Today was another Mighty Mite day for JR. We looked at the gas tank a little closer and found where there were about half a dozen tiny pin holes in it due to electrolysis. I got the bright idea to use the one out mine temporarily, and we found the same problem in mine. So I will begin a welding project on the tank later. A new one costs $900. Welding rod is cheap by comparison.

Paul brought the rebuilt master cylinder.



and water pump



That green hose is a marvel of Swedish engineering. You press it between the water pump and thermostat housing. Unfortunately it has no tstat right now, we will address that later. Here it is all in with new hoses.



We installed the master cylinder and couldn't get the brakes to bleed, so we started to investigate a little further. The rear brakes looked fine, and had a new seal on the axle shafts with new brake shoes.



The front was another story altogether. The front seals work well even under water when new. But when they get stiff, they leak. We pulled the front brake drums off and found the brake shoes to be saturated with gear oil. So we pulled the front axle.





And pressed the shaft from the bearing and seal retainer. in a couple of weeks, we will reassemble the brakes with new seals and bleed the brakes so we can stop for a change. What a novelty.

 

This is a pretty cool build... I have seen random pics of these, but never really paid any attention to them... I think I might look into seeing if I can find one to build up myself...

 

You kind of have to understand them. That axel in the pics believe it or not is a Dana 27 with a top cover. But once you get the gist of them, they are a really cool rig for a base for a radical build.

 

This is really cool.

 

Subscribed!

 

Ok this might be the coolest thing ever.

 

I'm watching this build. Very interesting.

 

Any updates? Been almost a month.

 

Not right now. We have been getting parts together. Paul got some brakes and they turned out to be the wrong ones. I scavenged some brake parts from mine that I won't use. We are waiting for our schedules to mesh. He only gets one weekend off per month, so it is tough for him.

 

I ended up reading the whole thread!

Very cool ride, drooling on my keyboard.

 

My son came down today to work on Junior. It was really hot today. I spent the day in my leathers welding up leaks on his aluminum gas tank and did not get them all yet. There were at least 30 pin holes. He got a new seal on an axle shaft and a set of brakes on one side. I tell you, we are both getting soft.



New seal and bearing pressed on the shaft



Nice shiny brakes. Notice they are genuine military double anchor. There is no hose on the back either. This diff is mounted solid to the frame so it is plumbed with a hard line and is upside down from most double anchor setups.

 

oops..... pics loaded nevermind

 

Well, we got Hum Wee Junior running today

We had a problem with the gas tank. It leaked. We started looking for leaks and found 57 pin holes in the aluminum tank caused by electrolysis. So I converted the MIG over to aluminum and started welding. We kept finding more as we went and just couldn't get them all sealed. I kept filling it up with water and found that my water was so hard it plugged the holes with minerals and so we couldn't find them all and it eventually stopped. Filled it with gas and found it started leaking again. So we got some tank sealer and sealed it. We found three more holes where the tank sealer seeped through. Oh well.

So why not get a new tank? $800 for a new one. Here is the tank, sort of a unique little sucker.



It is only a ten gallon tank and has a place for a center frame member where the differential mounts as well as the military grade pintle hook capable of pulling just about anything the military put pintle hooks on.



The gas gauge sending unit was rusted into one position, so we got a new one and a gauge for it. Fortunately for us, it had a standard five hole mount common to all the early Jeeps.



All the old screws broke off, so I drilled and tapped new holes for the same size screws.
Got it mounted finally with lots of choice words from my son, I let him be underneath after all. Filled it up with gas and started easily and found the water pump we got rebuilt for a couple of six packs leaked like a sieve.



I took it apart and found he "rebuilt" it by putting a couple of sealed bearings in it instead of water pump bearings and a seal. So we started it up anyway and moved it around a little. We are on the hunt for a decently priced water pump now for a 57 Volvo.

Here is a couple of pics, one next to his YJ to show how small these little guys are.

 

wow, very nice... so u gonna paint er O.D. green?

 

Wow, that is small.

I want one.