Len Jones wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 8:28 am
Thoughts anyone ?
Hi Len,
Couple thoughts.
Re: the FSN. As Steve alluded to, it is confusingly recorded as 41-W-448 and 41-W-449 in various documents (and in one case within the same document!) throughout the war. You can consult the thread Steve linked for details. I think examples with either number forged or stamped in have a probability of being correct wartime jeep motor pool wrenches, or at least, hard to disprove.
Re: the hub wrench test. I think it is often overstated and misunderstood. Yes, the 11-inch auto wrench was used as the handle, by design, so a wrench
should fit. But I don't think the need for a mallet to get an 11-inch auto wrench in or out of the hub nut wrench means the auto wrench is not correct. I have a mfgr- and period-correct B&S 11-inch auto wrench that needs force to fit a mfgr- and period-correct A-692 hub wrench. And yet it fits other examples of hub wrenches. How is this possible? Manufacturing deviations. For the longest time Willys-Overland made this tool in their in-house shop. First for the MA, then the MB. This was not a complex, precision tool. Most found examples are deformed in one way or another, in the hex opening as well as the slot openings for the 11-inch auto wrench handle. It did not even have a federal specification. It was a special tool that was only pertinent to WO MA and MB. It was made of pressed steel. The slots for the 11-inch auto wrench handle are then milled and finished. Much later in the war it was outsourced to American Metal Products. I am sure WO just sent them their own drawing and it continued to be made just as crudely. Even the modern reproductions are crude. And, let's not forget that the auto wrenches were black japanned, which could easily be baked on too thick.
Just because an 11-inch auto wrench fits the hub wrench doesn't mean it's correct (it also has to be period correct and provided by B&S or Fairmount - for a factory kit, and other verified mfgrs for a motorpool kit) and I think the opposite is also true. If a correct B&S or Fairmount 11-inch auto wrench has trouble fitting, it's just as likely the hub wrench at fault. And I have the same opinion about 41-W-448 and -449 motor pool wrenches not fitting easily.