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Car Forum / Antique and Collectibles / Studebaker / March 2005My finally productive Studebaker day
We have finally had two straight decent days (after a month of unusually cold and/or rainy weather). So, I decided to tackle a couple more things I wanted to fix on the '64 Avanti I sold last month (buyer won't pick it up until 4/22). One thing that I didn't notice when I bought the car was that the body was offset on the frame by about 3/4". The right front wheel was visibly much further inside the wheel opening than the left. I accepted that, but it turned out that I couldn't take off the left valve cover without removing the brake booster due to the engine being too close to the left side of the body. And the acorn nut on the valve cover was worn half down from rubbing on the booster. I had tried loosening the body mounting bolts a couple times, but couldn't budge the body. In each case I found that there were more bolts than were apparent in the Shop Manual frame description. With NG suggestions, suggestions by Bob Johnstone and by looking at Darrell Carr's partially assembled Avanti, I thought I had finally tracked down all the bolts. So, yesterday I took all them loose and gently pulled on the body with a come-along attached to a nylon tow strap wrapped around the body at the cowl- NO JOY! I went to look at Darrell's car again to see if I had missed something, but couldn't see anything else. He volunteered to come over today to help me. We loosened everything again and pulled- still no joy. He decided to take off the bolts and nuts rather than just loosen them. There are two studs that you get to by peeling off the front carpet, then popping off little round plates on the toeboards. I had taken off the right hand nut and verified that there was enough slop around the stud to allow 3/8" movement, but I only loosened the right one. Darrell took the nut clear off the left stud and, lo and behold, the hole that the stud fit through was the same size as the stud (no slack). So, we elongated the hole with a dremel-type tool and pulled again. Some movement. More pulling with Darrell bumping the body at the same time and it came over. We hit the edge of the elongated toeboard hole and quit, but it would have taken another 1/8" inch to exactly center it. So, apparently the body was off-centered from day one. I don't know whether it was from sloppy assembly (someone forgot to open that hole like all the others or what) or something else. At any rate, I can now get the valve cover off!! So, Avanti body removal 101: There are two bolts at the very front of the frame, one on each side, that hold the radiator frame to the frame. Then there are two nuts on studs under the toeboards, one on each side. Also, on the inside, the two inner front seat belt anchor bolts also hold the body to the frame. Then, at the hog troughs along the sides there are two bolts on each side at the first body mount brackets and one bolt at each of the next three body mount brackets. Then, in the trunk you have a bolt under the spare tire and one one each side at the rear corner.. This makes a total of 19 fastenings. And, I loosened the bolts on the front bumper brackets that go to the sides through the fenders to avoid any strain on the fenders (the brackets have slotted openings so the bolts can move). BTW- I only replaced 16 fastenings- three of the hough trough bolts snapped off when I tried to loosen them. So, now I have to get those stubs out and replaced with the special bolts that are used there. Paul Johnson Paul, I had the exact same problen except that it was on a 1963 Lark with Disc brakes. The left valve cover was an absolute bitch to remove.It was hitting the same style power brake booster as the one in your Avanti. I also remember that the power steering pump was rubbing against the battery. The problem was this, when the engine had been re-installed by the previous owner the motor mount studs were dropped into the wrong holes in the engine support brackets .I jacked up the motor after removing the nuts and simply shifted the engine over to the right and dropped it into the next set of holes in the support brackets. The valve covers were never again a problem to remove. I suggest that you take a look at what holes your engine mounts are located in . This may be the real cause of your difficulties. I hope this helps. Joe Flannery in Dumont,N.J. years ago I helped a buddy change valve cover gaskets on a '70's Dodge Challenger(?) with a 440, six-pack & power brakes. The thing was such a tight fit the valve cover was factory indented to clear the booster and the booster had to be pulled to get the valve cover off. > years ago I helped a buddy change valve cover gaskets on a '70's Dodge > Challenger(?) with a 440, six-pack & power brakes. The thing was such > a tight fit the valve cover was factory indented to clear the booster > and the booster had to be pulled to get the valve cover off. Big Block Corvettes have a different R/side valve cover on power brake equipped cars to clear the booster also. This is not the case with any stude. Avanti valve covers should not be a bitch to remove. I've done enough valve stem seal replacements on different studes . I stand by my comment. The engine is mounted in the wrong holes. Paul take a look under your car and tell us what holes the motor is mounted in and solve this mystery. > Paul, > I had the exact same problen except that it was on a 1963 Lark with [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > located in . This may be the real cause of your difficulties. I hope > this helps. Thanks for the suggestion, but the engine is mounted in the correct holes. In this case the body was clearly out of alignment because the right front wheel was 3/4" further in to the wheel opening than the left. Paul Johnson Paul, That is a pretty amazing story about the body mounting. That is the 1st time I've ever heard of anything like that. I remember reading in The Cooperator in Turning wheels on C-K bodies about there being more room on 1 side of a wheel well than the other . I don't remember which side had more side clearance, but I believe it was the right side that was tighter. I assumed incorrectly that this may have been the same with other studes as well. Sorry you had to go to that much troble to fix a factory screw up. My K and all other C/K's I've looked at closely do not have an offset body. I can't think of why a car manufacturer would do this. 1" is a lot and I would guess outside of any assembly tolerences (unless it was a screw up like Paul's appears to have been). Sounds like a potential urban legend. "Yea, all those Studebakers had a body offset by an inch to the right side. Their engineers did a study and found that drivers made more turns to the left than to the right so they designed their cars to corner the best in that direction." <g>. -Dick- Before I took my '53 hardtop apart, I noticed that the rear bumper was not fitting to the body too well, it had more clearance to the fender on one side than the other. At the time, I thought it was due to there being some light damage to the left rear fender near the tailamp and the fender was simply pushed in a little there. As far as I could tell, the car had never been apart before and no serious crash damage. All the bumper bolts looked OEM, etc. The front bumper was not fitting too well either but I dismissed that to it being bent slightly. The body and frame were very rusty and I had to repair all that in place before I could pull the body. Later, after the body was back on the frame and I went to install the bumpers, I found out that the entire body was rotated relative to the frame. In order to order to get the bumpers to line up with the sheetmetal, I had to shim the rear bumper one way and the front one another.... I don't think my rust repairs were the problem since the body and frame were not allowed to move relative to each other while I did the work. I think it was simply put together crooked at the factory. Maybe at one time it could have been fixed when the original body mounts had slots but the repo floors and some homemade patches I did were drilled and aligned with the frame holes so no adjustments now without taking it all apart again to file them out.... I think I measured something like the body being skewed so that the front was 3/8" to the left and the rear 3/8" to the right or so. JH |
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