Projects 53 COOP (Studebaker) gets a major makeover

Correct.
I've got two Studebakers with four wheel disc brakes and no...booster. The master cylinder is also still under the floor. I figured...why clutter up the firewall with more crap than necessary..!
They are two toe pedal efforts to stop well.
On one car, I used GM calipers in the front and Ford calipers in the back. The other car is all Wilwood, Dynalite calipers. The Wilwood calipers have the same piston square inches that the other car has with the factory calipers.
The car with the Wilwood parts (master cylinder also) has been on the road for at least 6 years.

Mike

 

Irish- FYI, the car has a cad motor, w/ Dual quads, and supercharger, thanks.

 

Well, I guess it's time for an update.

Well, I took a fall yesterday. Hurt my shoulder. Going to orthopedic doctor this afternoon. Well, I guess it's given me time to work on a update....

So in the previous post, I got the shortened steering column in place and the R&P tack welded in place. So next, I cleaned up the hole in the firewall and tack welded a filler piece with a temporary clearance hole for the shaft to pass thru. Then I mounted the 3/4" spherical rod end to stabilize the upper steering shaft near the center U-joint



I found a neat seal at Summit Racing. I think it is used on a Jeep. It has a hole that fits on a 3/4DD shaft at one end, a bellows, and is just about 2" OD at the other end:



It is forced to rotate with the DD shaft and the rubbing/sealing surface is at the other end. I am going to have it slide inside a 2-1/4" OD piece of exhaust pipe with a 7/8" washer (2-1/4" OD) capping off the behind-the-firewall end and it will be held in place by a 3/4" set collar at the outside end.

Here's the assembly blown apart:



I machined an aluminum bushing that fits inside the ID of the washers and onto the OD of the DD shaft. This will hold the tube concentric with the DD shaft while I tack weld it in place on the firewall. Then, finish welding, remove the washer held on with the Gorilla tape, and remove the tubing forward of the firewall until it is flush. Finally, I slide the seal and shaft collar onto the shaft and the firewall will be suffciently sealed.



Meanwhile, with the removal of the Studebaker steering box and column, the support system for the column proved insufficent to provide a stable aftermaret steering column. So I built a new support out of 1 x 1 tubing and moved it rearward enough to make it easy to install the Vintage Air Gen II Super Cooler.



Now the steering column is stable:



Other than that, I did get my new driveshaft...Thanks A-1 Driveshaft in Baltimore.



I'll turn the old driveshaft carrier bearing support into a driveshaft hoop.

The R&P is now solidly mounted.




I am waiting for Jegs delivery of some banjo fittings for the hoses on the power steering pump so I can make sure all is copacetic along that line.

Pretty soon I will start on modifying the front suspension. I have the upper and lower Camaro ball joints, 2" dropped 67-69 Camaro spindles, and disc brakes. I decided that I will use the Studebaker upper control arms as well as the lower (as originally intended. I figure I can make the upper inner control arm pivot shafts adjustable with slots for caster/camber, similar to what some manufactureres have done with the MII conversions.

I also have all the pieces parts to start building the 2" stainless exhaust with turbo mufflers.

Now all I need is my shoulder to be OK......

 

Hope you are doing better soon.
Still loving your detailed build posts.

 

Happy New Year.
Hope the shoulder is doing better.
Any update?

Phil

 

And a Happy New Year to all the HAMBers around the internet. Per an MRI, the rotator cup was torn. I have had no pain, just reduction in function working overhead and started PT last week. After a month we will re-assess as to surgery, but probably not. Yesterday, I moved stuff around the garage, put my wife's Solara outside under a car cover, and started minor work (not overhead). I will be updating this thread, but for now, here is what I was working on:

 

Rack vs suspension pivot points wrong.
Please be careful driving this car.



Mike

 

Mike, will you elaborate on your comment a bit?

I can imagine that the steering linkage may not have ideal geometry, but the inner tie rod pivot points appear to be at, or very close to the original Studebaker bellcrank position.

My question above relates to whether your comment is based on the premise the original geometry is flawed and/or this R&P conversion hasn’t improved it?

It would seem the steering geometry would be no worse than original, which in my experience with these cars, is not a problem in normal driving.

My interest in this is that I have a ‘56 Sky Hawk that needs a new engine and the steering system is an issue to me for the same space utilization reasons that @Irishjr is addressing.

Ray

 

Earlier pics indicate that the tie rods mount near the center of the rack, so whilst the arcs don't match the suspension they're possibly OK? At least they're long and not short as they would be if coming from the end of the rack, if I've taken your point correctly.

Might be the camera angles but some of the steering universal joints look to be trying to operate beyond their capacity. Probably solvable with those double jointed affairs??

Chris

Sent from my SM-T515 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Not. so, Mike. This is a Grand Am rack that has two threadded holes to which the adaptor that I will make attaches. The center moves back and forth, not the tie rods out the ends, as on more conventional R&Ps.

This is a picture from a firend's '41 Chevy that I used the same setup. It works fine, especially after determining the length of the tie rods using a bump steer gauge.

 

Shop I worked at chopped a 53 stude
Did a wedge chop.
Basically cut the windshield post, laid it back and leveled the top
Stock glass used un cut
Looks cool

 

The u-joint angles work ok. Remember that this is not a driveshaft, This is steering and even then it is on the power steering side, so the loading is very light on the shafts.

As an aside, the '53 studebaker had a 2-piece driveshaft that had a 7-1/2 degree bend on the tranny output. Now tha WAS a problem!

As to the chop I wanna do, I want to CHOP it, not snip it! ......but that's a long way off.

Then again, if anyone out there has done a chop where the wrap-around rear glass has been buried into the body, please let me know. The Stude rear window is tempered glass, so my feeling is that burying it in the trunk and tilting it to match the curve I want to build, is the way to go. If that is not the case, I will go to a new safety glass and have it cut.

 

I was not there when this one was chopped
not sure how they did the back glass

 

I've been by that car and love its radical lines. But, race cars don't have glass windows, so that doesn't count

Part of the reason I'm chopping it is I always wanted to do a curved-glass chop. That's why gentleman's chops also don't count (too easy).

Boy it's great to be back on the HAMB and back on the 'Baker!!!

Hell with the shoulder.......

 

I just found the thread and read though all three pages and studied the tar out of the photos.
I can relate to that rotator cuff, I've got one that usually only acts up when I reach up or lay on my left side wrong.
I'm a bit worried on the angles of the U joints on the steering but you will figure that out with the first couple of drives after you have it together. They will either work smooth or want to bind up a bit.
Keep posting that progress.

 

If you met the owner of the streemlinerI posted, Paul Gilliam, he passed away Friday
great guy, he's gonna be missed.

 

Well, not gonna argue with you, but I've done enough front suspensions and fully understand geometry to know that, that...rack...is too long for "your" application. The inner pivot points aren't even close. It should be a straight line...NOT a "Z" to connect the three points.
I had to have my Mustang rack shortened to go into my Stude, so...I know that you have a situation there.

Again, just be careful driving it. Your bump steer (corners) will be a handful.

Mike

 

Mike, the rack here is does not work like your Mustang rack.

Enlarge this photo and see that it steers from the middle, not the ends.
Hope this helps.

 

The center moves back and forth and the bracket that I made allows the length of the tie rods to be about the same as the distance from the inner shaft to the ball joint on the lower control arm. On the '50 Olds that was done in R&C a number of years ago, they made the mistake of having made an adaptor with tie rods that were way too long, and the bump steer was about 1"!!!! Then they made a new adaptor WITH SHORTER AND CORRECTLY POSITIONED TIE RODS.

 

Bigger!

 

It's a center steer rack. This puts the inner tie rod locations almost exactly back to stock, or at least as close as you can get without the original monkey motion these cars have.

 

Never messed with one of those racks. Interesting. But I did tear up a shoulder in a skiing accident. All I can say is take it easy and rehab it. They can not guarantee how good the surgury will end up so I chose not to do it. Took a year for everything to come back to almost normal. Now, 2 years out my bad shoulder is almost better than my good one

 

Never messed with one of those racks.
Interesting.

Studebaker had some goofy stuff with their stock setup.

 

The interesting thing to me is, no one mentions that the stock Studebaker
manual steering setup is a twin in configuration to ‘49 thru ‘54 Chevy. The steering box, drag link, center bell crank.....the system is a like design.

My ‘56 Sky Hawk has factory power steering (IIRC, a Ross unit) that is a huge contraption. The ‘54 Chevy P/S option uses the exact same unit with a minor 90* difference in the ‘clocking’ of the upper housing.

Ray

 

I installed a manual version of your steering gear in my 53 Chev. Works fine except for a rather large turning radius. I have not compared this to a stock Chev, probably pretty close.

 

@anthony myrick The Stude setup is almost identical to the Chevys from about 39? through 54 and Corvettes through 62. Yep, lots of pieces to replace as they wear out.

 

Interested to know the make & model of the manual unit you mention above.

Ray

 

I will be using Camaro steering arms with the 67-'69 Camaro dropped spindles. The steering arms have a much shorter radius from the spindle than the stock Studebaker arms from the kingpin. The Stude has a TERRIBLY LONG turning radius. The rack travels 6" end-to-end. I think I will have improved the turning radius with this setup. The tie rod ends will be identical in length, will be centered in their operation, and be at a length that will minimize bump steer.

Can we just have a wait-and-see attitude about this issue.

As to the shoulder, guys, this shoulder had a minor tear of the rotator cuff that was repaired in 2003. At almost 77, the bod is getting pretty worn, so I guess I will live without the surgery and adjust. I really wasn't looking forward to wearing that special sling for 6 weeks, anyway.

 

Not ‘39......but from ‘49. ‘41 thru ‘48 used a steering box that was mounted to the frame rail, just behind the suspension arm, with a cross steer Pitman arm with double tapered holes for a short/long tie rod set.

 

Those racks are notorious for enlarging the turning radius on 49-54 Chevys, but those cars turn pretty tight. If the Stude has a big factory radius, then this setup should be about as perfect as you can get.