Thunderbird712 wrote:..the jeep was brand new when purchased so between coming off the line, sitting in a surplus yard and when the tank was put on some how the tools got in there. Also the crank and oil can were left in place or added.
This significance of the jeep's relatively short time in service (March 1945 to ? 1945), and that service apparently constituting no actual use before it was sold not only as surplus, but as NOS surplus, is not lost on me, TJ. It presents an interesting case.
Thunderbird712 wrote: I am not hung up on them being from the factory but find it really cool that they were in there and came with the jeep.
There is a big difference between factory-issued tools and those provided by the Ordnance Dept at depots as spares and replacements, and the tools that were found with your jeep (jack, lug wrench, puller, crank, and oil can) definitely match Willys factory-issued characteristics. You have a very special toolkit.
Thunderbird712 wrote:Does it seem possible from your research that the hub puller would be part of the tool kit in March of 45?
Yes, but narrowly (which is a good thing!). I will explain...
The original date (when it was first created/typed up) of the latest known Bill of Materials (for an MB-NB order) that included the A-1339 puller was February 1945. That means that as late as February 1945, Willys was still putting pullers in jeeps. The A-1339 puller entry in that BOM (and ALL other BOMs, by the way, most with very early date-of-creation pages) was struck-through at some later date, indicating that the puller was deleted from the order for that batch of Navy jeeps (and ALL other jeeps still being built on other BOMs). No strike-throughs on any BOM were ever annotated with a date, unfortunately. Change dates were either found elsewhere in other documents (such as the "Changes" document), or derived by analysis from other documents (such as PRFs, engineering drawings, etc).
Here’s more context for your own thought process. The "Changes" document (discovered and generously provided by Bob Westerman, and produced in its entirety in White, Vol 4, btw) was dated November 3, 1944. It's a wonderful document, rich with modification details, but as you can see, it was published (for FTC hearings) just a little too soon to answer all the late war questions - including the puller issue! It was also listed by date, not sub-model designations (e.g., MB-QMC, MB-ORD, MB-NOM, MB-RUS, etc), and not by serial number. In order to try to reconstruct the entire MB production sequence, by date, and including context such as sub-models designations and serial numbers, we entered the data found on every shred of factory documentation we had access to (every page of every BOM, every PRF, every TM 10, every Material Survey, and every ledger entry in all engineering drawings), including dates, into an Excel spreadsheet, and sorted that spreadsheet in ascending sequence by the date field. As you can imagine, that was a huge and eye-opening product that became our "Master" chronological reference. After some analysis and some mediation (think about the strike-throughs, for example), we had a very good understanding of the entire engineering and production timeline. When we compared it to the "Changes" document, it correlated remarkably well, corroborating the sequence and many of the details. But this analysis tool was only as good as the data supporting it.
Lastly, note that the Willys head shed used General Specifications as a guide and we have access to two of those. Fortunately, they're like bookends for all our other research - with the first published 29 September 1941 (before MB production) and the second published in 24 April 1945 (six months before production ended).
The September 1941 Gen Specs included the puller, of course. The April 1945 Gen Specs did not.
So, if the puller found in your jeep was issued to your jeep on 28 March 1945, it would mean that the puller was removed from all MB tool kits sometime between 28 March 1945 and 24 April 1945. It's a big if, but your jeep may actually help narrow the window down tremendously!
I want this right so if the definitive answers is the A-12668 screw jack I think I have one. I will post a picture of it so you can verify for me. 
I really need to get the Lloyd White books because I would love to see a copy of those documents. Specifically the Description of Changes on the Jeep for other things I am researching for my jeep. 
Not that that would be a bad thing. I don't believe their was a Fire Extinguisher with the jeep and don't recall whether there was a bracket. We have an original one now. I will have to look at pictures and ask my father about it. 
