Delco, Remy & Delco-Remy history Question

[Craig Gillingham]

Does anyone know what year Delco and Remy products were first badged as Delco-Remy? I think it was in the 20's, but I'm not sure when.

[Taylormade]

May, 1926 was when they merged and the combined name was adopted.

[Craig Gillingham]

Quote

 

Brilliant, thank you.

[KRK Sr.]

In 1916 Durant purchased Hyatt roller bearing, Delco Light, and Remy, making them a part of "United Motors". Little did he know he would also get Al Slone as his successor who would run GM for many years. My 1929 Pierce Arrows all have just Delco tags on the generators, my 1930's have Delco-Remy. I guess the crash of 1929 was the final consolidation of the two companies to the same location as well, all the 1930 tags are from Anderson Ind. for 1930. Karl

[viv w]

Thanks Taylormade. It is interesting that the companies merged in May 26. I have a Chrysler G70 , the motor number would indicate that it was built in late 1926. The starter and generator bear REMY tags. 

 I'm guessing that either my Remy units were produced earlier than the motor, or that Delco and Remy had a supply of tags that they just used up, before they made, or ordered new stock, with the combined new name.

Viv.

 

[PFitz]

Interesting that there are name differences in the tags then.

 

Franklins started using Delco-Remy distributors, starters, and generators in 1929 also. This made me curious, so, not trusting that any pictures I may have of 1929's actually having the original parts they left the factory with, I checked the factory drawings to see if there was a difference.

 

The  distributor and generator drawings specify, "Purchased From Delco-Remy, General Motors Corp." along the lower left edge of the drawings, as was common practice with Franklin drawings of purchased parts.  The starter is obviously a Delco, but the drawing just says "purchased" in the title block     All three drawing's date from October of 1928.   So, in late 1928 at least one Delco-Remy customer was using the Delco-Remy name.

 

Maybe they were just using up earlier Delco tags  ????

 

Paul 

[Taylormade]

 The  company officially merged in 1926.  I can't verify when the names on the starter, generators and distributors charged.  As some have mentioned, it may have been a matter of economy, old badges or customer preference that kept some items with the original nomenclature.  The tags on my 32 Dodge Brothers are also from Anderson, Indiana and read Delco-Remy.

Reading about the history of the company,  Remy was the well-known name for automotive electrical components and they had gained a reputation for quality.  I have the feeling GM took a few years to make the change visible on their products, perhaps fearing confusion in the public eye.  Just conjecture, not fact.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Taylormade (see edit history)

[nzcarnerd]

2 hours ago, KRK Sr. said:

In 1916 Leyland purchased Hyatt roller bearing, Delco Light, and Remy, making them a part of "United Motors". Little did he know he would also get Al Slone as his successor who would run GM for many years. My 1929 Pierce Arrows all have just Delco tags on the generators, my 1930's have Delco-Remy. I guess the crash of 1929 was the final consolidation of the two companies to the same location as well, all the 1930 tags are from Anderson Ind. for 1930. Karl

 

I presume by 'Leyland' you mean Leland as in Henry of Cadillac fame. Surely though it was Billy Durant who made those purchases?

[60FlatTop]

Here is some of the Rochester Products connection.

 

I used to run a hard tired tiller drive electric crane from the old Whitney Street plant.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Products_Division

 

Bernie

Edited September 18, 2017 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

[Spinneyhill]

3 hours ago, KRK Sr. said:

I guess the crash of 1929 was the final consolidation of the two companies to the same location as well, all the 1930 tags are from Anderson Ind. for 1930. Karl

 

Apart from those made by The McKinnon Industries in St Catharines, Ontario, as on my 1930 Dodge Brothers.

[KRK Sr.]

1 hour ago, nzcarnerd said:

 

I presume by 'Leyland' you mean Leland as in Henry of Cadillac fame. Surely though it was Billy Durant who made those purchases?

NZCARNERD, I did mean Durant, not Leland. I have a copy of Al Slones book on my shelf at home, I will have to look and see if it has much to say about the 1926 merger of the two companies.  When looking for repro data tags we also have the big and small tags with the same info on the same year Pierce Arrows. They do not interchange as the pin distances are not the same. Karl

[Craig Gillingham]

OK, that helps, so from this Delco-Remy starters, generators, Distributors, etc were first badged like this around 1928-29.

[Taylormade]

As soon as we all agree, someone will chime in with an exception to the accepted wisdom.?

[Stude Light]

This site has a lot of the history.

http://www.delcoremyhistory.com/history.htm

 

Also some history on all the "Delco Divisions"

GM divisions dayton history.pdf

 

[padgett]

The delcoremyhistory site is quite good. Worked for D-R from 1970 to 1975 & was at most of the plants at one time or another (invented a fixture for the remanufacturing plant to remove a regulator from an alternator without breaking the terminals. Acre was where the IR/fiber optic computer control system and single piston ladle system was developed for very large aluminum die casting machines).

 

Back then older employees still called it "Remy's".

 

Makes sense that distributer/alternator/starter lines would go to Rochester since they also had large (over 1,000 ton) die casting machines.