That Pierce Arrow is not a 1933, it's a 1931 or older.

The trunnion block is on the LHS of both of my 6th Series cars, they are both RHD.
David

Thanks Dave for that observation. I guessed (perhaps incorrectly) that the trunnion would be on the steering side. But a last question, were your 6th series cars built as RHD at Detroit for export, or were they converted locally? I think the answer to that would conclude the question.

I'd guess the demise of the taxi business was the result of very rapidly diminishing sales volume. From something like 2000 to 680 to 13 over the 3 years. Not exactly a screaming success. DeSoto in particular was doing extremely well with the NYC taxi business in those years.

A common error when doing brake relining on cars with the trunnion block, at least the ones with 2-shoe brakes thru 1936, is to use the same brake lining width on all four wheels. If you check your specifications you'll see that the left-front wheel used a narrower lining, 1/2 inch narrower on the Eights and Super Eights and 5/8 inch narrower on the Twelves (data for 1934).

EDIT: Yes, of course I should have picked up on it. If the car is RHD then the trunnion is on the right side and that side then I presume has the narrower brake lining.

Trying to wrap this up a bit, I've gone back to pages 197, 198 and 199 of Robert Neal's "Master Motor Builders". If you don't have this book, you really should look for a copy, it has a tremendous wealth of data.

John, it indicates that White ceased using the Packard Six truck engine (then known as the IT-245) in 1962 and all the engines White used, about 7500 in Truck series 3014 and 3015, were manufactured by Packard and later Studebaker-Packard, and no mention is made of any sale of the engine plant or tooling to White. In 1953 White was paying $344 per engine and apparently purchased them well ahead of their actual needs.

Also on page 199 I see noted the 13 23rd series NYC taxicabs; apparently this was not originally planned but resulted from lower-than-expected sales of the 22nd series taxis and export sixes. Thanks 49Packard for bringing this out.

And PackardV8, the White trucks you speak of certainly had a kind of similarity to the 40-42 Packard grille style, but it was just that, a similiairty. BTW, the ones you think of weren't the series that used the Packard engine, though they did use a series of quite large displacement White-produced L-head sixes. EDIT - adding a copy of a typical White spec sheet for the series using the Packard Six engine, courtesy of Robert Neal's "Master Motor Builders".

Attach file:

---

  (136.71 KB)

Rusty, good point and I agree with what you say. From the little I've read about it, another issue with the single wire alternators is that their output (at least those that I've seen specs on) is only marginally more than generators. I supose there are exceptions though.

Yes, 1947 was the last year for cataloged 6 cylinder cars, taxis and export excluded.

That crennelated fastner is not peculiar to Packard or even the auto industry, they are (or were) commonly found in industrial equipment and special spanners can be bought from good supply houses. Most often though, folks use a block of soft metal like brass or bronze against the teeth and tap at several different locations around the perimeter. Their advantage is not unusual clamping force but ease of securing at a large number of positions.

49Packard, I'm curious what your source was for the 23rd series taxi production. Not that any source is unimpeachable but using Nat Dawes "The Packard 1942-1962" as a reference, it shows 22nd series Six production of 1317 6 cylinder taxis in 1948 and 24 in 1949 and export sales of 1927 taxis and touring sedans in 1948 and 683 in 1949.

For the 23rd series, it lists the available chassis and body types but shows no units produced. Perhaps the production you noted as 13 units were upgraded left-over 22nd series, somewhat similar to the 23rd series Station Sedans?

And just to amend my off-hand first response, apparently the marine IM-245 engine was only built thru 1951, but the industrial version IT-245 was built into 1953. This ndata from Robert Neal's "Master Motor Builders". I've not yet found where I have the data on the use of the Six in White trucks, but as I remember it was limited to the smallest COE (cab-over-engine) metropolitan delivery types.

I believe w/o checking further that the right answer is 1947 for passenger cars, 1948-49 (22nd series) for taxicabs, 1952 for marine and truck (for White) engines.