Kaiser supercharger on 1962 Willys Wagon

[Seabee]

Well, it's coming together, slowly, and costly. I purchased this 1962 utility wagon from a friend of mine in 2013.

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After I bought it he said that these engines had been supercharged. Naturally, I fell into that one. I found a complete Kaiser supercharger system on eBay. The seller didn't pack the parts very good. The exhaust manifold was broken on arrival as shown on the attached photo. But everything was there, supercharger, crankshaft drive pulley, mounting bracket, belt tensioner, Carter WCD two barrel carburetor and the two barrel intake/exhaust manifolds.

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The first thing I did was send the supercharger to Paradise Wheels, Craig Conley, of San Marco California to be rebuilt. It's rebuilt and ready to go, but here's where I'm at now.

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Since I was working overseas from 2013 to 2020, I'm just now getting started putting all this together. I had the engine rebuilt in June of 2023. I did this as the clutch went out and figured why not start this project since I have almost all the parts to do it, and the time. The transmission needed rebuilt as the synchronizers are shot to. I had to double clutch and that just wore out the clutch. The clutch was never correct since I bought it for whatever reason. The transfer case leaked, of course. Currently, the transmission, transfer case and overdrive are with Herm the Overdrive Guy being rebuilt.

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The engine rebuild was done by Grindstaff Engineering of Independence Missouri. This was completed in June of 2023. The engine was completely boiled and media blasted. They also brazed the broken exhaust manifold, and rebuilt the carburetor. Cylinder bore size .060 over, Main size is .020 under, and rod size is .030 under. They ran it on their test machine and the test report shows 30 psi oil pressure at 500 RPM, 50 at 1500 RPM, 180 degree temperature, 20 inch vacuum and 140 PSI compression. When this wagon was purchased new in 1962 it was delivered to New Mexico and it has 7.3 stamped on the head. But, it had the single barrel manifolds. I know there has been work done on it in the past, quite a bit it most likely.

I purchased some supercharger parts from Rudy's KF Parts of Ramona California. He asked me what I was doing and when I told him about my project he informed me that the front cross member was going to have to be cut to make room for the crankshaft pulley. I did not know this when I purchased the supercharger. More work than I was really expecting.

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Here it is after cutting out and fabricating balsa wood templates of the metal that will need to be cut to box the cross member. I also got a 1-1/2" square tube to weld below the cross member to make up for the steel removed. Since the there's a 1/2" gap between the cross member and side frames, a 1/2" plate is welded below the cross member. All the metal parts that run at an angle to or perpendicular to the cross member are cut to meet the front of the cross member to act as a web stiffener. Their welded all around. I also notched the bottom corners so they wouldn't trap moisture. It was asked of me why I didn't radius the inside corners for added strength. Sadly I did, I started out drilling 3/4" holes at the corners, but trying to cut out the section with the tools I had, I lost it. I set the engine in to check and had to remove more metal for clearance. Working with metal is noisy. I'm in a duplex with a two car garage. Its not much of a work space.

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Welding was done by a young guy just getting started on his own and was completed on July 9th. It took him only two hours. He did a great job.

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Another issue was that the bulge in the right front fender for the right front shock absorber interfering with the drive belt tensioner. The belt was going to rub against it. A little sheet metal work fixed that. The Kaiser supercharger has a variable ratio pulley. The back flange of the pulley moves in and out to change to ratio depending on engine speed. The pulley will close at low speeds, the belt will ride on the outer circumference of the pulley, this is called low blow mode. When engine rpm increases the pulley will open and the belt will ride down inside the pulley increasing the rate of turn. The idler pulley, or belt tensioner, is critical to this operation. There is a kick down switch, off the throttle that actuates all this. It's electrically connected to a solenoid regulator that controls boost pressure, based on rpm's.

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There is a lot to do yet and a lot of variables to work out, small parts to find still, fuel and vacuum lines, throttle linkage to work out. I attended the Kaiser-Frazer Willys Owner's Club meet in Hays Kansas this June. I just wanted to see under the hood of supercharged Kaiser Manhattan and get information on parts and system operation. I meet a wonderful guy that drove his 1954 supercharged Manhattan from Indiana to Hays Kansas, about 500 miles in two days. Said he took the interstates and did 65 mph, no problem. That gave me a little more confidence in where this is going.

I'll be posting more shortly.

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Absolutely love your project! Thanks for including us on the journey!!

 

[aearthman]

Got a question of the rear transmission mount. Is the 1" thick cast steel spacer between the cross frame and transmission mount insulator necessary?
I bought a new transmission mount insulator and it's 3/16" taller than the old existing one. When I set the transmission / transfer case on the cross member, the holes don't line up, and the transfer case mount sits about 3/16 to 1/4" above the cross member. You can see the gap in the photo below.

Wondering if I can remove the steel spacer and bolt the transmission mount insulator directly to the cross member?

I've spent the past four days getting the bell housing, flywheel, clutch assembly together and transmission and all mounted to the engine. Everything seems to be good, just questioning if the 3/16" difference in height on the transmission mount is the issue. It fit fine when I pulled the engine a couple years ago.

 

[JABJEEP]

I don't know if it's "neccessary" but it is stock for the 226. I don't see what doesn't like up in your picture, but the spacer does have a front and a rear, as the holes have a slight offset. I know it can be installed wrong because mine is stamped "front" and when I disassembled it the word front was facing the rear.

From my built thread; https://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum/index.php?threads/project-ran-when-parked-58-wagon.31171/page-3

The transmission riser (for the "rear engine mount") has a slight offset so it's supposed to be mounted facing a certain way. I should have rubbed chalk into the stamping. It's stamped FRONT followed by a down arrow. Well, at least it wasn't installed upside down.

It also helps if you install and tightent the transfer case snubber last. What's holding the drive train up? the T-case snubber?

 

[Mark W.]

Interesting My 134L has been souped up a little and with my 5.38 gears 28.6" tires and a 30% OD I have no trouble what so ever holding 70mph on the flats. With my intake carb and headers plus the increased compression I doubt I have 80HP if you were to measure it the same as Willys did in 1939. Oh and my 2A is heavy very heavy at around 3600lbs with me in it and the hard top on it. Packed for camping with two guys its weighed in at 4300lbs

 

[aearthman]

Finally got the rear transmission mount figured out. I switched back to the old isolation mount and discovered that it also was not aligned up perfectly, unless you just started the mounting bolts into their respective locations, and I had to lift the front of the engine with the hoist just slightly, and then worked each mounting bolt until it dropped into place. So I took it all apart again, removed the cross member so I could put the new isolation mount on the transmission and did it all again. Also, just to make it easier, I took a round file and slightly elongated the bolt holes in the cross frame for the spacer block. Here is the results.

So onward. I'm going to continue working on the underneath side since I'm set up that way. I'm putting on a dual brake master cylinder and replacing / rerouting the front brake lines as needed. Modifying the front frame member kind of made it necessary.