The Lamberti papers #2

[Studebaker Wheel]

[jlmccuan]

Fascinating information.

[Milaca]

Anyone by chance have a photo of the meeting room where these meetings took place and a group photo of the guys involved in these meetings? It would help put a clear mental picture in my head as I read these meeting minutes and make me feel like I was sitting at that table during the meeting.
Being that Hollywood is apparently out of original ideas for new films, these could make for a good script for a movie entitled "Studebaker, the final days".

[Welcome]

>>>Autolite are shipping out 100 sets today and are working on additional equipment to get a higher rate of production. All of November and December shipments had the short arms, but the old settings on the distributors. As of Friday, there were 325 R1 distributors and 250 R2 distributors.<<<

Thanks again, Richard!!!

The above goes a long way to explain why there were "barrels full" of Avanti dual-point distributor at Studebaker's Salvage Dept. backs around then. I only bought one, but a buddy was buying them by the arm-load. Knowing him, he probably still has all of them. I'd better not tell him after 38 years, what he has may be defective! OUCH!!!

[ddub]

This information will give some fascinating insight into that time period. Great job Richard. It is like finding buried treasure.

[StudeRich]

Thanks again, Richard!!!

The above goes a long way to explain why there were "barrels full" of Avanti dual-point distributor at Studebaker's Salvage Dept. backs around then. I only bought one, but a buddy was buying them by the arm-load. Knowing him, he probably still has all of them. I'd better not tell him after 38 years, what he has may be defective! OUCH!!!

That is very likely, however it would be very easy to replace the points with the new "short arm" type and reset the gaps.
The "bypass wire" is only the pink resistance wire in the car's harness and does not affect the Distributors alone.

[Green 53]

I'm confused. Was Prestolite a division of Autolite?

Denny L

[StudeRich]

I'm confused. Was Prestolite a division of Autolite?Denny L

This answer is bit complicated, but I will take a stab at it:

The way I understand it, at this time (1963) they were OR were about to be separated From Autolite Electric Co. or at least the Autolite name was being replaced with Prestolite for the purposes of only certain Parts that were not sold to Ford Motor Co. to become Autolite/Ford and later Motorcraft Parts.

In other words Autolite sold the Spark Plug Div. and other parts off to Ford and the remainder became Prestolite who was the Mfg. of MOST of the '62-'64 Stude. Distributors (I have some of them with each nameplate) and other things like the Alternators, Voltage Regulators, Starters and Wiper Motors.

So I hope I got this right, really Prestolite USED to be the Autolite Electric Co. who made many, many Electrical parts for years and years for Ford, Chrysler and all of the independant makes of U.S. cars and trucks.

[ddub]

Do you remember the slogan in the Autolite radio ads?

[StudeRich]

Do you remember the slogan in the Autolite radio ads?

No, you'll have to give me a clue on that one!