Studebaker Technical Articles

 We have no means of starting an engine other than the starter.

 This  article first appeared in the February 1973 edition of The Iowa  Studepaper as Ask Howard by Howard Shaw. It has been transcribed by Tom  Clark 2023

The crank hole has long  disappeared from the automobile. So has the rear transmission pump in  the later cars. We have no means of starting an engine other than the  starter. The starter is not unlike Dad’s electric drill or Mom’s  electric mixer as far as the motor goes. It’s a small electric motor. 

A  Studebaker automotive starts is a low-voltage, high-torque motor  connected to the flywheel. The gear ratio here is about 15-16 to 1  Bendix drive, threaded gear, with a counterweight. When the starter  starts to rotate quickly, it threads this gear into the flywheel before  it can begin to the counterweight spinning. It has a spring that winds  up to a certain point and then starts cranking the engine. Otherwise, it  could damage the teeth on the flywheel. 

Typically,  the starter is only used briefly each time the ignition key is turned.  The bushing is made of brass in most of the later starters. Since way  back in the thirties, Studebaker used oil-lite bushing in most of their  starters, and this bushing is made from powdered metal. It is a course  material pressed in a die under extreme pressure. This is soaked in oil,  and 30% of the volume of this bushing is oil. This is why the starter  sets there, runs for several years, and doesn’t need oiling. 

The  bushing on the brush end is the old type, with little graphite pockets  or inserts in the bushing. Little diamonds are placed all over or little  squares depending on who made them, which is the means of lubrication.  They are still available, but for the most part, we use the oil-lite  bushing (editor’s note: this was as of 1972. Other options may be  available now). The Chrysler people developed this bushing. 

The  plain electric motor was a series wound direct current motors. There  are also shunt and compound wounds, each with unique characteristics.  The series-wound motor means the field is in series with the armature.  This will start any load that is possible to pull at all as it is  extremely high torque, and it was used back in the days of streetcars  and so forth in one form or another. The shunt wound motor is a fairly  constant speed motor. It is not a very good starter, but it runs after  it gets a load going and stays at a fairly constant speed. 

Then  we had a compound wound motor, a combination of the series and the  shunt winding. This motor would start a heavy load and maintain a fairly  constant speed. Your 1965 and 1966 Studebakers with brand x engines  will probably have this shunt winding. There should be four field coils  of extremely heavy winding and one of the small windings. This design  keeps the starter from reaching extreme speed when the motor has  started, but the starter hasn’t been released. In the days of streetcars  and still in mining and so forth, where a series-wound motor is used,  or a compound wound is used, if the shunt field burns out they’ll run so  fast they’ll destroy themselves often. 

The  starter is an important part of your car, and since it is down  underneath the car, it does a lot of work and gets very little  attention.Add an answer to this item.

Easy tests to ensure that your alternator is working as it should.  

This article first appeared in the July 1973 edition of The Iowa Studepaper as Ask Howard by Howard Shaw. It has been transcribed by Tom Clark 2023

Talking to one of the club members at the last meeting, he was talking about a neighbor having his alternator checked at a filling station and the method they went about doing it, which was a little crude, temps to me give you this bit of information. You can check your own alternator to a point.

Disconnect the little wire on the back of the alternator; it will not charge at all with this wire disconnected. The other wire on the back of the alternator, if it is exposed, is a hot wire.  Then get a plain piece of jumper wire. Merely the wire from the back of the alternator or battery into the little tongue that you unplugged, it’s a little flat piece of metal kind of hidden back of the alternator there. If you get no spark at all, your brushes are gone, or your rotor is open. But if you DO get a spark, you can leave this hooked up and observe your ampmeter. If your alternator is working, the ampmeter will be charging full output you’re your engine running at least an idle or above.

Disconnect the jumper wire again and listen to your alternator. If you don’t hear any sound, the bearings are all right. When you hook it up again, if you hear a rumbling noise that sounds like bearings, that usually tells you that the alternator is bad. The rumble is noticeable if the alternator has one or more diodes out of it. From this, you can tell whether you have bad bearings. Connecting it up to charge full output will make a little more noise but not too much. When it makes quite a rumble and sounds like a bad bearing, we have an open or shorted rectifier. This means that the alternator will have to come off to be repaired. 

Do we know if the voltage regulator is bad or if the wire that comes down from the ignition switch might be open? Disconnect both those wires from the voltage regulator and hook those two together by any temporary means that you have. With the engine running again, it should charge at full output again. If this is true, then you need a voltage regulator. If it doesn’t charge with these two wires connected but did charge when you used a jumper wire on it, you have a broken wire between the ignition switch and the voltage regulator.

This simple test doesn’t tell you every detail an electrician might like to know, but it will tell you whether it’s working or not. It might get you out of trouble sometimes on the road. If you are from out-of-state or something like that, they try to take you for everything they can. You can do this little trick and probably get by all right yourself.

Ask Howard

In 1972 this article was spoken into a tape recorder by Howard Shaw, who was an Iowa Hawkeye Chapter member and electrical engineer. He sent the tape to Dave Balck, the chapter editor at the time. Dave transcribed the article and published it in the November 1972 edition of the Iowa Studepaper, our newspaper at the time. In 2023, Iowa Hawkeye Chapter founding member Tom Clark digitally transcribed the original article for our website. We have tried to be true to Howard's writing style.  The information is still valid, but today's technology is also important to the subject at hand. 

Dear Howard,

My husband is constantly asking me to turn on the battery charger.  Since I cannot seem to turn him on, maybe it's my battery that needs charging.  In any event, why is it good to charge a battery?

Sincerely, Underharged

Dear Undercharged,

A storage battery is a chemical plant.  It does not have any electricity in it.  It stores chemical energy.  A battery is made up of lead plates, water, and acid.  The chemical number is H2S04.  This is water and sulphuric acid.  The plate is made from a lead grid which looks like a piece of screen wire or wire fence or something like this.  Then the lead is pasted into this.  The lead oxide is made by tumbling chunks of lead in a tumbler, and this is the dust that is ground off as they go over and over and makes a fine lead which is mixed with a certain amount of sulphuric acid into a paste, then this is pressed into the plate.  Then the plates are separated by a separator, which is usually rubber or fiberglass.  Years ago, They used to be all specific cedar, but today we have fiberglass or rubber in nearly all our batteries but the very cheapest ones.  Now, as I said, there is no electricity in a battery.  When the circuit is completed on the external parts of the battery, it produces or generates a current of electricity.  Of course, the minute the circuit is broken, the chemical action is also broken, and the battery no longer produces a current of electricity. 

When the battery discharges, it takes certain parts out of the plate and a certain amount of acid out of the electrolyte, which is absorbed in the opposite plate.  When they have absorbed all the material out of the electrolyte, then the battery is considered discharged.  To charge a battery, you pass a current through it in the opposite direction, which puts the lead and sulphuric acid back where it came from.  A note right here is if you have a low battery, and the electrolyte seems low or the water low in the battery until after you've charged it up and only enough to cover the plates because as you charge the battery, you will be driving sulphuric acid out of the plates and into the electrolyte and it will gradually raise.  More than one battery has been overfilled by this process so that when it charged, it ran out all over everything, and this is something you don't want. *

The car owner can take good care of his battery by occasionally washing the top off with soda.  I usually take out a pitcher of warm water to pour over it after I've washed it off.  This lets everything float away.  A battery stays damp on top because the sulphuric acid will not evaporate, and it will lay there, collect dust, and make a little paste.  With a voltmeter, you can get all kinds of readings.  With a 12-volt battery, it is not unusual to get readings up to 10 volts by putting the voltmeter leads on different parts of the battery case itself on top of the battery.  This is merely the acid that will not evaporate, making a conductor on the top of the battery.  This is a continuous drain, not much, but continuous.  Batteries that have not been used much are often more discharged than charged and become sulfated, which is detrimental and can be corrected by slow charging.  The battery should be charged at a rate of not more than 1 amp per positive plate.  This would bring the battery up.  Most people with a hydrometer (which you can buy pretty reasonably at many discount stores such as K-mart and Target) will quit charging when they get a full charge reading.  This is not precisely the way to go about charging a sulfated battery.  I suggest that when you charge up a battery out of your antique car, leave the charger on for 72 hours after you think the battery is up.  This will not hurt the battery, especially using a trickle charger.  The fact is you should use a trickle charger here, and 72 hours is just good charging for this.  Trickle charging occasionally will keep the battery fresh.  Even with the battery you use every day in the winter, it is a good deal to charge this battery occasionally because it helps it do what it is supposed to do.  In wintertime, starting the battery produces over 2 HP, which is a lot of energy from a bundle that size, so you see it is a very efficient thing because it has a very high output.  Many other types of batteries still last longer than the lead type, but they do not have the capacity to start the automobiles.

Yours truly

Howard

*Editors note: Howard Shaw was on top of his game with this article, but technology has changed since 1972. As of this writing in 2023, most lead acid batteries are sealed and cannot be refilled.  Some automotive battery builders still offer batteries with removable caps, so it never hurts to ask your local automotive supplier about sealed vs. unsealed.  

Sealed batteries still create the vapor Howard mentions as they charge, but it is released through vents built into the battery case. There are no removable caps, and no water can be added. You can't tell if the water level is low; even if you could, there is no way to add more.  You can test these newer designs in battery technology with a voltmeter, but that is not all you need. A sealed battery may show you a usable voltage level, but that does not mean the battery can provide that voltage under load.  Sealed batteries should be load tested to see if the battery needs to be replaced.  Most newer battery chargers or your local automotive supplier can load-test it for you. Read and follow the instruction manual with your battery and your charger. 

Of course, non of this applies to the even newer lithium or hybrid automotive batteries. See the manufacturer for those!   C.S.