John, Gator, Dave & Dave, first of all my heartfelt thanks!
John, be careful in using the past tense, the opera ain't over until the fat lady sings. I'm in the process of withdraw troops for the counterattack but need a bit more time.

artillery preparation

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"various" is a stretchable term. Legal obligations to keep records are less stretchable. There is a consensus that both the Packard Motor Car Company and Briggs Manufacturing Co have been serious enterprises. There is another consensus that the sale of a complete product line is a big deal. But even small deals like the sale of a car, even the sale of a single screw is accompanied by paperwork.



[picture source: www.etsy.com]

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Thats not too far from me. I may have to make a trip over to take a looksee.

Well, I think I have found something that substantiates that Briggs did indeed build most all of the Packard bodies from June 1940 on.

L. Morgan Yost, author of the "The End of an Era" the section covering the 17th through 20th series in the Automobile Quarterly book - "Packard a History of the Motor Car and the Company" - writes in a foot note talking about Packard's preparation for war and the outside storage of the body dies.

"After storage for a while, the body dies were then sold to various buyers including the Soviet Union where the ghost of the Packard later appeared as the ZIS. This disposal of the dies was not as reckless as it might appear. Briggs had supplied some body panels for the regular Packard line beginning in 1938, and that company was able to fill the breach by producing all Packard bodies from June 1940 on most of these the new Clipper shells."

Other authors also write about the old "traditional" or "conventional" body dies going to the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. This subject is well covered on this site in its own discussion forum, and I will not comment further on it here.

Actually, this was a fun research task for me, and I hope it helps to clear the air on the Briggs-Packard question. Gerd, thanks for prompting me do this. O_D, right again. It would be nice to see a photo of one of these early Briggs body tags.

(o[]o)

Great question! I'd love to have a definitive answer. It's been a bit of a mystery, hotly discussed at times, for decades and likely to remain so unless some long-lost documentation comes to light. Some have interpreted the "specify color" in the parts book (the only reference I know of) to mean on all cars which clearly isn't the case based on unmolested survivors; others take it to mean an unwritten option which might be more likely. Yet others have said it only occurred on senior cars with the "chassis in color" option, the cap color then matching the chassis color.

The same discussion has been had about colored cloisonne on the Twin Six and Twelve caps. When asked about that shortly before he passed away, the late Bob Turnquist is said to have said something like "it was available".

Barring the uncovering of some long-lost document, it's likely to remain one of those Packard mysteries, part of what makes the marque so endearing.

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I am interested to learn of what you and Wade find of this pressed swaged collar in the main shaft. A friend in Texas used an NOS main shaft assembly that ended up reciently having an issue where the collar moved allowing second and high to both engage the sliding shifter clutch resulting in shelling second gear freewheeler on the main shaft.

My transmission clearly had second gear freewheeler on the main shaft replaced as well as the input shaft. This was not evident or clear at first because I took a quick look at the input and freewheelers, and cluster which all looked good. Latter I looked at the sliding shift collar and first reverse slider discovering they were destroyed. Puzzled I looked very close at things and found the second freewheeler to be literally brand new. I noticed first / second freewheelers were loose on the bearings/ main shaft and pressed the collar back further. This took up the sloop and the gears ran perfect. I figured staking the collar would ensure it was tight and did so. It actually moved again and loosened. This was very alarming because I feared it slipping (and rightfully so as I learned almost immediately latter about the one that did in Texas) and the freewheelers moving. I ground a groove in four of the splines and TIG welded a tiny bead of weld in each to hold the collar in place.

My guess is the main shaft could have a groove machined into it and a circlip used to retain the freewheelers. If needed, I suppose the gear stack could be shimmed to get the correct bearing clearances.

I apologize for not sharing this info in my post on the '40 work progress, but figured no one would get that far into something like this and would just think I was some weird mad scientist mechanic.

Jim

Its no secret that some hubcap strips and PACKARD EIGHT & PACKARD SUPER EIGHT surround and luggage rack medallion surrounds got paint body or wheel color; Parts Book states to specify color. If you study factory photos it seems like not all cars got treated to this feature. My question is why did this happen. Was it an option? Ive never seen a Packard piece of paper stating anything about it other than the Parts Book.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8yKgluzIpo0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Below shown 1939 Packard V12 Factory Photo FDR & King George VI.
Thanks to Kevin our photo archive also contains photos that showing George VI in a Packard. God save BigKev!

1) 1939 Packard super eight in parade for King George VI & Queen Elizabeth's visit to Canada, spring 19

2) 1939 Packard in official reception parade for King George VI & Queen Elizabeth in Washington, D.C.

3) 1938 Packard touring limousine in reception parade for King George VI & Queen Elizabeth

4) 1939 Packard touring limousine at reception parade for King George VI & Queen Elizabeth

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Spraying liberally with PB Blaster and then using a drift against the pin, drive it in a little. If you have the manifold off you could drive the pin back and forth. If you are hitting the counterweight to try and turn the pin you will just break it.

In the Literature section, Service manuals for 51-54, at the end of the Engine section, there are some trouble shooting steps. (part of the page attached mentioning heat control valve)... earlier manuals suggest loosening it with kerosene and working it back and forth, plus tightening the spring so the flap can (is forced to) return to the closed position when the engine cools.

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So, the evenings were filed with boring wore out pivots and arms, and machining little bushings to refresh all the clearances. This was unbelievably tedious, I wish the kid at the corner station in 1951 would have lubed this stuff. Oh well... the end product is an accelerator pedal that instantly begins to open the throttle, proper contact of the OD kickdown just as the linkage is reaching full throttle, and the mighty 356 delivering full power, as verified on a test drive to dinner this evening. The governor is gone, long live full throttle and passing gear!

Seriously, this was one of those annoying tasks that seemed like a good time to do so that the progress of getting the OD swapped in over the three day weekend would not be interrupted. Tomorrow officially begins operation transmission swap! Really hope to be driving around Monday evening. We will see!

West, I haven't forgotten about your heater pipe support stand. Will do very soon!

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