Willys Hotchkiss M201 Jeep update; Parking brake adjustment, setting up the roof, and adding a few accessories...

Having accidentally left the park brake on the Jeep twice now (doh!)  I needed to adjust it up as it was not holding the Jeep on slopes, so consulting the manual it looked a straight forward job to do...

Tools out and taking pics of the relevant  manual pages it was underneath we went with a lamp and I was surprised that it was different to what the manual shows....

No nuts and bolts to adjust but just two cam adjusts on the drivers side you could get to through the holes in the drum...

This is the upper adjuster cam which adjusted  clockwise to tighten the drum, the lower adjuster adjusted anti clockwise and as usual on the Jeep things like this always seem to be obvious by arrows in the castings etc as it was here. The only tool used was a flat blade screwdriver to adjust the both until the drum was tight and could not be rotated...

Using the manual feeler gauge sizes I went for a halfway size of 0.007" and backed off the cam adjusters until the feeler gauge was a snug fit and the drum was now not touching and rotated freely back and forward...

Parked brake engaged and I could not push the Jeep back or forward, so an easy thing to adjust and if need be I can quickly go underneath and tighten a couple of notches if it does not hold on a hill next time I`m out...

I did a few other wee jobs like lined the lids on the storage bins with foam to stop them rattling...

Roof;

I want to mostly drive the Jeep with the roof down but have it set up ready to use if caught out in a shower and looking through stuff about set up's online it seems the easiest way to have this ready to use is to leave the frame up with the centre bar secured to the back frame rail and have the tarp rolled up attached ready to quickly put up if needed...

There should be straps under the passenger seat to secure this and I will fit a couple of canvas Buckle belts I ordered online - eBay to the rescue again..

To put the frame up is quite simple, loosen the wing nuts to allow the roof arm to pull back and up...

I removed the petrol can and loosened the spare wheel to allow easier access to fit the buckles for the roof tarp..

As not a lot of room to get into the fixing tabs with these two installed...

The frame slides out here then you lower it as it pivots in the centre and then up to clear the rear seat...

that front mount of the frame then slides into this fixed position and you tighten the wing nuts, their on chains so you cannot loose them, simple and clever....

The centre arm of the frame will raise to tension the roof canopy once it is over the frame and attached to the windscreen...

The front attached the rear buckles were tensioned slightly...

The centre bar tightens the roof canopy and 4 clips hold it in place and that's it! so easy...

I readjusted the straps along the back so they are tight enough to secure the roof but there is enough slack to stretch the roof enough to hook up at the front, secret learned there is un pop/put on the centre holes on the windscreen before the ends...

I took the Jeep out via the Supermarket for shops and on the way back did some filming using the old Go Pro HERO 4 Session camera on the head strap but sadly it was too high and the result was film of  the roof inside! lol

I did stop for some pics in the snow!

And the park brake worked ok so that was another good job done...

Next I took down the  roof tarp and lowered the frame rails so they sat like this...

Next I tried mounting the Go Pro above the rear seat on the seat rail using a handlebar mount but the view was still too low to see into the Jeep and over the Windscreen...

Next was to make a mount for the Go Pro to sit higher up on the frame rails, once tried out this was the view I was wanting!, this will be how I will leave the Jeep set up now...

Here is a wee film, only the wind noise on the Hero 8 camera is an issue but there is a way to reduce this using foam I will look into, wee film the next day when I was out a spin to the shops...

Song is `Forever` by Phontaine,

More soon...