Hello Jeep Lover,

Last week I celebrated my 15th anniversary of ownership of Willys-Overland Motors.  As part of that celebration I hired a company to update our web site, (bring us into the 21st Century, as promised), with easier navigation,  an online catalog, the exciting "Reverse Auction" I mentioned previously, and many other changes.

 

This months "New Product" is not actually new, but is still innovative, user friendly, and exclusive to Willys-Overland.  For those of you not familiar with aftermarket Jeep bodies... a little history.  There is only one factory in the world producing aftermarket steel bodies for Jeeps, and that is in the Philippines.  Unfortunately, they make a product, or more accurately 14 products, that is the polar opposite of "user friendly".  To get one of these bodies to mount to your existing chassis requires you to be an engineer, steel worker, fabricator, welder , and metal cutter.  Most people are NOT all of these and do not have the shop or tools to even attempt to be.  15 years ago, we made the commitment to help our customers with that problem.  We hired engineers, built fixture and jigs, and to this day we are still the only company in the world that offers a "Bolt-On" body that is guaranteed to fit!  We put in mounting holes, floor pedal holes, and firewall holes.  We patch holes that do NOT belong, and we fabricate and install many pieces, brackets, seals that are just missing from the raw tub as it is shipped from overseas.  If you might be interested, please just call or write me, and I will forward you the complete packet of info, pricing, and pictures by e-mail.

Sincerely,
Jay Margolies
  
 

Tech Department: What Carburetor Do I Have?  

 

Willys vehicles used a number of different carbs to power their engines. The most common being the Carter W-O and the Carter YF. With the following information, determining which you have is fairly simple.

 


The W-O carb had the W-O designation stamped on the top of the float cover (see picture #1 below). They generally had a triangular brass tag that was stamped with the specific model number (ie; 636s, 698s, etc. (see picture #2 below). Even without these tags, which often are missing, we can generally get a carb to work for you, by matching up the linkage and air horn accordingly. Interestingly, some Willys industrial engines, welders and generators also used the W-O carb but sometimes the linkage worked in the opposite direction from automotive models.

The YF models had the YF designation cast into the main body, with the I.D. number stamped directly into the side flange where the linkage is attached (see picture #3 below), using a 3 or 4 digit number followed by a letter. Some YF's had the fuel feed line on the side with the throttle linkage, and some had it on the adjacent side, so using the incorrect carb could make your fuel line either too long or too short.

Another important factor in proper mounting is the width between the mounting studs. Most YF's had a larger width than the W-O's.

Keeping or finding the correct carb for your vehicle will help maximize performance and keep your vehicle original. We have been rebuilding customer provided carburetors for years and will be happy to help you with a rebuild or replacement.

 

 

Driving from England Across America
 - A Journey of the Great Bill Wilson

This months introduction is of a guy named Bill Wilson who took a pretty interesting trip across the U.S. in a 1943 MB in the late summer of 2007.  It's truly worth the time to read.  I wrote the following after meeting Bill in my store in October of that year.  Enjoy...

 

I'm not a professional writer, so please bear with me, but I do have an interesting story to share.

 

On Oct 30th, while working in my office, (oh, I should introduce myself.  I'm Jay Margolies, Owner of Willys-Overland Motors in Toledo, Ohio), I heard bits and pieces of a conversation going on in our showroom.  Sounded a little like a guy was driving from England, around the U.S. and back again.  I went outside to investigate.  Even the most well maintained Jeep can't transverse the ocean, can it?

 

Standing at the counter was a man named Bill Wilson buying some parts for his MB.  I introduced myself and asked him to start from the beginning and tell me what he was doing here.  It seems that a few years previously, he had ridden his motorcycle, (an English built Triumph), across our country, and had recently decided to do it again, but this time in an old Willys, (about as American a vehicle as you can get).  He told me that a few years prior to that, on a Sunday afternoon excursion walking along the Thames River outside London, Bill had met a guy standing next to his MB, talking to a crowd of interested Englishmen.  The enthusiasm this Jeep generated with the crowd, and the fact that Bill had apparently driven an MB at some point in his life, started the seeds of an idea growing.

 

So sometime this past spring Bill started to look for an MB to buy for his latest adventure, eventually deciding on a 1943 MB that was currently living in Toronto.  He bought the book, "Road Trip USA, Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways" by Jamie Jensen, planned a route along the Oregon Trail, and the last remaining piece of Route 66 that he had missed on the bike trip, and on September 11th, boarded a plane for Toronto.

 

After 3 minutes of listening to his story, I dragged him into my office so I could try to record as much of this story as I could keep up with on my keyboard. 

 

Lets back up here a minute... somewhere in the midst of all this we went outside to check out the Jeep.  It was as stock an MB as you can find, not prettied up or polished, but looking like it had just traveled 7,000 miles and was ready for the next 7,000.  For the record, I must not have much blood in me... I wear long sleeved turtle necks from mid September through April, so the fact that this MB had no side windows, front or back, already had me shivering. 


So anyway, now we're in my office, he's talking and I'm typing. 

Toronto.  Niagara.  Buffalo.  Cleveland.  Then, so much for big cities... Galena, Illinois. Waterloo, Iowa.  Valentine, Nebraska.  Meeteetse, Wyoming.  Mount Hood Highway, Oregon. 

 

Turn left... 

San Francisco.

Turn left again...  Eureka, Nevada.  Springfield, Utah.  Montrose, Colorado.  etc., etc. 

 

(Somewhere along the way, Bill decided to buy a spare throw-out bearing and some other spare parts, "just in case".  After striking out on a few of his stops, he was directed to us, so a slight detour to Toledo was plotted, and that's how he ended up in my shop).

 

At this point, I asked him to tell me some of the interesting sites he saw, since that was the purpose of the "Two Lane Highway" book in his back pocket.  "I can't" he says, "I'm 72 years old...  I can't  remember what I did yesterday".  Whoa...72 years old?   I've seen 72 year olds before, and they don't look or sound like this guy at all!  I try to picture myself at 72... and 7,000 miles with no side curtains, through blizzard conditions in the Rockies?  I wonder how many turtle necks that would require?  And 7,000 miles on a stock MB seat meant for soldiers a lot younger than me?  I wonder if I can find enough pillows to sit on to make that bearable?

 

As it turns out, Bill and I hit it off, and since he had a day or two to spare till the ship was scheduled to leave Baltimore to take the Jeep back "home" to England, we spent the next day and a half talking and touring Toledo, where, as you already know, his MB was built, a mere 65 years ago.  And yes, we did eat at Tony Packo's, with the spirit of Corporal Klinger right there next to us. 

 

Before Bill left, he did want me to know, "it never broke down, it started every morning and after every rest stop, whether it was hot or cold, in the desert or under 6 inches of snow".  He never even added any air to a tire.  I loved that he was bragging to me how well this American product performed!

 

Well, Bill is home now, and is busy writing out the real interesting details of his story, from his daily recorded "notes" and pictures.  I do want to share with you just one of the many stories he did convey to me.  While sitting in a little no-name restaurant, in a little no-name motel, in Springfield, Illinois, Bill sees a guy across the room who looks a little familiar.  Being the personable guy that he is, he walks over and says "Do I know you?"  The man looks up and immediately answers, "Of course you do, I'm the guy you spent a couple of hours talking to about Jeeps, 5 or 6 years ago, in the park on the banks of the Thames.

In just about every town he passed through, someone yelled, "Hey, pull over a minute".  In most cases it was not the Police, but an interested individual wanting to know the What, the Who, and the Why, this vehicle was rolling through their town.  After this trip, Bill's gut feeling is that "every American male over the age of 60, has either got an old Jeep, had one, or driven one in the forces".

As I said, Bill is currently pouring over his notes, his recording, and his pictures to tell you, in greater and more interesting detail, the story of his trip across America.

Epilog; Sadly, a few years ago, when trying to contact Bill just to see how he was doing, I received a letter from Bill's daughter in England.  She was writing back to inform me that Bill had died in a motorcycle accident on one of his many world wide trips...this time in Morocco.  The world lost a great Jeep enthusiast and adventurer that day, and I'm proud to have spent (and enjoyed) those few days with him here in Toledo.