Vacuum advance 50 Champion

[studebakerjeff]

I know there is a way to adjust your vacuum advance other than driving up and down the street untill you get it right. The Factory had a way and I'm sure they didn't drive up and down the street.

When you time your engine you disconnect the vacuum and time it to IGN on the pully. When you reconnect the vacuum should you see about 15 degrees on top of the the fixed initial timing setting? Is that the correct way? Maybe some of you don't go that far back when they make that Studebaker, But there must be a better way than driving up and down the street. I live in W.Va. and trying to find a street that is level is one thing and driving up and down a hill with a master cyl.that is single is not the way I want to go.


Jeff

1950 Champion business coupe

[41 Frank]

You are timing your engine correctly. Vacuum advance disconnected and line plugged. There is no way to adjust the vacuum advance on your car, the amount of vacuum advance is controlled by the amount of vacuum it sees.

[studebakerjeff]

quote:Originally posted by 41 Frank

You are timing your engine correctly. Vacuum advance disconnected and line plugged. There is no way to adjust the vacuum advance on your car, the amount of vacuum advance is controlled by the amount of vacuum it sees.

There are shims in the advance to ajust for pull the advance gets from the vacuum.

Jeff


1950 Champion business coupe

[41 Frank]

I can't find anything in the book about the shims, however it does go into how to adjust the "octane" adjustment. This is done by losening the bolt and moving the pointer towards advance (A) until engine pings driving at wide open trottle, than backing it off until pinging disappears by slowly moving the R on the scale towards the pointer until ping is no longer heard. This to be done after timing has been set on the IGN mark at idle speed with pointer in center of scale.

quote:Originally posted by studebakerjeff

quote:Originally posted by 41 Frank

You are timing your engine correctly. Vacuum advance disconnected and line plugged. There is no way to adjust the vacuum advance on your car, the amount of vacuum advance is controlled by the amount of vacuum it sees.

There are shims in the advance to ajust for pull the advance gets from the vacuum.

Jeff


1950 Champion business coupe

[studebakerjeff]

Frank thanks for your imput. The way I understand it is the vacuum works at Idle when the vacuum is the most. when you are going down the road and not under a load the vacuum works very little. When you give it the gas it should increase. The Qus.is,Shouldn't you be able to get the proper vacuum adjustment without take it out each time to see if it works properly. If I was to time it right with the vacuum disconnect and when I reconnect the advance should I get about a 15 degree advance?,and when I give it the gas it should come back to the correct setting on the IGN. This would all be done by the shims in the advance. Is this the correct way to adjust the advance? There should be a way you can do this without taking it out each time. In the end I know you must take a ride to check it out,but one ride only,not 3 or 4 or whatever it takes. I'm sure the Factory didn't take 100000 plus cars up and down the road 3 or 4 times to get it right.


Jeff

1950 Champion business coupe

[41 Frank]

Jeff, after setting the initial timing when you reconnect the vacuum the timing will indeed advance at idle, 12 to 15 degrees or so, this is normal, this is how it is supposed to work. As vacuum decreases depending on the amount of trottle you give it the vacuum will decrease to retard timing. At initial wide open trottle timing should return to IGN mark. In other words the amount of vacuum the engine generates controls the amount of advance or retard.This is automatic and not adjustable on most systems. The system is there to help fuel economy. The chart in the shop manual shows 12 degrees of total vacuum advance.

quote:Originally posted by studebakerjeff

Frank thanks for your imput. The way I understand it is the vacuum works at Idle when the vacuum is the most. when you are going down the road and not under a load the vacuum works very little. When you give it the gas it should increase. The Qus.is,Shouldn't you be able to get the proper vacuum adjustment without take it out each time to see if it works properly. If I was to time it right with the vacuum disconnect and when I reconnect the advance should I get about a 15 degree advance?,and when I give it the gas it should come back to the correct setting on the IGN. This would all be done by the shims in the advance. Is this the correct way to adjust the advance? There should be a way you can do this without taking it out each time. In the end I know you must take a ride to check it out,but one ride only,not 3 or 4 or whatever it takes. I'm sure the Factory didn't take 100000 plus cars up and down the road 3 or 4 times to get it right.


Jeff

1950 Champion business coupe

[studebakerjeff]

Thanks Frank. I will try that. I replaced my old engine and install a rebuilt one. The new one has increase vacuum. It has been a while since Iv'e worked on a older car and they always seemed to work when I did,over the years you forget alot. There are shims in the advance,so I'm thinking the new engine with the increase vacuum was the problem.

Jeff

1950 Champion business coupe

[Lothar]

Jeff
I was mystified by the shims as well. How do you know if you need them, and how many should you have? When I replaced my vac. advance, I just took the shims from my old vacuum advance and put them into the new one, then timed the car as you described. I then reconnected the advance and went on about my business. I still have some minor hesitation on acceleration, but I don't know whether thats attributable to my NOS vacuum advance or not.

1950 Champion 4 Dr.
Holdrege NE

[studebakerjeff]

When you add more shims you compress the spring, that requires more vacuum to advance the points. On my car there was not enough shims and it was running to far advance and not going back to IGN when running about 55mph. The engine would make a racket,so I disconnect it by adding so many shims that the vacuum quit working. The car seem to run ok, but I knew it wasn't correct. I ask a lot of people about the shims and did not get alot of feedback. Once I found out,it seem simple.I guess not many know about the shims,but they are there.

Jeff

quote:Originally posted by Lothar

Jeff
I was mystified by the shims as well. How do you know if you need them, and how many should you have? When I replaced my vac. advance, I just took the shims from my old vacuum advance and put them into the new one, then timed the car as you described. I then reconnected the advance and went on about my business. I still have some minor hesitation on acceleration, but I don't know whether thats attributable to my NOS vacuum advance or not.

1950 Champion 4 Dr.
Holdrege NE

1950 Champion business coupe

[Lothar]

Thanks, Jeff, for that simple, sensible explanation of vacuum advance shims.

1950 Champion 4 Dr.
Holdrege NE