[trammway]

The issue was now in another angle as I saw the cops put on security job for American Embassy rushed towards me. Just imagine a Military looking jeep with all funny items around at almost mid-night stopping at an over bridge from where one can easily target anything on the embassy. It was too horrifying experience seeing the cops with modern weapons running towards me. I really had to explain them the issue and those cops understood my issue and gave their hands to push me down side of the bridge. Some how I cranked the engine again and it started moving slower than before and rode it till 200 meters or so.

There was a petrol pump at this place I requested them for little space to park my jeep till morning so I can bring some mechanic to fix the issue, but the petrol pump guys refused and advised me of approaching a nearby mechanic garage with lots of open space for parking the jeep. I walked towards the garage and called few guys out there for help, now luck was with me. The petrol pump guys and mechanic’s assistant pushed the jeep to the garage.

The next day morning I met the mechanic who was an old guy with good knowledge in Jeeps. He analyzed the Jeep gave me shocking information on the work that needed to be done in the jeep. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you guys the left hand steering wheel in the jeep was totally out of control except for its presence in the jeep. The estimated work was around 15K including serving of the diesel pump which was the main reason for white some and new Steering assembly. I called Arka of JT (he is also in here at TBHP) to have a look at my jeep and we met first time at the Woodlands Drive-in hotel. Later he came along with me to see the jeep. He had doubts about the jeep being Willys MB as he stated the blackout lights are not the original model.

My search for serial numbers and chassis numbers to identify the jeep started while the work to fix the issues was ongoing. I was still in confusion since there was no mfg dates stamped on the RC and written as Ex-Army on the date of mfg. column.

I got a brand new left hand steering assembly from RK auto of GP road and fixed it, and the mechanic fixed some of the essential stuffs in the jeep. I could see a fresh air out from my jeep as it was running good now. Though rust and turnout soft top gave a hint for my next spending, I was really enjoying the on the road drive in my jeep. However the JT discussions about various off-road events pushed me inside for converting the jeep to 4WD.

That was my next lesson as I gave my jeep to a mechanic near to my home, he assured he can make the jeep 4WD and bought couple of items including front and rear differential housing and altered the drive shaft and few other stuffs. Oh yeah the gear box (3 speed 4WD gear box), actually I was happy to see the Willys getting its own gear box coming into the place. But the Mechanic didn’t tell me the negative parts of using OM616 with 4WD setup in a low bonnet jeep. He made some adapter plate to mate the gear box and did all the necessary things. My jeep was now 4WD enabled but tyres and discs were totally gone out state, hence we bought gypsy rims and 2nd hand tyres from the market as I was running out of budget.

The hard lesson happened when I took the jeep for nearby lake to test the 4WD, the moment I engaged my 4WD and entered into the lake I heard a breaking sound from underneath my jeep. I had a thought that something bad had happened and I drove the jeep back to home. I stopped the engine and went inside the house, after couple of hours when I noticed the jeep from my balcony I noticed the Jeep blood (black colored engine oil) spread around my jeep like a pond. I rushed down near to the jeep and identified the sump in my jeep got a crack and all the oil inside the engine was leaked out. To my bad luck, it was due to the wrong setup of 4WD installation as the OM616 is taller engine which will not sit along with the front differential in the low bonnet jeep.

The lessons continued with each and every nuts and bolts of the jeep, I didnt wanted to give up. My hard way of learning the jeep mechanism went on like this, the spending was never stopped until one year after my procurement.

The jeep which I saw and possessed was fully modified CJ2A, god’s grace I had UBS around to help me identifying the information about original version of this jeep. Until I saw UBS I was always thinking that I procured a Willys MB from WWII line up that is how the seller introduced me to the vehicle.

Engines got swapped couple of times, cosmetics improved, paint work done, scissor top done, gear box overhauled, full floating setup done, breaks, wiring and all the works carried out one after one and with some successes and failures. All the failures were gone on attempts to redo again and some of them were written success in my jeep book. I was in the most attracted customer list of mechanics who attended my jeep; money was flowing without any control.

It was three months after I bought it when I finally could take my jeep with full confidence to an off-road terrain and did an off-road and photo shoot, though the soft top and engine work to arrest the black smoke was in pending list.

As I normally discuss my weekend work with my friends at office, on a Monday I went to office with smile at my face to convey my colleagues about my jeep’s condition and actions during past weekend. The day opened with a meeting where my boss incidentally called me to convey a message that I need to travel with in a week to Japan for a year long project.



to be continued...

[headers]

ha ha nice Siva, so let me complete the story for you.. please

"So as I had to leave for Japan for 1 year, I sold the jeep that i loved so much so that i could purchase a better jeep after coming back"

So you came back recently and acquired that classic ?

Nice experience!

[trammway]

Dude... not that speed hold on to your back and read the rest of story.. It will be a mega story thread and you need to keep reading it in daily basis.

[headers]

, you are gonna be the next suspense story teller on the forum after sam kapasi.

[trammway]

Originally Posted by headers

, you are gonna be the next suspense story teller on the forum after sam kapasi.

Dude is it a Comment or Compliment or Complaint ? I can't really categorize it in one of the C mentioned.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by trammway

Dude is it a Comment or Compliment or Complaint ? I can't really categorize it in one of the C mentioned.

You are wondering whether comparison to Sam Kapasi is a complement or complaint? Try this. Sam Kapasi is a big hairy dude whose nick name Yeti. He gets frisky and writes long posts all the time.

[trammway]

@Samurai

Not that all my posts going to be this long, but this thread particularly as I need to explain my nearly and above 3years of association with the JEEPs.

So broken the long story into episodes and posting it in daily basis, I'm no good at vocabulary but just sharing what happened with my jeep passion.

[maddy42]

Adding to what Samurai said he also gets 4 to five pages of posts just by posting one single picture. Yes you read it right 1 Pic Lol

[headers]

Originally Posted by trammway

Dude is it a Comment or Compliment or Complaint ? I can't really categorize it in one of the C mentioned.

Well, its a compliment if you are a Sam Kapasi Fan. Try reading one of his travellogues, Its really nice, at least some parts of it. I liked the RX100 travellogue as i've had similar experiences in similar times!

Originally Posted by Samurai

Sam Kapasi is a big hairy dude whose nick name Yeti. He gets frisky and writes long posts all the time.

, Sharat, come on, he does not write long posts all the time!

Originally Posted by trammway

@Samurai

Not that all my posts going to be this long, but this thread particularly as I need to explain my nearly and above 3years of association with the JEEPs.

So broken the long story into episodes and posting it in daily basis, I'm no good at vocabulary but just sharing what happened with my jeep passion.

You are doing a good job, breaking the story at the appropriate moment. Unfortunately, we all dont have the time to sit and compose our experiences like you do.

We rather nibble at others posts and give our expert opinion

Originally Posted by maddy42

Adding to what Samurai said he also gets 4 to five pages of posts just by posting one single picture. Yes you read it right 1 Pic Lol

Wanna bet, this thread is gonna be atleast 10 pages

[maddy42]

Am all support for my fellow jeeper. Offlate the jeep section is becoming less frequented. Seems like all are kinda busy. Anyways trammyway on with your story. Sorry for going OT.

[GTO]

Keep it coming, sport. I am eager to know how you ended up with a Classic! I presume that you have already disposed off the CJ2A? Badly modded Jeeps can be a bottomless $$$ pit....many (including yours truly) have learnt this the hard way.

Originally Posted by bdn317

also the owners manual of a Mahindra classic. Can anyone help me get hold of it?

Originally Posted by trammway

I don't have the owners manual

Pics taken last night . Are you looking for any information in particular from the manual?

[ex670c]

Hey Shiva,

You forgot to mention a all the technicalities about the CJ2A 4WD conversions in Detail and the Peugeot Engine Swap, the Peugeot Head Exchange....

Come on man these are interesting bits of info for First Time JEEP builders.

Regards,

Arka

[trammway]

Oh my god… I left the country and parked the jeep in covered car park for a quite a long time. It was again a priority for me to think about fighting rust formation as Chennai's major issue for automotive is the corrosion. Prior to bringing the jeep into halt, I did water wash and under body oil spray (actually it was a quite a lot of oil sprayed all over the body including inside the cabin area). 6 months went, and I never got chance to drive it again as I was far way.

During one of my visits to India, I have handed over the jeep to a friend of mine thinking that he could drive it so the jeep stays alive. Meanwhile I sold my Honda City also due to rust formation and as we had M800 with us which was easier for my wife to drive.

My friend also couldn’t drive the jeep much (he was also a Jeep owner) and he had few personal commitments which didn’t let him go near the vehicle. Due to non parking provision at his house, the Jeep was parked outside the road which caused the rust formation slowly. Life in Japan was too good and I enjoyed every other weekends with visits to the most of the tourist attractions(My blogging started right from that place). I enjoyed the underground metro train network to the world's fastest shinkansens (the Bullet Train) of Japan, another 6 months passed and I was returning to India successfully after completion of the work I was sent for.

But this time, the story was different in my office as couple of new faces already occupied my position in the office and I was really not sure of what next.I got an opportunity to work in a company at Singapore. Oh no! Again no way of driving the jeep, I took the hard decision to sell my Jeep, the deal stuck with one Navy officer. The Jeep was sold with pain in my heart.

But mind always associated one or other Jeeping related subject, in fact this made my mind not only to jeep but for the entire automotive closer than ever. My family was shifted to Singapore along with me and we sold the M800 too.

In Singapore, I started observing right from bicycles(with two disc breaks) to trucks for its technical aspects and options. There were lots of imported bikes, cars and offroaders, though owning one may only possible in dream for outsiders but I observed all of them.

I felt a slow and sturdy improvement in the academics of automobile in me. Days rolled, it was again the time decided that I should come back to India to start a fresh career with one of the IT firms here.

Though skills are some what satisfactory level in terms of automobile, but almost all my vehicles were sold and me and my wife decided to sell the M800 also as we planned for a upgrade.

This time I was actually targeting a stronger league for offroading, No time to start the whole work again building a non working machine. Hence I was basically looking for a good running 4x4 version of any vehicle at any cost. I conveniently forgot about Mahindra Classic and Willys MB etc but diffidently a capable offroader.

By this time we sold all our four wheelers hence I started my search for a good car (city maneuver, fuel economy and comfort drive for 4 people are the criteria) for the family (I was basically looking for same Honda City 1.5exi old model that I owned). I was visiting a used car dealer who incidentally discussing over the phone about some godown where they have got some heavy duty trucks which are seized vehicles. Out of my automobile enthusiasm I asked him after his conversation on the phone about the vehicles he described, there I got a message that some fellow got some trucks purchased on higher purchase scheme with escorts finance and didn’t pay they due for a long time, so Escorts seized all the vehicles and one among the bunch seized is a Jeep. Since Escorts Finance is already closed the Jeep was parked for 6-7 years in an open yard awaiting a buyer. Although I had some reservations, I decided to keep an open mind. I did not want repeat the same mistakes I did last time.

Seeing my interest in Jeeps and other automobiles, the consultant after invited me to the yard for a visit. It was very casual call and I didn’t have a reason to refuse; also by that time the car consultant become my friend. Hence I decided to go along with him to visit the vehicles. I don’t really know if the consultant thought if he was could sell some of the commercial trucks parked in the yard to me.

The next day I visited the yard with the consultant and saw many trucks parked. The place was well fenced and gated with a watch man on 24/7 duty. At distance from the trucks, I noticed a crying condition black colored Jeep. The first sight gave me an information it is a short wheel base Jeep but couldn’t recognize of what model etc. It was looking like a complete wreck. I was totally not interested in the Jeep as I know how much of trouble it is going to take for restoring it, though I was unsure about the power under hood.

to be continued …

[trammway]

Originally Posted by trammway

but almost all my vehicles were sold and me and my wife decided to sell the M800 also as we planned for a upgrade.

There was mistake in my witting, please read the above sentence as "Since all my vehicles were sold and me and my wife were decided to replace the M800 place along with an upgrade"

[trammway]

Originally Posted by ex670c

You forgot to mention a all the technicalities about the CJ2A 4WD conversions in Detail and the Peugeot Engine Swap, the Peugeot Head Exchange....

Come on man these are interesting bits of info for First Time JEEP builders.

Yes, Arka I did avoid mentioning it here at this point as I wanted to have some technical do and don’t section at the end of my story.

They will flow in that section. Anyway thanks for reminding me.