Danger - due to the combined effort of working on the Suspension, Steering, and Brakes, this will be a long story.
OK, it is time to get serious about the reliability of the ChevyBaker. When we started the replacement of the transmission (Transmission Swap Project) we discovered the car is pulling to the drivers side under braking.
We took the car to a local tire shop (who provide tires to all of our vehicles) that also does brake work (like they all advertise) and as soon as they removed the rim they stopped. It seems that they are not allowed to work on vehicles with wheel adapters... (per the shop manager)
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Our solution was as follows:
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Sounded simple when it was said outloud. The manager then, very calmly, expressed that his team had limited experience with older cars and they primarily work on disc brakes. That their tools are for more modern applications and while it is not the amount of time it was the lack of experience... OK - Fine.
Going to another shop they put the ChevyBaker on the lift and after a few minutes stated, "We don't think the problem is the brakes!" We were then shown that lateral movement of the tire means that just about every part of the suspension and steering "moves". $%^& It is time to fully address this issue. Here is a quick gallery of the suspect parts:
Granted we did very little work on "some" of these items before but this was just general cleaning and some replacements. Now its time to fully dive in and replace things that are needed.
The conversation with the shop manager when something like this:
Me: "I can buy just about all of this. If I purchase the parts - can you install them?"
Him: "Yes"
Me: "The reason I ask is because some shops will not install parts the customer brings in."
Him: "We wouldn't know where to start so Yes. I don't have a way to quote the cost as Studebaker is not even in our system."
Me: "I would fall over if you could."
We then discussed the hourly rate and did come up with a rough time allotment. Returning home we spent approximately 5 hours looking over the Chassis Catalog which works as follows.
Step 1: Background information needed
50' StudeBakers came in 3 models, Champion, Commander, Land Cruiser. Each model has a designation based on the model year.
For our model and trim level this equates to a 17A W-3 with serial number 4842092. The serial number is actually quite important as some parts changed a bit during the production run.
Step 2: Find the appropriate Plate Illustration. Example:
(click for full size image)
From this we see the "Tie Rod Boot" is number "1207-36"
Step 3: scrolling down to the table of part numbers we find 1207-36.
On the right we see this is common for models 14A to 17A and that we need 4 of them per car. On the left side we see the actual part number is "198388". In the center we see the part's actual name is "OIL SEAL, BALL STUD". Of course this may not be the name used by the vendor.
Step 4: Going to our primary parts vendor (Stephen Allen's) we enter this number into the search field, cross our fingers, and hit the search button. IF the part is found the page(s) containing the number will be displayed. Lastly, from that page the short and long descriptions are used to confirm the part and the price is found. This was done for the following Plates which are specific to the model 17A.
- Plate 12-4, Steering Knuckle Control Arms and King Pins - Model 17A
- Plate 12-5, Steering Knuckle Control Arms Stabilizers
- Plate 12-9, Steering Lingage - Model 17A
- Plate 12-10, Upper and Lower Control Arm Repair Kits
- Plate 11-4, Brake Controls - For Cars with ST. adn OD. - Model 17A
The above steps were performed for a total of 112 parts. From these; 71 parts were ordered ranging from $1 to $195. The parts are being gathered by the vendor with some being requested from their supplier. Basically we are replacing everything possible and cannot thank the guys at Stephen Allen's enough! (Matt and Danny)
The last thing we did was to take the original plate images (above) and draw green and red boxes around the illustration numbers to denote what is and is not available.
Order Placed at MyStudebaker.com
Photos of shop work.
We would like to thank Gustavo for all of his hard work!
Once the steering and brake work was completed it was time to get the final alignment performed. The brake shop, who also installed the steering components, did not have the equipment needed to perform the alignment. They did however reference another shop. We are trying to get the ChevyBaker to this shop now.
The last thing to do was to install a new return spring.
By clicking on the Next button you can see the timeline that unfolded between us, the shop, and the parts vendors.
Conclusion: more to come.