Terms/Fun Facts

Studebaker switched from the 6 volt to 12 volt electrical system for the 1956 production year 

Studebaker used these acronyms to describe what side of the car the steering wheel was on. LHC meant left hand control where the steering wheel was on the left as you set in the vehicle and RHC meant right hand control. 

This refers to a collection of multiple wires that are bundled together and for a wire assembly that looks like a tree with a main bundle (trunk) and breakouts (limbs). 

This refers to 1 wire or a simple grouping of wires that have two ends with no breakouts. 

This is a woven, flat conductor that is normally used for battery and engine grounds. 

This refers to wire that is actually modern plastic insulated wire braided with cotton and then lacquered.  Our cloth wire has the same look  as original cloth wire, but is new, modern wire underneath. 

This refers to wire that has plastic insulation only.  Studebaker started to implement this wire in 1955 and in 1956 most items used plastic wire other then a few things like the dome lamp cables and horn push button cables. 

This refers to the braided cloth covering that is tightly woven around wire bundles such as a main chassis harness. This is accomplished using a special braiding machine. 

This is a non-adhesive vinyl tape that is used to cover a bundle of wires in place of cloth over braid.  It was developed for use on navel ships and Studebaker started using it sparingly in the 1940's.  You may have a main chassis harness that has a section of vinyl wrap that covers cloth over braid, this may actually be original.  Later in the 1940's they started completely covering rear chassis harnesses with this tape. In 1953 they started using it on almost everything and dropping the use of cloth over-braid except on a few items like overdrive control harnesses. 

This is where some of the terminals are encapsulated in rubber forming a connector.  Studebaker started doing this to a small degree in the later 1950's and was using it quite extensively starting in 1959. We do our best to accurately reproduce this complicated and time consuming process.  The spelling of this word is usually "molded", but Studebaker used "moulded". 

Ignition cables are also commonly called "spark plug cables" or "spark plug wires".  According to all of our factory documentation Studebaker never used brightly colored ignition cables.  They were insulated in black high gloss lacquered cloth or black neoprene rubber.  

Some ignition cable reads "Packard".  This was seen in the late 1940's until 1961 with the Packard 440 tinned copper core cable.  It was replaced in 1961 with suppression core Packard TVRS cable.  Why would Studebaker use a cable made by Packard before 1954?  The cable was not from the Packard Motor Car Company, it was made by the Packard Electric Company which was a completely separate company.