Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Stromberg carburetors?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Stromberg carburetors?

    Does anybody know the history of the company and these things? Especially when it overlaps with Studebaker? And why did they get out of the carburetor business around '77?
    1963 Champ "Stu Bludebaker"- sometimes driver
    1957 Silver Hawk "Josie"- picking up the pieces after an unreliable body man let it rot for 11 years from an almost driver to a basket case
    1951 Land Cruiser "Bunnie Ketcher" only 47M miles!
    1951 Commander Starlight "Dale"- basket case
    1947 Champion "Sally"- basket case
    1941 Commander Land Cruiser "Ursula"- basket case

  • #2
    Originally posted by DougHolverson View Post
    Does anybody know the history of the company and these things? Especially when it overlaps with Studebaker? And why did they get out of the carburetor business around '77?
    Just a natural order of business consolidation. There have been 7,000 automobile brand names produced and more than 100,000 suppliers to the industry. There were at least two dozen carburetor manufacturers. No US car/truck has had a carburetor since 1990, so Stromberg was just getting out ahead of the rush.

    AMAL, producer of carburetors and hand controls for British motorcycles and light industrial engines
    Argelite, producer of Holley and Magneti Marelli carburetors for the Argentinian market
    Autolite, a division of the Ford Motor Company from 1967 to 1973
    Ball & Ball, U.S. manufacturer, eventually part of Carter
    Bendix Stromberg and Bendix Technico carburetors used on aircraft and vehicles made by Chrysler, IHC, Ford, GM, AMC, and Studebaker
    Bing Carburetor, used on motorcycles, mopeds, aircraft, boats
    Carter, used on Chrysler, IHC, Ford, GM, AMC, and Studebaker,
    Claudel-Hobson, UK
    Dell'Orto carburetors from Italy, used on cars and motorcycles
    Demon Carburetors, an improved performance Holley
    Detroit Lubricator, used on 1930s luxury brands
    Edelbrock, formerly Carter, manufactured by Weber
    Hitachi, found on Japanese vehicles
    Holley
    Jikov, used on various "Eastern Bloc" cars and motorbikes, predominantly Škoda, Tatra, Wartburg, Jawa etc.
    Keihin, a keiretsu group company affiliated with Honda
    Langsenkamp-Linkert (L&L) Used on Harley Davidson, Indian and Crocker motorcycles as well as some stationary engines
    Lectron Fuel Systems carburetors
    Marvel Schebler, used for aircraft, tractors[21][22]
    Mikuni, common on Japanese motorcycles, especially in the 1980s. Mikuni also made racing carburetors for Japanese, British and European cars. Original equipment on Mitsubishi engines.
    Motec Engineering, high-performance updraft carburetors
    OER Corporation (SK Engineering, Japan[23]
    Pierburg, used in Saab, Volvo, VW, and Audi
    Reece Fish, in Volkswagen, Austin Mini, Morris Mini
    Rochester Products Division, a General Motors subsidiary; also sold Weber/Magneti Marelli carburetors under license)
    Solex - French carburetors, owned by Weber
    Stromberg - see Zenith
    SU Carburettors, widely used on British Commonwealth and European-designed vehicles
    Technology Elevated - SmartCarb
    UCAL Fuel Systems - carburetors
    Villiers, used on UK motorcycles and small engines
    Walbro and Tillotson carburetors for small engines
    Weber carburetor, Italian, now made in Spain, owned by Magneti Marelli
    Winfield, racing carburetor in 1920s-'30s
    Zenith, used on Austin cars. Also produced the Zenith-Stromberg carburetors.

    There were many more, but these were the ones which came to mind.

    jack vines
    PackardV8

    Comment


    • #3
      Jack is correct. It's also worth noting that the emissions standards increased dramatically in 1975, coincident with the introduction of the mandatory catalytic converter on cars. In order to comply with the ever-increasing emission standards, carbs had to be customized to exactly fit the engine type and displacement, transmission, vehicle type, etc. This doomed the universal carburetor, that could be sold and installed on a wide variety of cars, which was Stromberg's business. Stromberg also was a big supplier to the independent car makers, which was also a disappearing market.
      Last edited by Skip Lackie; 12-05-2017, 02:02 PM.
      Skip Lackie

      Comment


      • #4
        As Paul Harvey used to say, "And, now, here's the rest of the story..."

        Alfred Stromberg was born in Sweden is 1861, began work in telephone apparatus there, moved to the U.S. is 1884. He and a partner formed Stromberg-Carlson Telephone Mfg Co in Rochester, NY in 1891, built it up to more than 3000 employees before he sold it in 1905. He used the proceeds to start several ventures, including the Stromberg Motor Devices Co. in Chicago where they made carburetors for many car makers.
        From "Development of Aircraft Engines", Schlaifer, 1950:
        "The Stromberg Motor Devices Company was bought by the Bendix Aviation Corporation in 1929, and in 1930 was moved to South Bend and renamed the Bendix-Stromberg Carburetor Company. At the beginning of 1934 this subsidiary was merged with others to form a single subsidiary, the Bendix Products Corporation, which later became the Bendix Products Division of the Bendix Aviation Corporation. The aircraft carburetors, however, were still known by the name Stromberg"

        The engineering manager of Stromberg carburetor group became annoyed in the mid-1930s with the limited development funds that Bendix allowed him, so he left to go to Holley Carburetors.In 1982, Bendix tried to take over Martin Marietta Corp, buying all the shares, but Martin turned the tables on them, and Bendix wound up being bought by Allied to become AlliedSignal. AlliedSignal later bought Honeywell, changed the name of the merged company to Honeywell and that's what you have today.

        So, Stromberg was in South Bend with Studebaker, little surprise then that lots of Stromberg carbs got used on our cars.

        As a post script, 24% of Bendix was owned by GM until 1948 so that GM could have access to Bendix brake technology and assure a supply of components.

        Click image for larger version

Name:	Stromberg Ad 1919.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	191.3 KB
ID:	1717483
        Last edited by garyash; 12-05-2017, 04:00 PM.
        Gary Ash
        Dartmouth, Mass.

        '32 Indy car replica (in progress)
        ’41 Commander Land Cruiser
        '48 M5
        '65 Wagonaire Commander
        '63 Wagonaire Standard
        web site at http://www.studegarage.com

        Comment


        • #5
          Wow, thanks for all that good information Gary. I never made the connection of Stromberg-Carlson to the carbs, but my dad worked for Stromberg-Carlson in Rochester, and drove his 1950 Studebaker to work each day. Then when we moved to Minnesota he worked for Honeywell.

          Comment

          Working...
          X