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!

A really good Stude week! New springs and more.

It's really been a great couple of weeks, Studebaker-wise. I've gotten a lot of little (and not so little!) things done, all of which added up to a lot of things that make the car more livable.

First, last weekend, I fixed the leaky fuel filler hose that had been venting fumes into the passenger compartment from the trunk. I also got the new ignition switch into the dash, replacing the old one with the weak return spring and bad accessory contacts, and put in a brand-new headlight switch that doesn't leak smoke and melt connectors - so now the headlights work properly. The new relay turn-signal indicator finally works the blinkers loudly and regularly.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you might notice a difference in Barney while looking at the photo above. That's right - I finally got the rear springs installed.

The smiling man above is Tony Elkins, owner of North County Spring in Escondido, California. Tony is the ultimate California surfer dude, blonde hair, beach accent, easy-going good nature and all. Tony used to run E&C Spring, the shop that his dad owned for over 30 years. About 5 years ago, Tony's dad died, and a family rift developed about how the business should be run. Tony was on the side that wanted to run an honest shop, so he left to start his own. Let me say that there is no one in this county that I would trust more to do the job than Tony and his crew. Need springs? They repair, replace, rebuilt, re-arch - they even bend their own U-bolts. While you wait. I recommend them highly:

North County Spring

446  Enterprise St.
Escondido, CA. 92029

760-738-7020

www.northcountyspring.com

Luckily, I was able to secure a set of brand-new OEM springs from SASCO before they went out of business and their inventory transferred to Studebaker International. I got these factory springs at a ridiculously low price - Eaton Detroit wants $400 a pair plus shipping; I secured these factory NOS parts for a quarter of that.

They did have 40 years of warehouse rust on them, though, so my son stripped them and I painted them and they were ready to install.

The problem, however, lies in removing and replacing the spring bushings that are pressed into the car's frame itself. Much has been written on the SDC Forum regarding the process of replacing these bushings, with instructions on how to fabricate a tool to pull the old ones out and slide the new ones in. But those steel-shelled bushings have been in the frame for 40+ years; they're not coming out easily. Tony originally thought it would take 4 hours of shop time to R&R the springs... that turned into nearly 10 hours which included having to torch out the old bushing shells, necessitating removal of the fuel tank as well... yeah.

They also replaced the rubber hose that connects the gas tank to the fuel pipe. It was so old and brittle it literally crumbled in my hand when Tony showed me the old bits. Like a dry biscuit. Glad that one got fixed before it came apart on its own.

But oh, what a difference those new springs make! The top photo above shows the rear wheel prior to spring replacement. You can see that the tire is partially within the wheelwell; the tread is well above the lip of the fender. In the lower photo, you can easily see the different the new springs make - the top of the tire is plainly visible now within the fender. There's at least 3 - 4" difference in rear-end  height.

Here are some before-and-after shots of the entire car, and you can see the difference in the stance of the car. The top shot is before, the bottom after:

Where the difference really shines is in the driving, though. The car handles much better without the rear end wiggling all over the place; I don't have to slow down to 10 MPH around corners just for fear of the car falling off its suspension. It tracks truer as well - goes where I point it. Chuckholes that threatened to break the rear end loose and send it sideways are now nothing more than a minor annoyance.

Finally, an order from SI arrived yesterday, with some long-awaited goodies inside: a reproduction Strato-Line mirror for the right side of the car, and a set of new rear seat belts to replace the scuzzy MoPar belts that the PO installed.

I took Barney out for an after-dark drive tonight. Lights on bright, gauges all indicating a happy engine. Heater pumping out welcome warmth, while the 259 burbled through the dual pipes. The car's really starting to be fun to drive now. I've loved this Stude for a while - now I'm beginning to really like it, too.

Adventures in shock-land.

Tomorrow Barney goes to the brake shop for new binders and an alignment, so I wanted to do a job I'd put off for over a year - changing out the rear shock absorbers. I wanted this done before the alignment, since the angle of the front wheels will change along with the angle of the rear end.

The reason I'd put it off so long is that, to be perfectly blunt, changing the rears is a royal bitch. The upper shock mounts are located in a frame cross-member that lies in the highest part of the floor pan, the kickup over the rear axle.

I took the photo above laying underneath the rear axle, looking up at the left upper shock  mount. There wasn't really enough clearance to get a good angle for the photo - so you can imagine the working space! The through-bolt's head goes in from the front of the car; the self-locking nut is in behind the flange on the rear, in a tiny recessed space between the cross-member flange and the trunk floor - just enough space for a box-end wrench, but not for a socket+ratchet combo. With the exhaust pipe in the exact center of the working area, getting your arms in there to hold the nut and turn the bolt is kind of like driving a '75 Buick through a slalom course after a night of heavy drinking,

 

Caution: to do this at home, you need to jack up the rear wheels for clearance. This means that the parking brake is rendered useless. Be safe - use wheel chocks before and after both front wheels, and jack stands under the rear axle under the springs. I also leave the floor jack under the pumpkin as well for good measure - better safe than sorry. Don't take short cuts with your life!

It took me about an hour and a half of sweating, spitting and being drowned in a shower of rust flakes from the exhaust pipes to get the left shock off. In the process, I managed to run over my own shoulder with my creeper and raise a bruise the size of Catalina Island (ouch).

The old shocks were still operable, but obviously tired. The replacements were the same exact Gabriels that came off the car!

The new shock went in without much effort, since I now knew where everything was. I chased the threads on the mounting bolt just to clean them up, then proceeded to install the shock. The only hang-up was with my torque wrench: the bolt had to be torqued to 45 foot-pounds, and my 3/8" wrench with the 12" handle doesn't go that high. So I had to use the 1/2" drive, with the two-foot handle... which meant that I had just enough angle to turn the bolt one click with each swing. Getting it to torque was an interminable process, but I did it.

The right shock went much more smoothly, taking only a half-hour to R&R (albeit with another gallon of rust-flakes dislodged).

Once the shocks are in and the nut on the bottom stud is tightened up, be sure to add the locking nut. These are not included in the shock absorber hardware package, and the Shop Manual decrees the use of PAL nuts. Luckily I had some left from the front shock installation, which I'd gotten online from Aircraft Spruce.

Just snug the flat side up against the stud nut and they're locked in place, yet still easy to remove! Pretty smooth.

After all was said and done, it wasn't that bad, but would certainly be a lot better using a hoist :)  And, even with the tired old leaf springs in the back end, the car sits about 2" higher!

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 8: Spriings, A-Arms, Finished!

I can't tell you how glad I am to have this project done! Yesterday at 7PM, just as daylight was running out, we pulled the jackstands and chocks and dropped the Lark back onto her own 4 skins. Whew! Just one day ahead of the Code Enforcement deadline.

In my last post, I said I was going to try to get the coil spring on the next day. Well, it took a week to try. On Saturday, I rented a spring compressor from Kragen and set to work.

Unfortunately, the threads were stripped. I took it back, but then had to hunt down another; fortunately, there was another store two miles away. I tried four times to compress the spring enough to get the A-arms together far enough to coerce the kingpin into the steering knuckle support, but no go - there simply wasn't enough weight in the car (the engine is still out). At that point, dirty and tired with nothing to show for it, I gave up for the day.

After a few posts to the SDC Forum and emails to tech guru Bob Palma, it was clear I needed to add pounds to the front of the Lark. I also needed to change my assembly sequence: instead of trying to connect the A-arms at the kingpin, I needed to follow the Studebaker Service Manual's instructions and assemble the entire steering knuckle, then bolt the upper A-arm to the frame while jacking the spring from below.

I went to Home Depot and bought 12 bags of landscape rock and threw them onto the front crossmember - good for about 200 lbs. Then, with the 9/11 deadline just two days away, I invited my brother-in-law Dave and buddy John over to help me get the thing back together.

It worked! With Dave adding another 160 lbs. of ballast and his wife Kitty spotting for daylight under the jackstands, I got the upper A-arm into place and bolted on.

Let me tell you, after the frustration and disappointment of the previous day, I felt like a rock had been lifted off of me! With the driver's side assembled and torqued down, we broke for lunch.

Mmmmm... Tri-tip sandwiches, hot cheese potatoes and plenty of cold Dr. Pepper. Finest kind :)

After lunch, we went back on and got the passenger's side together with a minimum of fuss. Dave had a church board meeting to get to, but John stuck around and we got the tie rods in place before calling it a day. (We could easily have gotten the wheels back on as it was only 4PM, but I had managed to misplace the inner wheel bearing grease catchers that bolt to the inside of the brake backing plates. And I hadn't yet gotten fresh bolts for the backing plates.)

My deadline was Tuesday (today), so I knew that Monday had to be the day she got buttoned up. So, after I dropped Reed at school Monday morning, I swung by DeNault's True Value (the last honest hardware store in Oceanside - thank God they're still here) and picked up Grade 8 bolts, nuts and washers in the proper size.

Side note: I learned, during this project, that you should never use anything less than Grade 8 split-ring lockwashers if you're torquing their associated fasteners to more than 20 foot-pounds. Those Grade 2 things in the bin simply tear themselves apart.

After work, I started bolting on the backing plates and packing the wheel bearings. Studebaker hubs go together very easily: put in the bearings, install the oil seal, shove 'em on the spindle. Slide on the keyed flat washer and then spin the wheel while you lightly tighten the big slotted wheel nut with a wrench. Back off the nut 1/4 turn, spin the wheel again and tighten the nut by hand. Then back off to the first slot and install the cotter pin and dust cap. Done!

All that remained was to bolt on the wheels themselves, which, with daylight waning, was done in short order. My wife, Terry, watched as I pulled the stands and chocks from the rear wheels, and lowered the jack. Light as you please, she slid down and was sitting on her own for the first time since May. Boy, that felt good! All that's left for the front end is to install the shocks and sway bar.

Now, with all four wheels on, we can finally drop the engine and trans back in. Woot!

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 7: Kingpin Installation

Well, it's been hotter than Hades the past few days. Too hot for working on cars, really. But I've been at it anyway :)

On Saturday, I began putting the Lark's front suspension back together. It didn't feel like I got a lot done; I started at 10AM and finished at 7PM, working pretty much straight through, and what I got done was reinstalling the upper A-arms on both sides, cleaning, priming and painting the front frame cross-member, bolting in the steering bellcrank center pin and installing the steering bellcrank. 9 hours for just that!



One of the SDC Forum guys mentioned that the cleaning and painting always takes the most time when you're doing repair work, and I think he's spot-on. I spent more time scrubbing and de-greasing that cross-member than doing anything else! But the results are worth it.

(I told my wife that the problem with making one part nice and shiny is that you want to make them all look that way! She wasn't laughing.)

Anyway, I got the goodies back on and was pretty happy at the end of the day. I learned a few important things, too:

• Get Grade 8 hardware for reattaching all the suspension components. Yes, I know the parts that came off were Grade 5, but after watching four split-ring lock washers twist in half and the bolt heads become deformed while bolting in the center pin, I decided Grade 8 is the way to go for anything this important.
• Use Loctite. Lockwashers are notoriously ineffective, and you don't want an A-arm dropping off at speed.
• Buy a good torque wrench. Did you know that the error tolerances given for a torque wrench are for the maximum torque setting that wrench is capable of (unless otherwise specified)? So if you buy one of those cheap Chinese $15 wrenches at Harbor Freight that are rated at ± 4% accuracy and will handle from 10 to 150 ft-lbs., that's 4% of 150 - six pounds plus or minus. Big deal, you say? It is if you're trying to torque a bolt to an indicated 10 ft-lbs.! What you're actually getting could be anywhere between 4 and 16 ft-lbs.! Not acceptable, and not worth betting your life on to save a few bux. Go buy a good Craftsman wrench with a direct-reading scale. You can't put a price on peace of mind.
• Studebaker's shop manual lists torque specifications for both the bolt and the nut for some fasteners, especially those pertaining to the front end. That means you must install the fastener by torquing the bolt first, then torque the nut separately to the specified amount. Watch out for these; they're easy to overlook.
• Upper A-arms are identical on both sides. Lower A-arms are not; there is a different part for the left and right sides. Kingpins and steering supports likewise are different parts for each side. Make sure you cross-reference the part numbers and double-check before installing them!

On Labor Day, my brother-in-law Dave came over to help me get some more of it together. I'm glad he was here, since he helped me puzzle out a few things that didn't quite make sense, even though I'd been going over them in the shop manual for months.

Before Dave came, I installed the inner shafts and bushings in the lower A-arms (freezing the bushings helps a lot! Just be sure to wipe off the condensation before pushing them in). By 10AM when he arrived, it was already 90 degrees.

We installed the lower A-arms and then moved on to the hard part - the outer pins, kingpins and steering supports. This has to be one of the most-talked-about operations on the SDC Forum, since it's a slightly complicated procedure that involves calipers, measurements to 1/1000-inch, a special spreader tool and 170 lbs-ft. of torque for each bushing! And if you do it wrong, all your hard work will be destroyed after a few thousand miles. No pressure!

We got the driver's side steering support on, only to find that the shaft would not rotate freely after installation. We undid the assembly and I called StudeBob Kabchef, who was nice enough to lend some phone support. Even though the manual doesn't say so, it helps to pre-grease the inside of the bushings (not the outside!). Also, I had measured wrong with the calipers :P

We re-did the lower pin, and this time it worked. The manual says that the pins must "rotate freely" when the spreader is removed from the A-arms, but what they mean is that it must rotate freely with several hundred pounds of metal imparting inertia. In practice, if you can move the assembly with your hand with some effort and the bushings do not rotate, you are good to go.

We then put on the upper pin (the one the kingpin rides on).

I'd been counting, very carefully, the number of turns each bushing had been turned, making sure that they each received an equal number of turns. But for some reason, on the top pin, the kingpin was not centered no matter how hard I tried! One of the grease seals was massively pinched between the kingpin and the bushing; the other side was barely compressed. I posted to the Forum, and we decided at 2PM to knock off for the day - it was just too damned hot.

Bless the guys on the Forum! My kingpin wasn't centering because it was designed that way. You see, that upper pin is an eccentric; it's used for setting both the caster and camber of the front wheels. You make adjustments by removing the Zerk fitting from the rear bushing, inserting a 1/4" hex wrench, and turning. One full turn adjusts only the camber of the wheel; many revolutions of the pin slides the kinpin forward and backward to adjust the caster. (If you want more details, read this Forum thread.)

Armed with this knowledge, I went out this afternoon and cranked the pin several turns to center the kingpin. Much better!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get the coil spring and steering knuckle on the driver's side, then on to the passenger's side later in the week. Stand by.

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 6: Steering Knuckle Bearings

Little by little, things are coming together. I needed to get new bushings and bearings pressed into the Lark's steering knuckles, and the usual shops couldn't help me. Finally, I found a machine shop locally that had been written up in Rod & Custom a few years back; Auto Power in Oceanside didn't flinch when I said the "S" word (Studebaker), and said they could press out the old bushings and bearings and set in my new ones.

True to their word, they got rid of the old and put in the new. The old bearings/bushings didn't look too bad, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. It appears the old bearings were factory installed, since the rollers (41 of them in each) were non-captive; service replacements used captive rollers.

After getting that work done, I masked and painted the knuckles and steering arms with Rustoleum, torqued on the slotted nuts for the arms, and installed new cotter pins. They now look a whole lot better than they did when they came off the car, and are sealed in gallon Ziploc bags waiting to get reinstalled.

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 4: Kitchen-table A-arm bushing installation.

I'm starting to reassemble my front-end parts now, whilst waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the final few bits that are on backorder at SI to arrive (grrrrrrr). One of the most discussed topics on the SDC Forum is front-end rebuilding, and it seems every so often someone posts a question about installing new the bushings that hold the control shafts in place.

The factory shop manual describes a complicated procedure that requires a pneumatic press and several custom installation tools once made by Kent-Moore (presumably unavailable today - I've contacted Kent-Moore via their website, but got no response). Well, most guys I know don't have these tools and have no hope, 50 years later, of finding someone who does. So after a little searching, I found this A-Arm Bushing Service Kit made by Minnesota Pneumatic Products (MPP). I got mine off eBay for about $50. The set consists of a large screw-type c-frame and several adapters for pushing bushings (excuse the rhyme).

What you'll need: The aforementioned service toolkit, a 7/8" socket, your A-arms, control shafts and new bushings. I stripped and refinished my old A-arms after inspecting them for damage, coating them with Rustoleum primer and gloss black. Same with the control shafts after carefully sanding the machined ends to remove the rust scale that had accumulated inside their bushing sleeves. (My suspension apparently was original - it had not been serviced or renewed since it left the factory. Amazing.)

Check out the new bushings. You'll see that they're "stepped." This shoulder prevents them from being pressed completely into the A-arms, since this would bind the control shafts and keep them from turning freely. Start by pushing the small end of the bushing into the A-arm by hand, then put the receiving end of the c-frame around the interior of the arm, and use the small press adapter on the threaded shaft. You'll also find that the service set has a selection of thin rings; choose the one that fits best around the exposed rubber on the outside of the bushing and slip it on; this will make sure that the tool presses on the outer metal sleeve of the bushing instead of pushing on the rubber, and centers the force as well so that the bushing doesn't go in cockeyed.

(Sharp-eyed readers will note that the adapter ring is not installed in the photo above. It took me a bit to realize that I needed to do this, since the tool set comes without instructions.)

Now, using your socket wrench, tighten the c-frame's screw and start the bushing into the A-arm. After a few turns, STOP! At this point, you MUST install the control shaft, since there will not be enough room to fit it in if you wait until the bushing is fully seated. Just insert one of the control shaft's ends into the opposite hole in the A-arm, and then swing the other end in and slide it into the bushing you're installing. DO NOT use any kind of lubricant or anti-seize on the control arm ends! I know it's tempting, but these were meant to operate dry.

Crank the screw until the shoulder on the bushing is about ready to meet the A-arm. Continue the procedure on the other side of the A-arm, capturing the control shaft end in the bushing as you press it in.

Look at the control shaft and slide it all the way toward one of the bushings. Do you see shiny machined metal? There shouldn't be more than .015" of end play in the control shaft; if there is, you'll need to press each bushing a little at a time to close the gap between the bushing end and the shaft's shoulder. Make sure that the shaft doesn't bind; you should be able to turn it easily by hand with a bit of resistance.

Voila! You're done. You can install the capscrew and washer combination that torques the control shaft to the outer bushing, but DON'T TIGHTEN IT until the A-arms are installed in the car and the weight of the car is on them; these need to be in "at rest" position before those bolts are tightened. If you tighten them in any other position, the A-arm will put a twist on the rubber and whenever the car is at rest, which wears it out prematurely (and we don't want to have to do this ever again, do we?). Bolt it to the frame and move on to something else!

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 5: Pop! Goes the Bellcrank

Yes, I know it's been slow around here. The front end is taking longer than I had hoped it would, due to the fact that a) I've been busy (read: lazy) and b) Studebaker International has been backordered on the Lower Outer Pin Kits since April, which effectively prevents me from nailing it back up (since my lower outer pins were completely toasted).

Also, my lower inner A-arm shafts (the big ones that mount the A-arm to the frames) were in terrible shape, much worse than I thought. They moved fairly easily when I removed them from the car, but that was only because the bushing rubber was rotted out; the shafts themselves were rusted to the steel bushing sleeves.

So it's been slow going. I've been contenting myself with copious amounts of degreasing, painting and numerous trips to my local DeNault's True Value to replace tired fasteners. Did you know that 3/8" - 20 x 4" Grade 5 bolts cost $1.09 each? Ask me how I know!

Not 10 minutes ago, though, I had a major victory. The last bit of disassembly had been eluding me: separating the steering reach rod from the bellcrank. Studebakers used center-point steering to the last, which is good because unlike GM's idler-arm ball-joint suspension, the Studebaker has equal-length tie rods that pivot from a central bellcrank, acting on outer kinpins and making for much better steering geometry and much tougher suspension overall. (If my '67 Pontiac's front end had been as worn out as this Lark's, I'd have been in a ditch on the first drive.)

Back to the point, I simply couldn't separate the reach rod from the bellcrank. It was bloody well stuck on there! I tried the pickle fork, of course - worthless. So I posted to the Stude newsgroup (alt.autos.studebaker) asking for advice, and it wasn't long coming. Dan Peterson advised that I get the "el cheapo" lever-type ball joint separator from JC Whitney (yes, I know... don't start), so I did.

$19.99 and 3 days later, the UPS man brought this little puppy and I eagerly went straight to the Lark and proceeded to pop off a stubborn tie rod that also didn't want to leave the bellcrank. Success! In 2 minutes, the ratty rod was staining my driveway concrete.

So then I proceeded to put it on the reach rod ball joint and tighten it down. A few cranks - nothing. A few more cranks - nothing. Another crank or two and -- I felt something give. Unfortunately, it was the tool; it's cast iron, and one of the ears simply bent off. I cussed (quietly of course!) and packed the tool back into the JC Whitney box for return to wheretheheckever they are, the reach rod quietly mocking me as I did so.

Well, two more weeks went by and another box came with the replacement tool. So this PM, as the sun was sinking over the fence, I decided to give it a go.

At first, it was much like the last time: a few cranks and nothing. A few more cranks - nothing. Another crank or two and -- well, I figured I'd just leave it on the ball joint overnight and see if the continued pressure would loosen it. And just as I was packing away my socket wrench, SPAAANNNNG! the joint let loose. Can I get a WOO HOO!

Public service announcement: Kiddies, if you try this at home, be sure to leave the castle nut on the end of the ball stud's threads so that the pressure exerted by the tool doesn't distort the threads. This also keeps the separated parts from flying apart at speed, putting a hole in your inner fenderwell, or in you.

So thanks to Dan, and also to the unknown Chinese laborer who cast the el cheapo tool that did the job. Patience and perseverance!

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 2

Well, the passenger's side is now apart, although it was a little more effort than the driver's side. For some reason, the steering knuckle lower support didn't want to release when I removed the bottom kingpin nut. Jacked it and let off a few times; the support would slip down about an inch and stop. I wound up having to unbolt the upper A-arm from the frame and peel it off like the Shop Manual says, but I was sweating and praying the whole time, with only the floor jack under the A-arm to keep the spring compressed.

When I finally got the A-arm disconnected from the frame, the car jumped about an inch and scared the heck out of me. Good thing there was a safety chain in place!

The passenger's side was worse than the driver's side. One of the upper inner pin bushings is completely gone; this is the one that the engine was resting on because of the collapsed motor mount. The rubber is non-existent, and the metal shell is egg-shaped and cracked. The upper outer pin had rust in the groove that the camber/caster adjusting pinch bolt goes through, and one of the upper pin bushings was seized and rusty inside, the same way one of the lowers was on the driver's side. Ugh. And of course there was three pounds of dirt covering everything.

After I got the A-arms off the frame, I started to remove the steering bellcrank center pin, but my pickle fork could not budge one of the tie rods, or get the reach rod off the bellcrank. I'm going to go out tomorrow and buy a proper tie rod puller - that oughta get 'em off. I figure I have about an hour more of work ahead of me.

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 3

Taking a short break from disassembling the passenger's side front suspension, and thought I'd post an update. (I'm taking breaks this time since last week I really morked my back.)

So far, so good; the shock, hub, brake and backing plate assembly are all off and I'm scraping dirt off the components; got about a pound out so far! Tons of grime and mud build-up on this car.

I tried to drive out that lower-kingpin-support-to-lower-outer-pin key while the A-arms are still assembled, but it doesn't want to budge. I'm going to have to have them both pressed out, I'm afraid.

I ordered new Gabriel gas shocks from Autozone on Tuesday and they arrived yesterday. The rears are in a FedEx box direct from the plant in Ohio! Guess they didn't have Studebaker shocks sitting in the regional warehouse :) I thought about ordering them online, but would've had to pay for shipping, so went to the local store instead. Hey, a buck is a buck! And this car is costing me enough of them...

More update later.

Shocking!

Shock absorber part numbers for classic Studebakers:

Front:
1951-1956 - Gabriel Classic Gas 82026
1957-1966 - Gabriel Classic Gas 82087

Rear:
1951-1956 - Gabriel Classic Gas 82060
1957-1962 - Gabriel Classic Gas 82151
1963-1966 - Gabriel Classic Gas 82103

Courtesy of Nate Nagel's Studebaker Interchange list.

Front End Rebuild, Pt. 1

Yesterday I began the process of rebuilding the Lark's front end suspension. This has been a long time coming - the engine and transmission have been done for months, but the front end was so bad I wanted to rebuild it before reinstalling them. As you can see in the picture, the components are so worn that the car was going down the road knock-kneed, and no amount of adjustment was going to bring it back to life.

I ordered the Big Box O' Suspension parts from Studebaker International. It was a big chunk to bite off at one time - the rebuild kit is nearly $1k, but they give you a "large order discount" that knocks the price down 15%. Then you get about $250 more back when you send in your old kingpins and steering bellcrank, so it comes out to about $650 all told. I also got a new set of coil springs wound to factory spec from Coil Spring Specialties. They are two turns shorter than the Stude originals, but they're about 0.035" thicker (I measured), which makes up for the shorter length.

I got started about 9AM, putting two sets of jackstands under the car just for good measure. The shop manual gives pretty clear instructions for removing the springs and disassembling the front end, but I wound up using the process posted on Bob Johnstone's Avanti Pages, an excellent compilation of Stude technical info.

The manual calls for compressing the spring with a floor jack and then releasing the upper inner pin from the frame, peeling the upper A-arm and kingpin off to the side of the car, and then releasing the spring by lowering the jack. Bob's process seemed a lot safer to me: you still use the floor jack to keep the spring compressed, but you instead release the lower kingpin retaining nut, allowing the kingpin to come out of the lower A-arm when the spring is released.

It's important to jack the car and place jackstands from the correct locations. Lots of people will put jackstands under the transmission crossmember - which caves in the crossmember (mine is). Instead, you place the stands under the frame just behind the wheel arch, about even with the front door posts. There's a frame plate that connects to a body support on each side; the jackstand fit naturally into the plate. For safety's sake, I also put a 2nd set of stands on each side. (The rear wheels were chocked firmly front and back as well.) The front jacking point is under the steering bellcrank center pin.

After removing the wheel and tire, the first order of business is to remove the shock. Mine were at least a decade old, completely blown, and without the locknuts on top of the piston, which had allowed the bushing to be destroyed and also shaved the threads of the piston off as it moved around inside the shock tower. Once out, I compressed it easily with my hands - it didn't move out again :)

After pulling the brake drum off, I assessed the condition of the hub and brake parts. The hub came off easily, but the grease in the bearings was a dark, mud brown - obviously not repacked for a long time. There was lots of material on the shoes, but one of the adjuster equalizing rods was disconnected and laying against the hub, and although the cylinder was dry, the pistons were at a pretty odd angle. Something else to look at before it all goes back together. (I'm planning on converting the brakes to a modern split system, so new lines and hoses are on the list.)

After unbolting the backing plate, I wired the assembly to the frame rail to keep the (at least 20-year-old) brake hose from stretching or breaking. You can't see it in the photo, but the upper A-arm rebound bumper, located on the frame below the upper arm, is completely destroyed, and crumbled apart in my hand. There was also an amazing amount of crusted dirt and old lube covering every part - I must have scraped off at least a pound of dried crud. It covered the kingpins, filled the A-arms, coated the fittings and supports. I really believe that someone left this car in a field of mud for a long time; there's even dried mud and thistles inside the frame rails!

At this point, I made a bit of a mistake. There is a tapered key that locks the lower kingpin support to the lower outer pin, which must be driven out. I forgot this step and, once the A-arms were out, found my mistake. The keyneeds to be driven out upwards while the suspension is still assembled, so that the weight of the car and the pressure of the spring pushes down against your pin punch while you drive the key up. You can see the top of this key in the photo; apparently the factory staked the key once installed by center-punching it. Since I missed this step, I'm going to have to have it pressed out hydraulically.

I used a pickle fork to remove the tie rod from the steering knuckle, and it was time to free the spring. It's not in the shop manual procedure, but Bob's technique (and several others I read) say to put a safety chain through the spring, over the frame rail and even underneath the floor jack. In case the spring decides to fly out of the A-arms when pressure is released, this will keep it from flying through you.

In this photo you can see the routing of the safety chain through the spring, around the frame rail, under the jack. The jack saddle should support the A-arm just inboard of the outer lower pin, NOT below the pin itself. Make sure the car is jacked up as high as you can get it, because you'll need a lot of space for the spring to decompress. Bob's instructions say you'll need at least 6 inches between the bottom of the kingpin and the floor; 8 inches are better.

After raising the jack under the A-arm to keep pressure on the spring, I removed the cotter pin and nut from the bottom of the kingpin and, with my wife spotting for trouble, slowly released the jack. Note that the jack handle is pointing toward the car's centerline, so that if the spring flies, you're not in its way!

The second I released the jack, the spring pushed the lower A-arm down and the steering knuckle dropped off the kingpin onto the floor. Inspection of the needle bearings once again found that mud-colored grease, but the bearings seemed OK. There was quite a bit of heat marking on the kingpin in the areas of the upper and lower thrust bearings, though.

Once the spring is decompressed, it pulls right out of the A-arms. Now, using a breaker bar and a 1-1/8" socket, I unscrewed the bushings from both the upper and lower outer pins. Undoing the pinch bolt on the upper kingpin allows the upper pin to come right out. Having pressed out the tapered key from the lower pin (as described above) allows the lower pin to be driven out of the lower kingpin support using a brass drift.

At this point, I found that one of the bushings on the lower outer pin was seized to the pin. This is particularly distressing since the bushing and pin are designed to rotate together as the A-arm moves up and down! Probably one reason why the suspension was so shot. Hopefully this condition did not tear up the lower A-arm; if it did, I'll need to obtain a new used arm. Won't know until the parts are cleaned up and inspected.

With a lot of leverage and effort, the bushing began to back off the pin. That's when I noticed the rust; this is why the bushing and pin were seized. Water got into the joint and rusted the assembly from within. Perhaps if the pin had been lube sometime within the last 20 years, this would not have happened, but when the bushing came off it was empty and the remaining lube inside was pitch black.

Once the kingpin was off, the only thing left was to dismount the A-arms from the frame. The upper is held on with two bolts; the lower with four. They came off easily. When I undid the bushing capscrews on the lower inner pin, however, rust came pouring out! More evidence that this car was parked in a wet, dirty location for
a good length of time.

Finally, after 7 hours of work, the driver's side suspension was off the car. I had hoped to get both sides apart, and while it was only 4PM, I was beat. Now that I know what to expect, the other side should go faster, and I'll tackle it next weekend.

I jacked up the car and lowered the jackstands to nearly road height, and placed another stand under the steering bellcrank for safety's sake, and then chained the chocks to the rear wheels to prevent pilfering. Then I took a half-hour hot shower :) Stay tuned for more!