New Wheels for Old Studebakers

Here's a topic that keeps coming up, so I thought I'd jot down what I know for others looking for this information: what new wheels will fit Studebaker cars?

First, wheels from other makes will fit Studebakers. Stock 5" Stude wheels have a 4.25" backspace, and OEM Ford & Mopar wheels with 4" backspace work just fine on a Stude.

• Using a 15x 6" wheel with a 4" back space, such as those found on 85-89ish Ford LTDs, Mercury Marquis or Ford Crown Vics will work.
• Rear-wheel-drive Chrysler Fifth Avenue or variants from Dodge or Plymouth - Diplomats, Furys, etc. will also work.

You can usually pick these up for a song from nearly any auto recycler, although they will certainly need refinishing before you bolt them on.

This one will work.

However, be aware that no currently produced wheel will hold Studebaker factory dog-dish hubcaps, which require a specifically-shaped inner hub to grip the caps. So if you're looking to put factory correct "poverty" caps back on your Stude, you'll need to source factory wheels. 

Wheel Vintiques were my choice for Barney.

For my car, I chose Wheel Vintiques Mopar 15 x 6" reproductions; they come in satin black and fit like a glove. I went to the junkyard and found a wheel off of an old Fury to test-fit, then went ahead and ordered new ones from Vintiques online. 

As I said earlier, these will not hold OEM Studebaker hubcaps, so you'll have to use something else or figure out a way to hold your Stude caps on (the problem is that the full-cover caps will snap on, but will then rotate as you drive, cutting the valve stems).

Since I'm not worried about originality, I finished mine off with vintage '70s Mopar police hubcaps, which are identical to the standard dog-dishes Mopar shipped on millions of Furies, Darts and Valiants, but with a ring of vents that helped in cooling the drum brakes on those big '70s cars. I think they turned out pretty good!

Avanti Eye Candy

There's nothing prettier than a really loving restoration. Brad Bez, who owns a shop called Bez Auto Alchemy in Washington state, has been blogging lately about an R4-powered Avanti upon which he's executing a painstaking body-off restoration for one of his clients. Check out his blog for the latest installment and follow along! I know it's inspiring for me... maybe you too? There's only one portion of Barney's frame that's as clean as the one shown here, and it's getting less shiny by the day ;)

Studebaker Front End Rebuild Series

 

One of the most popular topics on my blog has to be the How-To series I wrote about rebuilding your Studebaker's front-end suspension. This is the topic of more questions than any other, and get more hits than any other here on the site, too. So here's a listing of all eight parts, now in one convenient carry-home size!

• Part 1: Tear-down
• Part 2: More Tear-down! 
• Part 3: Miscellaneous 
• Part 4: Kitchen-Table A-Arms Bushing Installation 
• Part 5: Bell-crank Removal 
• Part 6: Steering Knuckle Bearings 
• Part 7: Kingpin, A-Arms and Bushing Installation 
• Part 8: Spring Installation and Completion 
• Ancillary Information: Shock Cross-Reference  

Now go get'er done!

Studebaker Ad of the Week, #2

Here's another great all-color 1958 Studebaker ad courtesy of Aldenjewell. Studebaker was no stranger to using low-cost cars to pull buyer interest, having done so successfully in the past with the wonderful 1939 Champion. In the recession year of 1957, they returned to the Champion strategy, de-contenting their full-size cars in order to lower the price fairly dramatically. They named these cars Scotsman, and they did reasonably well; well enough to reappear in the Studebaker lineup during the following model year as well.

Scotsman cars (and trucks) lacked such niceties as bright window trim, carpet, chrome front bumpers and even passenger sun visors and arm rests, although you could option-up these extras if you wanted. The '58s weren't as much of a sales success as the '57s were, but they kept scarce dollars coming into the Corporation long enough to fund the launch of the Lark in 1959 - the car that saved the company (temporarily, at least).

Studebaker would revive the Scotsman concept one last time, with 1963's Standard line and 1964's Challenger model. Some ideas just never go out of style.

I got to drive a Hawk!

Last month at the Vista Village Rod Run, I found a '62 Gran Turismo Hawk for sale. I took a couple of shots, got the seller's name and number, and posted it on the SDC Forum

Last week, Joe from Kentucky sent me a PM. Seems he'd been talking with the seller and was interested in the car; would I go get more pictures and drive the car and report back? Hmm. Let's see... go take pictures of a beautiful Studebaker and get to drive it? Nahh.... Of course I'll go!

The battery was dead, as the owner hadn't driven it since the Rod Run. He inherited the car from his uncle, and it really isn't his thing, which is why he's selling the car. We jumped it from his Crown Vic, and after a few moments of throat clearing and warming up, we toodled off down the road.

The car has been re-engined with a Chevy small-block, and it's a pretty clean installation. No firewall hacks, no frame modifications - they even connected up the power steering.

The owner lived in an area of town with some pretty twisty roads. We joke that someone dumped spaghetti on a map and drew the streets in that area of town! The Hawk took the roads really nicely, although it was a little nose-heavy (as these cars are known to be). The owner said that the front end had been rebuilt and brakes gone through, and even though the brakes were not powered, the car stopped smoothly and quickly.

The car had a full gauge package, and everything worked - oil, amps, temp, gas, tach, clock. The Studebaker Delco radio in the dash was the finishing touch. Very straight body all around, too.

Not everything was roses, of course. The car was built in South Bend but came out of Canada, so there was some rust in the trunk and rockers, but not as much as you'd figure a Canadian car might have, and the frame was very sound. And the power steering was over-boosted and the steering gear needed adjustment; the net effect was that wheels continued turning after you'd quit turning the steering wheel! That took a little getting used to.

I can see why people love these cars. If you have the opportunity to drive (or acquire) one, do so! I'd really enjoy owning one myself, some day.

Transmission & Engine mount replacement technique

While searching out some transmission information on the SDC Forum, I came across this great bit of advice from one of the Forum stalwarts, Gord Richmond, on how best to replace Studebaker engine and transmission mounts, something that will eventually need to be done on every Stude. Even low-mileage cars can require replacement of these parts, as age and oil will break down rubber, causing mounts to sag or shear. This condition can be downright dangerous, as an out-of-position drivetrain can cause critical linkages to bind at the worst possible times, possibly leading to loss of control and even runaway engine operation.

So, from Gord's post:

With the car securely supported on jackstands, remove the nuts from the lower studs on both tranny mounts. Then "crack" the bolts holding the mount brackets to the bellhousing. Use a floor jack with a plywood pad to raise the tranny by carefully jacking under the pan. It'll only go up a bit less than 2 inches; don't force anything. With the tranny supported, back out the bolts holding the mounts to the bellhousing, and remove the old mounts. Real bad ones will come out in 2 pieces.

Note: when installing rear mounts, I suggest you install both together; drop the studs into the crossmember, installing the spacer where required, lower the tranny to slightly above its rest position, then start the capscrews that hold the mounts to the bellhousing, and get them in a few turns, then put nuts on the mount lower studs, and spin them on a few turns. The you can gradually lower the tranny the rest of the way, and tighten the fasteners as you go. Once the tranny weight is fully borne by the mounts, you can torque the bolts up good. The reason for this procedure is as follows: with the mounts bolted tight to the bellhousing, the lower studs project out and down at about a 45° angle. The span between their tips will exceed the span between the holes provided for them in the crossmember, and you will be stuck. By installing them in a "gradual" fashion, you get around the geometry bottleneck, and also ensure that the mounts aren't installed with some built-in stress that will hasten their failure.

With the rear mounts done, a similar procedure will work on the front mounts. Be careful not to jack the motor so high that the distributor get damaged by interfering with the firewall. Sometimes, I've had to cut a little excess length off the front mount studs to enable myself to winkle 'em in.

While you're down there (if you have an automatic transmission), don't forget to check for the presence of the dreaded transmission spacer on the driver's side mount, as detailed in this earlier post.

Happy Studebakering!

Scotsman Stickers reproduced

If you're a Stude geek, you probably already know about the Scotsman, Studebaker's bare-bones line of cars and trucks that were probably the brightest light in the stable during the dark years of 1957-1958, and the success of which was the impetus for the cut-down Lark of 1959. Scotsmans were notable for their lack of frills of any kind - no trim, no patterned upholstery, no carpet, little chrome - so austere that they came with only a driver's arm rest and sun visor! But they also came with an almost absurdly low price and as a result were a sales success, helping keep the doors of S-P open until Harold Churchill's Lark could breathe new life into the company. Scotsman cars were produced in '57 & '58; Scotsman pickup trucks from '57 to '59.

Scotsman pickups were so stripped down, in fact, that even the Studebaker nameplate that usually adorned the hood of the truck was deleted in favor of a decal, possibly the first such use of adhesive graphics on production automobiles. These decals were, given the limits of 1950s technology, understandably fragile and have not weathered the years well on surviving trucks - especially given the harsh use and environments trucks are generally subjected to. The decals have been unavailable for years.

Henry Votel, a Studebaker Drivers Club member, took it upon himself to research and reproduce these decals, both for the hood and the cab sides. They've been lovingly re-created using the best surviving originals as guides, even down to the slightly non-symmetrical shapes and hand-drawn nature of the graphics.

Henry has put a post on the SDC Forum detailing all the information he uncovered during the project - you can read it all here. If you have a Scotsman pickup and are interested in obtaining a set of these decals, you can contact Henry at:

Henry Votel
6015 190th Street N
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-426-1610 

Cost at the time of this posting is $45 per set plus shipping in the US. The SDC Forum post referenced above also contains Henry's email address if you'd like to shoot him a note. As the folks on Hee-Haw used to say, "Saaaaa-LUTE!"

The Truth About Larks.

There's a really great car blog I read called The Truth About Cars. It's full of insider observations and commentary on the auto industry, as well as contributions about things mechanical and older autos.

One of TTAC's regular columns is called "Curbside Classics", wherein contributor Paul Niedermeyer finds and photographs older rides in and around his home in Eugene, Oregon. A couple of weeks back, Paul turned his attention to one of our beloved Larks, specifically a Pepto-Bismol-pink '60 Lark VI 4-door sedan. It's a great little car, and a great review too, with plenty of history and some hilarious personal anecdotes as well. Check it out!

Adjusting your Studebaker's steering gear.

There's nothing worse than going down the road sawing at your steering wheel, trying to keep your car in its lane. Hey, it's a 47-year old car -- it's bound to have a little play in the steering gear, right? Even with a newly-rebuilt suspension, new tie rods, springs, bushings and everything, you've got to expect a little slop.

Except that you don't. There's a simple adjustment you can make that will bring your steering gear back to proper working order.

Barney's steering gear had about 4" of slop in it. That's right - four inches of "I'm doing NOTHING!!!" before any change of direction occurred. So, after scouring the Tech board at the SDC Forum, I found the secret to fixing it.

In this post, Tom Bredehoft posted the procedure, which is really simple. Let's dive in! My Lark has a Saginaw recirculating-ball steering box, but the procedure is similar for the Ross cam-and-lever box as well.

The adjustment for the steering box is on the driver's side of the car, just above the frame rail, and has to be accessed from the wheelwell. So we'll get started by jacking up the front end and removing the driver's front wheel and tire.

Once the wheel is off, you can see the heavy composite dirt guard stapled to the inner fender to keep dirt, mud and water from entering the engine compartment. Grab this from the bottom and lift it up to expose the steering gear adjustment screw.

There's a lock nut holding the adjustment screw that must be loosened before you can turn the screw. This area has a lot of grit and grime and oil in it, and likely your steering box will be just as grimy as mine. I used a steel brush to clean the crud out of the threads, then backed off the lock nut with a 5/8" box wrench. Once the nut is loose, turn the screw clockwise until you feel resistance, then back it off a bit and snug up the lock nut. Turn the steering wheel lock to lock and make sure that there are no points where it binds; if it does, you've tightened the screw too far. Undo the lock nut, back the screw off, and try it again. Make sure the steering moves smoothly through its entire range without any tightness. Be sure the lock nut is tight, put the wheel back on, and lower the car.

Ready for a drive? No you're not. One more thing to do before you hit the road: check the lubricant in the steering box.

Pop the hood and locate the steering gear filler plug. It's the big, square plug just above the Pitman arm. Unfortunately, it's in a slightly unhelpful location, down at frame level, slightly obscured by the brake lines and parking brake cable.

I put together something with a little reach; a 1/2" crowfoot wrench on a 16" extension. This allowed me to snake down amongst the cables and wires without trying to muck around down there with a spanner in the limited space available.

Once the plug is out, shine a light into the gearbox and see if you need to top off the lubricant inside. Chances are, you will. In fact, my gearbox was so empty I could see the worm gear. To fill the box, you'll need a special lubricant.

Originally, Kendall 999 gear lube was the specified lubricant for the Saginaw box, but Kendall is long gone, unfortunately, and Brad Penn, their successor, has no modern equivalent. Fortunately, Studebaker International has a re-creation: Semi-fluid Steering box grease. it's part No. 801651. This stuff comes in a caulk-type tube that's got enough in it to refill an empty box. A good thing, because mine took nearly everything in the tube! Just one more thing that makes me wonder why this car didn't drive into the ditch years ago... Who knows when anyone last checked it?

Once the box is full, stick the plug back in. But before you go for a drive to test the steering gear adjustment, make sure your lug nuts are torqued properly - the Studebaker shop manual specifies 74 - 85 lbs.-ft. I mention this because I had neglected to re-torque my lugs after I brought the car home from the brake shop, and they came off far too easily when I went to remove the wheel. (Could account for the front-end shimmy on my last freeway outing.) I usually split the difference, so I set the wrench for 78 lbs.-ft.

Having done this, I took Barney on the road. You would not believe the difference in the steering! The slop is now completely gone, and the car tracks straight and true down the road with no wandering. Bonus: it was a beautiful day in San Diego today. Great day for a photo in the park!

Rain Delay! and alternator woes.

Well, Southern California is finally getting some rainfall after several years of record drought, and I'm not complaining - we surely need it and thanks be to God! Downside of this is that there's no Studebakering until the wet stuff stops. Poor Barney sits under the cover that's glued to him like a prom dress on a cheerleader until after the rain is done.

In the meantime, the rain was delayed long enough that on Sunday I was able to pull the alternator for service. About a week ago, I took Barney for his first twilight drive with lights blazing, and saw the ammeter doing a weird little dance afterward - after powering up a nearby hill at 50 MPH, I came off the throttle and saw the dash and headlights dim dramatically as the Amp needle fell halfway to the "D"ischarge mark.

At first I thought perhaps the drive belt was slipping during the high-speed (!) run, so I tightened it up the next day and saw the ammeter behaving like it should. But the problem reoccurred, so I asked around and found that Richer Auto Electric (official electric shop for the Little Guys street rod club)was located literally around the corner from me.

So off I went on Monday and dropped Barney's alternator on the counter at Richer, where Jim took it to the back, strapped it to the test machine and came back pronouncing it non-operational. Glad I found that out before it quit on the car! I guess it pays to have these items tested when you don't know for sure the condition they're in. Jim told me he'll have the rebuild done by the end of the week.

By the way, I found that Wilson Auto Electric makes a direct, bolt-in replacement for the Prestolite ALK-5001 that Studebaker used in many late-model Larks. It's p/n 90-06-1001, and you can get one online here, should you need to.

Bellhousing dial-in procedure,

One of the most mystery-cloaked operations in all of Stude-dom is the bellhousing dial-in. Known to make grown men shiver and quake with just the thought of doing it, this must-do strikes fear into the heart of even the bravest.

Well, maybe it's not that bad. But it certainly is something no one looks forward to, no matter how steeped in Studebakers they may be. And it's something that's unique to Studebakers - you don't have to do this with an old Ford or Chevy, so if you're new to Studes it's essential that you know about this.

So what is a bellhousing dial-in, and why is it needed? Long and short of it is that Studebaker's bolt-on bellhousings need to be aligned to the crankshaft center-line so that the crank and transmission input shafts are on the same plane. This keeps the torque converter (or flex plate, or clutch) from self-destructing as it revolves. Instructions are given in the shop manual, but nobody seems to really understand 'em.

SDC member Allan Anderson recently photographed and described this procedure. Bob Johnstone has archived it on his website for all posterity (or at least until the Chinese take over the Internet and outlaw all things Studebaker). Check it out and make a bookmark - if you ever have to change out a bellhousing, this is an invaluable reference.

Hey... your head is loose!

While I've been occasionally accused of not having my head screwed on tight enough ;) I'm talking about the bolts on your engine's heads in this case.

StudeKen (Ken Pyle, who rebuilt my 259) reminded me that the head bolts needed to be re-torqued after the engine had been restarted and run a bit, which mine now has. So, yesterday being a beautiful 72 degrees here in SoCal, I decided on a little StudeWrenching in preparation for road-worthiness.

First step is pulling the valve covers. If you're a GM guy like I was, you're probably used to a lot of hold-down bolts around the base of the covers, as seen below on my '67 Pontiac. Some other brands have quite a lot more bolts!

In contrast, Studebaker valve covers are easily removed without fumbling around by just unscrewing the two bolts in the center of the valve covers (4 bolts on older models):

The studs protrude through the valve cover through rubber seals, easily available from SI and other vendors. Just undo them, and pull the valve cover off (after removing the spark plug wires, of course). The valve covers seal to the heads using re-usable, soft neoprene rubber gaskets, and they take a little pulling to get loose; don't be shy, just grab the oil filler tube and give it a gentle yank.

With the valve train exposed, you'll have easy access to all the head bolts. There are 18 of them, as shown in the figure below, taken from the factory Shop Manual:

The manual specifies 55-65 lbs.-ft. of torque for each bolt. I usually split the difference, and so set my wrench right in the middle at 60 pounds for this operation. Note that the diagram shows a specific sequence for tightening the bolts; although this is specified for head installation, I used it for the re-torqueing operation as well (better safe than sorry!) Note that the 5 center bolts under the valve cover get torqued twice.

I was surprised at how loose a few of these bolts had gotten with just some running-in-place in my driveway! They all broke loose with the first pull of the wrench, on average took a quarter turn before the wrench clicked to indicate torque. A couple of them took nearly a full turn, specifically the two furthest forward adjacent to the water manifold.

I used a 12" extension to get the proper leverage on the torque wrench for most of the bolts, but a couple - those furthest toward the firewall - needed a shorter extension to clear certain obstacles. On the passenger side, the flange for the heater plenum interfered; on the driver's side, the steering column forced using the 6" extension. I also had to shift the transmission's column shifter from Park to Reverse in order to drop the shifter linkage out of the way.

After you're done, the valve covers go back on easily. In the photo above, you can see the rubber seal iin its channel around the rim of the valve cover; make sure it's seated properly and not dropping loose, otherwise it could be cut by the interior flange and seal improperly - and there's nothing worse than engine oil dribbling onto your hot exhaust manifold while you drive!

The Stude shop manual calls for 14-20 inch-lbs. (!) of torque for the valve cover nuts. Now, maybe back in the day everyone had tools calibrated in inch-lbs. just lying all over the place, but here in the 21st century you're more likely to find a dinosaur bone in your backyard than such a device at your local Sears.

14 inch-lbs. is not a lot of torque, so I just used a nut driver to tighten the nuts hand-tight, which is all the neoprene seals really need.

All done! Put the spark plug wires back where they belong and DON'T forget to reattach the throttle return spring to the wire clip welded to the driver's side valve cover.

Update, January, 2011: There's a little additional information about proper torquing procedure. Check out this post.

Studebaker Steering Box Info.

Studebakers used a few different models of steering gearbox over the years, from primarily two sources: Ross and Saginaw.The Ross boxes were cam-and-lever gears that were used throughout the 1950s and into the 60s on almost all Studebaker cars and trucks.Saginaw boxes were more modern recirculating-ball types used on some 50's Studes and post-63 Lark-types. Most people agree that the Saginaw boxes have less steering effort and are easier to repair.

Anyway, there's an easy way to tell which kind of steering gear your Studebaker has, as explained by SDC Technical Editor Bob Palma on the SDC Forum:

To determine if you have a Ross Box, see what size wrench is needed to remove the square pipe plug at the check/fill hole on top of the box. If the pipe plug requires a 3/8" or 7/16" wrench, it is a Ross box. If the plug is near the very top of the box and requires a 1/2" or 9/16" wrench, it is a Saginaw unit (thank goodness!)

Why does it matter? Primarily because the two different types of manual units take two different types of lubrication.

Left: Ross steering box. Right: Saginaw box.

The Saginaw boxes are easy to lube: they take standard chassis grease. You can literally pull the plug and pump in a few squeezes of chassis lube from your grease gun to top them off. The Ross boxes, however, take an 80w or 90w gear oil with EP (ex/treme pressure) additives; Kendall 999 was the preferred grease, but Kendall is no longer around. So, what to use?

Studebaker International to the rescue, with p/n 801651 Semi-Fluid Steering Grease. This is heavy stuff that can also be used as assembly lubricant when you're repairing a Ross or Saginaw box, or to refill a Saginaw after service in lieu of the special S-P steering lube that's long out of production.

Oh, and Jeff Tangemann of Lincoln, Nebraska writes that "a steering shaft out of a circa 68 Chevy truck will fit in a Lark Saginaw steering box." Good to know!

How-To: Studebaker Delco Distributor Rebuild

If you've been following the past few posts, you've read of the self-destruction of Barney's Prestolite distributor, and my being gifted with a Delco distributor core (see A Drive To Perris). At first I thought maybe I'd send it off for a professional rebuild, but decided on doing it myself, mostly because I got antsy and didn't want to wait, but also because I was told what an easy job it was.

Amazingly, my searches of the Web turned up absolutely NO tutorials on how to go through a Delco distributor, so hopefully this will help others seeking this information. It's actually pretty simple. And here's a plug for the necessity of having the Studebaker shop manuals: the disassembly and reassembly instructions Studebaker provided are better documented and photographed than the procedure I found in my '67 Pontiac shop manual! If you are embarking on a Studebaker project, I strongly urge getting a set of Shop, Chassis and Body manuals for your car - they are absolutely invaulable.

Many folk associate Prestolite distributors with Studebakers, but in fact Delco spark-slingers were used on Stude V-8s through most of the 1950s and into the 60s. The advantage of the Delco is that parts are easier to come by; additionally, two model years (1960 and 1961) used the common Delco "window-type" unit that any GM fan is intimately familiar with. It's called a "window type" because the cap has a small metal "window" that can be slid up to facilitate setting the point dwell while the engine is running - a massively convenient perk. Another perk of running the Delco is that you don't have to get "the look" from the counter guy at your FLAPS* when you ask for Studebaker parts; you just tell 'em you need distributor parts for a '61 Impala and you're golden.

Bob Johnstone, the keeper of all Stude technical knowledge (check his tech site at www.studebaker-info.org, if you haven't already) posted the following numbers for Delco-Remy distributors with Studebaker applications. This number can be found on a stamped aluminum collar in a machined groove just below the distributor head:

• 1110839 - All 1953, '54 and '55 V8
• 1110864 - All 1958 & '59 V8, 1960 289 cu. in. V8 only
• 1110869 - 1960 259 cu. in. V8 only
• 1110969 - all 1960 cars w/V8 (except Hawk) & all 1960-61 trucks
• 1110969 - 1961 259 cu. in. V8 only
• 1110864 - 1961 289 cu. in. V8 only
• 1110981- 1960 & '61 V-8 Larks, all (this is the "window-type" unit)
  

My Delco is a 1110981 - the desirable "window" unit. Although this is only correct for the two model years shown above, it will fit any 259 or 289 Studebaker engine. So, off we go!

My first step was to clean the sucker off. As you can see, the sucker had acquired a nice suntan of surface rust; Warren showed me a junk V8 engine he'd pulled it from. It looked like it had been outside without a cap for a while. But mechanically it was fine; the rotor shaft had no side play and runout between the drive gear and adjacent brass bushing was within the spec called for in the Studebaker shop manual (.036" - .068").

I pulled off the old points, condenser and vacuum advance, as well as the homebrew primary lead. With a little exercise and the application of some trombone slide oil, the breaker plate began to move freely, so I elected not to fully disassemble the unit by driving out the pins that hold the drive gear and oil pump drive shaft to the rotor shaft. The advance weights were hard to get off due to the light rust on their pins, but the trombone oil freed those up as well, and I stowed all the removed parts in Ziploc bags.

Since I'm the kind of guy that likes to make things look good as well as work well, I set to work with a Nyalox abrasive wheel. This is a "wire" wheel that's made of impregnated Nylon - it strips paint and rust quickly without harming the metal underneath or leaving that telltale "brushed" look on metal surfaces. I think I got mine at Home Depot, but you can buy them direct from the manufacturer, Divine Brothers.

I carefully unlocked the irreplaceable aluminum Delco tag from the machined channel and proceeded to buff off the surface rust. The Nylox wheels work with amazingly little effort, and in no time the distributor head casting was nice and shiny. The next step was to shine up the advance weight mounts, breaker plate and breaker cam.

On the advice of Jeff Rice, I used my Dremel tool with a small steel brush to clean the rust from the interior parts. The breaker plate appears to be chrome plated, so it was rust-free; the breaker cam and advance cam were another story. I cleaned up the advance parts first, getting all the rust off the surfaces that the centrifugal advance weights slide on. The advance pins had a little bit of wear on them. but not enough to render the distributor shaft useless.

I didn't want to touch the breaker cam with the Dremel wire wheel, so I used some 2,000-grit emery film to polish the rust off of it. Then, my favorite non-abrasive metal polish, Nevr-Dull, was used to further polish the cam and breaker plate. I love this stuff; it's basically a chemically-impregnated cotton wadding that removes rust and other staining from metal parts, depositing a thin layer of lubricant protectant as it works. Soon, the delicate bits were spic 'n span.

After that, I took the Nyalox brush to the two advance weights. They had sustained some pitting, but cleaned up well. Mr. Gasket and other speed-parts suppliers make replacement weights for these distributors, but I'd rather re-use than replace when possible :) With the upper bits clean, I put a small brass cup brush in the Dremel and cleaned the light rust out of the interior of the base casting using the large access hole in the breaker plate.

At this point, with everything cleaned up, it was time for paint. Using painter's tape, I masked off the moving parts and the section of the shaft housing that must remain plain metal. Note that there is a large hole in the bottom of the casting that allows the distributor primary lead to exit; you'll need to cover this from the inside to keep paint from getting into the mechanicals.

I like Rustoleum red primer because it's specifically formulated for rusty metal, and even though I'd cleaned all the rust off, there's no sense taking chances! After a couple of coats of primer, I shot it with black engine paint and let it dry overnight, followed by a second coat of engine black the next morning. By midday, the paint was hard and the tape came off. Things looked great!

I used a little dielectric grease to lubricate the advance weight pins and re-installed the weights. Note that the mounting holes in the weights are tapered; if you turn them over you can discern that the hole diameter is slightly larger on one side than the other. Slide them onto the pins with the large side down, toward the advance cam baseplate. Note that there is a small, button-like raised area in the baseplate that the weighs rest directly over and must slide upon; a little grease in this area is a good idea as well to keep them moving smoothly.

You can get replacement advance springs from a number of manufacturers; just ask for the kit for a '61 Chevy. I chose Mr. Gasket, although Moroso, Accel and others make them. I suppose your friendly GM dealer might have springs too (if he's still in business). The Mr. Gasket kit includes three different spring weights to customize your advance curve; on the advice of SDC member and distributor guru Harry "Bud" Alenik, I installed the gold OEM-weight set. Harry explains:

"Most of the aftermarket springs have more tension than the springs originally installed in stock Studebaker Delco distributors. Studebaker engineers specified full advance at 2400 rpm where most other manufacturers specified full advance somewhere above 4000 rpm. I've found that the guys at Studebaker had the advance set at an optimum point for good engine operation without detonation. I've found that by using the stock advance and setting the base timing around 8 deg. BTDC, that a stock V8 will make plenty of power without detonating. The R series engines still use the 2400 rpm full advance, but limit the amount of centrifugal and vacuum advance to keep the high compression engines from detonating."

Should you choose to play with your advance curve, I've documented the spring weights and the timing advance each set provides on this post.

 The next thing I did was to install the new vacuum advance unit (or "spark modifier", as the shop manual refers to it). I got this from NAPA, it's Echlin part #VC680. Wrong! The correct advance part is VC1765 - see this post for more. It's held on with two screws, one at the edge of the base and the other just under the edge of the breaker plate. To install it, you must rotate the breaker plate so that you can get the vacuum can's actuator rod into the hole in the plate. It takes a little maneuvering to get it in there, but once you get the rod at the right angle, it slides into the hole easily. I put in the screw that holds the unit to the rim to hold the unit in.

There is a black wire crimped to the breaker plate; this is what supplies ground to the points. I slid it under the head of the second vacuum advance attaching screw as shown in the pic to the right. If your ground wire has gone missing, you can get a replacement from NAPA; it's Echlin # LW42. It comes with two spade-lug ends; you can attach the other end under the nearby pointset hold-down screw instead of trying to crimp it to the breaker plate.

I installed a rubber grommet in the hole for the primary wire; this is just a standard 3/8" wire grommet that you can get from the bins at any hardware store.

With the advance unit in place, I installed the pointset. I opted for a "Uniset" combo unit; this is an all-in-one part that combines the breaker points and the condenser into one unit and eliminates fiddling with a separate condenser and lead. You'd think this would be an inexpensive part, but I found that as the use of points has decreased, the cost of pointsets has increased. NAPA wanted $35.00 (!) for the Uniset points; I opted instead to order them for half that price from Studebaker vendor Chuck Collins. They are Borg-Warner #A2120, although I'm sure other manufacturers have them as well. Chuck, as always, got the goods to me immediately; I ordered on Thursday and they arrived on Saturday. I also ordered two new distributor mounting gaskets.

Now that the points are installed, you've got to lube the breaker cam. This is also known as the "rubbing block", for obvious reasons: the points rub on the octagonal cam as it rotates; each time it rubs over one of the cam's corners, the electrical connection between the points is broken. Even though the bit of the pointset that contacts the rubbing block is plastic, without lubrication the block will wear. If you've never had a car with points before, you may not realize that there is a specific kind of lube for this, a silicone grease that is smeared onto the cam to protect it. This has to be renewed periodically, too, so it's good to have a tube around. My old tube of Lubricam has seen duty since the mid-'80s and still has plenty left. Bosch still makes it, as well as some other manufacturers, but you may have to go to a real speed shop to get it - the NAPA and Pep Boys near me have none in stock.

With lubrication taken care of, it was time to put on the rotor. Again, NAPA had the part, Echlin #RR1670. I opted for the Heavy Duty part, since the contact is constructed from heavier brass than the standard-duty part. In Delco distributors, the rotor fits right over the advance weights, covering them completely, and screws to the advance cam. On the bottom of the rotor are two lugs; one round, one square. They fit into corresponding holes in the cam so you can't install it 180º reversed. Once the rotor is screwed down, hold the shaft and twist the rotor counter-clockwise; you should feel some spring resistance as it rotates; release it and it should snap back. This verifies that the molded webbing on the bottom of the rotor is not interfering with the operation of the advance weights and springs.

The last bit inside the distributor is the primary lead. I threaded this through the newly-installed grommet in the base and attached the spade lug to the screw provided on the front of the pointset.If you're missing the lead or yours is boogered up, go to NAPA and get Echlin part #LW67.

After that, it's time to install the cap. Unlike the Prestolite cap, which attaches with a pair of spring clips mounted to the base, the Delco cap has a spring-loaded hold-down on each side. A notch machined in the base of the distributor body accepts the tab molded into the bottom of the cap, which positively locates it and keeps it from rotating; simply place the cap on the base and use a flat-blade screwdriver to depress the hold-down, then rotate it so its ear is beneath the locating notch underneath the cap and release it; it will clamp the cap to the base. Repeat on the other side. The cap, by the way, was also gotten at NAPA: Echlin #RR1650. This is the matching heavy-duty cap for the rotor, with brass terminals instead of aluminum.

That's it! She's assembled and ready to be dropped into Barney's engine. I'm hoping I get the chance to do this tomorrow - stay tuned for further developments.

Thanks to Warren Webb, Jeff Rice, Bob Johnstone, Bud Alenik and all the guys at the SDC Forum for their help information.

*FLAPS -- Friendly Local Auto Parts Store.