The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay End of an era!

We have had a Starter and Alternator Repair shop here in town for 47 years. One of the few places in town willing to chase electrical gremlins. I took a alternator in this morning and was informed that as of March 1st the phones go dead, the credit card machine goes off line and the doors lock permanently. I have been dealing with the owner since November 1976. None of the kids want to do the work. Sad day.

Yes, that same thing happened here. An outfit I had used since the late 60s closed. I guess kids today aren't interested in that sort of operation. Too bad. The man would rebuild a starter correctly and for less than anyone else.

Looks like it's an epidemic- - - - -the local rebuilder I've been doing business with for 40+ years has also retired and closed down. We really ought to try to buy up some of the repair parts for our favorite accessories from these guys before they get liquidated.
Jerry

Sounds like your alternator died in a timely fashion, Martin. If it had lasted a bit longer, you'd have been out of luck.
It's sure a shame that the shop is going out of business. Seems like a common occurrence. We still have a rebuild shop up here, but no telling how long it will last. They recently moved to larger quarters, so maybe they still have an adequate clientele.

Yes I always feel grateful that there is Alternator/Generator/Starter shop about 5 miles away from me, which is adjacent to an auto glass shop. Each privately owned by 2 cousins. The glass shop cousin has a sustainable gig working on a Step Van fleet of a large potato chip company. (Those large square front windows types).
I often wondered if there is third cousin that owns either a taylor, shoemaker or typewriter repair shop.

When I was growing up we all used Hastings starters, solenoids and clutches because they were a local company and you could depend on their work.
There was nothing worse than having a bad new part after all the labor spent to replace it, especially a clutch assembly.
I think they went out of business in the 80's.
I found a picture of H.B. Hastings on the APRA website (https://apra.org/page/1950APRA).
Back then rebuild businesses had technical clinics, trade shows, convention meetings and Miss APRA.
A different era.

A good friend of mine passed away about five years ago and the starter/generator/alternator scene has never been the same. He would make 6v or 12v alternators in either positive or negative ground and combine 12v and 6v armatures and fields (plus some close tolerance lathe work) to make race car starters that would spin over smoking hot engines. He had the construction and heavy duty truck business in this area sewed up and those guys miss him more I'm sure than the misguided race car nuts.

Same thing happened in Boulder, had an old time electric shop that could fix anything, fair price, quick service, would work on aircraft parts too, electricity doesn’t care.

Gone one day.

Ed

Auto electric & radiator shops are, sadly, getting far & few between.

Unfortunately only one person in 10,000 actually needs these specialized services these days since everything is now disposable or there is a cheap, convenient overseas replacement item available. It's hard to run a business when you might see a couple items a month come in for repair. That won't even pay for a phone line. Remember TV repair shops? Mobile TV repair? I used to fix TV's with vacuum tubes in a shop as a teen lol.

I've come close to buying a couple brake lathes for under $100 and likely will get one at some time since this is also becoming a lost skill and guys are dumping the equipment.


There are a few good guys around but you have to ship to them. I'm currently waiting for a restored '38 generator from across the border. Not just repaired but the quality work you put on display. But ya, the shipping sucks when the shop is no longer around the corner...

Not much different in the midwest I do my own starter and 1-wire alternator work learned from an old friend who staeted winding generators in 1936. He knew how to do it all ,he could recognize any american starter nose! When I done alterators he gave me a die to chase rotor threads with. I keep it on a nail by my vise.Big fun but its mostly over now,can't live in the past forever. Wiill just go for a spin in the 51 6400 !!!

Regarding end of an ara we still have some shops left because of farm machinery. They are wearing thin,my local Fisher FLAPS store can still get most starter parts,alternator,and HEI repairs. As for machinery can still bore and sleeve,sunnen hone,seats and guides,turn drums,chuck stuff in the south bend,bore big holes 15/8 in the big drill press. So that stuff should finish me off !!!

We have one place that I would trust here and they did my truck engine in 2010 but the guy is getting up there in age.

You guys are scaring me. We have one guy here in town who is older (like me) and can rebuild anything. I have a stash of starters and gens, probably 8 gens and 4 starters.. Maybe I should take them all in now and then put them on the shelf. What do you think?

But then you wouldn’t be a Professional procrastinator.

True enough. I may break tradition on this one though.

You all need to find your closest Plain Community (Mennonite, Amish, etc.) and look for what you need there.

We have an electrical motor/generator/etc business here in ours, owned and staffed by New and Old Order Mennonites (car drivers/buggy drivers). Always fun to take a 6-volt starter or gennie there for a rebuild. Lots of Class 8 components there, too. I haven't seen anyone working there older than about 45 or so. A few boys in the back learning the trade, too. Recently had my 6 volt generator rebuilt -- dropped it off along with the VR and Ronnie didn't even have to ask what I needed done to the VR, he just knew.

I even have a bunch of antique B&D polished aluminum bodied power tools that I like to use (mainly a sander, jig saw and "skil" saw) that have all been rebuilt and re-corded with three prong cords. Good to go for another 60 years.

So don't give up -- there's still kids out there learning trades ... they just may not be who you are used to seeing and you might have to travel a bit to find them. But they are out there.

I haven't found the Mennonite radiator shop, yet, though. But, if I ever need a wagon or buggy wheel custom made, I know right where to go and it's only 10 minutes from here It's actually next to the Electrical Motor shop.

One of our good auto-electric shops closed down years ago. I was lucky enough, though, to buy a Mercury Mark 58A that was stored behind the shop from him. We still have 2 shops to go.

We have a radiator shop here in town that their slogan is, The Best Place To Take A LEAK. when they put up a billboard there were editorials objecting to it. This was back in the 70s. Small town minds.

The editorials helped the shop with marketing by bringing attention to the shop. Their effort objecting to the slogan backfired.
I'd take my leak there.

Publicity is publicity, right?

There is no one left in my local area to rebuild a generator, starter or alternator. Its a real shame. Apparently you can buy brand new cheaper then rebuilt. I wonder if it might be helpful to have a little list of dedicated shops that still do this kind of work. I fear that as the years go on we will all be pretty much stuck shipping our stuff to someone.

Where in Pa are ya? There a place called Eds Generartor not far from me in da Pgh area. I take all my related items to him. He rebuilt da starter and generator in my 66 somewhat recently. Hope he sticks around, i dont really know of anyone else..

Glenn, near Philadelphia. Try finding a radiator shop around these parts too, lol. Is such a shame given how many were in business for all those years.

I have a local guy who is pretty dang good. Been doing my stuff for quite a few years. He just retired and has two young men still running the shop that had been with him for several years.

.....I take a biscuit by there for him and the boys fairly often. The cost is usually HALF what a new or reman would cost and he rebuilt the entire unit, not just replace the one bad item. Many times I would drop one off and he'd smile and ask me "you want it to look pretty?...or work? That meant if you will wait a few minutes you can get it back! .....and sometimes no charge!!

Wish there were more guys like Hugh around and folks you could really call your friends instead of acquaintances!!!!!

Martin Wehave the same trouble here no where to get electrical gremlins looked at. So have to do our own,was lucky to have an old timer show me so much when I was young on Delcotrons. My junkyard pal saved me several delcotrons so have "stock" to work from. Just build my own 1-wires and learned what to use to get "easy-prime" alternators for bolts !

No alternator/starter shops in southern oregon, and even worse in bigger cities. Muffler shops are dropping like flys because the cars newer then 30 years old are all bolted together, and any mechanic can do the work. The muffler shops ive been to ask crazy prices because they only get a few jobs a month and need to pay the rent on only a few jobs. add to that, no one bends pipes by hand any longer. I did exhaust work for over 20 years and ive been tempted to prebend pipes to original specs to sell, but im too old to start a dying trade.lol

i'm sad to hear all this, but i certainly don't have any memories of "the good ol days" as im a wee lad, but im wondering if it'd be reasonable to try to gather the information for all this kind of work and start a shop just fixing old stuff that no one else is willing to? i figger if i can find enough of the old guys to teach me the tricks of the trade i could probably get pretty good at a lot of it, and if i did more than one thing i'd be more likely to have enough business to stay afloat. thoughts on the matter? i've always wanted to start my own shop, but i really think it may be a decent investment, as i do really enjoy working with old automobiles.

Lack of demand within a reasonable distance from your shop would be the only obstacle that I can think of.
If you are able to do it on a part time basis out of a 2 car garage until your reputation becomes prevalent, I'd go for it.
I build high end, show quality AD trucks out of my 2 car garage. I have made good money doing it, but at the pace that I am under due to having another full time job, I can't make a living this way, but like I said, it would be a good place to start.

Transmission shop here in Atlanta that was around since the 60s closed a few years ago. All the guys were brothers and cousins, etc. but they were all in their high 60s and 70s. None of their younger relatives/kids or whatever had the desire or skill to take over the business.

They were working on old fashioned automatic trannys since they were new.

They rebuilt the Hydramatic in my Cadillac in 2011 and it runs like new on what is essentially a daily driver with several trips to Tampa and back. The last tranny they rebuilt was on a 1959 Imperial. They closed down just two months later.