Rango.....1942 Willys MB

[Metcalf]

Coming soon! The axles are going back in this weekend hopefully ( I am waiting for the new rear axle side gears ). I will also be working on getting the transmission and transfer case sealed up and fully bolted to the engine so I can set those back in really soon. Then before I stick the tub back on I will be doing the brake lines and exhaust system.....fun fun

 

[Metcalf]

The frame is green ( mostly ) and the front axle is back under it.....

I also got some something shinny in the mail today.....

This is my new fuel tank that I designed and had manufactured by Boyd Welding. What a GREAT business to work with!

The tank follows the shape of the rear wheel tub and fits on the rear floor just behind the new seats. The tank also follows the shape of the MB tub floor with the small kick in it. The tank has a non-vented fill neck and a roll-over valve on the opposite corner. It will hold approx 19 gallons when full. There is a baffle in the middle of the tank to make it stronger and help with slosh. There are two female NPT ports on the front of the tank that are going to be connected with a Tygon translucent yellow fuel line to act as a sight glass for the level of the tank.

The bottom of the tank has a fuel sump that goes through a hole in the floor. There is a female NPT fitting on the bottom that will get a 90 degree barb fitting. The sump is just inside the frame rail. There will be a small soft line to a hard line on the frame rail.....

The tank uses some 'wasted' space in the tub I think. It still allows me to have a nice little flat fender sized cargo area. In the future, once its rolling around again, I will be building a removable cargo basket that will be above the rear storage area to allow me to carry a little bit more stuff.....

Pack light, its a flat fender!

 

[postalWagon]

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks Great

 

[Bad Karma]

Here is a pic of the rear pintle mount I built to replicate the original....

I'd weld the nuts on and put a cover on the top of that. Its gonna fill up with dirt and water and be a pain in the as$ to clean out.

Awesome build!!!

 

[locrwln]

Everything is looking great. Keep up the good work.

Jack

 

[Metcalf]

Thank you! More coming soon. I spent the day assembling the transmission and t-case to the engine for hopefully the last time ( knock on wood ). I will get some pics up tonight....

 

[lstzephyr]

It was a couple pages back but I thought I would lighten up your pic a bit. I pushed the edges of contrast so you have a bit of red eye but it came out a bit easier to see.

Looking good! It is pretty small really.

 

[Metcalf]

Thanks for working on the pic!

Yup, its pretty small for being on 35s with about 4-5" of compression travel! It will probably end up being about 68" tall with the cage in place, maybe a little bit lower once the spring break in a little bit. So far I am pretty happy with how it has turned out. It's basically just a big go-cart for big kids. The belly clearance is also pretty dang good for being so short. I will loose a little bit more once I get a belly pan on it, but not THAT much.

There is an engine, transmission, and transfer case in the vehicle at the time of that picture too....even though it really doesn't look like it.

 

[jeepdreamer]

I'd weld the nuts on and put a cover on the top of that. Its gonna fill up with dirt and water and be a pain in the as$ to clean out.

Awesome build!!!

I'd have to disagree with ya karma... I think leaving it open would allow you to clean it out easier and since the mud/gunk will find its way in ahyhoo...*shrugs* Guess its a 6 one way half dozen the other though?

 

[Metcalf]

I left it open. I have a few drain holes on the bottom to help when washing it out. The main reason to leave it open is the nuts I welded on the back of the mount. If I ever mess those up it will be nice to be able to get at those without having to cut off a cover.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

That fuel tank is pure genius!!

 

[Metcalf]

Thank you. I don't think its the perfect solution, but its close. Ideally I think having the tank under the rear rear floor behind the rear axle would be best, but the complexity of the tank to retain good ground clearance and have decent capacity would have taken things to a whole new level. Plus, if the tank is under and behind the rear axle it would have needed a skidplate. With the vehicle sitting so low I decided to just keep the tank inside....

Now, I looked at just about EVERY fuel cell available on the market, and nothing I saw would give me the fit I wanted. They are all basically just a rectangle. All of the stock sizes would have left a lot of wasted space.....

After looking at a few things I decided to design a tank from scratch and have it quoted at Boyd Welding out of Ocala, Florida.

The tank was designed to take up the minimal amount of space for the maximum amount of capacity. The area behind the front seats is probably the oddest most unusable space so I decided to use that area in the design. Boyd Welding was then able to take my design and turn it into metal in a HURRY. From order to delivery was 10 business days if I remember it all right.

Hopefully the tank will last a long time.

I will try and get some more pictures during the install of the tank, but for now the features of the tank are....

-Conforms to the shape of the wheel tub and floor to use all the available space behind the seats.
-approx 19 gallon capacity. In flat fender jeep I feel that is MORE than enough, but also give the vehicle some real range.
-Fuel sump under the body. The sump is a 2" dia, 4" deep sump that should help with fuel starvation at angles a lot.
-The fuel sump is under the body and next to the inside of the frame for ease of fuel line routing. One thing I really didn't like about off the shelf fuel cells was that most of the lines are routed from the top of the cell.
-There are two ports on the front of the tank that will allow me to construct a sight tube for fuel level. The sight tube is between the front seats where it should be fairly protected and easy to see.
-A roll over vent/safety valve was installed in the passenger corner of the tank. This will be extended up to the top of the roll cage.
-The fill port is non-vented and located on the top rear of the tank behind the drivers seat.
-A baffle was built into the middle of the tank to help with fuel slosh.

Enough for now....I need to get out into the shop.

 

[Metcalf]

Yesterday was transmission shop day...

The engine ( buick 225 v-6 ), transmission ( sm420 ), and transfer case ( Dana 18 ) area all back together now....

I also had to do some fun stuff like.....

Modify my ultra thin one off homemade adapter a bit. This mounting bolt for the transfer case is right on top of the lower shaft on the SM420. So basically I had to tack in a new stud in that location. Its just one of those odd things with this one-off weird thin adapter. Having a 22" rear driveline on a flat fender is nice though.....

I also installed one of these hydraulic throwout bearings. I'm not too sure about this thing, but its the only thing I have room for with the transmission shoved so far up in the chassis. There isn't any room for an external clutch fork anymore. We will see how it works out.....

 

[Metcalf]

Yesterday was productive.....

I made most of the hard lines for the chassis. I still need to find a misc fitting or two but they are all in place and routed. I decided to do the chassis hard lines in steel AN-3 fittings. With all the transitions I had to make from metric or NPT in the chassis I thought it would just be easier....

I used 1983 Honda Accord front brake lines for the soft lines at all 4 corners. Fr $10 a line they work great with the Geo Tracker/Suzuki Sidekick calipers. The same brake line works at all 4 corners now. If you haven't guessed yet, I like it when parts are common and can be used in multiple locations. Finding some AN-3 to 10mm-1.0 metric male adapters was a little hard, but Speedway has them for $10 a pair.

I will be adding a few soft replacement an-3 lines as hard line emergency replacements in the trail kit along with a spare soft line.

After the brake lines where done it was time to put the powertrain back in the chassis.....

I need to add the torque mount to the transmission crossmember along with a few threaded inserts for the future mini belly skidplate. Then its time to tackle the exhaust. I have broken stud in the passenger side exhaust manifold outlet flange. I have been giving it doses of PB-blaster for a few days. I hope it comes out.....

Anyone got any exhaust building tips and tricks? The passenger side is going to be fairly complicated......over the front driveshaft and down under the front of the transmission behind the bellhousing. That almost sounds like a kids book......not really......

 

[mikeg1713]

Oh my god this thing is KILLER!