April 6th ~ 17th
April 6th In early April, the weather finally warmed up enough to start servicing vehicles. I planned to take Jessie to the Yorkshire Military Vehicle Crank Up to start the season in mid-April, so that was the first vehicle to work on. To warm the oil prior to draining, I took the Jeep for a ride out to the local parachute centre. I stayed to watch three drops ( pics in the Events Gallery ), before coming home to do the service.
After lifting the hood, I noticed a slight weep of oil around the oil filter inlet. Upon stripping it down, I found a crack in the brass union. I pinched the one off the Ford, so that I could carry on with the service and get it all back together and would order a replacement later in the day.

Old engine oil out, new in, new filter, lid on and start it up. All was fine at idle, but a few more revs had oil leaking around the filter lid. I've had this before, when the O ring seal is slightly smaller than it really needs to be. I don't know if the French Hotchkiss filter housings are a fraction larger than the Willys units? As the lid is tightened down, the O-ring squeezes into the oil filter can and stops sealing. I didn't loose too much oil, as I was watching, expecting a leak!

Once that was stripped, cleaned again and refitted, again, all seemed well, but I then noticed a very slight weep around the oil filter inlet flexi-hose, where the fitting goes into the pipe. I wasn't sure if this was an actual leak, or just remaining oil from the fractured union, being blown out from small gaps where it had been trapped. I ordered a new hose, a new brass fitting and a few other odds and ends at the end of the day, hoping they would arrive in time for the Yorkshire Military Vehicle Trust Crank Up. I put the Jeep away at the end of the day, planning to continue the following day.

April 7th I changed the transmission and transfer case oil on the morning of the 7th. While doing some other random checks, I checked the voltage of the new batteries. In the garage and at engine idle, the voltage was around 25.5 volts, which was normal, but as the engine revs increased, so did the voltage and it kept going up. The charging voltage should be around 28 to 29 volts, but was 33.4 volts. The longer the engine ran, the higher the voltage got, reaching over 37 volts. I didn't leave the engine running long, as the alternator was also getting hotter than I felt it should for such a short time running. There was obviously a problem with it. I realised that I'd only fitted it after the York Crank Up in mid-April 2024, so it was probably still under warranty. After getting some photo and video evidence of the over-charging, it was removed and I contacted the seller. They informed me that it was still covered and to return it for checking. It was clear that the Jeep wasn't going to be ready for the long trip to the Crank Up a week later. Having only fitted a head gasket to the Ford at the back end of last year and only having a few local trips on it, I didn't want to take that on the 5 hour round trip to York. It would be too expensive on fuel to take the Dodge for the day, so resigned myself to missing the show.

April 17th A replacement alternator arrived around noon on the 17th, so after lunch, I went straight out to get it fitted. When I was removing the old alternator, I noticed some slight cracking on the two belts. The cracks have probably been there for years, as those are the same belts that were on the Jeep when I bought it 20 years ago! Anyway, when I bought the new alternator last year, it came with two new belts, so I pulled those out of the Jeep locker and fitted them. Having an extra belt meant it was a really tight fit to get my arm between the belts and the fan to fasten the alternator mounting bolts.

With the belts on and tensioned, the two electrical wires were connected, one the charge wire while the other was the alternator warning light. The Jeep was then started up in the garage and the voltage checked briefly before the fumes built up too much. Everything looked good, with the expected 28 to 29 volts showing on the built in volt meter, so the Jeep was then driven out of the garage for further checking.

All was still looking good at various RPM out on the drive, so I was happy the problem was sorted. I greased most of the joints on the Jeep to finish the service. There's still a few left on the steering linkages, but as my grease gun flexi-hose was leaking at the crimped fitting and the rigid pipe was too long to fit, those will have to wait until a replacement arrives. I then took the Jeep for a short local test drive.