[unimogjohn]

Ernie, we are going for a good and safe driver. Thanks for the info. I will take a look at Dave Turner's site and product. So we will take a look and decide what to do within a week or so. Thanks again for the advice.

[ErnieR]

Here's a link John...best modification I've made to the car. Stops like my modern iron except no ABS.

Turner Brake

ErnieR

[R W Burgess]

Very interesting read John. Keep us informed, we love it.

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, Nov. 2nd. Got up early so Shadow and I headed off to the local tire store to get the tires mounted and balanced. We were first in line at 7:30 AM and were back home by 9:30. The tires look great on the rims. Put them in the garage as I figure it is going to be a week or more before they go on the car. I am sure they are going to look super on the car.

At bit easier now to get under the car so decided to drain all the fuel from the car. So found the little plug under the driver's door and filled two five gallon cans plus a 2.5 gallon. So probably just a bit over 12 gallons. No real gunk came out, just some discolored fuel, the color of tea, at least it is not the color of coffee. Put on another new fuel filter, number 4, and buttoned up the little plug. Tomorrow I will put in a new five gallon can of fuel and half a can of SeaFoam. At least now I know that the fuel system is clean. I did strain the old fuel and will use it in my Unimog army truck, it will burn just about anything, and this fuel is not that bad.

I also took the opportunity to start looking at the front brakes. I was able to get one bleed screw open with just a little Kroil and some careful pressure on the wrench. The second one was a bit tougher and had to use some heat from my little butane torch to get it to break loose. I then decided to see if I could get any fluid through the calipers, both bled easily and now have new fluid in both. One side was bone dry and the other had some fluid, which looked like silicone fluid, as it had a purple tint to it. Tried the brake pedal, and I actually have some hard pedal.

Tomorrow will check out the back brakes. My goal is just to have some brake pressure and new fluid in all the lines. Over the next couple of days I am going to remove the calipers, pads, shims, etc and make an assessment of what I have and what I need to make it operational again.

Also called Jon Myer about the supercharger. He said that it is in the "dunk tank". Will probably be another couple of weeks before I see it. It really does not matter, I have lots of work to do before I install it.

Oh, almost forgot. I was going to replace the fitting in the back of the carb with the one you all identified yesterday. Turns out that Dave T. had put in a new check valve of a little different design. So the old one goes back into the spares bin.

Here are a couple of pics to include our barn cat, Gray Ghost, who was watching me from under his favorite bush.

Tomorrow, new fuel, install front shocks and check rear brakes to see if I can get fluid out of them.

[Gary Hearn]

Originally Posted by unimogjohn

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at Dave Turner's site and product.

It is actually Jim Turner on the disc brakes (not to be confused with Dave T-Bow).

[stude8]

I took the attached photos in Sept, 2009 at the AOAI National Meet in Lisle, IL. The car is a 1964 R2 powered Studebaker Avanti. You can see, a pretty nice one! It belongs to a friend in Highland Park, IL Joe Esdale. The reason I took the photos is they illustrate the fuel connections between pump and carburetor the way Studebaker did when new.

The fuel pump image does not clearly show the connection on top (upper left) from the supercharger but you can get the idea of how and where the fitting is positioned.

The important view is the fuel filter assembly (Many have been discarded over the years unfortunately) the return line to fuel tank is the upper most pipe leading away from the filter.

I am coaching another good friend in sorting out his Avanti engine plumbing from previous incorrect work which is why I took the specific images. These are reduced size for dialup emailing, if you need better resolution files let me know. I hope these will guide you through the fuel connection job.
Stude8

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, Nov. 3rd. Voted today and then took the opportunity to get 6 gallons of Premium fuel, more brake fluid, and more fuel hose.

Stude8, thanks for the pics. They are very helpful. I do like the fuel filter, have ones almost like it on my 20s cars. Now I know how things should looks.

Spent the morning blowing out the gas lines with compressed air, and replacing the fuel rubber hose connections between the tank and the line, and also the line to the fuel pump. All my lines are now clean and all rubber hoses are new. Put in the new gas in the tank and started the car. She started immediately and settled down after a minute or so. The gas in the filter is now clean and transparent. I am happy now to have clean gas going to the nice carb.

We are going to get our first light freeze tonight so put in anti-freeze and let her run to make sure everything is mixed OK.

She is running at idle with 40lb of oil pressure, the vacuum steady in the green, water temp is 180 degrees, and is at about 750 rpm. I may have a misfire in the engine, but cannot really tell, it seems to be off and on. Not to concerned about it now as have not checked timing and dwell yet.

Took some before and after pics of the suspension after using my power washer for about 30 minutes. Still lots to clean, but looks better. Also you will see a pic of the wiring for the headlights, turn signals, and parking lights. All cobbled together. Will have to sort all that out. It is all the result of the horn grounding out when you turn the turn signal stock to the left. I can easily put the wiring back to original and make the horn a button under the dash, but will see what is up under the steering wheel before I do that.

Did not work on the brakes today, just ran out of daylight and time. Looks like the pads are about 95%. I think that it had a brake job before it went into slumber some twenty years ago.

Started and stopped the engine several times today. She always started right up with no hesitation. Smoke is getting less also.

Tomorrow I am going to work on the rear brakes and also see if I can put on the exhaust pipes. I repositioned the jacks so the rear end is now hanging down as far as it can go.

[stude8]

The engine misfire you mention could be due to two circumstances (among many).

Studebaker engines were known for a "Mutual Inductance" misfire due to #5 and #7 spark plug wires running parallel on non-Avanti engines where ignition wires were not confined in the rubber lined metal loom that was used on Avanti R series engines.

The firing order being 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 allowed the spark pulse from #5 cylinder to pre-ignite the #7 cylinder mixture that was next in firing order. From your photos it looks like the wires are contained in the looms but if the left side cables are sloppy in arrangement you might be getting the miss problem that way. *It was most noticeable at idle.

Another common cause is the dwell of the dual point sets in the distributor not being set to optimum, with the long lack of maintenance on the car I would check the points for adjustment gaps.
Stude8

[R W Burgess]

Originally Posted by stude8

..............The important view is the fuel filter assembly (Many have been discarded over the years unfortunately) the return line to fuel tank is the upper most pipe leading away from the filter...........

Stude, what is the purpose of this return line from the filter? I don't believe I have ever seen anything like this before.

Wayne

[Curti]

I read these posts with interist as we have an 63 R1. Actually it is my wifes car.
Is that sediment bowl and return line common to a R1 as well?
One time we topped off the fuel tank then parked it for a couple of weeks. When my wife started it, it smoked something awful and was pumping oil out of every orifice. I checked the oil and it appeared there was none in it. It turned out there was so much oil in it that I couldn't read it on the dipstick. Some how the gas in the tank ran into the crank case. Has anyone ever expirenced this?
I havn't seen a lot of Avanti's but ours has a wood grain dash. Is this correct?