Jeep Willys Four Wheel Drive Auto PDF Manual

Introduction The Willys jeep has frequently been written off as another vehicle to mod for offroading. This often ruins the historical value of the jeep, and makes the next buyer interested in restoring it have a lot more work to do to restore it to WWII status. Jeeps have a popular demand in modern day culture. Several companies in India and the Phillipines restore them and supply them to private collectors.

History Even though the world had seen wide-spread mechanisation of the military during World War I, and the US Army had already used 4×4 trucks in it, supplied by the Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. (FWD), by the time World War II was dawning, the United States Department of War were still seeking a standardized light cross-country and reconnaissance vehicle. As tensions were heightening around the world in the late Thirties, the US Army put the word out to American automobile manufacturers to come up with suggestions to replace its existing, aging light motor vehicles, mostly motorcycles and sidecars but also some Ford Model T’s.

This resulted in several prototypes being presented to army officials, like five Marmon- Herrington 4×4 Fords in 1937, and three Austin roadsters by American Bantam in 1938 (Fowler, 1993). However, the US Army’s requirements were not formalised until July 11, 1940, when 135 U.S. automotive manufacturers were approached to submit a design conforming to their specifications, for a vehicle the World War II training manual TM 9-803 described as “… a general purpose, personnel, or cargo carrier especially adaptable for reconnaissance or command, and designated as 1/4-ton 4×4 Truck.”

Grille
EDDie Willys made its first 25,000 MB Jeeps with a welded flat iron “slat” radiator grille. It was Ford who first designed and implemented the now familiar and distinctive stamped, slotted steel grille into its cars, which was lighter, used fewer resources, and was less costly to produce. Along with many other design features innovated by Ford, this was adopted by Willys and implemented into the standard WW II Jeep by April 1942.
Even today, some 65 years later, Jeep’s makers proudly retain the historical connection to the visage of their ancestors by using a trademarked grille featuring a standard number of vertical openings or ‘slots’. However, in order to be able to get theirs trademarked, Willys gave their post-war jeeps seven slots instead of Ford’s nine-slot design. Through a long path of corporate take-overs and the like, AM General Corporation ended up with the rights to use the seven-slot grille as well, which they in turn extended to General Motors when they sold GM the rights to the Hummer name in 1999.

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