1962 7E5 Champ

[52-fan]

Good score. My lack of funds has made me very patient. The parts are out there at a price you can afford if you look long enough.

[62champ]

Getting the itch to get some more done on the truck now that the weather is warm and school year is coming to an end. Made the trip again to South Bend for good people, parts hunting, and late night beer fueled conversations...

Was able to find some tail light lenses, rear spring bushings, and small things here an there. Studebaker owner from PA delivered a rear bumper for the truck. It is not perfect and neither is the truck it is going on. Now I need to figure out some brackets to make it fit - cannot do that for sure until the bed is back on - priorities...



Trucks big brother was there - owners brought it from Missouri to have it revisit its birth place. Truck is a 7E12 ordered to house a camper for a Studebaker dealership owner in Montana. Odometer shows 18K and some change... Ironically, one of the things they were looking for was a rear bumper for their truck.



EDIT - Looks like the above bumper is going to be sold - $100 takes it home. Meanwhile, an old Studebaker friend in Texas has a rear bumper he is going to sell me - oh how the deck gets mixed up...

[62champ]

Got the rear axles out, bearings cleaned, repacked, and back where they belong. This is my crude way of cleaning those rear axle bearings - it worked...





Decided since the backing plates were there to stay, to go ahead and remove the old wheel cylinders. I had ordered a new set of rear cylinders at South Bend in May and they had arrived several weeks ago. When I got them out, I noticed they seemed smaller than the wheel cylinders that were on the truck - sure enough - they was a noticeable difference.



The ones I purchased are correct - 7/8 inch bore for trucks and disc brake cars...



Took a tape measure, pulled one of the cups off the old cylinders, and the bore is 1 1/8. According to the parts book, that bore is correct for 3/4 ton trucks. Wonder when it was being driven if the rear end would lock up pretty easy when you got on the brakes pretty hard?

Old cylinder:

[62champ]

Got enough work done and started putting some stuff back on the back side of the truck.

Got a set of bushings for the rear part of the leaf springs - the old ones were pretty shot with the majority of the rubber gone and the bolts pretty loose. One of our great Studebaker vendors supplied me with a new set of bushings to make everything tight again.



Was not too gentle with a block of wood and a small sledge hammer, but the bushings were in the rear part of the leaves and in the mount on the frame. The bushings are longer than the area they fit in so they were driven in to be sticking out equally on both sides.



I have no idea about what kind of life this truck lead before being bought by my Uncle. It seems to have being parked in the early '70s (last license plate was 1970 but it could have been driven 'on the farm' for a number of more years), but the part number on the rear springs are still pretty crisp.

[Warren Webb]

I bought NOS gauges for my 61 Champ in the late 80's/early 90's from N&A. It too has many of it's numbers falling off not long after it was put in the truck. After reading the latest installment of "the Whistler" & how its instruments were restored I wonder if someone out there can produce a decal to restore ours.

[62champ]

I think the biggest difference between gauges used on the 62/63 Lark and the gauges on the Champs is that the Larks have the numbers and that printed on the face of the gauge while the Champ gauge has that printed on the glass itself. Someone can do it with the right resources.

[jackb]

I bet this truck was built in the spring of 1962 ??? Studebaker ran out of rear wheel cylinders sometime in the spring and grabbed old stock 3/4 & 1 ton cylinders for the rest of production. New style brakes for Champs in 63'.

[62champ]

I bet this truck was built in the spring of 1962 ??? Studebaker ran out of rear wheel cylinders sometime in the spring and grabbed old stock 3/4 & 1 ton cylinders for the rest of production. New style brakes for Champs in 63'.

Truck was assembled on July 9th, 1962 - 30th E5 from the end of production, so who knows...

[jackb]

I ran into this problem back 1993. 62' Champ bought in the car corral @ the big Meet. Brakes were dragging out back. Leaking cylinder too. Went to NAPA and got the 3/4 kits to find your problem. Called Dave T-bow who had an old Raybestos (sp) book and gave me the cut off serial numbers that showed different OEM applications. My truck was 1 of 2 sold to a potato farm on Long Island....trucks were delivered new in late April 1962.

[62champ]

Got a fresh can of POR15 and after a little cleaning, threw some more black on the chassis/springs/rear diff. Learned from my other times, and knowing I needed to crawl all around the rear frame, had on long pants, long sleeve shirt, and something covering my head - that stuff really does have to be worn off - not coming off any other way...

[DEEPNHOCK]

Looks great!

[62champ]

Looks great!

A friend and I were laughing that some day the truck will be on a lift and someone will see the dirty black paint and ask “ why does someone paint something that no one will ever see?”

[62champ]

The rear brakes are slowly coming together - not ready to zip everything up - waiting on some additional things from some of our Studebaker parts venders - and desperately trying to break the E-brake cable loose so I might be able to use it again...they are soaked in oil and still stuck. Next thought is to put them in the frame brackets - hook a come-a-long to the front axle and put some tension on it that way...being born into a CASO German farming family causes one of find the least financial resistance to get to the end.



I have found that while I was able to source the brake shoes locally, they have their problems. The new shoe's metal backs are a little thicker than the originals. Sooo, the little spring washer that goes on the e-brake pivot was abandoned and the e-brake shoe link (that big metal bar) had to have a little meat ground off to easily slide over the shoe's metal. Look much better than when the drums came off.

[jnormanh]

A friend and I were laughing that some day the truck will be on a lift and someone will see the dirty black paint and ask “ why does someone paint something that no one will ever see?”

The answer is simple -"He painted that stuff because that's the way he wanted it."

[62champ]

Broke loose! - in a good way.

This truck has not moved under its own power since the early '70s - so the E-brake had not been used since then. I had both ends dripping with oil and they still would not move. CASO German farmer heritage kicked in and decided to see if I could break them loose with a little more pulling force. Tied a nylon strap hook to the front axle, put the rear part of the E-brake in their frame brackets and then put a come-a-long between the two...about the second or third click after getting tight and they both broke loose - yes!

Always fun to have little victories - my monthly budget is only $100 so the thought of having to spend money for a new cable was not something I was looking forward to - can now spend that elsewhere - there is plenty needed...