If you love your old Jeep pickup like I do you will find that as the years go by it becomes harder and harder to find replacement parts across the counter. So you are going to have to become creative to keep it on the road. I have been behind the wheel of an old Willys beast since 1978 so I have experienced their temperments and understand their insecurities.

     If you will permit me to brag on my buddies, I have three. Their birthdays are 1963, 1964, and 1968. The 1968 is in suspended animation for now, but the hearts are beating in the other two. I have encountered some troubles through the seasons and being a true McGyver, I have found interesting and original ways to circumvent the dead ends presented by the retail world and even a few gifted us by the original engineers who should have known better. It is my pleasure to share a few of these hard earned solutions with my fellow chariot drivers. My compensation will be the pleasure of waving at you as we pass on some lonesome highway.

     My latest challenge was the failure of my throttle cable while pulling  4 tons of scrap iron on a dusty gravel road. I robbed the cable from my 64 to get it home but that left me short one and buying a new one is about as easy as finding frogs hair. The last time this happened I had to rob one from my boneyard of old Wagoneers but they were picked clean. I needed a cable small enough to fit the cable housing  so I could repair it but nothing came to mind. Then as I was dismantling some old bicycles for scrap I found my solution in the bikes brake cable. I removed it from its sleeve, cut it to length and inserted it into my throttle cable housing. After slipping on the yoke for the pedal linkage I slipped a nut small enough to fit on the cable for a stop and hammered it tight. I decided to attach the part of the bikes brake handle that fit the factory cable stop to the carburetor linkage to make it easier to repair the next time. I did this by drilling two small holes in the carbs gas linkage  and in the brake handle and fastening them together with two small bolts.

    I hope this helps you out of a jam someday. Have fun crusin your Gladiator, but please, DRIVE SAFELY! You dont want to scuff  your buddy.  Take care of it, (and carry some spare parts and a tool kit) and it'll take you deeper than you should have tried to go. You know what I'm talkin' about!                                                                                     

    More to come...                                                      Skullhunter