Diesel Commanche Gets Powr lok Differential & Locker

The Commanche has been running great! The little 3 liter Mercedes diesel just purrs along the roads but, has never been 4 wheeling- not yet. Well, this weekend that is gonna change as I’m taking the truck up in the hills and playing in the snow. I finally got around to installing the front axle gears and a 30 spline Spicer Powr lok limited slip differential. Now anybody that knows me knows that I really like these particular diffs for their toughness, reliability and ease of servicing. These units have been around about 50 years and can be set up to be very aggressive or fairly mild. I set this one up fairly tight since I have locking hubs there won’t be any steering feedback on the street.  The rear axle has got a lock right detroit style locker in it so it should really kick butt now.  Installed the front driveshaft and t-case shifter linkage and tested the truck in the sloppy mud that the last snowstorm created. Flung mud all over the “back 40″ and got plenty on the truck! I will post pics from the wheelin fun this weekend sometime next week.

Diesel Jeeps. Obsession? Passion? Pure Madness? Yep, Mostly.

I still have not finished the diesel Wagoneer and I’m already planning another diesel Jeep project. I am hoping to pick up a ’50s Willys Jeep truck and put a Cummins4bt in it and build it like the last Willys truck I had except this time, no 350 v8. Probably gonna have to find a front dana 60 (a dually one and use hummer beadlocks) and a dana 70 or 14 bolt rear. Have to get a pretty wide rear axle to use the hummer rims but I think a bread truck one might work…. hopefully, anyway since I already have one… I wonder where that 4bt came from…! Perhaps the a518 automatic and 205 transfercase hiding in the shed that were leftover from the m715 project could be pressed into service….with a 203 low range stuffed in there? I want to paint one of these trucks in a authentic vintage color scheme and then tell the purists that I found it in a old garage or barn…..and then cut it up into THIS!  Actually, the truck I am considering has led anything but a charmed life – nobody wasted any barn space on this one, not in the last 40 or so years anyway!  No motor, transmission, or rear axle remain and the front clip is removed but is lying in the bed. Mismatched paint on various body parts tells a tale of hard work and toil and that function was considerably more important than looks.  So, There you have it. The madness continues…..!

Still Here! Just Been Super Busy

  Wow! What a month this has been! Went to the Mile High Jeep Club All For Fun event and had a great time even though the t18 transmission in the GPW project locked in 3rd gear on the spring creek trail. I did a little math and figured that in 3rd  and the t-case in double low it still had a 59 to 1 crawl ratio! Still had a great time playing with the m715 as it has no problems getting around. Got a couple new toys since I posted last- a Jeep Cherokee with 33 inch Swampers and an Aussie locker in the rear dana 35 that will probably hit the skids as soon as I can get a Ford 8.8 installed in it. I really do not like dana 35 axles- at least this is a non c- clip one. The other toy is a 1952 Dodge m37 army truck. This truck is a 11,000 mile minimal rust and  is a pretty straight vehicle it still has all the 24 volt water/emp proof electrical stuff. Even all the gauges still work and have the glow in the dark stuff on the pointers (radioactive radium perhaps)! The thing had not run in years but after a thourough fuel system cleaning ( the fuel tank had about a gallon of dry red crusty stuff inside) the truck actually runs. The tank was a real pain to get out and back in (thanks, kyle) but the fuel sender actually worked after cleaning and a new float. The truck needs painted back to od green, a new canvas top and some new canvas seat covers- oh yeah some new tires as the current  900. 16 NDT tires predate the Kennedy administration…… the ones on the front are dated 1953….. for real!  It also has a couple of interesting CIVIL DEFENSE stickers from the fifties.  I will probably let dad paint it up as a USMC maintenance truck like he drove in the Marines… he still remembered the hood number from his truck 40 years ago and he would have this m37  in his driveway in a second if mom would let him…. gotta go… later!

Moab Was AWESOME! M715 CJ2A CJ5 Stories

Nope, the GPW didn’t make the cut to go to Moab so I pressed the always fun ‘48 Willys CJ2A plow jeep named Frankie into service.  Now this particular flatfender has served as a  plow jeep for a long time prior to me getting it. That’s where the name frankie came in… it’s a typical Frankenstein mixture of early flattie parts with a F-head engine from a later CJ all held together by a patched and booger welded frame.  Hey, I couldn’t turn down a flattie project for $500!

The best part is it is the only flattie I have ever bought that actually drove itself onto the trailer. I justified this extravagant purchase by knowing how useful the included plow and Koenig hardtop would be and they certainly have been useful.  6 months after buying this poor little jeep it snowed and snowed and snowed FOR ABOUT  6 WEEKS. My neighbors do like that little jeep. After spring came around, I beat the larger dents out, patched the holes with 18 gauge sheet metal, used about a gallon of filler and then brush painted the whole works with Rust-Oleum red. Almost looks too nice to push snow with.

I also installed my homemade sidedraft F-head intake manifold and carb so I could lose the box on the hood that allowed clearance for the wrong motor.   Later, I added a T-19 with a 6.34 first gear after I chipped a tooth on the reverse idler gear on the ailing and noisy T-90. A Dana 44 with a Powr- loc and 4.27 gears got added along with a Dana 27 also with Powr-loc and 4.27 gears. A set of original 16 inch wheels was rounded up and painted Rust-Oleum tan and then shod with a set of 235-85-16 size tires that measure out to 32.5 inches. In the summer after the top and plow come off, I install a Warn 8000 winch- not one of the new ones…. the old Bellview style that kinda looks like the great grandaddy of the Warn 8274. That winch looks right at home on this vintage jeep. Actually, there isn’t much on this jeep that you could buy new in the last 30 years- it is THAT old-school! It takes a lot to turn heads in Moab and the old jeep did just that. I did the trail “Hell’s Revenge” and even one-shotted the Tip-over challenge right in front of a Toyota FJ cruiser that had been trying it for about 30 minutes without any success- and he then drove off in a huff….. I should have told him I made it up the escalator too…..( in my dreams)! I also decided to run the ”Moab Rim” trail- one of  my favorite Moab area trails.

Marge and her jeep CJ5 Betty and myself in Frankie  followed a buddy of mine in his CJ3A rockbuggy- well…. at least the grille is a CJ3A. Now I cannot take the hard lines on this trail- but even the easy lines are not exactly easy- just the first 100 yards of this trail scares the heck outta most people as it follows the edge of a cliff along the Colorado river. Don’t worry though, you won’t fall into the river as there is a nice soft paved county road that will catch you if you drive off the 150′ drop. Betty needed a winch pull up the devils crack obstacle but drove the rest of the trail unaided ( I drove Betty up the Z turn obstacle) thanks to her powr-loc diffs and  Marge’s careful driving. 

The next day I wanted to do Dome Plateau, this trail can suck up almost a hundred miles so the ever thrifty (Averaged just over 20 MPG for the trip) M715 that pulled Betty to Moab was called into service as this trail is not overly challenging and this truck can definitely soak up the road miles. This truck has a pair of powr-loc diffs in it too…(see a trend here?) and 4.11 gears that allow it to drag itself through places something this size should probably not go. Dome Plateau though, is just a scenic and fun drive through some old mining and prospecting territory up by I-70. We finished the day by driving Yellowcat road to Thompson Springs- a forgotten town on a nearly abandoned and unused stretch of former US50. The 715 did well for the day as it always does and Bart slept the whole way back to Moab.

Ultimate Dana Spicer 18 CJ2A / CJ3A / GPW Transfercase

Ok, this ‘case actually started life as a Dana 20 but eventually wound up in my possession and was converted to 18 spec with 2.46 gears and twin stick capability with the “pill” removed. I have been running it like this behind a T19 and a T18 that was hooked to a 134 L-head for years and more recently a Mercedes OM601 nonturbo diesel. This reliable old t case has dragged the old heep through thick and thin from Upper Helldoado in Moab to the Independence trail in Penrose. I was wishing for more reduction as 86-1 was not really enough for the really sticky situations as I found myself slipping the clutch to reduce my speed. Enter the neat piece of the day- a Wagoneer quadratrac low range unit. These worked similar to how a Warn overdrive worked but instead of a .75 overdrive it has a 2.57 UNDERdrive! Now these units share absolutely no common parts, shafts, splines, bolt patterns or anything else except that they both bolted to the back of their respective transfercases. The q-trac low range held up (pretty well) behind 360 and 401 AMC V8  engines in fullsize Wagoneers so Im figuring it will hold up to ~70 HP/ 100 LB-FT without struggling too much….. SO, I adapted one to the current t 18 d18 combo put it all together today and spent half the afternoon spinning the input shaft while watching the output barely turn. AHHH, the joys of ADD! 40 input turns to one output turn times the 5.43 9 inch ford rearend  gets me to  about 216 to one. That should do the trick!  The best part is that unlike all the other crawl box designs this one allows the same rear driveshaft to be used thus preserving what little it already did not have. This setup will probably test the durability of the 18 output shaft but time will tell…. at least I have spares.

Frantic Countdown To MOAB!!!!!!!!!!

As usual, every year I get to about 6 weeks before the annual Moab trip and realise that I don’t have a jeep ready for the trip.  So, here I am sitting here at the computer wasting time… at 11:47 pm wondering what-in-the-hell I am going to do. Option 1: Take the M715. It only needs the oil changed to be ready but I sat out the Pritchett canyon run last year because I really DID NOT want to wreck all the hard work I have put into this truck (the truck is undoubtedly capable I just do not wish to dent it up). Option 2:  Get the GPW out and install the low range box  (think warn UNDERdrive )a power steering hose, clean up some details and wheel it in it’s dented to hell glory. Pritchett canyon here we come! Option 3: put lockers in the Commanche. This pretty much rules out Pritchett….as I am pretty happy with the MJ’s virgin rustfree tin. Anyway, I still have to figure out everyone elses rides before mine get worked on. Oh yeah, the motorhome still needs a kitchen. Six weeks….. tick… tock… tick… tock.  Almost makes a person wish they were in a dream they wake up from and find they are actually an investment manager that sells some nice relaxing derivative portfolios or perhaps an insurance agent selling flood insurance in New Orleans…. Anybody out there wanna hear about my super low range spicer 18 T case? Like over 200 to 1 total reduction? How to mate a Mercedes om601 to a Willys bellhousing? A Willys bellhousing to a T18? How about a Borg warner Quadratrac low range unit in the PTO hole of a  spicer 18 T case…? Imagine the joy of 2.4 reduction or 2.6 reduction or the combination of BOTH at 6.24 to 1 all with no added length! Time for bed…ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Diesel Fuel Getting Cheaper Than Gasoline?

The news story I read today had some welcome info- it said that the price of diesel fuel would likely soon be cheaper than gas!  I have noticed recently that the price spread that has been as much as a dollar a gallon higher for diesel has now been reduced to as little as 15-20 cents a gallon. Now I am a healthy skeptic so while I realize that diesel use is down because semi trucks are not delivering goods to people who cannot afford them I am looking beyond this and thinking of other reasons. I have had a suspicion that when it looked like the biodiesel entrepreneures would really find a way to make and market a realistic product that the oil companies would slash the price of petrodiesel to make it impossible for biodiesel to be realistic to produce.  Biodiesel made from algae is going to soon be available and it does not steal away from our food supply- it in fact can be fertilized and fed sewage and co2 from waste products.  Some companies are contemplating building algae plants (Ha Ha I made a pun! ) near coal or natural gas power plants thus rendering the power carbon neutral. On a side note, I believe that the carbon credit scam er, scheme is the biggest load of s#!t ever to be foisted on people since Ponzi thought up the pyramid scheme.  Historically,  in Catholicism you could buy an “indulgence” knowing ahead of time the particular sin you intended to commit by paying  off the church and presumably God as well.  Enter Al Gore, inventer of the internet, Nobel prize winner for environmentalism who flew to accept it on a personal jet with two people on board, and owner of a huge  house whose power bills are legendary, wants to sell everyone on global warming ( of course he does, he is the one selling these modern day indulgences ) while he lives the charmed life and then looks down on everyone else, tells us that WE are sinners! Anyway, I digress, (rant rant) I want to see alternative fuels succeed just because we will eventually need to get energy from somewhere and I am not personally willing to give up my chosen lifestyle, sinner that I am. Detroit says they are going to be building vehicles that get better mileage soon and that clean burning diesels will be a big part of the strategy- i hope so, I know it can be done as I have done it personally. The Diesel powered Commanche truck has averaged around 30 MPG and it is built using a state of the art 1960s technology Mercedes OM617 five cylinder diesel. I know however, that diesel tech has improved considerably in the intervening 40 years. In Europe they have been building 50+ mpg diesel cars for years- you just cannot buy them in the USA as the DOT says they are unsafe for our roads.  Instead, to get 50+ mpg you can get a nice, safe, motorscooter or motorcycle – at least the hospitals get a nice steady stream of donated organs this way. I think cars are actually much TOO safe these days as people drive them as if they are absolutely invincible.  Need seatbelt use to go up? Want everyone to drive slower? Pay attention better?  Cars could have a 6 inch rusty metal spike affixed to the steering wheel center! Still feel like swerving in and out of traffic? Still, I am happy that diesel is getting cheaper. Now I guess I will have to work on all that other stuff.  Oh yeah, I did finally break down and buy those AC Delco 60g glow plugs for the Canyonero Wagoneer project. Details soon.

6.2 Diesel Glow Plugs

Is there a way to get 60g glow plugs for a reasonable price? The darn things are ~20 bucks EACH Times 8! The 9g plugs in the Canyonero project are mostly dead and I want some 60g units so I can safely use a manual button. The cheap bastard inside me just cannot spring for a $160 set of the admittedly neccesary little boogers. These things are holding up the whole works. I was hoping that a set would show up in the junkyard but apparently not! And, in case you wondered, Mercedes glow plugs don’t work. Yeah, you know I looked.

Diesel Jeep Commanche Update / Rant

It is still running! OK, I have actually had one hell of a rough time with this swap project. Other people have swapped OM617 Mercedes diesels into these trucks but, I have never seen any others that were 4Wd (IF, In all my internet searching I missed you and your diesel jeep let me know) . No one else seems to realize that adapting these engines to Chevy transmissions is actually pretty easy. I used a S10 t-5 and a 240d flywheel with a garage-built (not machine shop) adapter between the Mercedes 240d bellhousing and the T-5. None of this caused any great problems…. unlike the front sump oil pan that wants to be right where the axle and steering parts are.  This was mostly solved by by lifting the Jeep about 6 inches. Other people with 2wd trucks seem to use rack and pinion steering setups to get around the pan. I used a Dodge 3/4 ton van steering box that steers “backward”, moved the box back about 4 inches and the pitman arm now sticks out forward and just clears the front of the pan. This also just provided just enough room to retain the Merc oil cooler on the side of the radiator and still keep the stock oil lines. One of which already is leaking and making a mess. At least I built it so I can get it out.  This swap still took more time and irritation than any swap I have ever done.  Smallblock in a Vega? Cake. Cummins 6bt in a M715 Sprung under? No problem. Mercedes Om 601 diesel in a GPW… took one week – one week before the big annual trip to Moab. This Commanche took 2 1/2 years of on again off again frustration and I still have a bunch of details to sort out like the non-op tach (6 cylinder tach signal from a 5 cylinder diesel) or the speedometer that quit the other day- apparently, not from the swap, it just decided to not participate anymore.  Still it is enjoyable to drive with the five speed, and IS quite peppy for a old school type diesel. No diesel smoke is visible since I changed the injectors to some from a Om 603 that I was able to get at the local salvage yard. Runs smoother too. Am currently holding out on the boost fuel compensator (alda) adjustment. Fuel mileage is in the low 30s per US gallon so, my goal of a fuel efficient truck is slowly being realized but I probably would not do this particular swap again. I DO still have a 4bt sitting around, wonder what project could I start with that…..?  FC 170? 48 Chevy 3600? 84 CJ-7? Yours Truly, an Incurable Diesel Swapper.

Happy New Year Wheelin’ The Ibuprofen Run

Went 4-wheeling for new years day, something that has become an annual tradition with my group of  friends and I. I took my Cummins 6bt powered m715 up to the small town of Empire Co.  Once at the staging area, I chained up all four  37×12.50×16.5 Goodyear GSA tires and followed my friends up the trail that leads to Bill Moore lake. We only made it about three switchbacks up the trail before a buddys ‘72 Blazer slipped toward the edge of the road.  So, we got to practice our winch, snatch block and tree-strap skills. With Blazer safely recovered and underwear changed we continued to the next challenge- a switchback that is steep, off camber and covered in two feet of powdery snow. The Blazer was in the lead and took on the hill first and only made it about three feet before getting bogged down. Now this Blazer is highly modified- TBI 350, 14 Bolt and Dana 60 axles locked and loaded plus plenty of other goodies so he backs up and takes a good run at it and still only makes it about half way up. As good friends will, we heckled him mightily and he suggested that perhaps one of us would show him how it was to be done. Next up was a ‘60 CJ-5 with an injected 401 AMC V8, 35 inch Super Swamper tires, 4.88 gears, lockers and a t18 transmission. He gave it all and still only made it just to the top of the hill in a position that landed him between a tree and a snow covered rock that lended no traction whatsoever. A quick tug with the strap freed him to attempt several more assaults on the hill with little further progress. It was now my turn to give it a try so I lined up and hit it in second gear and went up about as far as the CJ had. I was able to back down without sliding off the edge of the switchback- a sizable concern as I’m not really interested in smashing up the truck I’ve spent so much time to build ( and money, but you will never get the total amount outta me ’cause Marge would probably make me take up less expensive hobbies like vintage aircraft or ming vase collecting) against rock and trees. The next attempt at the hill was  in third gear and I had noticed that everyone else that had tried third did’nt have enough motor to really get the tires really flinging the snow. Well, as it turns out, the old Cummins has PLENTY of guts to pull third gear. Snow went a flyin and I made it a good twenty feet further than anyone else had and promptly found myself stuck- er, “TEMPORARILY IMMOBILIZED” . 

 I’m sitting there thinking about the fact that my truck outweighs all the other rigs on this trip and how to unstick this thing but it turns out that a few little tugs were all that were needed to free me. Next up, a ‘99  Cherokee with a 4 inch lift, some nice Rubicon tires and wheels ~31 inchers and open differentials. With the 4.0 testing the rev limiter he made it to about to where I had been and suffered the same fate. Fortunately, we come prepared for all this fun and he was rolling again in minutes. We all tried a few more times each to break that impenetrable snow but spring is gonna have to break before we have a snowball’s chance of getting any further up to the lake without a helicopter. Reluctantly, we turned around and headed back to Empire, removed the chains , unlocked the hubs and bid farewell to the fellows. I decided while I was already up in the mountains I might just as well get some firewood since Winter Park is only twenty miles away from Empire.  Pine Beetles have killed millions of trees in Grand county and this makes for a lot of firewood that can be had for absoutely FREE- people are just glad that someone will haul it off as they already have a lifetime supply of wood cut and split but there are still dead trees standing everywhere. So, the golf course has a huge pile of logs cut to about 3-4 foot lengths and stacked there ready to go. Loaded the bed up until it was cab high, strapped it all down securely and headed back towards home. Going back through Empire, Bart noticed that the Lewis Sweet Shop was still open so we stopped and got stuffed with food, watched a Warren Miller winter sports crash and burn outakes video and high-centered ourselves on some ice cream too. Now that’s the way to start off the new year right!