Still waiting for my torque converter so I can install the engine &$@! But there is no shortage of jobs to be done to complete the project. Time to look at the parking light housings.
Lots of pot metal corrosion and even one large hole – see the screw driver. Checked the vendors and I can get new ones for from $150 to $250. Hmmmmm. This is supposed to be a budget project so I’ll save that money to by and AC unit instead.
A little scratching around with a dental pick and low and behold lots of hidden rot. Looks like a job for ‘Fiberglass Man’!
Both cleaned up and sanded. I’ll be painting the inside with bright white paint to improve the visibility of the lights.
Got two little strips of fiberglass covering the damaged areas. Looks simple and should have been except that my garage is too cold. The first try wouldn’t set. The second try with more hardener also didn’t set. The third try worked with extra hardener and placing the lights in the warmest part of the garage near the ceiling!
Finished the exhaust system with two coats of high temp POR15 silver. Look good and ready to install once the engine is in place!
Looking good with a coat of ultra high temperature POR15 silver. I will put on a second coat and then try to cure it with a heat gun. It needs 350 degrees for 15 minutes and a cool down for it to reach max temperature resistance – 1500 degrees.
Exhaust manifolds and pipes. Ditto as for the intake manifold.
Got enough POR 15 to do the exhaust and tail pipes so why not! These are original Studebaker pipes so as heavy as you can expect to get. Should do me out… as they say.
Gasket with a very thin coating of anti seize. I also coated the accelerator plunger bore with Vaseline. It’ll be moved up and down some while I make the linkage adjustments.
Together and ready to have the linkage rods installed and all the initial adjustments made.
All linkages in place and adjustments made. The instructions with the kit were less than complete so for the most part I used the service manual for up to ’64 cars and JT engines. The initial choke setting is hard to figure from the instructions. You are told to put a .028 gage wire in a slot in the choke piston bore and then let the piston slot come up against it. No bore slot is visible. It’s about half way down the bore! Took awhile to get that figured! The other problem setting was the fast idle. If set according to JT needs the step down doesn’t work well. Just one jump from fast to the first step and after that the steps don’t matter. I’ll have to work that out with it on the car. It should go through3 or 4 sets getting down to warm idle. The only other issue is that the connecting rods are all a bit loose in the arms which makes it difficult to get exact settings. I’ll just have to work out the lumps once it is running.
Next job will be to install a 12 volt relay and a power point. I’ll use the power point for the electric fuel pump, radio and AC when it gets added later. The switch is a momentary on that I’ll use to prime the carb from the electric fuel pump before each cold start.
I’ve installed the fuel pump priming button in between the hood release and the drivers vent. The 12 volt relay is to the right of the vent button and beside that is the power point. I use ’62-’66 tachometer junction block for the power point (#1546393)
So far I’ve attached the radio and the electric fuel pump to the power point. If and when I install AC I’ll also connect that to the power point. Takes some of the strain from the ignition switch.
Getting these linkages back correctly was a bit tricky. Fortunately I had the second AFB to use for an example.
It’s always a good idea to take photos to help with reassembly. In this case the second carb has a different setup from the one above. So the photo and the manual where needed.
The sample carb’s choke linkage is very different and does not use a spring to kick off the choke idle cam.
I forgot to mention that I coat each gasket with a thin film of anti-seize compound. Just in case I need to take it apart. I don’t want the gaskets sticking and tearing. I’ve read where others use a coat of penetrating oil for the same purpose.
I’ve decided to drop the idea of a 1″ spacer under the carb. There isn’t a correct spacer for the AFB with small and large openings. Just lots with 4 large openings. So it meant I would have had to sleeve one type or have a local shop make one up out of aluminum. Maybe later, but for now I have a 1/2″ heat spacer I’ll use. With two thick gaskets I’ll be adding about 3/4″ – as long as that fits under the hood.
Here is the sandwich on the intake. The bottom one is made of old fashioned asbestos I think!
Next I’ll be setting the carb once the new jets arrive.
Can’t really see it too well but the new seat on the left is a tad longer than the old unit. According to the instructions you need to use three of the gaskets supplied for Carter models. Turns out that is way too high for where the float fulcrum sits and there is no room for adjustment. Back to one gasket and there is room for adjustment. So much for blindly following the instructions!
This is the new needle! The red part is a floating ‘fluorocarbon elastomer rubber disc”
Sorry for the blurred photo, but you can see that this new needle sits atop a raised circular opening at the bottom of the seat. This is “designed to prevent flooding, caused by dirt, rust, excess fuel pressure, etc.” As a result it is supposed to maintain a constant fuel level. ” In addition, it will increase performance, give smoother idling and increase fuel economy.” Sounds like an ad from the back of a ’50s car mag.
Sits nicely in the seat, but without an attaching wire to the float. I guess it isn’t supposed to stick to the seat.
Floats in place and adjusted to spec as listed in the Studebaker manual as opposed to the kit instructions. The settings for the float level as seen above were a bit obscure. GT Hawks at 9/32″ other models at 3/8″. However the Stude manual shows 3/8″ for JT engines and 9/32″ for other 289/259 units. I’ll go with the 3/8″ as see how it goes.
I opted to clean off the needles with alcohol and a scrub pad. I then lubed the springs and plungers with a little fluid film to be sure they slipped up and down easily.
Another handy little tool that I picked up years ago and I have often used if for small screws. I imagine the newer models have a simpler mechanism to hold the screw heads.
Next I’ll get into the carb base and the side mechanisms.
Starting to get parts back on the car. Good time to do the wiper motor while the engine is out. Not much to do here except a clean up and adding some white lithium grease to the gears.
Trying out Tremclad aluminum gloss paint on the dull grey aluminum of the thermostat housing.
Looked OK so I did the rest of the carb body. My rebuild kit arrived and I will get at it soon. Still waiting for the new jets.
Most of the other linkage parts were rusted to a greater or lesser extent. Rather than paint them I opted to soak them in Fluid film after sandblasting and wire brushing. I hope the treatment will get into the pores of the metal and keep them from rusting once back on the carb. Just don’t think the carb will look right with all the linkages painted aluminum. Didn’t come that way from the factory.
The only other things needing paint were two linkage springs. I gently wire brushed them with a small brass brush and then applied the aluminum paint. It is a rust paint so should stick OK. I pulled each spring a little bit so they would not stick together when painted.
Carb dissassembled and put through the sand blaster. It would have been nicer to use bead media, but at $80 a bag I’ll give it a pass. 90 lbs pressure on the air hose and I believe I got all the sand out. I blocked off the fuel passages to keep some of the sand out. I also ran a brass wire through all the passages and blew them out again. Before blowing everything out I put it through the parts washer again.
Fortunately I have a donor carb. It will also be useful when it comes time to get all the springs, arms and levers back in the right order. Turns out this doesn’t seem to be a Stude carb, but no matter, it’s an AFB.
The Stude carb has the front setup with a cotter pin and spring in the auxiliary throttle. The spring was attached to the center of the venturie It seems to be a set up to help the flap the return the the rest position and/or to slow down its opening. In any event the donor carb’s aux throttle has much heavier return weights. So I’ll use that rather than the rinky-dink cotter pin & spring setup.
Unfortunately the carb cleaner didn’t free up both idle mixture screws. One broke off. So I drilled it out as much as possible without damaging the threads and used a small round file to open the hole up to the original size for threading. I then used a tap and it seemed to follow the original threads nicely. Sometimes you get lucky!
No matter how much I blew out the secondary throttle shaft it still felt catchy. Of course when I tried to get the brass screws out two broke off. Par for the course with these screws which is why I would have prefered to leave them in place. Fortunately I was able to drill and tap them out. The donor carb provided two replacement screws. No problem getting them out of the donor carb – go figure!
The throttle shaft was a bit rusty and that was the problem. So I ran it through the wire wheel and then sanded just enough to get the high bits off. It now operates nicely. I put the screws back in with red permanent thread locker as the screws were not long enough to counter punch and I didn’t want to chance bending the shaft anyway.
I tried to remove the jets without damage but, one became toast. I ground off a screw driver so that it fit the jet slot snugly. Still ended up screwing up the jets. I hoping to get two new primary jets from Stephen Allan’s otherwise I’ll be on a search!
The gaskets have been in place so long that the carb cleaner couldn’t loosen them fully from the aluminum body. So I used dental picks to scrape them off just like when the dentist scrapes off the plaque from your teeth. I get them for free from the dentist. They are the worn out tools. Just ask for them the next time you are in for a checkup. Handy for all types of jobs on old cars.
Lots of little bits to clean up before the re-assembly. Gaskets to be scraped off and screw heads to be polished with the wire wheel. Then bagged and kept together. Fortunately Stephen Allan’s were able to supply new primary jets for the 3589S to replace the damaged ones. The kit still hasn’t arrived, but that’s not an issue. I don’t plan to re-build the carb until I have it positioned on the engine and fitted to the gas pedal and the trans. The original AFB wasn’t designed cables to the gas pedal or the trans. Also, I’m working out the best way to add 1″ under the carb.
This is the original ’63 Carter AFB 3589S(?) carb from the Jet Thrust engine. I’m hoping I will be able to control the trans control cable with the ’66 trans’ carb throttle arms as is or with mods.
Lots of crud buildup and aluminum oxidation on the outside.
Inside isn’t looking much better inside.
The plan is to disassemble it and put it in carb cleaner and see what it all looks like. I’ll clean off as much crud as I can before putting in the cleaner and let soak overnight. The idle mixture screws are stuck so I’m hoping that the cleaner will loosen them up.
The original JT1841 intake Manifold. Rust on the some of the runners and crud under the carb.
Sand blasting, scraping with dental picks, cleanout with wire brushes in the parts washer and a high pressure blow out.
This air cleaner is from a wrecked ’63 Avanti. If I use this I should be able to get a 1″ spacer under the carb which was suggested by Jim Pepper, to help the fuel get around the tight bends. I actually owned the Avanti that donated the air cleaner.
I won it as a prize in the Keystone Chapter annual car draw in 2002. I did a lot of work on it and sold it in 2014. It looked good and ran well. The new owner only had it a year or two and was rear ended and rolled. The roll bar saved him, but he did break a leg and lost teeth to the steering wheel.
A sad wreck. This is it sitting in the back yard of a fellow club member who bought it for parts for his ’64 R2.
There is probably a tool to remove this rear seal, but I don’t have it or any puller that can do the job.
Ended up driving a hole it in and collapsing the ring enough to fall out. The housing is aluminum so I was a bit concerned about damaging the sealing surface.
In the end it seal came out with no damage to the sealing surface.
Again there are seal seating tools, but I have never gotten around to buying a set. I just use light hammer taps from side to side with a hardwood block.
Seal in and ready to go
It was easier to re & re the front input shaft seal. As you can see it has an exposed lip. A few taps with a small chisel on this lip and the seal popped out. New one in place.
Trans is now ready to be installed. Now if only the torque converts shop would get mine finished. I gave them a new ring gear and two torque converters. They couldn’t remove the ring gear on the old torque converter without damaging the unit. I”m hopeful they will be able to build one good converter out of the two I gave them! This is likely the first Studebaker torque converter they have come across.
