Technical Studebaker Lark Project

Since you are in Europe, maybe check out steering boxes from right hand drive English vehicles too.

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Hey, Milo;
My '64 Stude Lark Cruiser, w/a 289, p/b, but nothing else, steered a bit stiff when I got it. Talked to a few knowledgeable Stude folks, made sure all the kingpins & other steering joints were well greased, & replaced the worn center pivot joint bushings w/caged needle bearings n new seals/orings. Cheap n easy to do. Steered very easily. No, not "pinkie" steerable at rest, but very little muscle effort. I did use radials, which increased at-rest steering abit, but made driving much more enjoyable. A fellow Stude-fiend-friend tried it out after I had done the work, & was very impressed w/the result. . Steering is a little slow, which makes for an easier job of it, but you can use later avanti steering arms to speed things up a bit - although then the effort also goes up. I'd try it 1st, you & wife might be happy w/it. AFAIK, the only rack that will (sortof) duplicate the Stude suspension design, is out of a gm fwd cavalier; it's called a center-steer or center pivot rack, I think. & the mounts get, uhm, "interesting". As mentioned earlier, Stude front suspension was designed (~'51) for really lousy roads, worked & lived well doing that. Do be careful of wheel offset, & watch your "kingpin-inclination-equivalent" tire scrub angle(at the moment, I can't remember the actual term for ifs version of this), which can make your steering a lot harder than it needs to be, among causing other problems.
As far as brakes, I had the OEM discs, but the current aftermarket stuff is better. On the SDC forum, this is the way I'd go now : https://www.studebaker-info.org/Tech/sbca96/Cobradisk/cobradiskm.html , even though I have a couple sets of the Levecke(sp?) brake stuff. IMHO, much better n easier to acquire parts. Stude front suspensions were the same from '51 -> '66, afaik.
BTW: if you don't have a factory manual get one, rather than a repop. Pics are worth it, & they're not expensive, bu the info is worth it's weight in gold.
Marcus...

 

Old Studebaker guy here. Many people have never actually driven a new or a well maintained Studebaker.
I had pleasure of driving a couple of new ones from day one back in '62-'66, and have since driven hundreds of thousands of pleasurable miles in Studebaker's with manual steering.
With over 50 years of actually owning and DRIVING Studebaker's, particularly Lark models, year round in all kinds of weather, I can tell that the steering when in good operating condition is really not all that bad. When fitted good shocks, an anti-roll bar, and reasonably sized front tires, the steering is certainly reasonably firm and responsive.
A Studebaker V-8 Lark's handling deficiencies are more a result of being a relatively small short wheelbase vehicle burdened with 650 lbs of good old American cast iron Studebaker V-8 right over the front wheels. This was improved in the '65 and '66 models with the fitment of the much lighter McKinnon SBC. A Ford 302 can remove over 200 lbs from the front end. Or even better, a aluminum Buick/Rover 215, ...or any of dozens other of the newer light weight aluminum engines.
Spending thousands swapping in a different front suspension, or rack and pinion steering, no matter how perfectly it is enginerred, is not ever going to effectively resolve the problem of a short wheelbase vehicle with the weight distribution of a hammer. My advice, rebuild the Stude suspension, fit heavy duty shocks and front and rear anti-roll bars, and use as many weight reducing aluminum engine components as you can find.

 

I am in the process of fitting a Mopar Magnum/46RH now so the front end should be a fair bit lighter. I have no objection to driving with manual steering its just trying to squeeze into a parking space could take a bit of effort as here in Spain it's about 80% parallel parking . One of the reasons for power steering was because the Magnum engine has a pump already fitted but i have decided for now to fit a 318 water pump and V belts thus deleting the PS and AC pumps with the serpentine belt. With no AC and power steering to deal with the car will see the road sooner and the first inspection for road use its better if the engine looks as old as the car as if they suspect its a modern engine i'll have to pay for engineer inspections and lots of red tape.
I was looking at how big the trunk is today and thought i could probably fit the battery in there.Also realize now it would be a difficult car to fit rack and pinion steering on.
Is the Stude V8 a tight fit ? I have the Magnum sump 1/2" off the bell crank and fitting the driver side headers are going to be interesting with the steering box right under the aft exhaust port.

 

I am going with the manual steering for now as after previous comments and further inspection i see how troublesome fitting a rack and pinion would be but it may have helped with the driver side exhaust clearance. Got the 59-64 shop manual on pdf so will overhaul everything in accordance but like the idea of needle rollers . Interesting article on the brakes as i was thinking of doing something similar but machining off the drum section and fit longer studs with floating rotors. Need to finish the engine install first before i pull the wheels off and see if possible.