================ Paxton Superchargers... ----------- Has anyone figured out why some Paxtons last 500 miles and others go on forever? PCKing pcking@mindspring.com dec 2003 ---------------- I've put about 15,000 miles on my R2 with nary a protest from the Paxton. I keep the oil changed regularly with tranny fluid, I keep the air filters changed even more regularly. I try to keep my foot out of it as much as possible, especially when I've got it firmly planted in my mouth. Paxton and the predecessor have been around a long time. If they were crap (no offence to anyone!) I don't think the company would have survived for 50 odd years or more. Some people do have trouble (Chris Altenburg) and some don't (me f'rinstance...) Knocking on wood though, superstitious ain't my only fault. Brooksie brooksie1@shaw.ca dec 2003 --------------------- I have one I bought with the engine, had just been rebuilt, now 100,000 miles & 25 years later, its still running. My brothers R3 ate them for lunch, most receintly rebuilt by Paxton, seems to be a keeper. Crallscars@aol.com ------------------------ I've got a John Erb rebuilt Paxton in my R2 Hawk ( the Avanti is only an R1 :( ). Are the ball bearings replaced during a rebuild? or are the old ones just cleaned up? thx, Jeff ----------------- Dec 2003 I don't have a supercharged Avanti -- but I did attend a banquet in May of 2002 honoring "the Man", himself, Andy Granatelli at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend; and parts of his speech to this group was fascinating. And it may shed some light on the "good Paxton supercharger"/"bad Paxton supercharger" issue. Basically, it was a near total lack of good, consistent, production quality control, particularly after Studebaker absorbed the firm and began "hurrying" the production of the superchargers. A Paxton supercharger is a "delicate beast", designed to close tolerances like a "fine Swiss watch", which was why Granatelli said he couldn't make the production quotas for Studebaker in his California production facilities. He gave a single example to illustrate his point, the "centrifugal-design" Paxton supercharger relies on very close tolerance ball bearings that Andy imported from Germany, at great expense. These ball bearings are of a tolerance of LESS than 1/1000th of an inch, and were all placed by hand in his operation. During a visit to the South Bend Studebaker/Paxton facility he saw boxes of these ball bearings being DUMPED into a machine and "bouncing around like marbles", and he surmised by the time they made it into the supercharger units they were nicked, and "out-of-round" -- a sure design formula for disaster -- as you can't mass-produce a delicate, hand-built Paxton supercharger -- it is what it is. After listening to Andy's presentation, my impression was that the early Studebaker Avanti R2 Paxton superchargers Andy hand built were of higher quality than the Studebaker versions that came later. I'm just curious if the R2's who have "good Paxton superchargers" are early production cars, or not. It seems in the later versions you simply dealt with the "luck of the draw" whether you received a "good one". Most people who have had a lot of trouble switched to the more modern, and simpler designed "Vortec superchargers". ------------------------- In his autobiography, Andy Granatelli said the lack of reliability, in the late 50's superchargers, was partly caused by mismatched drive ball sets. Several matched sets of five, from the manufacturer, were mixed together in a hopper, during assembly at Paxton. As a result, the different sized balls didn't share the load equally, and the largest would quickly fail. This seems very plausible, and might even be true! It sounds like the story has been elaborated on! According to an article Ray Brock wrote for "Hot Rod", in Oct '58, tolerances for Paxton's American made drive balls were + or - 25 micro-inches, (.000025). German drive balls were available to 4 micro-inches. Paxton sold both, with different part #'s and prices. I have a copy of Stude's blueprint, which lists the parts used in the R2 ball drive, and Paxton's part #'s. They show the # for American drive balls. I've been told at least some parts from Stude were marked made in Germany, but American balls were specified! I think reliability is improved if you happen to get a closely matched set of drive balls. This is more likely if they were made to a closer tolerance. There is a picture of one of the prototype Avanti's with a universal type SN60 Paxton. It has a distinctive cut down VS57 medallion on top, which is replaced by a foil sticker on production cars. I've never heard Stude assembled superchargers any where other than the Paxton plant. Production R2's used special versions of the SN60 Paxton. Original Avanti superchargers are "MS" prefix. The Lark/Hawk version is "ML". The mounting holes are drilled only for the application and are in different positions. An "ML" won't fit an Avanti bracket; and vice versa; unless you drill holes! Pulleys are also different; as is the volute position. mmudd@worldnet.att.net dec 2003 ---------------------- ============== When I was racing with the Paxton and later with two of them, I found if I would change the oil twice a year and the drive balls each year, mine would last pretty good. Granted, I can't say how many miles as I didn't drive many highway miles but they were run at 6000+ rpm's for a quarter mile at a time with high output pulleys and added spring tensioners to keep the belts from slipping, For what it's worth, Ford Type F (not type FA) seems to be the best but I have no scientific proof of this, only what seemed to work for me. Also, the five drive balls are not that expensive ($55 a set) and the ones I have are Chrome grade 25 Tol. 0000256''. These are what I use in the rebuilds I do. When you change the balls, just be sure everything is clean and either handle them with lint free paper/cloth or clean your fingers with acetone or laquer thinner before handling them. For most people that drive normal, I think just keeping the oil changed is all you need if they are working ok and you would not need to change the drive balls. Just my opinion. Ted Harbit Dec 2003 ---------------------------