Weather was nice today so I started the spring maintenance. First thing to do was pull out the spark plugs. They look super nice so I cleaned and gapped them.
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Installed a new(er) shock absorber this weekend. Click here for the full story.
I was really not happy with how the brake bleeding went back in December and the winter has been really cold and nasty. So nothing has happened since. Today was a bright sunny day (and almost above freezing!) so I dove in.
Over the last couple of months I have noticed the brake pedal is getting mushy. The brakes have been bled and adjusted so I am thinking the master cylinder needs a rebuild. After all it has been 13 years since the last time. Or so I thought. So when we had a 50 degree day in December I figured it was time to get to it. The only real problem is it is raining outside so I have to work in my very cluttered garage. This will be fun.
I took the Studebaker to the Dublin Auto Show yesterday. I have been hearing about this show for a while but never managed to get there. It was certainly a nice show!
OK, it is actually summer maintenance at this point. But better late than never. Continue reading
It was supposed to storm today but it ended up not happening until 4:30 or so. That let us get three different trips in for this year’s event. Car ran great and a fun time was had by all. I even bought gas.
It was a pretty nice day today so I decided to see what is up with my charging system. When a mechanical voltage regulator is charging high it is either the battery, the field wire, or the regulator. First I checked the battery. All three cells are showing marginal specific gravity. It might be failing. Next I checked the field wire from the regulator for continuity and shorts.
This wire was fine. So next I started the engine and checked out the voltage.
The voltage regulator is putting out good voltage. Finally I put my inductive ammeter on the negative battery cable. It is showing 15 amps of charge all the time. I think the battery is just not taking the charge. I will just keep an eye on it for now.
Since my spring maintenance (which I finally got to) the ammeter on the Stude seems to be showing a charge all the time. I took the battery out and cleaned the tray. Now I am wondering if I broke a terminal or something. I need to put a meter on it and see what is going on but I have been spending way too much time on the Jeepster project and neglecting the Studebaker. At least it keeps me out of the bars. Mostly.
It has been a while since I posted anything. The car has been running great so not much to report. And I have a new project sucking up lots of my time. But I did do spring maintenance today. I have shown most of this before but I do have some new #0 grease for the steering box.
This is a John Deere lubricant sold as “Corn Head Grease”. As you might expect it is green and very, very slimy. I cleaned out my least favorite grease gun to hold this stuff.
Here is the target. I pumped in a ounce or two. We will see how it looks. I also did the following:
- Changed oil
- Replaced filter and cleaned filter canister
- Lubed chassis
- Adjusted brakes
- Cleaned fuel sediment bowl
- Cleaned battery and battery tray
- Serviced battery
- Rotated tires
- Topped off tranny
- Topped off diff
- Cleaned points (did not gap them or check timing. Ran out of time)
- Flushed and filled cooling system. I kinda screwed up here. I calculated the antifreeze quantity based on the capacity in the service manual. I forgot (again) that the heater is being bypassed. So my planned 50-50 mix is more like 70-30. Whups.