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:
Car broke today. Here are the details!
Time for spring cleaning on the Studebaker. I am a little behind this year but last weekend I finally got a chance to get some work done. First step is to check the sediment bowl on the fuel pump.
Fuel pump
There were a few bits of crap floating in the sediment bowl. Not too bad.
Sediment bowl
The gas from the sediment bowl got recycled for cleaning the air filter. The air filter is pretty unsophisticated. It is just some copper wool with some engine oil on it to attract dirt. I cleaned it with gasoline, let it dry, then re-coated it with oil.
Air filter
Time for an oil change. Draining the oil from the pan is easy
Oil drain plug
But the filter is a pain. I have a Fram partial-flow oil filter installed that uses a cartridge-style filter.
Fram oil filter canister
After unscrewing the lid the old filter pops out
Old oil cartridge
Leaving behind 1/2 liter of old oil.
Oil left in filter can
All the oil has to be sucked out. Leaving this tasty treat.
Nice layer of sludge in the bottom of the filter can
After sacrificing a rag to the oil gods we have a nice clean filter can.
Oil filter can all cleaned up
A new filter from NAPA (1006). The filter just slides in then the can is filled with oil. A new gasket for the lid is included with the filter. 5 quarts of oil later and the oil change is complete.
New filter cartridge
Next I topped off the battery with distilled water.
Battery cells are a little low
And greased the chassis. There are grease fittings everywhere as well as oil holes, cups, and pads.I also adjusted all 4 brakes.
Front suspension grease fittings
Then this happened. Monsoon season shut down my fun for the day. The car and I both got soaked. Spark plugs and points will have to wait for another day.
The tires on the car look great but they are 30 years old and rock-hard. I was going to try and get another year or two out of them but I started to see cord though the rubber. So I ordered new Coker Classic radials. Wide white walls of course. That and new tubes make these the most expensive tires I have ever bought. I took them to Precision Alignment and Tire who as usual did a great job installing them.
Before and after shots:
