I dismantled and cleaned both steering columns (PS type). The Automatic Drive unit you sent me was good inside; I'll use it but with my jacket - less rust.
My unit that I plan on sending you, the Manual Shift unit, shows some wear inside on the shift dogs. It's nothing to keep anything from working properly, but there will be some play in the gear lever. I'll go ahead and sent the unit to you - if you think I owe you some money your way because of the wear then I'll be glad to make an adjustment.
I've got everything I need now to do the full PS conversion except the two shift linkage rods from the steering column to the transmission. If anybody has those, they're worth money to me. They must be for a
1955 C/K with Saginaw steering and Studebaker Automatic Drive. 56 and later won't work. 53-54 might be OK. As Jon Myers told me, that pretty much means a President C/K which is pretty rare. He says PS was rare on Commanders and virtually non-existand on Champs. Part Nos.
534386 and 534576.
Otherwise, I'll have to make them out of my old Erector Set.
eh, not real concerned about it. I can probably build them up with MIG weld if they are that bad. I think at this point I'm more concerned about selling all my leftovers as a "kit" than actually using the column on my car unless someone waves a complete 3/OD setup in front of my face.
If you can borrow some shift rods as a pattern, I actually bent a "custom" rod for my car to hook the late FOM to the early column using a late FOM rod as a pattern, just used a large bench vice and a BFH, they are soft enough that you don't need to heat them. just get a couple Lark rods or something for your "stock"
Yeah, that's what I'll probably end up doing. There is one car locally, a C-President that belongs to Roy Barker (he of 1922 Studebaker fame), that has PS. It was originally manual. Roy did the PS conversion on it, so he understands the job. He's a pretty nice guy, so I'll ask him if we can remove the rods from his car to measure. I don't think there's much difference between the manual and PS rods.
So are you giving up on the 3/OD plan?
One time when we were talking, you said something about needing a gearshift lever? I've got several, none cherry, so I'll send one. They all seem to be buggered around the threads for the gearshift knob.
Speaking of knobs, the turn indicator knob seems to be 'fluted' with 4 or 5 grooves (lengthwise) in it. I got a new gearshift knob (my car came without one), but it is the straight, slightly tapered knob. I'd think the two knobs would be similar. What are the knobs like on your car - straight, fluted, matching? Come to think of it, the two knobs on my 64 Cruiser are completely different - maybe they're not supposed to match. JP?
For the time being; I would need the transmission, crossmember, and driveshaft not to mention the bellhousing, clutch, flywheel, starter, and complete clutch pedal assembly. I really want to get the car back on the road so I can enjoy it, so unless all this stuff falls into my lap within the next few weeks I'm just going to use a Flightomatic as the car is all sorted out with one. Also not sure how good an idea it would be to use a T86 behind an R1. I could use a T85 out of a '57 Golden Hawk, but I'm sure that would be somewhat difficult to find. I'm ASSuming that a truck T85 would be different.
No, I just needed the knob. I mentioned that the column that I was sending to you was missing the whole lever, but if you aren't concerned about it I'm not really, either. I think you can use the lever from the column that is already in the car.
If you look at the pics of the interior of my car on my website (can't link to them, I am at work at the moment) I believe that all the knobs there are correct. The only things that aren't correct are the color of the gearshift indicator (should be light grey instead of chrome) and the color of the gearshift knob (nobody has repro'd the gearshift knobs in light grey, only dark grey.) The original knob, which I managed to break, was exactly like the one on there but it is light grey. I am tempted to try to use some cyanoacrylate or something like that to put it back together as it broke cleanly, but I don't know how well that would work. The turn signal knob looks like a typical Studebaker turn signal knob, but again, it is light grey. I got that knob from Jon Myer and as far as I know he is the only person that has correct '55 turn signal knobs. Believe it or not, it took me quite a while to get the turn signal stalk; it was broken when I bought the car, I ended up having to buy a NOS early stalk from SASCO but it had a black knob, then buy the light grey knob from Jon M. I had no luck at several swap meets trying to find an early stalk; they're bent somewhat differently than the 57-up ones, and if you use a later one on an early column then the knob ends up a little close to the back of the rim and hits your knuckles when you go around corners. (it's the little things that make driving much nicer when you get them worked out.)
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