Thread: Australian M715 Kaiser?

Originally Posted by rick130

I used the word 'truck' to differentiate it from a CJ.

It used 9.00x16 tyres and a Dana 60 front and Dana 70 rear diffs, so wasn't light duty like a 110/130 or TLC 74/78/79 Series.

IIRC the Hurricane was either OHV or an F head, the OHC engine was the Tornado.
I still have a head, pistons, rods and rocker cover here somewhere from one.

Kaiser Jeep M715 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hurricane, Tornado, I knew it was a wind.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Hurricane, Tornado, I knew it was a wind.

Hahaha, you could have called it a 'Fart'

I'm just up on my Jeeps as I grew up with them, Dad had a Wagoneer with the Tornado in it when I was little and my first car was a CJ-6.

I forget to say your memory is pretty good too, not bad to remember an obscure series of engines like that

Originally Posted by rick130

Hahaha, you could have called it a 'Fart'

I'm just up on my Jeeps as I grew up with them, Dad had a Wagoneer with the Tornado in it when I was little and my first car was a CJ-6.

I forget to say your memory is pretty good too, not bad to remember an obscure series of engines like that

Knew a few guys from Jeep Australia. Some of them went there from White Motor Corp when it closed. I went to Tutts Machinery with the Euclid product. All lost causes. We used to drink together at the Salisbury. This was well after the windy engines. I had a sideline doing repowers for a while and did a few OHC Jeep to Hemi 6. Repower was miles cheaper than a rebuild of the OHC engine. More compact and lighter also. Pity, as the OHC was a lovely engine.

The M715 was very different to the civie versions sold both here and in America.
Miltiary versions had heavier dana 70 rear diffs and much extra good stuff fitted.
They were a replacement for the Dodge M37
Australian sold civie gladiator was very basic, had the OHC motor , light , but very slow steering.

The steering was fixed in later models Ron.

Instead of having the steering box set back near the firewall and a relay linkage and bellcrank going forward to the drag link, they went to a Saginaw pattern Gemmer steering box mounted at the front of the chassis which eliminated a lot of play and was a world better in steering 'precision'. (yes I know, a very loose term in a Jeep )

I had a '70 model J3000 with the T98a gearbox and a D60 rear end and when the Gemmer 'box died I bolted in an HQ steering box.
It slipped straight in, no adjustments required and IIRC I was even able to use the Holden pitman arm.

Got the Kaiser home today, here's a picture of it with my Defender to keep all you Land Rover buffs interested...

Thought I'd do you an update on this, I've had a nightmare finding parts and the postage from the States is a real issue!

I had to remove the cab section, windscreen, tailgate and some other bits to get the weight down for the lift - which still isn't that happy!



We've now replaced all the brake lines (they were all missing), and all the wheel cylinders which were rotten, we've now moved on to rewiring the lights as the loom had been stripped out. I'm having a nightmare finding rear shocks - the shackles have been flipped, giving it a 4" lift...



I'm hoping to get to painting next week.

Originally Posted by MartinSmith

I'm having a nightmare finding rear shocks - the shackles have been flipped, giving it a 4" lift...

Have a look through the Koni truck catalogue and you should be able to match up some lengths and the Koni blokes should be able to get close with the valving.

Not cheap but you'll have shocks forever.