Posted by: athawk11
« on: October 06, 2017, 07:37:36 PM »Quote
For the life of me I can't figure out why the change was made after WWII from 1-1/4" to 1-1/16".
Following the war, auto manufacturers like Willys understood that most post war consumers/farmers weren't going to have much disposable income. They were motivated to cut manufacturing costs so they could sell a CJ2A for a reasonable price. You can see the results of these cost cutting measures when you compare an MB to a CJ2A. I don't know about you, but I would love to have a glove box and wheelhouse tool boxes in my CJ2A and 3As. Fact is, it cost too much to keep them.
I assume a shorter bolt would cost less back in 1946. It may seem an insignificant cost saving choice to use a 1-1/16" bolt in leu of a 1-1/4" bolt, but every penny adds up. And if the engineers saw no failures using a shorter bolt, well, why not use the shorter bolt?