Graham's Corvette Blog and Studebaker bits 'n' bobs

We had a warm day of +15 so I took the opportunity to get my painting done. I used Krylon gloss black from t he parts shop and it went on nice and should look good on the car. I used one coat of etching primer and three coats of black.

I also did the outside of the air filter. Came out nice and smooth. I did the top with silver metallic wheel paint for a bit of contrast. Again one coat of etching primer and three coats of black. The wheel paint only needed one coat.

Back to the door – The motor is installed after I secured the gear plate to the regulator arm with a nut and bolt. I’m using motorcycle chain lube on the motor gear and the gear plate. It sticks well and should remain on the gears and not drain or wear off.

Regulator and tracks all ready to be re-installed. The cover plate is back on the motor. I used white lithium grease in the tracks. It should last for many years before going hard. the regulator rollers seem good enough, but I’m thinking of ordering a replacement kit for all six rollers. In for a penny….

I already removed large mouse nests from both doors and here I find another tucked up towards the front.

Cleaned out and looking as it should!

Another part that came with the car, but wasn’t installed is the cold air intake setup. I discovered that it is meant to be attached to a dual snorkel air cleaner. I’ll likely stay with the single snorkel unit so I need to block off one of the connections.

I traced out the shape of the opening on a piece of paper and then used that to cut out the shape on a piece of 1″ pine. I attached it with four sheet metal screws and gave it a coat of black paint. It sits over to the right side of the behind the radiator and facing down so shouldn’t be too noticeable.

Next: door locks and sport mirror install

Door work will include repair of the regulator so the window will go to the top, replacing door lock and removing anti-thieft connections, installing a sport mirror with remote adjuster and finally replacing the damaged armrest and door handle escutcheon.

Easiest part is removing the door panel.

The manual doesn’t tell you to remove the window before trying to get the regulator out so it was a bit of a mix up getting it all out. OK in the end.

I locked the gear plate to the body with a nut and bolt as per the manual and then I removed the motor. The problem was obvious. Chewed up teeth at one end that stopped the window from reaching the top.

I removed the bolt holding the gear plate to the body, drove out the centre rivet with a suitable punch and then flipped it over to cut off the two rivets holding the gear plate to the regulator arm.

The new gear plate kit included two new pins to attach it to the regulator arm. The instructions with the kit say you can weld or rivet the new pins. I chose to use a peen hammer end to rivet the pins to the plate.

I re-riveted the spring mount pin also using a hammer peen. The two new pins are on either side of the spring mount pin – one is the pin to hold the end of the spring. I’ve spread some white lithium grease around where the spring sits.

I’ve cleaned away most of the old grease without putting the parts in a parts washer. The larger wheel has a leather seal which I didn’t want to damage. I’ll put it all together with lots of white grease. There is a little wear on one spot of the large gear wheel. I’ll try to re-install it so that the worn part is not a the top of the window travel.

Next; more door doings.

Air filter insides – I put on a coat of rust primer and then a coat of Tremclad gloss enamel. I find I can get a pretty smooth finish using a fine bristle brush and a bit of patience 😉 I’ll paint the outside with automotive spray bombs for a nicer finish as soon as I can get a day warm enough to paint in the barn upstairs.

Picked up a nice set of sport mirrors from Moland’s. I’ll paint these black and see if I can install them without doing too much damage 🙂

Also got a good used arm rest for the drivers side and two door handle escutcheons. I’ll paint them with fawn vinyl paint that matches the interior nicely.

Got all the hoses attached and the PS system tested out. I kept the pump disconnected and got the engine warmed up so it would stay at idle. I then connected the pump and started the car. It emptied out the pump reservoir right away and I needed to refill before testing.

I used this tool to set the nut on the end of the control valve (behind the silver cover in the shot above. I needed to turn in and out and find center which is hard with a ratchet. It was a bit tricky following the instructions in the manual. After a few tries I think I got it right. The manual says I should be able to move the piston rod in and out by hand When it was centered and I was able to to that. I then turned the steering from lock to lock a couple of times with the piston attached and the control valve nut adjusted and all seems OK.

Front wheels back on. I’ll do a final check on the steering when I get out again in the spring and do more adjustments on the control valve nut if needed.

Next: time to do some door work.

Using my handy Princess Auto punch set and a curved carving awl I cut out a new gasket from some thin fuel and oil resistant sheeting I got in a package of assorted gasket material from Fel Pro.

New pump rod in place with lots of vasoline to help hold it in place. Even so it kept slipping down after a short while – bloody gravity 😉

A thin bead of red high temperature gasket maker on both the gasket facing the engine and the cover plate. A little extra at the bottom where the oil accumulates before flowing back into the block.

All in place. Still a bother to get in place even using studs which had to be removed to get the proper bolts in place from outside in the wheel well via a gap in the fibreglass apron. I’ll be seriously considering a full time electric fuel pump when I do the engine rebuild.

My brass plumbing to eliminate the double curve in the fuel line to the carb. Just enough room to get the feed and return lines attached. I used aviation thread sealer by Pematex on all the threads.

I expected to have to pour gas down the carb a couple of times to spin the engine enough fill the carb and keep the running, but to my surprise it caught on the first try. Fast idle kicked in and I only had to up the idle speed once the engine warmed. The idle mix screws were initially set at 4 turns out. I increased that to 5 turns out which brought the engine speed up and smoothed the idle somewhat. I’ll wait until spring when I can take it out and really warm up the engine before adjusting the idle mix to get the highest steady vacuum.

I picked up a used single snout air cleaner from Moland’s Corvettes. I’m removing the cold weather stove heater setup for a cleaner look. Here it is sandblasted. I’ll do some sanding and hole filling before painting. The cover is already ready for painting.

Next: a bit more work on the air cleaner and then it’s time to get the power steering parts back on the car.

Part of the problem is the learning curve. This is the first Chev motor that I’ve actually done a lot of work on. I’ve done 6 and 8 Studebaker motor rebuilds and so didn’t think much about replacing a fuel pump. After poring over the shop manual for some inspiration I realized that it would be a problem should the fuel pump rod slip out of place. This engine has over 144k kms and is quite worn. Worn enough in fact that the fuel pump push rod did slipp down to the bottom of the fuel pump mounting cavity. So I removed the inner plate and there was the rod ready to fall out on the floor.

This is where the push rod should naturally fit. With it down the fuel pump lever was up against the rod and of course there was no pumping happening. As a result of the push rod being out of place it got bent slightly when I installed the fuel pump. I was able to straighten it enough, but there is a chance it will bind when the engine is hot. So off to the parts house today for a new push rod.

For some reason I can’t rotate the photo so the view is sideways.

A little work on the Stude – I noticed that when I drove into the garage the front end ‘clunked’ as it went over the ledge up onto the garage floor. While doing the grease job I noticed this. Two of the inner A arm rod mounting bolts had come loose. The nuts were almost off! That could have done some real damage. Only thing I can think of is that I missed torquing these two bolts on assembly. Easy fix with a good smear of blue locktite and a torque to 65 lbs. Oddly all these bolts lack lock washers and have to rely on the correct torque to stretch the bolts and keep things tight.

Next: time to get the fuel pump on and the Chevy started:-)

Salt on the roads and it’s time to take ‘Moody Blue’ the ’66 Studebaker Commander off the road for the winter. I’ll be switching between the Chevy and the Stude over the winter. I need to do work on the doors and a the hood. Also I’ve decided to put the front bumper back on and see if I like the look better.

The engine and the AC worked flawlessly over the summer. I was able to switch back to the original primary needle springs and still not get any hesitation. Bumping up the timing from 4 to 8 degrees did the trick. It eliminated both the take off hesitation and the sluggish acceleration from stop when the AC was on.

Meanwhile back at the Chevy my startup after the carb job and a new fuel pump was a failure. Spun the engine over many times and no fuel. Put a little fuel down the carb and it started right up. Did that a number of times and still no fuel. Good side is that when it did start for a brief time it ran at a nice fast idle. It should be OK if I can get the fuel up.

Nothing for it but to pull the pump and check it out. The old short fuel pump isn’t correct for the ’79 model. Hard to see, but the pump arm on the new pump is further out from the mounting face. Could this be the problem? I’ll take the pump back and get a new one in case it is faulty.

Next: more on the pump and a bit on the Studebaker.

Extra long end to the fuel line. I’ll cut that later when the carb is in place and I can check that the curve of the rubber line to the carb won’t kink.

Finally found the correct choke pull off diaphram – Standard CPA141 – I got this number from Rock Auto and gave it to the local parts store and they were able to get it next day.

All hoses and linkages in place.

One problem I did have was with the trans throttle control cable. It is a different style from the original and the top was high enough that I couldn’t run my PB vacuum line – it had to pass through the grommet on the lower right and pass over the throttle cable. Fortunately the bracket opening is square and I only had to file a new alignment cutout on one side to allow me to turn the fitting 90 degrees. That gave me the clearance needed.

I thought it would be a good idea to put a bubble at the end of the fuel line like most factory parts. I used my double flare tool and just went about half way on the first stage which gave me a nice bubble. I did the same for the short line coming out of the carb.

Fuel line hooked up and I’m just about ready to test it out. I’ll need to set the trans throttle cable and unhook the PS belt from the pump. I earlier opened the line to the gas tank and no leaks so far. I also replaced any hoses that had become stiff with age and heat.

A failed attempt to match the curves in the original fuel line from the fuel pump outlet to the carb. Even copper\nickle is hard to bend using a pipe bender when the curves get too tight. I tried making the curve longer which worked pretty good until I tried to make the second curve upward.

The old fuel pump has a flared fitting built into the pump. Not so with the new replacement. It is built with a pipe thread fitting.

I’ve put together some fittings that will eliminate the need for a sharp curve around the fuel pump before it heads upwards toward the carb. Now I have a pretty straight run upwards. It’s a tight fit, but just enough room.

I straightened the old line I messed up and used it to get the general shape needed for the new line.

I borrowed a better pipe bender from a buddy and was able to form a new line. Not a job I like doing. I moved from beneath the car to the top at least 20 times before I got the fit right.

Just enough room to get the fitting on the pump.

The Quadrajet carb unlike some others put their choke fast idle mechanism behind the choke rather than on the other side with the throttle linkage. The secondary linkage is also swapped over to the primary throttle linkage side. this setup just makes it a little more difficult trying to work on the fast idle behind the choke housing.

All the settings were OK, but the choke pull off vacuum – to the right of the choke housing – is defective and doesn’t pull the lever all the way. I located one locally and should be in today.

To follow the carb rebuild instructions you need a couple of special tools which I don’t have. One is a degree scale and the other is a tool to bend the various tangs to meet spacing specifications.

Fortunately the service manual includes a page showing the matching inch-thousandths measurement for readings on the degree scale. In some cases I could then use a matching drill shank, a caliper setting or even a small piece of stiff paper/plastic of the right size.

As I said earlier this is my first Qjet rebuild. I’ve done numerous one,two and four barrel carbs including Carter AFB and Edelbrock square bores. Of all those carbs this is the most difficult. The linkages are more complicated and harder to work on. Especially trying to bend the various tangs. Rather than try to correct some settings I left them as is because of the difficulty of trying to bend tangs without damaging other linkage parts since I didn’t have the correct tool. The carb seemed to run fine before except that the fast idle system wasn’t working properly. It was one of the two problems I found. The fast idle control arm was seized on the throttle shaft and the second was the choke pull off system.

The carb is now ready to be installed (once I add a new choke pull off – bottom centre). I now need to bend a new fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb – should be fun! I bought a length of copper nickle 3/8″ fuel line for the job.

Before I test the carb I will finish re-installing the PS parts and then take the PS belt off. I’ll start the car and get the carb working properly before I connect the PS and check for problems there.

This is my setup to keep the carb up off the bench while I do the assembly and adjustments. Looks a bit wobbly, but with a couple of nuts on the top of the threaded rods it is quite steady. Here I’ve just put the carb together to see if the threaded rods were long enough.

Carb parts all ready for the install plus a new kit bought off Amazon. The kit covers a number of Quadrajet carbs so there are extra bits and double mid and top gaskets.

Here the carb has been assembled with new gaskets. There are no adjustments to this point except the float level which was bang on even with the new needle and seat. I follow the instructions in the service manual and only check the kit instructions when needed. On the left are the old mid and top gaskets. Good that I didn’t toss those since I used them to select the correct gaskets from the kit.

Last task before checking the settings is to install the rear vacuum port adapter. I used some Permatex thread sealant for the job.

Next: checking the settings.