Did jeep make any half years?

[metalmaster1310]

Did Jeep do early year swaps? Between 76' and 77' I know some things got changed on the CJ during this time. My 77' CJ7 has stuff on it I thought was not put on after 76'. I have 4 wheel drum brakes, and I have a brake pressure regulator that goes with it. According to both my Haynes and Chiltons, these were only put on up to 76'. All look original and have original brake lines. After all, what dummy would bother swapping discs for drums if this is not original?

 

[BusaDave9]

Jeep did that all the time. They ran out of one part before the end of the year and started using another part. They weren't really considered half years. Half years were when the model design changed mid-year.
The changes that jeep made were more like the changes that jeep owners do. "I don't have the correct part but I can make what I have work."

 

[dslywalker]

I always heard rumor of a 86 1/2 but not sure

 

[Saddle Tramp]

From my reference material and knowledge Jeep didn’t do the 1/2 year thing; I don’t think American manufactures did that in general. Ford came out with the Mustang in the middle of the model year and some called it a 1964 ½ back then but you don’t hear it called that now, it is a 1964 model.

Jeep begged, borrowed, and stole part from anyone that would sell to them as it was often cheaper than manufacturing their own. As such if they had decided to change out a part to something else for the next model year and the old parts ran out before the end of production they would put in anything they could get their hands on. An example of that is the 1986 CJ7 Jeep new the new platform was going to be the YJ Wrangler (with a Dana 35 rear end) so they stopped making the corporate AMC20 rear end; when they ran out of 20s they just bought Dana 44s to finish the year.

1976 and to a lesser extent 1977 model years jeep was using up parts they had laying around as opposed to running short and making a substitution. It would be interesting to know how early in the 1977 model year run you CJ was built as my bet is it was very near the start of the year.

There was no 1986 ½ year as the YJ Wrangler started with the 1987 model year but the one odd year was in 1996. Jeep was coming out with the TJ for 1997 and rather than make any changes for the 1996 model year the 1995 production just kept going into 1996. In reality Jeep, at least in the early days, made very few changes from year to year except when jumping to a new plat form such as 1971 to 1972 ect.

 

[robert1973]

Yeah 77 was a strange year, my 77, which to my great pleasure had the blower motor through the firewall which meant blower motor upgradable to me! And it was so worth the upgrade too.I still haven't ran across anyone yet who's 77 had that through the firewall like the 78s and later.