I had a similar problem with the 352 cid Packard V-8 fuel pump in my 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk. Turned out to be leaking around the pivot pin in the for the pump arm. I guess they wear out after a while.

Modifying the characteristics of an alloy steel is not as easy as it may appear. You have to know the composition of the alloy. Each alloy has its own heat treating diagram. The annealing temperature, quench medium and tempering temperatures have different affects on the material properties. You can't simply heat an unknown alloy to a high temperature and then drop in water or oil, you then have to heat it again to a lower temperature to temper it to reduce the as-quenched hardness to improve or change the other material properties such as fatigue strength, hardness, microstructure, yield strength, etc.

As for brake drums, typical gray cast iron comes in at least 8-10 different alloys and the strength of the alloy is determined mostly by the chemical composition and microstructure. Besides, don't you want the gently-wearing characterists of brake shoes against the softer iron? I would think a hard-surfaced iron would give you squealing brakes. The newer brakes in modern cars are mostly disc brakes and the alloys used are different and matched to the brake pad compositions to give good stopping ability, wear and quietness.

From Wikipedia on the types of papers used for air filters:

The raw materials are different paper pulps. The pulp may be from softwood, hardwood, fiber crops, mineral fibers. For high quality filters, dissolving pulp and mercerised pulp are used. Most filter papers are made on small paper machines. For laboratory filters the machines may be as small as 50 cm width. The paper is often cr?ped to improve porosity. The filter papers may also be treated with reagents or impregnation to get the right properties.

After having lived with oil leaks from the front end of my engine for years, I decided to have the gaskets replaced on my 352 Packard V-8 in my 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk. The cast alloy timing chain cover was leaking particularly badly. It had a butchered-up rope seal in it, the cover wasn't flat (by 0.08" in spots) and the two front oil pan bolts were stripped out of the cover and weren't even holding. I got another good used cover from Brent Hagen (ghawk352@effectnet.com) that I had fitted with a new modern neoprene seal. New gaskets and the neoprene seal can be obtained from Bob Marx (bob@marxparts.com).

I also had the oil pan gaskets and transmission pan gasket replaced at the same time. To replace the gaskets, the radiator, water pump, vibration dampener, steering linkage, oil pan, exhaust pipe, starter, lower flywheel housing and timing chain housing were removed from the car. The old rope seal internal retainer ring in the timing cover was originally held in by a previous owner with wood screws! It's supposed to be pressed-in fit over the rope seal. The new neoprene seal doesn't leak a drop now. Cork seals were used for the front and rear oil pan seals.

Even the fuel pump was leaking oil from the pivot rod in the housing so I replaced the pump too.

It was an expensive job but well worth it. Now if I could resolve the fluid drips from the Ultramatic! The car often sits for weeks without my driving it and it slowly drips transmission fluid over time. I've been told this is normal for these older transmissions that don't get used very much, and even older GM Hydramatics do it.

Bill L.

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I once owned a 1957 Studebaker President Classic with factory A/C. It was a Novi unit and took up most of the trunk space over the rear axle. There were two plastic tubes that came out of the unit on the parcel shelf and pointed towards the headliner ala Cadillac. The compressor was huge compared to today's units.

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I could have gone with more modern belts but I wanted the installation to be as orignal as I could make it. The only thing I couldn't replicate was the cable-type center belt anchor of the early kits, so my center belts are individually bolted to the floor pan with large washers underneath.

Frank Ambrosio of the 56J Only Register has been my source of a lot of information about these belts and even furnished me with the two original flip-up buckles.

So far, I've found no disadvantage to the original design. In fact, with my all-vinyl upholstery, the belts keep you firmly planted while cornering!

I guess if there is disadvantage to this installation is the time it takes to put the belts back into the door clips after you've used them. We're so used to retractable belts in our modern cars!

Since Kar Belts kits are so rare, I replicated a set of front seat belts for my 56J. I got the safety belts from a belt manufacturer, dyed them similar to the original color and fabricated the metal belt retaining clips and door edge anchor plates. I used a pair of the original flip-up buckles through which the belts slide. Fortunately, we have a local airplane seat belt fabricator in our area and he did the sewing on the center belts and furnished the stainless steel belt ends that preventing fraying. Frank Ambrogio of the 56J Only Club has reproductions of the small round red and black "S-P" labels for the buckles.

If anyone is interested in the dimensions of the door hardware, I can e-mail them. The center belts are merely bolted to the floor with large round washers under the floor pan.

Bill

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This is an excellent source for truly beautiful spark plug wires. Although Brent makes them for the 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk, they should be the same for the 1955 and 1956 Packard V-8s.

Bill

Premium quality solid core custom 56J spark plug wire sets now available. Please specify which type wire brackets you have on your 56J - early finger-type or later large grommet-type, and if you have a single or dual carburetors. Cost is $56 + $5 shipping.

Brent Hagen
6220 S.E. 55th Ave
Portland OR 97206-6800
Cell 971-219-9687 - Home 503-771-0604

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Thanks for recalling my memory, Randy. You're right, of course, they were Dana units. I couldn't find my reference material. It probably went with the 1957 when I sold it.

After comparing the 56th series Vol. 30, #4, bulletin with the Studebaker shop manual, it looks like the 1956 Packard info was copied word for word in the 1957 Studebaker manual. So Packard introduced the Dana units in 1956 and Studebaker in 1957 for most of their models.

Good info.

"Twin Traction" was the Studebaker trade name for a non-slip differential that I think was similar to the Chrysler products differentials of the same type. I'm trying to find the reference material that I had on these units, but I seem to recall that they might have been provided to both corporations by Wagner. The differential used friction disc clutches. It was available on 1957 and 1958 Packards (actually Studebaker President Classics with Studebaker 289 CID V-8s and superchargers). The option was also available on later Studebakers in virtually all models. A pot metal emblem with the italic letters "TT" in a circle was mounted on the driver's side lower corner of the trunks of so-equipped cars. I had the Twin Traction differential in my 1957 Studebaker President Classic. On Studebakers, a tag was installed indicating that the car had Twin Traction but if it was missing, you could remove the differential filler plug and look for the two-piece case and cross pins used in this type of differential. They were pretty rugged units and I never had any problems with mine. I have the two pages from the Studebaker shop manual for 1957 (when Studebaker first supplied the units) for anyone who might be interested.