1930 Studebaker 8 oil pump housing, who has them?

[studeboy1930]

If I remember correctly, someone was making new oil pump housings out of brass for late twenties/early thirties Studebaker 8's to replace the original pot metal oil pumps. Anyone know if this is the case and where or who has them available?

[Mark Huston]

The person who has been providing the reproduction brass oil pump body and gears is Lionel Stone, Sherman Oaks, CA, 818-990-8916. His add was in the recent Nov-Dec 2006 issue of the club magazine.

Another person who makes reproduction parts for antique Studebakers is Custom Antique Parts, Spokane, WA 509-892-9258.

Just a word of caution, I have purchased the reproduction brass oil pump body and gears for three Studebakers, a 1929 FD Commander, 1928 FA President, and a 1929 FE President. To obtain the best success with these reproduction pumps you need to have a machinist fine tune the tolerances of the pump body and gears.

[studeboy1930]

Thank you for the info, I have the parts on order. Would you happen to have any factory specs on clearances between the gears and body, and gear backlash. I suppose I can get some measurements off my original pump, but I am sure it has some wear on it.

[Mark Huston]

I do not know the specific tolerances are for the oil pump. What I can tell you is that the machinist that I used had to shave down the body and gears so that they matched in thickness. The reproduction oil pump body and the reproduction gears are not an exact match in top to bottom thickness. By having the machinist mill them to the same thickness improves the performance and oil pressure.

[Guest stude8]

I have rebuilt several 29/30 President 8 oil pumps and in addition to the tolerance problems with the oil pump repro brass bodies you better inspect the lower inlet iron casting for deck clearance wear. The oil pump has a drive gear and a driven gear that exerts thrust against this plate. Have a qualified machine shop surface grind it smooth again, something like -.015 should be enough to clean it up unless your oil pump was worn severly and scored it worse than usual. Stude8

[studeboy1930]

I have the new oil pump installed and the motor back together. There was a nice improvment on oil pressure. I did have to do a considerable amount work to the new housing. When I assembled the pump, the gears were binding on the side of the body. I worked that area with emery cloth until I had clearence. I did have to mill a new surface on the bottom iron casting to clean up the wear. Although it did take some work to make the new housing function properly, I am very glad that this part is available and someone took the time to reproduce them.

[Guest stude8]

Studeboy:

Glad to hear you have the oil pump back together. I didn't know you were that far along on the project.

I would have suggested you test the pump before installing in the engine. With the gear to wall tolerances as close as they are I wasn't sure there might be contact at some high spots so after bench assembly I put the assembled pump in a cake pan of oil deep enough to submerge the inlet area and hooked my 1/2" drive electric drill to the input shaft and ran the pump for several minutes and did find a few sparkles of brass flakes in the oil. I don't have still photos of this but I did make a video tape of the test.

I disassembled it again to note several high contact points marked in the brass body that required sanding with Emery cloth on a large dowel to dress the ID for complete clearance. After reassembly, another test run in the cake pan showed no flakes in the oil which made me feel better about putting in in an engine cold out of the box. Stude8