Speaking of being saved on the road.... I was on my way home from SanFrancisco to Sacramento in my R1 four speed powered 54 Coupe when about half way home I noticed that my front end was getting quite squirrely at lower speeds. ( I normally drive about 75 on this trip ). I pulled into a F**d dealer in Vacaville to see if they could help me out. WOW what a deal. They let me borrow a floor jack to pull off my right front wheel. Sure enough the outer wheel bearing was chewed up pretty bad. Not only did they help with a couple of tools to get the job done, but they had the front wheel bearing in stock to fix it. The front outer wheel bearings are the same for the Stude as they are for several F**d models. I know for sure they are the same as the Galaxie of 68 since that was the disc brake rotor I had on my car at the time. (still do). The whole ordeal took about 2 hours and $20 to fix. The fun part was that the F**d mechanics kept coming out of the shop to check on my progress and to check out the car. Most of them were incredulous to think that I could fix a problem like that with not much more than a couple of wrenches and a screwdriver. Shadetree mechanic experience does come in handy on the side of the road. I even made it home for dinner that evening. I hate to imagine what could have happened had I dropped that bearing anywhere else on the trip. The towing bill would have been hundreds of dollars at best. Quite a lucky day and Studebaker know-how saves the day.
- posted
16 years ago