Is it ever going to end? I have been at my 63 studebaker wagon shop rig off and on now for the last few years. seems like ever time I complete a small project I find another new problem.Lets see. -Try to ajust old studebaker brakes.wheels cylinders leaked,had to replace wheel cylinders! -Order in new rear brake for studebaker. install brakes,Then find out rear axle is bent! -Can`t find axle so replace with 8 inch ford only to find out all seals are shot and wheel bearing are junk! replace with new seals and bearings -Replaced rearend,only to find old drive shaft is too short!hunt down and make new drive shaft! -replaced all brakes new,second set for the back,Now new M/C is no good! -Replace M/C with right one.decide to taken this puppy for a run.Boom,cam is gone!! There was a number of other things in there as well.Motor was ceased up,stuck valve,major trans leak and my new exhaust started to leak!! I can never get ahead with this wagon. I wanted it on the road this summer but that never happen.Now I starting to think next summer might be a bust too. Don`t think the car wants to be done. anybody else ever have trouble like this.
You have to quite shoping in junkyards for your running gear is all I can say about that...Or do your homework and inspect parts before trowing them together.
You've changed a lot of stuff that really didn't need to be changed. A Stude rear end wouldn't have been hard to find and you had the brake parts already. Same with the engine; a Stude V8 would have cost less than a 'brand x' engine. All of this and you wouldn't have needed the driveshaft. This was mentioned to you when you bought the car.
With all the reading I done on the rear axles I read that it is better to swap out the stock axle with aftermarket.Also I would have to order these parts in. Ordering parts to Newfoundland Canada is costly.This is why I went with a Chevy engine and 8 inch ford.Both were local and cheep. Wonder what a studebaker V8 would cost me if I had one shipped to me.No there are none in these parts that I can find.know of 2 six cyl cars and rearend are different then mine as well. This is a shop rig so It will be a high mileage car.I want it so I can go to my local parts store for parts.
Nothing wrong with junk yard part.Alot of new stuff today can be trouble.I have seen new parts fail within hours of being installed.other then the rearend all parts were working perfect when I got them.the rearend was mint to look at but when it was stripped apart I found all the problems.Fixing the rearend and what it cost me was less then $150 total.The engine has been in the car for over a year,ran great till yesterday.
Baloney... He bought a rearend that came from a Comet Cyclone that died a flaming death on the rotisiree in a garage fire. The rearend wan't in the car at the time and is absolutely PERFECT to look at...but being stored outside for a while it must have got some water in the bearings. Unexpected, as they usually stay good indefinately...but this one was an exception. STOP going thru junkyards or pulling old stuff from the woods? Thats where the HISTORY lies. NOT in a SUMMIT catalogue or with IDIDIT or whatever! We all complain sometimes...but we deal with it. **** happens...he knows that...Fitzee is just antsy to get this old Stude out. Homework? Inspecting stuff? "Trowing" parts together??? Its called PRE***EMBLY...(and I've yet to see Fitz THROW stuff together.) You do pre***embly so that you don't end up completely rebuilding 5 rearends or whatever figuring out exactly what you need to make the rig work. The original rearend was worth the try...until that bent side axle was discovered. He couldn't find one and decided that, seeing it would be throwing money into a marginal ***embly at best, it might be better to simply upgrade now instead of later. He bought NEW as needed once the issues came to light, and he'll continue as needed. Our Studebaker dealership closed a few years ago BTW...you want Stude parts you hit the junkyards. (In some other Province or State...'cause theres none around here in the yards!) Also, theres no "KIT" to put together a SBC Stude wagon. You build it. Sounds to me that in your mind if it didn't get dropped off at your door prepainted, polished and with instructions it has no business being part of a Hot Rod (or shopwagon...) buildup! Man...WE do not see eye to eye on that! I'll order something ONLY when all other possible ways have been exhausted. Because I cheap? Not so much...although I am... but because I feel in my simple mind that its how Hot Rodding is meant to be. Remember...unless your into restorations... It's NOT carved in stone that "Tab A ALWAYS ends up in slot B."
I threw a F*rd 8 inch in my '53 Commander. The original brakes were pretty poor and the new ones were a substantial upgrade. Plus the old Dana 44 (which was broken) had tapered axles and required a specially hub puller to service the brakes. There is someone who sells flanged axles for the Stude Dana 44's if you want to stay original. I would have thought the '63 would have had the flanged axles by then, though. Good luck with the motor!! There's a fellow named Jim Turner who makes a great front disk brake conversion for Stude p***enger cars '53 to '66 and he has a little piece that will let you go to a dual MC. It's fairly inexpensive and easy to install. I've done two of them.
Look, I'm not a 'Stude only' guy, but that was the cheapest way to get the car on the road. There are a lot of Studebaker guys in eastern Canada that would have been willing to help out. While the Chevy engine may have been easier to come by, the cost of the swap would definitely be more than just tossing another Stude engine in it. Now there are trans issues, mount issues, rear end issues, driveshaft issues, etc. You were advised of all of this on the Studebaker website. And there are plenty of guys who have Chevy's in their cars and they tried to tell you the cheapest way and you ignored them. I really can't feel too sorry for you, that's all. Studebaker used Chevy 283's in '65 & '66. A cheap parts car would have netted you a flanged rear axle ***embly that would have bolted in place and used the same brakes. It would have given you all the motor mounts, exhaust manifolds, a transmissions that would bolt up and a driveshaft that would fit. All of the Studebaker vendors carry the mount stands and motor mounts. A GM overdrive trans can be easily installed with instuctions on the Stude website, with or without a Stude engine. All '65 & '66 cars came with the flanged axles. As for the Stude V8, these are just as dependable as the SBC. Your local auto parts store may not carry parts, but they are available from all the vendors by mail-order. And your car would be on the road.
I heard the best saying this past week.....applies here perfectly: "The good news is that I'm winning the race - bad news is that there's no finish line". You better enjoy the journey!
I kind of know how you feel. Bought a $700 '62 Lark a few weeks ago. It runs great, but had brake issues and a heater core leak. Its my daily driver right now while its too icy to ride my motorcycle... so I tore into the heater and fixed that, and the blower motor. Today I pulled the brake master cylinder and rebuilt it- works real well! No more pumping for me! I bled the brakes and gave the car a good once over and hit all the grease fittings I could find. The drivers side wheel cylinder has a busted off bleed screw...so I need to find a new wheel cylinder now. Also found a broken off stud on one wheel. I will order those parts ASAP. Also managed to adjust the transmission linkage so that it goes right into reverse without playing "slot machine" with the column shift and getting lucky enough to have it go. So I ****oned it all up and the wife and girls wanna go for a ride. I figure that the car is golden now so they can go in it. We make it about 10 miles and they start complaining about it being too hot, so I push in the "pull for heat" knob and the climatizer valve pukes its guts out and sprays hot coolant allover the wife's legs. SO anyway..Yeah, I think I have a glimmer of what your going through. 'Cept I am keeping the 259!
I hate to tell you that putting a SBC in this never cost me much more then time.This is not my first time Putting a SBC in a rig. I put a 350 in a stock Chevette engine bay,Now that was hard.Just to let you know.If I went and found a Stude V8 the cost of it and shipping it here would be close to what you have in your car. By the way which is too cool. My problem was as I fixed one problem another would start. I am having lots of fun build this wagon.She just putting up a fight
Get used to it. It is part of the game...comes with the territory. You could always take up coin or stamp collecting. Stamp and coin collectors don't have these problems.
I really can feel your frustration,The Olds in my avitar is currently sitting ,broken at my cousins house,200 miles away. He loaned me an isuzu trooper, that sofar has needed an alternator(a total ***** to change and $183.00) and will soon need valve cover gaskets(they look harder than the alternator). I guess the point is, soon you will be driving the Stude, and this **** will all be some thing to laugh about. Just dont get everything fixed, sell it out of anger, and let some fool it drive all over the country. ****, I'm rambing again...
hey FITZEE...you just need a HUG man. unfortunantly that's what hotroding is about. hell if it was easy, very body would have 1 ! you know? but i do feel for you, just need a little break, like 2 years! ha! no realy take some time away from the project, believe me it HELPS! call me POP...or the old FART.
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