Andrew is from the UK
and somehow has in his possession one of the few M-679's still in existence.
He's not sure how it ended up there but has a few questions regarding it.
MY M-series expertise is limited so I decided to post Andrew's email to me and
see if anyone else might be able to shine some light on some differences in this
vehicle from the other known M-679's still around.
Hello all
I am restoring a M679 here in the UK, got quite a way so far.
I have some questions for you FC guy's over in Jeep land.
Now I have no idea of how this came to be here in the UK, some of my friends
drove this jeep some 15 years ago and they have no idea either.
Now some of the fittings are so so European I wonder if this was possibly a)
used on a USA base over here or b) was offered for Testing here.
I do not even know if the later is possible however, being fitted with a British
Perkins engine and having only covered some 6000 miles from new I wonder if that
engine was fitted originally. the conversion bell housing, clutch fitting
radiator... well everything was done so well I do just keep wondering. how
reliable was the Cerlist lumps? were they so bad it would not have lasted say
3000 miles!!!
Other things of note, there is a power 'buzz' bar bolted under the dash that
feeds some of the dash electrics, this is made by Durite (French I think) I
don't know it is just little things I keep coming across make me question it.
As the old body was way way beyond a practical restoration ( I ripped the roof
and 'A' posts off with my hands!) I imported an old FC civilian cab to use for
the hard to-make panels. I note however, how much is different.
First there was the rear cab mountings, there were two holes, mine used the
outer the cab used the inner. I believe the inner might have been for 150 FC's
and the outer 170's, if that the case then the cab I got was from a 150, dose
this sound correct?
Another odd thing is air ducting tunnel from the fount of the cab, on my M679 it
is a lot shorter before the engine cover starts than that of the cab and I mean
a-lot, the engine cover starts just after the (if I remember correctly) high/low
shift lever. as far as I can tell this is original, the screws go in to the
original oval spot welled captive thread.
What about brake servo, the (150) cab did not seem to have any fitting for a
servo, however my M679 (170) did the parts manual dose refer to a 'hydro vac'
booster, as I have no information I presume this is a modern in line vacuum
brake booster, now again there were on the M679 original spot welled fittings
for this. was the booster only on 107 FC or only M67x models?
Any way here is a recent photo for you guy's hope you might be able to give me
some idea's about me questions.
Contact
Andrew Kennett
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