That was the most dramatic “self healing” change I have ever seen to date. The trans must not work on the weekends 😂 Edit: the Parking brake doesn’t work, for all those that think I have it locked in the whole video.
Nope, we sure didn’t. Pulling it was just a recap for anyone who is seeing this video by itself without the others - hence why I wrote “in our last video” on screen. It was like 1.5 minutes of recap at the beginning since the video today wouldn’t make sense without context for anyone new.
Ah the classic postal Jeep, My wife and I were rural mail carriers in Oklahoma for over 30 years. Early on in our careers we had to provide our own vehicles. In 1990 when they had gotten through replacing most of the Jeeps they had a big surplus sale down at the plant. We ended up buying over the course of a couple years four Jeeps. And I wouldn't be surprised if the odometer was actually correct. When we got our first couple of ones they just had 40,000 mi on them. Of the hundreds of Jeeps that they had on sale back then I only saw one that had over 100,000 miles on it. Most of them were driven in the city very short mileage sometimes as little as seven or eight miles a day six days week. The engines were great and ran as smooth as silk and were easy to repair. But sometimes there were some uncommon model specific items that were very hard to find when they broke. We were assigned LLV's around 1994 so I was happy to sell off my collection. We only put about 10 or 15,000 mi on them before we got rid of them. I'm surprised your Jeep was in as good as shape as it was. That sheet metal would naturally rust down here in Oklahoma without any salt on the roads. And fenders would crack from metal fatigue. I'm glad you sold it to someone who would give it a little more life. Thanks for the video.
ft cobb Oklahoma is still the same way my old 8 grade pre algebra teacher has to drive his own car because the town post office doesn't supply them he still working at the school as the pre algebra teacher but hes still working mail
Sitting for long periods of time just seems to cause those old Chrysler transmissions to gum up. my old 66 Fury II would act the same way after sitting over the winter. Weirdly, if you left her to idle for 20 minutes and go through all the gears manually, she would come right back around and be 100% again all summer.
my grandpa told me chrysler transmissions dont pump in park like chevy and ford they pump in neutral and to check the fluid you have to put it in neutral and engage the park brake
@@EmpireofRust muh grandpa had a transmission on hes 84 b250 van with a 318 rebilt and he taught the transmission guy that this was back around 2003 when we moved from texas to loisiana
Remember, this us a US Government Vehicle. If my time in the military has taught me anything, its that the only vehicle the curbs harder or accelerates faster than a rental car is a US Government Vehicle. Even if its a straight 6 mail truck. My bet is it was run dry because somebody didnt pay attention, ran it, then sent it to auction.
Anyone else listen to Luke's theme song where it says "it'll get you there, it'll get you there quicker" as he's hooking the tractor to the jeep on the side of the road?🤣😂 But, seriously, I love your videos Luke.
This is so cool. I had a 1976 DJ-5D that I drove the entire year of 1996 at age 17. It sounded EXACTLY like that. And now I can smell the exhaust, raw gasoline, and mold driving down the road!
Awesome job getting the Red, White, and Blue out of its postal death hole and running again. Glad to hear the vehicle or parts of her are going to get another shot at life
Nothing more demoralizing than being passed on a gravel road... in Iowa! Person that passed you thought who delivers mail on Sunday night. Good technical content as always. Thanks Luke
I kept thinking, "man, if I were a rural mail carrier, I'd totally find a DJ-5 like this!" Then at the end you said you sold it to a rural mail carrier. Awesome!
Love the content Thunderhead Loving this revival as well, oh and we gotta get you a new mic so i dont have to turn up volume to 60 lol... But cheers from Flint Mi
I drove those delivering mail. They dont die. I drove one all day , engine tapping away , and at the end of the day, I figured Id get some gas , and oil! lol. It was 4 qts low!! lol Filedl it up, tapping decreased and still ran fine???? One tip. Watch the bumps while driving. The keys always popped out of the ignition! theyd be on the floor without you even knowing. You probably can use a screwdriver to start one. A real drawback is that they arent 4 wheel drive, like people think. But put a set of tire chains on it , they go everywhere in the snow! Glad those days of my life have passed! lol The later trucks werent much better, Just larger, but still not large enough.
Glad you found someone to appreciate the (semi) old Jeep. Always thought the postal versions were cool. Now you can look for a '79/'80 Pinto postal version(seriously I doubt there are any left). A really cool postal unit were the '67 Fairlane Couriers. I'm not sure those were offered in civvy configuration, only one I remember was the postal unit.
The horse seems happy about the Jeep having oil pressure haha. These things are so cool, I got to putter one around my neighbors yard when I was a kid, he used it to deliver news papers on a rural route.
Hey Luke. That's a cool looking Pail truck. It went through a lot of stop and starts in it's time. It needed to have the oil move around a bit. Thanks for sharing. 🍁👍👍
Drove those Postal Jeeps the first few years of my Postal Carrier. They were scary to drive above 40mph and steering was loose. So happy when the LLV (current postal vehicle) came on the scene. Also appreciated that the LLV was larger for today’s mail/parcel volume.
You are one of the most thorough and talented RU-vid mechanics. I would drive from Kansas to have you fix my vehicles LOL. I know you aren’t a full-time mechanic though.
There are plenty better than me in other automotive avenues, I’m just fairly decent with engines - always loved trying to get things “just” right. It’s also just fun to figure out engine tuning issues and fix them 🤓
wow flash back to my dad old letter carrier days. that jeep you could hear comeing up the drive-way. so cool to see it drive, & move under it own power. love that old jeep.
Pretty cool that you found a taker on the old postal delivery mule. With any luck you got your time & money back out of her with the sale. At least it was saved, and you no longer have a derelict vehicle on the property. Great job.
I'm so glad you got this vehicle running again fairly. This mail truck deserves to be fully restored and put In a museum with live test drives to keep it going.
Big Hi from the UK to Uncle Luke , I have watched you for a while now and each video just gets better . I love the big iron you have in the USA and your explanation videos are great .
I really like that hillbilly music you have playing in the background. Glad to see. you have it going, when I was a kid me and my dad got a 69 amc embassador the motor was stuck, we took a 3.4 rachet and a pole stuck it on t he harmonic balancer and popped the engine free, then it started right up , and we drove it everywhere..
The gear oil in the sump reminds me of a story my dad shared with me. Many years ago he had a Fordson Major tractor with a rear axle/trans/hydraulic issue. He put EP120 oil in to try and solve it and the tractor would barely move when cold!
So cool. Glad it can be put to use and get back on the road. I currently work as a mail carrier and the current vehicles on the road are over 30 years old as most of them were built in the early 80s, and they take a beating every day. Countless times a day it’s put into park and drive etc especially delivering in the city, it’s amazing that the jeep moves at all. Also the suicide knob is pretty cool as well haha.
👏👏👏 I remember the mailman telling me they weren't very fast. He thought there was some kind of governner on it to keep it under 45 mph. Something about those used in rural route area's had a habit of flipping.
Thanks Luke, pretty cool video. Would be cool to make a farm rig out of if you had a spare engine and trans laying around. I'm thinking small block manual would be fun
Great video! Would have been cool to see a rebuild or even an engine swap but you got little time and much to do so totally understand sending it on to the next owner. Would have called her T1000 the way she was fixing herself haha
Even with its issues someone could definitely use the frame and somebody parts to fix up their old Jeep. Man this makes me really miss my 66 Kaiser Willys, Which I had a Buick 225 in
Another good tip for identifying a knock sound. Valve train moves about half as fast as the crank. So a rapid knock is likely bottom end where as a slower knock is probably valve/lifter noise.
Many moons ago a local pizza place had a fleet of these for deliveries. My dad had one he drove back and forth to work. Plus he used it when driving out into the county to go fishing at local lakes. Had a GM Chevy II four cylinder w/a two speed iirc The 232s in this vintage are hard to kill IF taken care of. Neglect them and you will have problems sooner than you should.
I really appreciate and want more from you on youtube- that being said; You no longer are in the trailer park, leave the damn key in the non running vehicles. I wrote this before I saw the two of you on the ford tractor- You two look awesome @ 18:03!!!!! Godbless!
Used to drive one of these as my "classic" car. A 1975 model DJ-5D. Sold it to a rural route driver to pay off my wife's wedding/engagement ring and miss it every day.
I had a '66 caddy as my first car.. I beat the living crap out of this car daily. After about a year of wheel time no heat no ac no power windows running that 429 on six cylinders. It was time for the crusher. oh yeah no radio either. On the way to the salvage yard the windows started working the radio as well of course it still ran like crap so to the crusher it went. got 75 bucks and dropped that into my '69 tempest.. good times... keep up the great content Luke. I like longer videos but i like no commercials and no hawking products more... keep it real...
Its always nice to see a Vehical that has been lawn art for years restored back to something useful, even if it just gets used as a parts car. As that way rather than having 2 scrap vehicles you can get some more use out of one of them and hopefully stop both from leaking oil and other nasties onto your local water supply. Rightly or wrongly I am of the option making stuff last longer is just as important as moving to away from using big powerful gas gusslers to go get stuff from the shop.
