Here is the story my late Father told his friends and I numerous times. This is written as if he were telling the story today.
Back in the 20’s I worked at an Overland Garage just out of Chicago, IL. One day a man came in with an Overland and complained that it didn’t run right. He said, “Man, that thing vibrates terrible.” He also said the vibrations were coming from the engine. So I pulled the car into the garage, left it running and raised the hood. Sure enough, the engine was shaking terribly. I pulled off a plug wire, but it still shook, so then I replaced that wire and pulled off each wire on down the line. Then I happened to think about a Willys Overland salesman that had come to the dealership from the Factory. He said that some of the Overlands had severe vibration problems and said it was caused by some issue with the engine timing. So I got the timing light and proceeded to check it. The timing was right on the mark, but still the engine vibrated, so I continued to chase this problem for a couple of hours. It was to no avail. Everything I could think of was just fine. So I asked if the man could leave the car. He said, “Yep, be in town for a few days.”
After leaving work, I went home and wondered about that car all evening. Finally, a neighborhood kid came over to my small garage where I was working on my truck. We got to talking and the kid said, “Hey, hear ya got a car down at the garage that vibrates really bad.” “Yeah,” I said, looking shocked. How did he know? He grinned and said, “A little bird told me.” I thought, “Yeah, right” and asked what this so-called bird told him the problem was. And he said, “I’m off school Saturday. I’ll come down and show ya.” So the next day (which was Saturday), I’m at work and this kid comes riding on his bicycle carrying a bird in a cage. I said, “What’s the bird gonna do?” The kid grinned and said, “You’ll see in a minute.” Needless to say, I was perplexed at this idea, but if the kid and the bird could look into a cure, I was game.
Then the kid asked me to start the car, which I did. The engine shook really bad and the revs of the engine were up and down really bad. The kid took the bird out of the cage and sat it on the fender. The bird sat there a minute, then hopped over on the air cleaner and tapped its beak. The kid told me to turn the engine off, so I did. The kid said, “Watch this,” got the bird on his finger and said to me “Take off the top of the air cleaner.” I did and the kid sat the bird on the edge of the housing. The bird disappeared a minute and came back with a beak full of dried nesting grass from the inside the air cleaner. The bird did this twice. So I took the air cleaner apart and sure enough, a bird had built a nest in it. We put the cleaner back together and fired the Overland up and she purred like a kitten. The shaking was gone!
Years later…I reminded Dad of the Bird Story and he said, “Yep, sure enough, Willys had a problem with that in about 6-8 cars.” The temp of the air cleaner was perfect for birds to build nests in.
Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Jim McCracken
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That nesting bird story was great and I can believe it too.
True or not, great story!
why would you not believe it, the motors air supply is being cut off causing it to it to start fouling the plugs
Well……….not sure I believe this story.
Always enjoy stories about jeeps of every kind. Spent years doing interviews with Vets. Wish I could remember them all