IBM Software Find software products and solutions. IBM Bluemix. Build, deploy and scale your apps and services, your way. Lite Shared Navigator Pool' title='Lite Shared Navigator Pool' />The Legendary World War II Jeep Had A Dangerous Engineering Flaw. Us Army Masters Degree Completion Program. Despite one of Americas top generals calling the World War II Jeep Americas greatest contribution to modern warfare, the little 4x. In fact, it rolled off the assembly line in 1. I recently drove a World War II Jeep for the first time and experienced something I had only read about on the forums a potentially dangerous pull to the left during braking that required some serious counter steering to avoid veering into the oncoming lane. While I cant vouch for how well that particular Jeeps brakes had been adjusted, just take a look at this video clip I randomly found showing a soldier in 1. Berlin struggling to bring his Jeep to a stop in a straight line. Clearly, this was a pretty egregious engineering flaw. To understand the cause of the Jeeps tendency to yank to the left, we have to take a look at the war heros steering system. The steering on a World War II Jeep is dead simple. The steering shaftwhich is connected to the steering wheelgoes into a steering gearbox, which uses a worm gear to change the rotational motion of the steering shaft into a pivoting motion of a pitman arm As the end of that pitman arm swings in an arc, it pushes and pulls a drag link just a long metal rod, which rotates the axle mounted bellcrank, thus pulling or pushing the tie rods. Those tie rods ultimately rotate the knuckles and the wheels connected to them, allowing the driver to steer. Heres a look at the system, starting at the drag link labeled 1 and ending at the knuckle labeled 4. Heres a cleaner look at the system thanks to a top view picture I snagged from a 1. War Department technical manual modified in red The problem with this system has to do with a phenomenon called axle wrap, the tendency of a leaf sprung axle to twist under braking or acceleration heres a video of it in action. Since the Willys MB and Ford GPW dont send a lot of power to the wheels especially in four wheel drive, axle wrap under acceleration isnt really an issue. But under hard braking, it definitely is. As the driver stabs the brakes, the Jeeps axle rotates towards the front of the vehicle, and it wants to take the bellcrank along with it. Since the drag linkwhich connects to the frame mounted steering box on one end, and the bellcrank on the otherdoesnt move unless the driver turns the steering wheel, the bellcrank will have a tendency to want to rotate under braking as the axle twists. This will put the drivers side tie rod in compression, and the passengers side tie rod in tension, thus turning the Jeep to the drivers side, potentially into oncoming traffic. As a band aid, sometime in 1. Lite Shared Navigator Of The SeasWillys Overland and Ford started installing a Torque Reaction Spring under the drivers side front leaf spring pack the torque reaction spring is labeled 7 above. Note In an earlier version of this article, I accidentally said the Torque Reaction Spring is on the passengers side. Get any windows software for free,without any costs and subscriptions our website do not have anoying ads and spam links,get serial key,crack,license code. In The Next Room Sarah Ruhl here. In recent years it has become more feasible than ever to navigate using a smartphone or tablet. Grundig Gds310 Manual. Apps have improved to the point where they rival paper charts and. Despite one of Americas top generals calling the World War II Jeep Americas greatest contribution to modern warfare, the little 4x4 wasnt perfect. In. This Keystone Montana fifth wheel model 3820FK features a front raised kitchen that will make you feel like you havent left home. There are five. 140364. The photos clearly show otherwise. Connected to the leaf spring u bolts on one end, and the frame on the other, the Torque Reaction Spring was essentially a stiff leaf pack whose job it was mitigate axle wrap under braking, thus preventing that awful pull to the left. Heres another look The torque reaction spring helped, but many say it didnt fix the problem entirely. It really wasnt until the war ended and Willys Overland launched its civilian model Jeepthe CJ 2. Athat the company fixed the problem by taking the bellcrank off the axle and bolting it to the front crossmember. Why the company waited until the end of the war likely has to do with a desire to maintain commonality between all vehicles in the field, and to prevent any slow down in production due to such a major design change. As for why Willys let this example of poor engineering out of the factory in the first place, Im not sure. I could speculate that the time crunch with the war on had something to do with it, but thats just speculation. But to get an idea, though, I called up Dave Logan, a Jeep historian at Omix ADA, and he sent me this picture of an early Ford GP prototype he has in his collection This design, similar to the early Bantam BRC prototype setup, doesnt actually use a bellcrank at all. Instead, the pitman arm pushes a drag link, which rotates the steering knuckle directly. Heres a different angle showing the knuckle up close, except this time on a Bantam BRC prototype While this setup wouldnt seem to be as sensitive to axle wrap as the World War II Jeeps design, it also leaves quite a lot of steering components hanging low to the ground. Presumably, the change to an axle mounted bellcrank was seen as a benefit from an off road durability perspective. Unfortunately, that move ended up being arguably the Willys MBs and Ford GPWs biggest design flaw. And even today, when collectors smash the brakes on their classic World War II Jeeps, they keep their hands ready to crank that spindly little steering wheel to the right. Because the last thing you want to do is wreck a vehicle as glorious as a World War II Jeep. Your daily source of hunting and fishing content thats smart, funny, engaging and as outdoorobsessed as you are. In our 2015 review of the top free file manager, we found 5 we could recommend with the best of these as good as any commercial product.