DonM

Dropped the pan and we were very happy to see just dirty oil but not a hint of water or debris. No obvious signs of damage to the crank or block upon cursory inspection. Will have better assessment tomorrow. Have a shop lined up to magnaflux and dress up the block, crank and cam shafts. Tried to locate date stamps on exhaust port but nothing so far….more cleaning will tell!

Starting our engine tear down. The stamped SN is T-24 815 the casting number is 194322-4 A there is also a riveted tag with W 9 9 The serial number is pretty low so I assume the casting was made in 1943. Is there any other information I can extract from these numbers?

This is great……very similar to our situation. Still need to clean up, measure and get metal. Very inspiring!

Merry Christmas! Thanks for all your advice!

I hope you all are enjoying a peaceful Christmas season. I thought I would share a gift from my daughter. She rides an ambulance as a paramedic but enjoys writing. She wrote me this poem about my M38 which I think captures the essence of what we are doing.......

Just posting our best wishes to Patrick, OZ, and all you guys out there in Weasel Land for a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. Looking forward to some serious welding on the hull and digging into the engine this coming year. It's a blessing to have a such a supportive community!

Correction for my previous post........there is 1 thick and 1 thin shim on each of the 4 support arm mounts.

Looked at TM9, they went with electric pumps inside the fuel tank after vehicle SN 9502. So it appears that our early engine was part of some upgrade to an “updated” fuel system. When we mix and match hulls and engines, parts and refits. It really does beg the question how do you define “original”? It’s all fun regardless!

Just a quick update...we finally got the hull tipped up. The John Deere made for a good gantry crane. As posted in the shim thread, we are removing the bogeys and found the arms shimmed 1 thick+ 1 thin on forward arm, 1 thin on each of the two middle arms and 1 thick + 1 thin on the aft arm (all on the right side of the hull). Regarding our engine (S/N T24-815), there is a cover plate where I would expect the fuel pump to be. Did the early T-24s have an external (electric) fuel pump?

We have started removal of the bogies and suspension arms from our hull and one side is done. We found that the suspension arms were shimmed differently for each bogey set. Going from forward to aft, the shims were 1 thick + 1 thin for the first set, 1 thin for the second and third sets, and 1 thick + 1 thin for the rearmost set.

Looks like great fun!! Nice rigs!

Byron's postings are quite interesting and motivating!. We found a mysterious number stamped into the left most (driver side) top of the center bulkhead (see photo). Not sure if it is anything significant. The stamp is on a reinforcement bracket there presumably for lifting. It appears to be A0 6050 where the "zeros" are a little ambiguous, could be C or 9 or something like that. Any ideas?

Ah yes, I remember now, just like a Willys engine.

OZM29C, is the original cam shaft gear steel? Is aluminum to avoid corrosion? Where can I source one? Nothing prettier (well almost nothing) than a shiny clean engine!

Great suggestions! There are shops around who do magnaflux testing so I'm planning to get the crank, cam shaft, and block examined. Also successfully extracted the axle unit which will enable us to finish stripping the inside of the hull.

We had an exciting day today. We trekked 228 miles down to beautiful PA to see Dave Yamulla and procured a very complete Weasel engine. It appears locked up but it looks quite clean and no sign of external cracks. The dipstick was very clean and free of any signs of water or corrosion. We also got a repro header pipe which I know is hard to find. Had a great visit with Dave and we were extremely impressed with his amazing collection of "stuff". Definitely recommend Dave as a go-to guy for Weasel parts. I've never seen a more eclectic collection of military vehicle parts including a beautifully restored M48 tank engine. The engine serial number is T24 815 which I suppose means it is a fairly early production model? Definitely looking forward to tearing into it! I have posted a photo of the engine and and the serial number.

Also, any suggestions about tipping the hull on its side as you did in your shed without damaging the hull or maiming any humans?

Very interesting! I think as we get to cutting out the rot, we’ll have a better idea of what direction to take. As far as welding goes, we’re newbies. Done a few patches here and there on a Jeep but this is by far the biggest job we’ve tackled. On another topic, is there a good way to remove the “buttons” on the coaming without wrecking them?

Wow that's some good work OZM29C! I'll touch base with Rob and see what he has. We are still in strip down mode on the inside and top of the hull, then we have to fab a rotisserie jig so we can really start hacking away at it. It is inspirational to see what you guys are doing and how you do it!

Its pretty dusty right now as we are in the processor stripping off the paint but here are photos of the floor in the following order... left floor forward, left floor aft, right floor forward, right floor aft. We appreciate your insight OZM29C!

Charlie and I are anxious to head down to PA to see Dave Yamulla's collection of Weasel engines in a couple of weeks! I spoke to him on the phone today and he seems like a real nice guy. I saw his web site and he has an amazing collection of material. Thanks Patrick for vectoring us over to Dave!

I think maybe OZM29C is on to something about a depot rebuild, as we are removing paint, there are fewer layers on the skirts than on the side of the hull. Man there are a lot of layers of paint on this thing! Maybe they were trying to "up armor" the hull with paint 🙂 The hull came with 20" tracks so maybe they did do a field upgrade from T-24 to M-29 at some point? Patrick, can you tell us where we can source drawings for sheet metal on the hull, specifically the right and left hand floors? I saw you did similar work. Finally, we are looking for an engine, I see there are a few Champion 170s from cars out there but from what I've seen in posts, the configuration is different for the Weasel. Any ideas? The fun continues!! Thanks!

This is excellent info!! We’ll definitely check on that bulkhead too. Thanks again!!

Thanks OZM29C! Is the "serial number" referred to in the bulletin the same as the "hull number"? Our hull number is UST-24-2003 but the serial number plate is odd, it has "1003 AND UP" for the serial number. Here is a photo of the two plates.

Hi Jim, We recently acquired a Weasel project from Patrick. First photo shows the hull number UST-24-2003 and the serial number plate showing "1003 and up" whatever that means. The second photo shows a tag on the differential presumably from a repair shop in Lyon France. We have been stripping the paint layers looking for any identifying marks but no luck except for what looks like a number applied in the factory directly over the zinc-chromate primer. There is a number "26" apparently applied with a brush located on the front right exterior of the hull. This is fascinating stuff! Don M