New M38A1 CDN2

[rick25]

This was the Jeep that was on the Western Command homepage.

The seller purchased the Jeep in 1988 and shortly after, parked the Jeep on wood blocks and covered it with two tarps and then moved out of the country. It was in full running condition at the time he parked it on Bowen Island (he drove it down to an Oregon MV Show in 1988).

Recently the seller wanted to dispose of it as he was selling the property the Jeep was on and had not seen the Jeep in 24 years. After a significant number of email exchanges (as the seller lives in Singapore), we worked out a price for the Jeep sight unseen.

Yesterday I went with two friends on a short ferry ride, luckily met a tow truck driver on the ferry and after about an 8 hour day including 2 hours with the tow truck, I had the jeep sitting in my garage.

It is very complete including all of the data and wheelhouse patent plates and full softtop with doors, the only items missing are one rear lifting shackle, driver's side seat, and spare tire (the seller is sure he has the spare tire and seat and will look for it when he gets here in May). It will need a complete mechanical overhaul and new floors. Not bad for a "Forest Find".

Other stuff I know about it:

• 1967 model year, acquired NOV 67
• 12th lowest serial number of the CDN2 series
• SN# 96856
• CFR# 7809
• ECC# 121201
• Had Sterling SMG mount
• Had FN FAL mount
• Had left rear body mounted antenna
• Has large round plug at front top of passenger fender (MP light maybe? probably not right for an antenna)
• Jeep may have been overseas as windshield glass says "made in west germany"
• Has 15 field artillery tacsign stencilled on canvas top
• Engine rebuilt in 1976
• Has Heater
• Looks like it had a colour canadian flag on front passenger fender
• Is in the 3 colour camo (yes I'll take lots of pictures and do the "slow sanding" in the usual locations before resto)
• Has solid state turn signals
• Appears to have some of the CDN3 upgrades (foot mounted washer squirter with jets on hood, air cleaner, maybe more)

[maple_leaf_eh]

Two thoughts go through my mind. Lucky you! and What a disgraceful way to treat a valuable running vehicle!

I wouldn't worry about the German marked part. Somethings are generic enough that they would have gotten into the supply system under normal circumstances. A piece of safety glass could have been shipped to Canada and cut to fit almost anything. It might even have been done at a glass shop in Vancouver. By the end of their service lives, the expected stocks of parts would have been exhausted and local purchase permitted. Rob Love will have stories on this topic, I'm sure.

If the markings are genuine, you might get lucky flogging this vehicle back to the last unit. Very few authenticated examples get to make a round trip, and you may find a very willing buyer.

[rob love]

Foot type window washer was not a Cdn 3 thing. There were kits around for this, but it (and the column mounted horn button) were just some kind of shortcut, and not by the book. Aircleaner on the Cdn2 and Cdn3 were the same.

The glass was locally procured; not sure why you would have it from W Germany. Get scotty to do a search on the EDR viewer and he can get you the history of the Jeep.

[rick25]

My first CDN2 washer and button look like this:



The new CDN2 washer squirter looks like this (shown to the left of the hood hinge in the black area), has a foot mounted rubber pump on the extreme left drivers side foot area and has a white coloured round plastic bottle near the solid state turn signal box:


The new CDN2 windshield markings:

[Barry Churcher]

Congratulations on a nice find. My brother lives on that island and it isn't very big. I will have to give him a slap and tell him to keep his eyes open.
Cheers,
Barry

[rick25]

Got home from work today and removed the dipstick to find a crankcase full of decent looking and smelling oil so i decided to pull the plugs and shoot some liquid wrench down into the cylinders and, not having really any patience, I gave the fan pulley a spin. Great news for me as the crank pulley spun freely. I also noted that while my parts cdn2 has a military junior oil filter, the new jeep has a cuno. Was there any deciding factor for this or was it random at the rebuild factory?

[chris vickery]

How did the plugs look?
I would maybe take the dist cap off and have a look and see whats up inside.
I think the carb would probably give you some trouble being all dried out but who knows... At the very least, if I were to try running it, I would definately disconnect the fuel line at the fuel pump and plumb in a gas can to start it, that way no old or bad fuel going through the carb. You never know, it may start right up.
I bought a M37 a few years back that had been sitting for many years since being surped in the early 1980s. The owner couldn't get it to run at all and I bought it for a song. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out what was wrong with it. I pulled the cap and it and the rotor were baffed beyond belief.
A new cap and rotor, a fresh gas can and a charged pair of batteries and she fired right up. Granted, it ran like crap because of all the old crap in the carb, cylinders etc but that was fixed in about 15 minutes running on high idle with the throttle lock pulled on and a quart of transmission fluid applied generously down the intake. She smoked like hell but once that tranny fluid did its job, the longer it ran the better it ran. I never did pull the heads or anything, I did a basic tuneup with plugs, wires cap and rotor and for good measure rebuilt the carb. It only got beter after that.