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'56 willys truck

One man job that needs 3 people is putting the fan belt back on this thing!! Bloody mother of hell that wasn’t fun and took me all of 2 hrs at least. And then in the middle of the night I wake up and wonder if I have it wrapped around the water pump in the correct way!! Lord what an ordeal. So what I found is that there were 2 bolts that may have been the reason my belt was getting chewed down. I had put 2 washers on them cuz I guess they were too long. So another fun task was pulling the one idler pulley cuz I basically could 2-3 clicks or one click of the ratchet before it would fall off. I just couldn’t get my hand around the ratchet good enough to hold it square. Then I took the bolts out and cut a good ¼” off them and sent them home with no washers and the clearance looks way way better but time will tell. If you look at the first two pics at the the bottom of the pulley you can see one of the bolts that has 2 washers on it and there's one that you can't see. In the 3rd pic you can see both bolts.

I also got the water pump tapped and got the steam line reconnected. I ran it through one heat cycle and I’ve got some bleeding to do before I see if there’s any temp difference with the new routing.
 

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My arms are hurting from elbow to wrist where I had to contort and jam them into tight spaces over and over and my back is stiff and feeling the effort also. Makes me want to put the radiator back in the bed!!!
 
Nothing real exciting to report, but got the single-piece driveshaft installed, I just decided to have the shop do it to save some time. I did get the 2nd battery wire into the cab and hooked up the amps and subwoofer power to it, but I need to figure out what else I can hook up to it and that might be a trial exercise, because as neat as I tried to be it's still pretty crazy under and behind the passenger seat with wires. But with that being said now my stereo doesn't work, but that could be from when I fried the fuse from having the 2nd battery hooked up wrong or not and my 2nd water temp gauge isn't working, but that may be from, either the 2nd battery being hooked up wrong(I don't think it's that) or in my effort to put the fan belt on I accidentally disconnected the wire, but I've been looking and haven't found an issue yet. Both are minor in the scheme of things, but I still need to figure them out.

Question, what's everyone's feeling about using SLIME? Not for a long term solution, just as a band-aid until I can sell some stuff to buy new tires?
 


No feeling one way or the other on SLIME, but according to this video it does work. So I'd say do it for your band-aid solution.
 
All I know is bring a wheel and tire to the shop full of slime and they will curse you and call you an asshole. Luckily it was my friend who had to do the work haha.
 
One of my current ideas is changing the door handles on the ol' thing, so I bought some bear-claw latches and CJ-style door handles that fit flush. I've only started to see what it would take to make this work and have watched a couple of videos on CJ handles/latch set-up and have stared at the doors and started to mock-up a piece of metal that will need to be welded to the door to accept the handle. I'm not sure when the real attack will begin, but it's something festering in my brain along with the other things that I want to still do and finish.
 
Drove around the other day and it is still hunting gears when I get going 55-65mph, so I went back home and adjusted the depth of the sensor in the t-case and then my t-case was leaking. So, that required me to redo some plumbing I did before and I've not driven to confirm if it's shifts correctly yet or if the leak is fixed, but will soon.

Also, the tires haven't gone flat yet, but I should check the pressure in them to see if 20lbs is still holding or not. So because of this I've not slimed them and maybe I won't have to, but we shall see when I can get new tires vs them going flat and seeing if the slime works.
 
Bumpstop pads need to be bigger in the front otherwise first flex looked ok. We lifted it 42” in the front and 36” in the rear. Maybe could’ve gone another 2” but we only had so much time. The rear we stopped at 36” cuz the front bump stop slid off the pad to the inside. It surely could go more, but I need to address the pads first.
 

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So I dove into the power steering leak and it seems I have a bad fitting or o-ring on the larger fitting on the steering box. I wrapped it with teflon, but it seeps past it, so I ordered two sets of fittings to have extras. They are to be here in the next couple of days.

I also added to the front bump stop pads.
 
Geesh I've been slacking.

The power steering fittings stopped leaking, so now I have 4 or 8 fittings, cuz my wife took my first order and hid them and I thought I never got them so I ordered more:shaking::shaking:. So they'll be spares if the leak shows itself again.

Tranny still isn't shifting, but I stopped playing with it, cuz I decided to fix the leak between the Offroad Design Magnum 205 box and 4l80e. Now let me say I think I finally have it after pulling the t-case off 4 times in the last 2 weeks!!! I made some supports out of 3/4" x 3" steel so that I could slide the t-case off without having to drop it and try to lift it back up and in. Works great. Anyway I tried some Right Stuff the 1st time to seal it and that leaked, just dripped, but not a lot but I hate leaks, Next up was some Gray oil resistant RTV and that leaked, then out it came again, then some Automatic Transmission RTV and that leaked so out it came again, and back to the Right Stuff and that leaked and out it came again. I tell you I had a ton of sealant with all these, but there is something going on that it just wouldn't seal up. So I decide that I'll make a gasket and call Offroad Design to see if they use some super sealant. Their directions are lacking when it comes to mounting the Magnum Box to the tranny, but they do say to use the Right Stuff when you seal the Magnum box case halves together, so that's why I used the Right Stuff originally. So after talking to them I was correct in making a gasket, because Kyle said that the back of the tranny's aren't always machined great and I would agree and he said to use an RTV sealant or the Right Stuff, but that the Right Stuff would make it harder to get apart in the future and I can attest to that because taking it out the first time was a chore. So right now it seems to be holding using the Auto Tranny sealant and Gasket. Tonight I plan to get the rear driveshaft, rear crossmember and other bits and pieces back in to drive it and see if I can remedy the hunting tranny issue.

Oh yea I got some new IROK 42'' tires on it also. Tire Irons are your friend when it comes to dismounting and mounting tires on your own.
 
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Got it put back together sans skid plates. Started it up and shifted through the gears a few times and then shut it off. No leaks. Checked this morning and still no leaks, so I plan to drive it today and then see what happens. I did adjust the speed sensor another 1/8th of turn to see if that remedies the hunting tranny issue. I plan to keep doing that until I find the sweet spot again.
 
Drove it and parked it. It's still hunting between 3rd and OD, so another 1/8th turn of the speed sensor will happen today and another test drive. But on the super positive side there's still no leak.

Now back to the tranny side, I'm wondering if I have a bad solenoid, but until I get done with adjusting the speed sensor a few more times I'm not going to tear into the tranny, but it's in the back of my head.
 
Tranny is still doing it hunting, but I've moved on to other things cuz it's not an "end of the world" issue that keeps me from driving it. Some are just knickknack things I'm cleaning up, like where's that leak coming from? A couple of power steering fittings seem to be one issue and there may be another one that I've not located yet, but I've not driven it since I tightened up the fittings. I will soon though.

I'm back to moving the radiator to the bed. When I drove it last the coolant temp when idling at 85-90* outside temps runs around 203* and when driving(55-60mph) it creeps up to 218* and I don't think it should and I don't like it. One thought is I think the inner-cooler is hindering the radiator because the fins are much tighter than those of the radiator and restrict air flow. One reason I think this is the radiator area behind the inner-cooler is super clean while the rest of the radiator has some fuzz and regular radiator dust and such and the inner-cooler is clean too. So because of this I'm moving the radiator to the rear again and I'm gonna see how it does, although I know it idled around 208* when I had it back there before, but I don't recall ever driving it with the radiator in the bed. So for now I'm leaving the front radiator in(not plumbed) and I'll test the in-bed radiator before I make a final decision of which one I'll fight to make right!! One thing that keeps popping into my head is if the front radiator fan ever shits the bed (taurus fan) can I find another one to replace it easily? The LS radiator and fans I know I can, so that's a plus not to mention the amount of work to replace that front fan and radiator is rediculous and it will free up some room in the engine bay. For what I don't know, but it will be there if I need it.

Sill have the door handles I want to change, but again it's not super high on my list right now.
 
Some pics of this set up. It's different from the 1st set up I had done. The first one sat upright with a tilt right behind the gas tank.
 

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Yea, I'm digging the look. I got the wiring 98% done. I just need to wire loom a 6" section after I make sure the fans come on. The plumbing side is still underway. I need some 1 1/4" couplings to make my life easier to get it all connected and then an overflow bottle and then secure hoses and it will be ready to test. Well the overflow isn't required to test it and drive it, but I'll put one in at some point. I'm tempted to start it and test the fans since the other radiator is still hooked up but the fan isn't, but then everything will be hot and I won't be able to work on it, so I've squashed the urge.
 
Yep, ain't kicked the bucket yet, but I did take a couple of months where I did hardly anything to it.

I've got to hook up the hoses to the water pump, do a couple of radiator block-offs and think about the overflow plumbing(delete it for now I think until I figure out how to mount something in the bed), secure hoses and fill her up and fire her up and check for leaks and see if the fans come on. Then drive it and see what shakes and then remove the front radiator and add a fan to the innercooler are the next steps, unless I redo some of the hoses in the bed. I used what I had instead of buying too much new stuff. I had to run a hose for a remote filler cap and it loops up & around and I'm not super happy about it having to do that but it doesn't look that bad as I bought a corrugated aluminum hose kit to do that and I had to do something. I figured aluminum would take a beating from the sun better than regular hose and the EPDM hose(although the EPDM hose is 1/4" thick) I wasn't sure I could get it to bend like I wanted. But the lower return hose from radiator to the EPDM hose isn't as nice as I'd like(used a rubber corrugated radiator hose), but again it's what I had and I'll live with it for now and maybe it will grow on me.

I'll get some pics later or Saturday.

I may move my rear winch storage set up too, so that I have easier access and I can store other stuff there.
 
I got it started and started chasing leaks all but one were hose clamp retightening, but that one was fun to get to and do. It was the lower water neck on the water pump. I have one of those rotatable necks and I loosened it and rotated it but the t-stat moved and the gasket is attached to the t-stat and that leaked. So I had to drain the coolant and I fought it for about 30 minutes before I got it in place and used some right stuff also for extra sealing. The t-stat kept falling out as I was twisting myself into position to get the bolts started, which led to the Right Stuff getting all over my hands and arms a few times. Just all-out fun. Then the bleeding of the system started and I filled it and it got to 225* and I shut it down. Brought out the special LS fill funnel that allows you to fill the funnel to help bleed the system. So air bubbles are coming out and then the funnel fills up and is spilling coolant and so I get another funnel and jug to catch spilling coolant and then Mount St. Helens commencing and I have coolant spitting 1-3 feet into the air, so I bale out of the bed and shut it off. Yeah, I got sprayed with coolant, but not bad and it didn't burn, which I find interesting but I'll take it. Now in one of my iterations of let's run the steam line like this, I put in a 1/8" brass pipe extension with plug. So I uncork the plug and air escapes and that's good, but I'm wondering why the special LS funnel thing didn't work, but it may be because of the height and routing of the hose and length. Anyway I bleed it a couple of more times and I may have to bleed it more, but we shall see. The steam line runs into the water pump. OK, leaks fixed and bleeding the system is pretty much done,

Now why does only 1 fan come on?!!!!:mad3: Both trigger wires click the relays, but one fan won't come on. I have power thru the wire to where I connected it to the fan harness, when I test it with the battery and I switched the connectors on the fans to make sure it's not a dead fan or bad connector and it's not. One fan refuses to come on. There are 3 relays, 2 are 4-prong and one is 5-prong, so I swapped the two 4-prong relays and that's not it. So I cleaned up and went online and ordered new relays and fuses to make sure I do not have an issue with any of the relays(or as spares), and two 40amp fuses. I'll swap out the 5-prong to see if it's a relay or fuse issue, although I'm leaning that the 5-prong relay is the issue. I should get the 5 prong relay tomorrow, so stay tuned. The other stuff comes on Wednesday. I hope it's that one relay. It runs at 214* with one fan at the time I stopped working on the fan issue. This is 4-6 degrees hotter than I remember from when I had the radiator in the bed before. What I can't remember is if both fans worked then, but I'm pretty sure they did, so why only one works now is baffling as it was all in my garage this whole time. It will be interesting to see what the temp does when both fans work.

I still need an overflow, and although I said I was going to leave the other radiator in until I test this new setup and am happy, I'm not. I'm going to remove it and fight the new set-up even if I have to buy a Meziere electric pump or a bosch electric pump that I saw one guy talk about and take a water pump and pull the impeller out of. I should have the old water pump that I can check to see what it will take to do that.

I have to secure some hoses and put some anti-rub thru devices( known as cut up hose to wrap around the EPDM for extra protection) at some possible contact areas.
 
211* today but it was cooler outside by about 10* vs yesterday. I had to add some more coolant, but I'm sure that will happen until the system is bled totally. It does take longer to go from 195* to 211* than it did yesterday, so definitely there was some air pockets and it's improving.

I got the front radiator out and really it wasn't as bad as I thought to remove it, guess I planned correctly when I put it together. The room I have now is amazing and will be so appreciated in the future for what ever I want to do. Maybe ditch the super charger and go to a turbo or two? Did I just type that?!! I do think I'll add back in an engine oil cooler now also, as I have an extra log style cooler from my Tilton pump/NWF black box set up. I figure it can't hurt and I should use it. I put a small fan on the water to air intercooler, but I still need to wire it up. I also got some protective sleeves slapped on the EPDM hoses where needed, but I need to do some more of that before I'm satisfied, not to mention adding some wire mesh above the radiator fans to keep leaves and shit from falling thru the fan and then getting sucked out when the fans come on. And if it hails it will add some protection and maybe keep too much snow from piling up on the fan blades. I also may slap some side covers from the fan shroud to the edge of the radiator as the shroud doesn't cover it completely and seal it up. I'll do that once I've got the fans working and see the temps I'm dealing with, that way I have a bench mark temp to work off of.
 
Well, it wasn't the 5-prong relay, so now I'm back to having to double-check the wires again to make absolutely sure I don't have some odd issue and then it's to looking at the relay housing to make sure there's not something wrong with it. Dang, I was so hoping it was that relay.
 
Got 'em going. One connection somehow came undone when I wrapped it with elecrical tape and stuffed it in the wire loom. Now if I can get the temps down to my satisfaction. Funny yesterday was coler than the day before where the temp evened out at 211 but yesterday with both fans going it was at 214. I had to add more coolant too, so I'm still fighting air pockets cuz I can't find any leaks. So the fight is still on, but one skirmish has been won!!
 
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