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Nelson

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Posts posted by Nelson

  1. You are right on the traction required. The traction actually comes from the steel balls giving a little bit at the interface with the race. Sort of like where the tire meets the ground. A friend tried precision ceramic drive balls in a blower thinking since they were lighter they wouldn’t have the tendency to spread the outer races from the centrifugal force at higher rpm. What happened is the balls easily slipped on the inner race. The ceramic balls did not flatten at all at the interface so could not get traction to transfer the energy.

    As for Valvoline synthetic trans fluid not working out in your blower I’m not sure what to tell you. I’ve had multiple failures with type f fluid and none with Mobile 1 synthetic. A friend down in Australia just wrote me the other day. He has less than 2000 miles on his rebuilt Paxton running type F fluid and it started growling so is now off the car and into the repair shop.

    Also, at one time Paxton Products used the engine oiling system to lubricate the blower. They discontinued that method but I think due to contaminating the engine oil when the inevitable blower failure occurred. 

  2. I’ve mentioned this before years ago using type F trans fluid.I noticed the dipstick would get very hot, especially on long trips. It was so hot that I needed a rag to insulated my fingers from the dipstick when pulling it out to check the level. I also went through drive sets too often. I changed over to Mobil 1 synthetic trans fluid. I found that I could now check the oil without using a rag but just my bare hands. I would think this tells me the fluid is not being sheared at the bearing interface which would produce the heat. My bearing problem is gone. Maybe the B&M Trickshift does the same thing? Did you notice a reduction in blower temperature on trips or even around town?

  3. Maybe I was just more impressionable at twenty years old but it sticks like glue in my memory. I’ll bet you were in your younger years when that tri power GTO made its mark in your memory?

  4. I’ve driven Studes with all the different R engines and the one that sticks with me as the best sounding from the driver’s seat is actually the R1. The reason could be that my first hippo Stude was a 63 R1 4 spd which I flogged relentlessly. The exhaust was running through silent mufflers and was a good sound but the induction noise when the secondaries of the afb opening was shear symphonic. It just made me want to run it to 6200 rpm and power shift to the next gear which I did often. The only improvement to the induction noise would be four two barrel Webers.

  5. Yes they do bolt right on the big bore engine. Hopefully we will see how that assembly goes in the near future. The engine is earmarked for a factory Super Package Commander. 

  6. On 4/19/2025 at 6:24 AM, mfg said:

    I wonder if the one or two experimental 340 CI Studebaker engine blocks, that made it out of the factory, had any type of numbering I.D. on them?

    No they didn’t number them. Even the standard casting number was on them. They were cast on Veterans Day 1963 by the date code. There is a V or N (?) cast into the side of the block. This block was discussed in an old SDC thread.

  7. 23 hours ago, mfg said:

    Yes Nels, A physician who lived in Newburyport, Mass ordered the car in late ‘55… The  purchase order notes ‘special order’, monochromatic velvet black, overdrive, power steering, and delete hood and fender top ornaments.

    Also, there’s a Speedster streamer attached at the body tag so, I guess, folks on production line would understand what was going on.

    The car was driven to 130K, then in 1965 its 259 engine spun a bearing and the car was put into storage for years.

    I purchased it in 1990, and gave it a fairly nice restoration, including complete rebuild of the original engine, repaint, new leather interior, etc.

    Back in 1990 I really wasn’t looking to purchase a Speedster, as I had owned one previously, and had moved on to Avantis, however, I felt this one was an oddity I couldn’t pass up.

    PS…. At local Stude meets I made up a little sign I place in front of this Stude… l refer to it as…’THE DOCTOR’S CAR’!

     

     

    As I said, pretty cool. The doctor had good taste.

  8. 16 hours ago, Dwight FitzSimons said:

    Not that it matters (also), but I have R-5407, originally R1 and 4-speed, no AC, gray with Claret interior.

    Now has engine problems and is going into garage for engine repair.  Paint (Avanti Maroon) will come later.

    Dwight. Is that Walt Boetchers old car?

  9. A note on correct Avanti water pumps and how they differ from standard pumps. The tower on the Avanti pump is taller than a standard V8 pump, the bearing used in both pumps is the same. The position of the Avanti bearing is closer to the front of the car which is allowable due to the taller tower. The fan pulley mounting flange is pressed on the shaft almost to the top of the casting tower on the Avanti style and not nearly as far as with the standard V8. The distance from the fan flange mounting surface to the gasket surface is the same on both pumps. The water pump bearing have a front set of ball bearings and a rear set. The Avanti setup, with correct pump, all the belt load is distributed evenly between the front and rear bearing set. When using a standard V8 pump all the load is taken by the front set of bearing. The result is rapid bearing failure at the front of the pump.

  10. Some of the Bonneville cars had #’s lower than B9. I would think the B #’s started at 1. Some may have been destroyed on a dyno  but the numbers certainly would have started at 1.

  11. I always thought the car probably had frequent engine changes so they just never reinstalled a fan shroud. However, the broken idler during the road test could be the reason. I remember Andy saying the car always overheated which it most certainly would with no fan shroud. You would think Andy would have realized that? That was back in the day when Avantis had shrouds with the bottom section in it. Later everyone started  cutting the bottom of the shroud away which made changing water pumps a much easier job.

  12. 23 hours ago, mfg said:

    I’ve wondered how much attention was paid to the occasional ‘streamer’ attached to a body tag screw….With the streamer, body tag, and firewall all painted the same color, and the bodies moving along on an assembly line,I’m sort of surprised those occasional steamer tags were noticed at all!

    Did the  ‘64 R3 Commander sedan have a streamer? With all of its special equipment one would think it would have!

    No. It may have a 4 speed tag but I don’t think it does. It was a 259 three speed car (?) pulled from the assembly line and moved to engineering for installation of the R3 package. I imagine the car was pretty near completed when it was pulled. I know convertibles started life as a hard top then went to another area where the roof was cut off and convertible components added. I would think that would be Pre frame but i am uncertain of that.

  13. Bob. I never heard Studes were delivered without floor covering?  I know seat belts were in the trunk in 1964. Are you sure you don’t have that crossed up? The carpets were installed with twist type nails to get a nice fit. The tool would have been air powered I would think.

     

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