M38A1 timing...?

[Casey B]

Got it all apart with heat and have clean the rust off gently with oil adn sone very fine steel wool but not where the shaft is or parts that turn.
Wondering what type of lube to use on it white lithium grease or an engine oil?
I see the oil galleries and grooves for it but wondered about the spinning motion may fling the oil off?
Looked like crusty caked on grease in the grooves and the inner shaft.
So far so good...Casey

[rob love]

Light grease on the shaft will not go anywhere, as long as you apply it sparingly. White lithium should be fine. Then, anytime you have the cap off, place a drop or two of oil on the felt wick under the rotor.

A bit of white lithium on the weight hinges is good too, followed by a drop of oil every time you are into the distributor.

Your next trap will be the fact that you can put the rotor on 180° out onto the shaft. On some of the SMP engines, this can really bugger you up because the oil pumps are offset and will not allow you to turn the shaft 180 and insert it.

Sounds like you will have your Jeep running soon. Winter has finally set in here, so any Jeep driving is now 4 months away (minimum).

[Casey B]

Thanks for the suggestions and yes it was out 180 degrees of course but i found this out before even getting to start it. the distributor would go in any other way so i had to take the upper shaft of and turn it so the flat rotor drive was the right way so the rotor pointed the same way when I took it out.
It runs but still pops from the carb and seems really rich smelling. there is no other setting for the mixture other than the idle mix screw on the side right?
I will have to try the timing. I tried moving the distributor so that it would sound smoother and run a little faster but still some popping just on the initial acceleration. it revs up much quicker now the weights work but the mixture is rich and the popping seems definetily timing.
The weekend is coming and so is the white stuff accorrding to the weather network. Sunday!
thanks again for all advice so far.!
Casey

[rob love]

Timing is pretty important....yes you have to set it. Incorrect timing can cause the popping. So will a cold engine. You have to have it at operating temperature before gunning her. emember that these are not like todays computer regulated cars, where the fuel/air mixture is automatically controlled based on a series of inputs.

Is the hose hooked up from the aircleaner to the carb? Any possibility you have the aircleaner overfilled with oil? This will be the same as having the choke on.

Winter has set in full force here....lots of snow and -20 temps. So I am buggering off to Cuba tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out in a week when I get back.

[Casey B]

Hey Vios Candious campadre!
have agreat trip and i will let you know what happens...thanks again!

Yes hose hooked up not too much oil about 1/8- 1/4 inch in the bottom and was hot but will try and try again...I will not be broken...maybe broke but not broken by a Jeep!
MSE Ops do not walk!LOL

Enjoy you lucky bugger you!

[Casey B]

It is alive and doing well...okay better. I have some manuals from a friend here but darned if I can find the timing info to set the timing on it. i have it where it is running okay and the accelerator is working and the advace is great but it is dead reckoning.
anyone know the actual timing in degress before or after TDC?
Thanks I'll keep looking in the manuals...if anyone knows which manual it is in that would be great as well then i can try to find it.
Thanks ...Casey

[BCA]

The Canadian Army Repair manual on the M38A1 CDN 2 and supplement for the CDN3 is a 260 page comprehensive repair manual on all aspects of these M38A1's.
It is available from myself and other Canadian jeep parts suppliers at a reasonable cost. It is superior to the American manuals on the 1952-3 M38A1 jeeps due to numerous changes to the later Canadian production. In addition it includes all aspects of the jeep in one volume including engine rebuild; the US manual are split into 3 volumes.
Why do people start fooling with their old vehicles without getting the manuals first?
........ Brian