Just about had some MAJOR trouble with the Lark Convertible

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

While out on a nice evening tour a couple of nights ago, I noticed the ammeter discharging the battery and thought alternator trouble once again.....I just purchased a rebuilt unit from Dave T-Bow while in Dover when mine gave out coming back from Rehoboth Beach.

No problem I have a spare on the shelf in the shop, letting us enjoy the upcoming weekend in the convertible. I go to take it off and find the bracket broken in two! I start searching around the shop for a spare bracket and I actually found one and this one is factory reinforced with a plate welded on the back. I guess this was not the first bracket to break and Studebaker made an improvement.

I remember looking at that alternator last week thinking it was a little cockeyed sitting up there but ignored it thinking that's a little strange and moved on. I did not even know it was broken until I started to remove it....

I caught myself looking down from the position of changing out the alternator I noticed a upper A-Arm bushing bolt missing and the A-Arm shifted far to the rear. Holy Crap... The front bushing was right out of the A-Arm. I thought the worst and figured I would have to take the suspension apart to fix it. I lucked out by lightly prying the A-Arm to shift it into position, found a long bolt and stole a bushing washer and bolt off the Hawk which is down for repairs. I managed to catch a few threads with the long bolt and started to snug back in the bushing. Pulled the long bolt and replaced it with the bolt from the Hawk.

With that fixed and torqued back up it was back to the alternator problem. The big question now was the Alternator shot or was it just not spinning at speed because of the broken bracket. I decided to try the Dave T-Bow alternator again and it seems to work slightly, that was a relief....

With my voltage meter across the now charged battery it was reading 12.6 volts, upon starting the car it went up to 13.1 volts.....that's not too good when I have a stereo, headlights and heater fan on. I decided to change out the new Standard VR101 voltage regulator I ordered Amazon on I when I had charging problems in Dover with the old one (electronic) I was using. Voltage went up to 14.3 Volts with the old one and my Dave T-Bow alternator is just fine.

Now I am wondering can these VR101 Voltage regulators be adjusted to get the right voltage output? I am not to happy this new Amazon VR101 regulator only puts out 13.1 Volts.

On the other hand I am darn pretty happy that I had this charging problem to find the upper A-Arm bushing bolt missing and almost ready to fall apart on the next pothole I hit.

Take time this weekend to look over your cars especially your A-Arm bushing bolts!

Have a great weekend.


Allen

[stall]

Like you, I get great joy when I dodge a bullet and can continue a tour but the biggest ego boost comes when you find what you need to make the fix in the "stuff" in your barn. Take a bow Allen.
Murray

[JoeHall]

I hope you checked and re-tightened all the other 'A' arm bolts at soonest opportunity. If one was out & gone, there are likely others that are loose.

[jackb]

I must have several NOS and good used regulators for the last cars.....anyone want spare(s) ? These are not electronic. $18 new/ $8 used....

[bezhawk]

This is not uncommon, 75% of all Studebakers I work on have loose upper bushing bolts.
Also loose shaft mounting bolts, both upper and lower are not uncommon. Folks when you remove any suspension mounting bolt replace it with NEW lock washers, and high strength LocTite. If you are waiting to get the car weight back on the suspension before tightening things up, then remove one bolt at a time and replace at that time.

[jimmijim8]

Makes sense to me. cheers jimmijim

This is not uncommon, 75% of all Studebakers I work on have loose upper bushing bolts.
Also loose shaft mounting bolts, both upper and lower are not uncommon. Folks when you remove any suspension mounting bolt replace it with NEW lock washers, and high strength LocTite. If you are waiting to get the car weight back on the suspension before tightening things up, then remove one bolt at a time and replace at that time.

[Jackson]

I had a similar problem with VR101's I got on the internet, replaced the alternator with a 10SI 3-wire (has an internal VR) and solved the problem.

[gordr]

I was working on my '64 Daytona convertible last night. It, too, had shed an upper A-arm bushing. My, my. Got the left upper A-arm out. The outer pin and bushings are somewhat worn, not ovaled right out, but not as good as new. Will check my stock for better ones. Bolt and rubber entirely gone on rear inner bushing, and bolt loose on the front one, which was not driven home to the shoulder when it was installed. No lock washers on inner shaft-to-frame bolts, and the front one was loose, and one faced up and one faced down! And the inner shaft itself has cutting torch gouges where somebody used a torch to get it off a donor frame, I guess. Have not yet checked for cracks around the holes in the frame, but I will today. I have a set of Delrin bushings to install, and you can be sure I will do the other side, too.

[57pack]

My 65 Wagonaire was sitting kinda funny when I got her home.
The top of both front wheels were canted in almost a inch or more!
Thought it was because of being tied down tight on the transport trailer.
Realized upon closer inspection that the upper a frame bushings were totally destroyed!
To the point all of the rubber was gone and the outer steel casing was worn through and the upper bar
Had chewed its way into the upper a frame over a inch! Guess the former owner was deaf!

[gordr]

Well, my upper A-arm bushing job is done. Did both sides. The bolt for the rear bushing on the passenger side was so loose I spun it out with my fingers. Looks like whoever did the original bushing job planned to tighten the bolts once the car's weight was on the wheels, as it should be, and then forgot two. One lockwasher missing from the passenger side upper inner shaft-to-frame bolts too, with the resulting loose screw. And wrong type of screws in both lower shock mounts and both clamp bolts where the upper outer shafts are fixed in the kingpins.

I did not attempt to do an alignment; just set both eccentrics to a "neutral" position and tightened the clamp screws (installed correct ones). I was lucky with the lower shock mounting screws; found 4, no more, no less, 5/16" fine thread carriage bolts in my box of assorted carriage bolts. Those are very hard to source.

I will check the tightness of bolts and bushings on the lower A-arms while it is on the hoist, then take it for a short road trip and see if it acts like it needs alignment.