1954 Willys Jeep M 170 Front Three Quarter - Photo 71528160

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If it looks bent in the middle, it’s because it is. Somebody must have either jumped or stuffed the Jeep hard into a drainage ditch because the framerails on both sides are bent upwards just aft of the front shackle hangers. Oh well. The vinyltastic buckets are out of an early ’80s Dodge.

The seller was a gentleman in his eighties who had used the ’54 M-170 solely as a ranch Jeep. The old Norseman tires literally hadn’t touched asphalt in 30 years. I borrowed a massive angle grinder to cut off the pushbars donated by a ’70s San Diego PD cruiser and attached my towbar. Dig the Cibie spot? He used the Jeep for hunting wabbits at night.

The L78 Norseman tires were manufactured in 1972 so they’re too dry-rotted and sketchy to stay. The wheels are genuine 15x8 Kelsey-Hayes pieces off a ’70 or ’71 Renegade I CJ-5. Score! And the Cutlass hubs are somewhat hard to find and crazy cool.

Underhood, a newer Delco alternator had been hacked into the original generator bracket. Pity. The alternator wasn’t exciting properly, but I figured out the wiring and got everything working correctly without needing to hit the auto parts store. Although the F-head looks original, the carburetor is a newer Carter YF model instead of the original YS.

Although most of the factory generator/radio gauges and switches were present, the wiring behind them wasn’t. The wiring was actually a disaster, but thankfully, old Jeeps are simple. It took a full day of sorting, snipping, and replacing to fix the wiring and get the alternator charging properly.

If it looks bent in the middle, it’s because it is. Somebody must have either jumped or stuffed the Jeep hard into a drainage ditch because the framerails on both sides are bent upwards just aft of the front shackle hangers. Oh well. The vinyltastic buckets are out of an early ’80s Dodge.

Out back is a factory 5.38-geared Dana 44, again with an open diff. Most Marine Corps vehicles had front and rear Powr-Lok diffs. After discovering the open diffs, I did some scratching at the paint and found some U.S. Army markings. Dig the rear antisway bar as well, no doubt a necessity with the increased weight of the radio apparatus.

The motor mounts were completely fragged from a combination of rotted rubber and mechanical damage from the bent frame pushing the engine forward on its mounts. I was amazed it didn’t fall out of the chassis.

A set of replacement motor mounts from Omix dropped in place with the help of a couple ratchet straps to pull the engine backward closer to its original position. If this vehicle were going to be a long-term project, I would have the frame professionally straightened and then adding plating to prevent it from bending again. As is, bent will have to be good enough.

With the engine securely locked into place, I dove into the wiring a little deeper to determine why none of the lights would work. It wound up being nothing more than corrosion on all of the ground contacts. After a little sanding and replacing a couple of burned-out bulbs, the headlights, running lights, and brake lights were all working as they should.

The M-170 had a horrible Dick Cepek rear bumper welded to the rear crossmember at some point. I ordered a replacement rear crossmember from Omix and cut off the offensive ’80s tube bumper that was most likely designed for a Toyota mini truck.

The penetrating oil did its job, and the next day I was able to rebuild the steering linkage with new tie-rod ends from Omix. I also rebuilt the bellcrank and steering box, which you can read about elsewhere in this issue.

Because the Willys hadn’t been registered in ages, a trip to the DMV for a VIN verification was needed. Rather than duplicate my sketchy flat-towing experience again, I dove into the front end to see why it had such bad death wobble. The first problem was a very loose front wheel bearing, which was easily remedied by removing the Cutlass hub and adjusting the bearing preload.

Anytime you’re working on a CJ or YJ/TJ Wrangler, it’s generally pretty easy to yank a fender for access to the engine bay. In this case, it took all of 3 minutes to pull the driver-side fender for easy access to the wiring and steering box.

With new tie-rod ends, a rebuilt bellcrank and steering box, and the toe set to 1⁄8-inch toe-in, the M-170 flat-towed like a dream behind my ’72 J4000. The DMV appointment went smoothly, and the Jeep was registered for the first time in three decades.

The M38A1 and M-170s featured cool stuff such as a factory shackle reversal up front, heavy-duty tie-rod ends and tie rods, and a closed breather system to keep water out of the gear lube. The Dana 25 front has an open diff connected to the 5.38 gears, so it’s doubtful this was a Marine Corps vehicle. Check out the stock antisway bar.

The next issue was that all the tie-rod ends were completely worn out and sloppy. I popped the steering linkage off and soaked the tie-rod end threads in penetrating oil for a day before attempting to remove them.

The previous owner had bolted Dodge bucket seats directly to the floor. The passenger-side seat had already been removed, but the driver-side seat required the fuel tank dropped to access the mounting bolts. Check out the condition of the wiring on the factory fuel sender.

To space the fuel tank below the seat mounting bolts, the previous owner siliconed a couple straps of wood to the top of the tank. I pried ’em off, removed the Dodge seat, fixed the sending unit wiring, and reinstalled the tank in its correct factory position right up against the bottom of the tub.

Unfortunately, the original military seats and frames were long-gone. I ordered a pair of Smittybilt low-back buckets in black vinyl. Being too cheap and lazy to make a trip to the local steel supply place for material to build a mount, I took stock of what I had on hand and decided to cut up the dilapidated factory bench from my ’72 J4000.

I had to get fairly creative, but there was enough steel in the J4000 bench frame to build the mounts for both the driver- and passenger-side buckets. Note the use of the bent bar in front to allow access to the mouse-poop-filled underseat storage area. The seat mount build and install took about a day.

Next, I turned my attention to the drivetrain. With the engine up to temperature and running, I sprayed about a half a can of Sea Foam aerosol engine treatment down the carb and then shut it down. After sitting for about 10 minutes, I fired up the engine and allowed all the carbon to cook off in a white pall of smoke.

I also employed my old-Jeep trick of running a quart of ATF in the engine before changing the oil to scour the varnish from the crankcase. The ATF has a higher detergent content than engine oil, yet won’t hinder lubrication like some over-the-counter detergents can.

Thankfully, the Smittybilt fold-and-tumble rear seat install was butter. It was only a matter of drilling six holes in the floor and bolting the rear bench down where I wanted it.

A new oil filter from Omix replaced the old one from (probably) the late ’70s. Yes, I’m holding the new element upside-down in the photo. Sue me. Although the filter element fit the canister, the supplied gasket for the canister top did not. The old gasket broke apart when I removed the lid, so the filter canister leaks. I’ll order a replacement online. I filled the crankcase with straight 30W oil.

The Smittybilt seats are really comfy, and the passenger-side seat bracket I built is removable for full access underneath. I haven’t gotten around to installing seatbelts yet, but they’re definitely a must in this age of idiots who text while driving.

Rather than cheat death any more with the super-cool, yet super-scary Norsemans, I ordered four of TreadWright’s Puma retread tires in 30x9.50R15 size. The low-buck Pumas have a high-void pattern with a retro-flavor that fits right in line with this vehicle’s look. My experience with TreadWright products in the past was more than favorable and at $82 per tire, the bang for the buck is deafening.