Not a good shot, but you can see the classic 5 bolt pto cover used from 41 to 72 on Jeep tcases.



Here the cover is removed. This should look real familiar. I could bolt up a standard rear PTO or a standard D20 output assembly and it would work just fine. So at this point I am getting excited because I am thinking I can adapt a Warn overdrive to this tcase. The gear tooth count is different, but what the heck, I adapted one to a MB tcase once. Piece of cake. Then I got the nut of the output shaft.



What kind of a bastard spline count is that? It should be six or ten, not thirteen. @#$%$%^^&&*&^%$#$#%&&

Oh well, it can still be done. We will see how it pencils out.

 

Very cool lil rig.

 

Took HUMWEE out for a little test drive today. The powerlock is working well.



We let the 10 year old grand daughter drive it too.



Click for video

 

I have lived in Grass Valley since 97 and moved down to Browns Valley last december and have not seen this thing once! I really wanna see it. and those axles you cut down.

 

We just acquired the green one in the spring and it was not running when we got it. It has been in Grass Valley for a couple of months, now it is at my shop again being worked on some more. We are fitting a military full arctic top to it. We will also be doing some other things when Paul gets his taxes back. Probably an overdrive and a little suspension work too. The pic is in my field behind the house. Let me know if you want to come on down.

 

One of these days I will definitely take you up on that. I gotta save all my gas money for job hunting right now but after that I would love to check those things out.

 

i love that thing it cracked me up seein it go through that feild

 

I wanna get a Kaiser M715. Its my favorite military vehicle.

 

It was Christmas for HUM WEE Jr. too. It has been back to my shop and I have been using it for a parts runner while I have been a little distracted working on the XJ, but we have gradually been getting together all the stuff necessary for a full military arctic top, you know with sides and doors like we all like.

The hoops we got with the vehicle and may have been the originals it was issued with. Here you can see them in the folded down position. They look very similar to all small military top hoops, with some minor exceptions.



Notice that they are even with the rear of the vehicle and do not stick out past the tailgate like civilian CJ top hoops do.



When you fold them up, you remove a bolt from the end and rotate a flat bar about 180° to the rear hoop and move the front hoop forward and then reinsert the bolt which holds the top hoops in the spread position.



These believe it or not are the front door hinges, which stay attached and help stabilize the windshield. At the top of the pic is a door hinge bracket we robbed off HUMWEE Sr. which I will not be using on my build anyway. Christmas present #1 to the boy.



Next you put in the top bars for the front, which keeps the hoops from flopping around. These bars I had to make for him because we couldn't find any available. Christmas present #2



Next you put in the vertical front bars. These we bought, which was a good thing because I would never have figured out how they were supposed to be. They also have a notch for the door handle to lock into.



Next come the door frames, which fold for storage. The canvas is made to come off so both hoop and canvas can be folded for storage in the top. When we get all the canvas I will show how that is done.

Here it is unfolded.



The hoops are then fitted into the permanent hinge.





Last comes the rear hoop vertical supports, only one pictured here. I had to make these too. Christmas present #3



Lastly, you need to have a place to keep your hardware stored so it doesn't get lost, So I sewed up this pouch, a near replica of the military model. Christmas present #4



That is going to be it until we get canvas in about a month, then we will finish this part of the project.

 

Awesome build!