James Green
This is my 1959 Willys CJ-5 that I have owned since about 1988. I bought it from a neighbor while living in Arizona. At that time it had a broken spring, no top, only springs for seats, bad tires, but it had a factory heater, it ran and I thought it was beautiful. It had the standard 134 F-head engine and three-speed T90 transmission. I named it “Old Iron”. Over the years, I have worked a continuous refurbishment program to keep my “baby” running and useful. The engine has been completely professionally rebuilt. The 3-speed T90 was replaced with a 4-speed T98 (yes T98) to get a much lower creeper gear. (After all, with very low horsepower, low gears are a necessity – low range, low gear ratio is now 94:1 with the 5:38 axles) It has an Atlas overdrive giving it a total of 16 speeds forward and 4 in reverse, Moser axles and an ARB air locker in the rear, a Warn self-recovery winch, 11 inch brakes and most recently a dual master brake cylinder. It’s so much easier to check the brake fluid now that the reservoirs are visible under the hood. The hard-top and doors were found in a Minnesota scrap yard. They weren’t for a 1959 CJ5, so some creative adapting was needed. I purchased a Meyers HomePlow and adapted it to the CJ so it still gets work assignments around the yard during the winter. My son was so impressed with it’s seemingly unstoppable off-road capabilities, that he suggested a new name “Iron Will” and it fit so well that it is now it’s “official” name. Many thanks to Kaiser Willys as the source of many of the parts needed to keep this fine old technology viable.
James,
Looks to me like you have your CJ pretty well set up for anything that will come. My first one was a ‘2A that I modified W/ V-6 & overdrive. It worked well but I always drooled when I saw a CJ-5. The only thing that ever was unsafe about them was the peole who were envious of those who had them, or played on the fact of a few incompetents who drove some and got into accidents. What gearing is in the axles?
Sincerely,
Dave Jones
James,
Looks to me like you have your CJ pretty well set up for anything that will come. My first one was a ‘2A that I modified W/ V-6 & overdrive. It worked well but I always drooled when I saw a CJ-5. The only thing that ever was unsafe about them was the peole who were envious of those who had them, or played on the fact of a few incompetents who drove some and got into accidents. What gearing is in the axles?
Sincerely,
Dave Jones
Dave,
Thanks for the comment. The axles are the standard axles in a 1959 – – Dana 27 in the front and Dana 44 in the rear. Both are the stock 5:38 ratios. Even with the overdrive and the 5:38 axle ratios, the top speed is only around 50 mph on level ground, since the motor only has about 60 hp – so it is really a go-slow vehicle (40 mph or less) for max fun. Off road, though, where going slow is a necessity, it is in it’s element.
Jim
Dave,
Thanks for the comment. The axles are the standard axles in a 1959 – – Dana 27 in the front and Dana 44 in the rear. Both are the stock 5:38 ratios. Even with the overdrive and the 5:38 axle ratios, the top speed is only around 50 mph on level ground, since the motor only has about 60 hp – so it is really a go-slow vehicle (40 mph or less) for max fun. Off road, though, where going slow is a necessity, it is in it’s element.
Jim