Last week I bought a very complete, very original 1953 M38A1 (USMC). Bubba never got his hands on this one and it still has nearly all of the military bits and pieces on it. While cleaning it up I noticed that the cotter pins holding the shackle pins on the front bumper were pretty beat up so I pulled them out to replace them. After I got them out, I realized that they're made on aluminium! I've never seen an aluminium cotter pin before. (But did some checking and you can buy them). Anyway i'm wondering if these are original and if perhaps they purposely used aluminium because it's soft and the pins would be easy to straighten out for removal or to bend to secure them in place. Does anyone know more about these? They're 3/16" diameter (tight fit!) and about 2 5/8" long.
PS: The parts manual just gives a part number for these and no real description. Also no Mil Spec number so I can't look it up.
PS: The parts manual just gives a part number for these and no real description. Also no Mil Spec number so I can't look it up.