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19RT66 J-2000 Build
- Thread starter Mogstech
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5JeepsAz
Well Oiled
They must have had a small window on the shelf when they built this truck. I think Kaiser just put on whatever parts were closest to the assembly line at the time. A lot of parts seem to be if it fit they put it on. And in today's world of "almost guaranteed to fit" replacement parts it can make for a frustrating day. But yeah I do like the looks of the smaller rear windows like what are on the 53's and earlier. I like this style body better than the others. But it might not be as good as a step side when fighting Graboids....
Chevrolet and GMC did the same. Small and big back window variety. I think the variety was a generational thing. Those old boots that preferred the old look got what they wanted. Young bucks or those that embraced changes got a new look back window.
To be honest I didn't even think about that window until @5Jeeps pointed it out. Didn't really notice it. But it looks the way they stamped that part, the window panel it was made for a larger window too. They might have a punch machine for a larger window...?
Another thing that is confusing to me on this truck is the bed. The standard I've always gone by is a 6' bed is a short bed and a 8' is a long bed. This is a 7' bed. I've been calling it the Shlong bed. Short plus Long = Shlong. Totally sophomoric and juvenile I know. But so am I I've been told. I guess I'll find out when I ask one of the ladies on my street if she wants to jump in the Shlong bed.
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5JeepsAz
Well Oiled
There's like a million half baked jokes about all that. I wanted that style of bed - huge debate back when new gladiator came out that you could not carry plywood - well in the vintage gladiator bed you can carry plywood. when you get on the road you'll see the functionality. It's like a midsize way before midsize and way tougher anyhow, but with a bench seat and a long bed. There are short bed version on both styles of J Truck. The townside, which we have, and the step side, which has the fitted wheel wells, are numbered according to length, J200, J300, J2000, J3000 etc. The bad boy of the bunch is the one they built to carry the camper. That thing is all extra. J4thousand something. I've seen one for sale in good condition, new mexico way. Dude actually gave it the "I know what I've got" tag in his advert. If I had the cash I would have picked it up immediately. So yes, that stamp is for different windows, and the advertising at the time was "increased safety" since "you can now see out the back of the truck"
So after 3 tries I was able to get the right pilot bushing for the 327. I can't take credit for figuring it out. I was able to get the one out of the other engine. I took it to the transmission guy I go to. He restores old Honda trail bikes like I do. Once it was out I was able to get the exact measurements. But he took one look at it and said that looks like its out of a early 70's Ford V8. I went and looked it up and he was right. I guess if you rebuild transmissions for 40 years you know these things.
A tip I'm sure most here already know...but just in case. Make sure the new pilot bushing fits the trans shaft before you put in the engine. Otherwise it can make for a frustrating day when dropping the engine back in.
A tip I'm sure most here already know...but just in case. Make sure the new pilot bushing fits the trans shaft before you put in the engine. Otherwise it can make for a frustrating day when dropping the engine back in.
Awhile back I went to the parts store to try and find a part. They didn't have it of course. But I got a good chuckle that day. The young girl looking up the part said.. " this can't be right, the computer says Jeep Gladiator". I said yeah 1966 J2000 Jeep Gladiator pickup truck. She thought there was only Gladiators from 2018 onward. I explained the difference between an original one and the computer on wheels they call the Gladiator today. She didn't know Jeep made trucks all the way back to the 1960's...LOL. But I didn't ping on her. She looked like she was just out of high school.
Tralehead
Well Oiled
Yeah, that could end up being a shlong day!
Wait till you get it on the road! I would guess that half of the compliments I get on my Wagon are from women, and half of them are under thirty. A few weeks ago I stopped at a crosswalk in front of a local HS. A gal on a bicycle, obviously headed to school, stopped in front of the Wagon and just stared. I was looking at her with a "are you gonna move?" look and she yelled "That is the coolest car EVER!". Hard to be pissy about that so I just shouted "Thanks! Have a great day at school". She waved the entire way across the street.
And now the neighbor's college age daughter has decided to go to trade school for auto mechanics. She asked if she could help work on the Wagon. She's coming over to change the oil and swap in a new cover gasket on the rear diff. Hard to turn down free labor!
Nice. Glad to hear that some of the younger crowd are interested in the old machines. I had one of the younger neighbors come over. He was curious about the truck I'm working on. When I showed him the dash that I redone he looked down and said where was the stick shift. He saw the clutch pedal. He had never seen a 3 on the tree before. He thought it was cool and asked if it was a special option back then. I told him no the floor shift was the special option. Back in the day column shifters were common buy many didn't like them. But I couldn't tell him when they went away. My first truck was a 69 Chevy short bed. 350, 3 on the tree with a 4:11 posi.
P.S...I had to go look that up. Seems they lasted a lot longer than I thought.
What Was the Last 3-On-the-Tree Column-Shift Manual Car Americans Could Buy?
The most common sort of transmission setup in North America during the 1940s and 1950s, the column-shift 3-speed manual stayed in service longer than you might think.
www.autoweek.com
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My first truck and introduction to column shift was a '63 Chevrolet C10 shorted with 230/6 and 3 spd Saginaw.
With regard to pilot bushing. Even fitting a bushing to the input shaft is not a guarantee. Occasionally the press fit into the crankshaft will reduce the inside diameter just enough to require a minor honing.
- Sep 20, 2017
- 9,567
- First Name
- Jeff
- Willys Model
- Wagon
- Pickup
- CJ
- Willys Year:
- 1955
- 1958
- 1962
Correct. I should have specifed that this check is done early on. It can still be checked fairly closely with a dummy shaft or a spare input shaft that measures the same as the one in the transmission. These are the types of checks the students will remember if it turns out that one of these issues is at fault.
5JeepsAz
Well Oiled
Here's from the new google search bar:
"The vintage Kaiser Jeep J-3000 Gladiator (produced from 1965 to 1971) featured a 126-inch wheelbase and was typically equipped with an 8-foot (96-inch) bed, though a 7-foot bed was also available. The 8-foot Townside (wide) bed measured roughly 84 to 96 inches long depending on configuration. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Note: If you are referring to the modern Jeep Gladiator (JT) truck introduced in 2019, those models only feature a 5-foot (60.3-inch) bed.
So my J300 does have the 8' bed. The J200 is the shorter bed. Same for the J3000 & J2000 on up.
"The vintage Kaiser Jeep J-3000 Gladiator (produced from 1965 to 1971) featured a 126-inch wheelbase and was typically equipped with an 8-foot (96-inch) bed, though a 7-foot bed was also available. The 8-foot Townside (wide) bed measured roughly 84 to 96 inches long depending on configuration. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Note: If you are referring to the modern Jeep Gladiator (JT) truck introduced in 2019, those models only feature a 5-foot (60.3-inch) bed.
So my J300 does have the 8' bed. The J200 is the shorter bed. Same for the J3000 & J2000 on up.
Got the oil pump in and the pan on. Put the pressure gauge on from the other engine. Spun the pump with the drill motor and got good oil pressure and oil coming out of the rockers. So that's a good thing. But I stopped as I need to make a better drive tool. I was just using a 1/4" extension with a 12mm five point socket. It fit good but a little too good. It didn't want to come off. Luckily for once I had the forethought to weld the socket to the extension and with a little and waggle I got it off. But I'm going to make a slotted shaft to continue on.
Off topic: I had to make a run down to Quartzsite Az and ran across a couple of Phantoms sitting in a little spot outside of that town. I remembered there is a Phantom driver on this site so snap a pic. I loaded a lot of the Navy version of those birds back in the day. When I used to run around a lot in the south western part of Az there used to be a lot of old military equipment parked out in the desert. Planes, tanks, deuce and half's ect. The guys from Luke AFB would make practice runs on them.
Off topic: I had to make a run down to Quartzsite Az and ran across a couple of Phantoms sitting in a little spot outside of that town. I remembered there is a Phantom driver on this site so snap a pic. I loaded a lot of the Navy version of those birds back in the day. When I used to run around a lot in the south western part of Az there used to be a lot of old military equipment parked out in the desert. Planes, tanks, deuce and half's ect. The guys from Luke AFB would make practice runs on them.
So not much of an update but maybe this will help somebody with one of these the trucks in the future. There are things I've found on this old Gladiator that could have been designed better. Here's one of them. On the kick panels where the vents are at the bottom there's no drain holes. Lets water sit at the bottom and causes rust. Awhile back it rained and water pooled on the floorboard. So from underneath where the inside channel is I drilled a series of drain holes. It seems to have fixed that problem as the last big gully washer rainstorm we got there was no water inside this time. I had to cut out a few rust spots and patch them from the rust before. When I get to that point it will be cleaned, painted and get new carpet. So something to check if you have water pooling inside your Gladiator.
Water comes in the cab vents below windshield. Runs down inside the vent channel:
Water is supposed to run down a channel and go out the back. But if truck is low in the front or sitting on a incline waterwill pool in the corner. Few added drain holes (1/4" drill bit) will fix the problem:
Water comes in the cab vents below windshield. Runs down inside the vent channel:
Water is supposed to run down a channel and go out the back. But if truck is low in the front or sitting on a incline waterwill pool in the corner. Few added drain holes (1/4" drill bit) will fix the problem:
So just a follow on the previous post. Today we got one of the better (harder) rain storms we've had in a long time. Those drain holes seem to be doing the job. Letting the water get out of the truck. On a different note the storm really cooled down the desert today. Left the doors open to air out and cool the house. Got a visitor from outside. A tarantula. My slacker cat just looked at it. So I scooped it up and took it back outside. They look scary to some people but are pretty harmless so I just leave them alone. I've seen bigger ones in my yard.
5JeepsAz
Well Oiled
Glad to see that tarantula - very cool. We were wondering about Palo Verde beetles. Weren't there supposed to be some this year? Not one so far. We've been dumped on and went from 115 down to 80 - actually saw 79 for the first time in months. Then another storm took out 8 power poles up the line and we cooked without power for a day. My electro generator was on zero percent charge because I'm derelict. Had all these plans for living the power life with internet and TV during an outage and here we are basting in heat sauce overnight. That sucked Anyway - hope you get cool enough and time enough to keep working on the truck. I'm all set for El Nino wash patrol. Where I'm at one arroyo will run bank full and the ones on either side not so much. Really tight drainage system. So it will be fun to figure out how to chase the water down the valley.
I've got a bunch of them in my yard this year. Burrow holes all around. We dropped down to the high 60's last night with a storm that tried to come thru but went around. No floods so far. Washes run but are dry again in a half hour or so. Lake Mead hit its all time low a week back. Doubt these rains will help that unless we get a lot more further up the canyon. Nobody can agree what to do about it. But it doesn't really matter. It's up to Mother Nature now.
Pulled the truck back on the concrete to start doing some more on it. When I opened the door to move the steering wheel there was a mom cat with kittens inside. Came in thru trans cover I left off. Doesn't bother me they are using it as a rain shelter. As long as it's not some old tom marking his spot.
My plan for now is to loosen the trans/transfer case so I can align everything when the engine goes in. The motor mounts don't look all that bad to me. Don't look original but it's going to get new ones anyway. Already put new mounts on the trans and transfer case. I need to loosen the bed and move it about a 1/4" or so so will probably replace those mount/pads too.