avantey

Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 says this company was incorporated in 1913 but no car was ever built. Nice small collector piece though!

As part of my career in design I was involved with this kind of detailing on high production parts. Many times the paint in the depressed or raised area was applied with a pad printing process. A silicone, urethane or rubber pad of a very specific durometer (hardness) was used in an automated production station. It would swing to the side and 'dip' into the paint or ink like an ink pad, rotate around and press onto the part with a very specific pressure and travel distance to deposit an exact coating of painting where required. On a depressed area a secondary station on the automated loop would have a high speed light buffing wheel come down on a programmed path of travel and buff the paint off the high spots. This was common technology in the '70's and up, not sure when it was developed before that. In earlier times the hard part would be the pre-CNC travel paths and depth controls but probably very do-able. Silk screen was also a higher production methodology but nowhere near the volume was obtainable and the screens were a lot higher maintenance and shorter life. It required too much human interaction and consistency of the results varied depending on the locating of the screen, manual application of the ink/paint and other factors. These and other processes are also used to print graphics (logos, instruction, etc.) on many products even today. It is proven, cost effective and durable on the encasements of many products.

Recently I had a great experience with a claim I turned in to Hagerty. I hit a deer with my '31 Hupp while on tour at the end of July. Hagerty immediately opened a claim, within a week sent out their appraiser (from about 70 miles away) to the house. He wrote it up very detailed, they never blinked on the price, sent a check right out and simply said let them know if there was more damage uncovered during the repair. Their estimator said he reps 12 companies and Hagerty is his favorite since they rarely question his appraisals and tell him to make sure the client is completely satisfied with his write up before he sends it in. I wish all companies had this level of concern for customer satisfaction from top to bottom in their organization! I can't say enough good about how they handled my incident! The deer had a much worse outcome from our encounter........

And I thought New York salt was bad for cars........

Is the Remy a low tension mag? If so it is almost impossible to find a shop that will work on one. I have looked all the country for someone to rebuild a Splitdorf off my 1913 Studebaker. Most shops will not touch a Splitdorf and end up admitting they don't work on low tension mags at all. They all say no demand and the repairs don't last well tarnishing their reputations . I ended up taking mine apart myself and it is in pretty good shape. I found the bearings are a standard bearing item called "magneto bearings" with a 35mm OD, got the magnets recharged at a starter rebuild shop and I am having the distributor base plate repaired by an expert machinist. The advance/retard arm broke apart at the linkage hole (old diecast). It has a pancake style condenser as the top member of the frame that only shows 1 mf capacitance. I am looking for a fix for that now but it is about 3" square x 1/4 thick and impossible to find. I may have to add newer round style condenser by soldering it to this one for ground and attaching the lead to it instead of the lug on the pancake one. This will be hidden inside the magnets and hardly noticed I hope.

So were they also makers of springs and suppliers to other carriage builders? Spring making is a whole different set of skills and machines than coach building I would think.

I was at our local museum tonight and one of the things we are proud of is the former carriage maker we had in town for over a hundred years. I was looking at one of the carriages circa 1897 tonite and the advertisement that went with it promoted the superb ride on "springs by Brewster, Timken and Elliptic" Is this the Brewster of coachwork fame or the Timken of bearing history? I have never heard either made springs but Timken was in Utica, NY about 100 east of here and Brewster was in Mass I believe so they could have been suppliers I suppose. Does anyone know any history on this? Thanks,

Ben- A couple of years ago I saw a report on best removers. PB was third, Kroil was second. The best was a homemade solution of 50/50 kerosene and ATM(automatic tranny fluid). I have tried it and it is slow but it absolutely cleaned all the rust off when I have used it. The only thing it is not good at is penetrating as it does not free up rusted in bolts very often. But for your application it would probably do great in two weeks.

Here are pictures of the damaged parts of the distributor. First is of the broken arm that the linkage from the steering column attaches to. It was a round end with a threaded hole that crumbled when I loosened the connector in it. The next two show the ear on the body that mounts the stationary point on the inside and the stud for wire connection on the outside. One shows it in place in the yellow box while the other shows it removed like a sub-assembly. The cap actually clamps down and keeps this point in place very nicely.

So I came home Thursday to a package on my doorstep and the Splitdorf mag is back from NH! This is good because I am going away soon and did not want it left on the stoop for an extended period. I will start with two pictures to ask for help ID'ing this thing. Is it a Model L as on the base side face (upper right corner of face) or Model X like the tag inside the magnets under the condenser? Thanks,

JOhn- Are you going to wear the goggles under the mask? I have had trouble with media getting behind my mask too and sticking to my glasses when I am sweating. Never thought of doubling up where the side shields on the goggles would help. I got my Stude mag back Thursday, nice surprise before I leave for Florida. Now I can inspect it more throughly and think about working on it myself or find another mag guy.

I talked to Mark's at a local tractor show and he refused to work on it. He rather rudely said just forget that Splitdorf and go with something else. I won't work on it. And, yes, I need parts where the diecast is broken. The distributor body has a broken ear that holds the stationary point but when I clamp down the metal cover it holds in place well. When I was removing the mag from the car the arm that adjusts the spark broke around the threaded hole for the linkage. I will probably have to have an arm made and use the body as is unless I get real lucky and find a donor mag in good condition. It is a model X n the bottom, never seen another one for sale. I have seen some articles on diecast and how they age (not well). The carb guy in MO will hardly work on them anymore. He says they are dangerous, an accident waiting to happen with the brittleness and the vibration of an engine.

OK, so I have read this thread from start and I will now ask a tech history question. The ignition on my 1913 Stude is Splitdorf and many shops , people, etc. all say Splitdorf is junk, get rid of it for anything else, I will not work on it, wasting your money, etc. Why does Splitdorf have such a bad rep? When I got my car it was an under 7K mile car, started on the second pull and ran like a top on the mag. It would not run on mag in the spring of 2014 so I took it out and have been chasing my tail on getting it rebuilt since then. It is presently with a resto guy for the second time but he is now sick enough that he is shutting down his shop for good, second time I have been told this. So I am looking for a mag shop who will work on this but I have had some flat out refuse. At 7000 miles and all original it is not an option to change it out for a Bosch or something. It may only need recharge the magnets or replace the condenser/coil (inside the dome of the magnets) I do not know. But again what is the history on Splitdorf that is soo bad? Thanks,

Let's try that again, didn't paste right- http://www.rjlautofasteners.com/

Try RJ&L fasteners, http://www.rjlautofasteners.com/ he has a lot of clips and makes the tools as well. If there is demand and he doesn't have it he might tool it up.

I just heard of dry ice blasting. They are converting a big old barn to a microbrewery near me. I stopped in and the said they did all the wood walls, rafters, joists etc. and they looked great. He said the best part is the cleanup- NONE, it melts and flushes away. He had it done so I could not see the equipment or anything technical about it. Wonder how it works on greasy, rusty parts?

John and David- Stay safe, stay warm! It is just another storm and as long as you have power you are good!

John- Might have to reconsider moving "south" to your neighborhood! We are at 22 with 2" on the ground and your mess is staying south of upstate. Yeah!!

Thank you all. I did see this unit listed for 58-59 Studes (Hawk, Lark with 289) on a couple of websites in a search. The applications did go back into the mid-50's and even the 259 predecessor engine which is the same block. I also have this unit in my Avanti because my father did not like the original dual point distributor and he got this at a yard. I did see those part numbers on Rock Auto but because I have seen multiple part numbers for this distributor and wanted verification of their correctness. I will order from Rock I guess Thanks for the info, Bill

Where can I find a reference that gives me the matching cap and rotor for a particular distributor? I have a Delco- Remy 1110864 distributor for a '58-'59 Studebaker 289 V8. When I search by this I get a variety of caps and rotors that will fit. Which ones are correct for that application? Is there a listing for such things that does not include the random stuff on Ebay, etc. Thank you, Bill

My 38 Buick Roadmaster has a running board antenna radio but I never had the antenna or knew what it looked like. A couple of years ago we were touring in Maine and went to Owls Head Museum. In a side building they had a bunch of parts, tools and stuff they were selling off. I got an NOS in the box antenna for very little money. Find of the year!! I had the radio all rebuilt right after getting the car in the early nineties so now I can install the complete system,

Thanks John- I did not get out to the shop last night. After working late and a couple of unexpected phone calls and a visitor it is suddenly 9 PM, too late for me to start in the shop. I did have concern about the exhaust valves on the way home and a compression test is next on the list after setting the static timing. But my visitor brought a large tray Christmas cookies- Cookie Monster is happy!

Spinneyhill- thanks for agreeing with my next step on timing. That is what I want a helper for- to crank the engine until I can see the index mark line up with 0 degrees per the shop manual. Ron- This is another thought direction I went limping home on Turkey Day- a valve train issue or head gasket. I am not experienced enough to tell a stuck, burnt or whatever valve by the symptoms while driving. On the way in the sudden temp rise, loss of power and backfire thru the exhaust made me think exhaust valve. Is that a logical thought train? The only problems with my logic were: 1. that the power was not completely gone ( I could still climb to 60-65 if needed) 2. The temp stayed steady at 170 as long I was around 45-50 mph 3. The backfires were sporadic except for when back pressuring the engine in deceleration. Then it backfired every time regardless of speed. All of these characteristics were seen on the way home the next morning. It has also had a garbled, ragged sound and some hesitation in the mid range (40-70) all summer which I figured was bad timing. I am going to do the static timing per the shop manual first since I have been in the timing so much. That gives me a base point in that area. Then I think a compression test is next to see what that reveals. If that doesn't clear things up I will pull valve covers and proceed down that path. I am trying to be orderly and logical on this but I am not a very good diagnostician. It does not help that i am working 11 hour days the rest of the year or that the temp goes normal (read highs in the 30's and cold garage) at the end of this week. Thanks for all your help guys, Bill

OK John, I am hijacking your thread again- but for an Avanti cause so I hope it's OK. I am still on the problem from T-giving Day when I suddenly lost power, got hotter, started backfiring, etc. Yesterday I removed/reset the coil bracket that was a problem, rotated the distributor to a position more like yours and reset the plug wires, put in the new condenser. When I fired her back up it still ran like crap and was backfiring. I played with moving the timing and found advancing it quite a bit helped a lot but not totally. She revved up and down better but still occasionally backfired usually on the deceleration. So I put the timing light on with it way advanced and was amazed. The plate shows 0-24 degrees and I was somewhere in the 40 degree point, way off the top of the plate! Now I retarded the spark back to 4 BTDC (the spec for an R1) and it barely stayed running- surging and falling, very rough, backfires, etc. I moved it up to 12 degrees and it was better but still bad. So now my diagnostics get weak. Do I have the wires off one spot on the cap or has the distributor jumped a tooth? (Remember I had left the lock down loose by accident in the spring) Also I have read and re-read the shop manual and my set up looks nothing like their description. Studebaker says the vacuum advance should point at 3 o'clock and when the gears mesh the rotor should be pointing at 11:30-1200 for No. 1 on the cap. I have the VA at about 2 o'clock and No.1 is nearly above it at about 1:30 and it runs but better far advanced(40 degrees or so). If I move all the wires one lug CCW (retard direction) isn't that is counter intuitive to the advance it seems to want now? But it would put No.1 more near to where they say it should be relative to the VA (12 and 3). Like I said my diagnostic skills get weak or am I overthinking this? Any help appreciated here,

Roger- Thanks, I understand what you're saying. The physical problem that stops that is the vacuum advance hose nipple hitting that bracket. I will have to properly check the timing and see if the distributor can work in the current position and go from there. It's going to warm up here thru the weekend so I will get after this project in the next few days.