Starter

[KevinSheen]

My starter is starting to act up. I was looking through my parts book and came up with p/n's 1550502 and 1550503 as the two most possible candidates for a 63 Champ with 289 w/AT. I tried both of these numbers last night at the SASCO and Stude Intl websites without any luck. Maybe I'm reading the book wrong?
And Mr Biggs-- I read your comment about Flight-o-matic trans being a three speed which starts in second gear with relief. I had been wondering why my truck only seemed to have two gears and was wondering if I had another problem to contend with. Transmission problems are way beyond my limited mechanical abilities. Graduate of the Three Stooges School of Auto Mechanics and Brain Surgery.
Kevin in the Stoogebaker

1963 Champ

[Roscomacaw]

Any 12 volt Stude starter for an automatic will work on your truck. That gives you even more latitude than the 2 part #s you posted. I doubt you're gonna find an NOS unit. But there's LOTS of good used and rebuilt around.
On these starters - the nose of the starter (the part that actualy goes into the bellhousing) is longer on the auto tranny starters than those for standard shift trannies. The reason for this is the location of the ring gear relative to front plane of the bellhousing.

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[rockne10]

I still have great luck at my local auto electric shop. These guys have been in business for years and have no problem rebuilding starters and generators back in to the 1920's. That's better than sending them to the landfill.

[Roscomacaw]

NOTHING Studebaker should be sent to landfill. That's why I've got such a mess here.[}]
That said - I HAVE, of late, tossed some stuff that I couldn't GIVE away. If I live a few more years, I may regret it but hopefully alzheimers will keep it from bothering me too much.

I wrote several articles over time about our responsibility to future Stude nuts, to save whatever we could so that they'd have stuff to work with. Some of what looks hopeless now - will look like treasure to someone in the future.[:I]

There was a bit of a sad paradox that persisted for the first 30 years after Stude closed the doors. That was that it was too easy to just pick up the phone and order new rather than go salvage something from local wrecking yards that still had a few Studes in the back row.
You can't blame the yard owners from coming to the conclusion that them ol' Studeebakers wasn't worth holdin' back from the crusher 'cause no one ever came a-callin' fer nuthin' off them ugly ol' things anyway![V]
Some of us would squeal with glee if they could find some of the Studes I know to have been crushed around here in the last 10 or 15 years. Too late now tho.[xx(]

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[mjeansonne]

Kevin;

Glad to see you back. Hope your time at sea was uneventful!! I continue to gather parts to convert my pickup to automatic and repair/replace my engine. I have move the pickup out of the shop so as to have room to put my wife's Hawk in so we can begin the body work on it. I have two starter motors. If you need one, let me know. The only problem is that we are heading to Houston Saturday night. We catch a plane Sunday afternoon for Spokane!! We are going to the meet and will be gone for the week.

Incidently, it would be great if at least one night we could have a "Forum Night" at the meet. We could put faces to the names we use on this forum... what think you all, and Mr Webmaster??



Laisez le bon temps roulez avec un Studebaker

[KevinSheen]

Thanks for the advise everyone. It turns out that there is a very talented couple of guys who run a starter/alternator shop in Broussard who temporarily fixed the starter. When the part comes in tomorrow they'll do the real fix.
Mike you lucky dog. I wish I was going too!! But since I haven't been home in four months, I think I would be permanently in the doghouse if I went to Spokane. Yeah, the four months at sea was uneventful except for one thing. I switched companies and unions and instead of going to sea, I go to lake now. I'm on those Great Lake freighters like the Edmund Fitzgerald and I love it. Check out boatnerd.com and you'll see the type of ships I'm working on.
The next time I get off the ship (probably in Jan) I'll be going to South Bend. I had to swap ships to accept a promotion and drove from Cleveland to Chicago and stopped at the museum, but it was too late in the day.
Thanks again. Kevin in the Stoogebaker

1963 Champ