CARBURETOR: A professional shop did a diagnosis and road-tested the Duchess, concluding that the carburetor is not pumping enough fuel to the engine when it's under stress, i.e. going up hill with pedal to the floor.

The car sputters, fluffs, give a burst of power, then fluffs again. I've learned to vary the pedal an 8th of an inch or so, up and down, close to the floor board in order to make it up my hill.

The manual refers to carburetor spring that should be 1-1/2 inches, and if not, if more compressed, one could have insufficient fuel. I was wondering if I could fix this myself.

My suspicion is that I damaged the carburetor with a couple of very loud back-fires, when I had the ignition wires set up wrong.

If you are saying to yourself...O, I know what that is. That's an easy fix.

Please reply.

The shop also installed the gaskets I bought at the swap meet for the oil pan and vicinity and sealed that doggone overdrive solenoid . Not a drop on the garage floor this morning.

Also I'd like to put in a plug for Les Schwab Tire Centers. If you've never brought your Packard there for rotation, brake adjustment etc, try it. Here's where they are in the west. I'm right at 5000 miles. They rotated, checked and adjusted the brakes and hand brake. $20.50. They worked on it over an hour.
http://lesschwab.know-where.com/lesschwab/cgi/index?design=default&lang=en®ion_name=Montana&mapid=US

If you just want to run an entertainment center...tho better off with an iPad...
look at the bottom of this thread and the following page. With pictures.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9011&forum=1

I installed a 6-to-12 converter box next to my battery (under the seat in a 40) and attached it to a cigar lighter. I just plug the iPad/iPhone or whatever into the lighter socket.

Also on this page are other converter options:

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5878&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=300

You can never have too much info.

Joe

Howard,

If you don't have overdrive on your 47, would you consider selling that dashpot throttle guard and bracket for it (if you have one) to me?

If you do have overdrive, here's how it goes on the carburetor. This is a Stromberg AAV-26. You probably have a Carter.

EDIT Just checking and saw that Flackmaster was looking for one. Need to read more.

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Yet another, who did mine.
http://backwardsunlimited.com/
1940 Banjo $400 8 years ago.

I wouldn't be surprised to see black leather used for the chauffeur's compartment.

Here ya go, Howard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh6z5BW_meE
Problem solved.

Howard, it's great to be a member of your large cheering section.

A few years ago, when I looked at my rust bucket, that's what I saw. But looking at yours, I now see the beauty, the possibilities, the finished object. All because I got out and got under for two years almost every day for 2-3 hours. I look at rust and caked on grease differently now, as a protectant. And just think, you won't have to ask questions like What is a firing order and who gives it? You know all this stuff. Quite an asset.

A couple of years ago when I wasn't in my 70s I could have kicked myself more than a couple times for forgetting to grab the other size wrench before I got under the car. I usually just hit my head.

It will get better. Bodies come up to the work. That's what they do. Certainly reporting on progress helps to make more progress. Plus you'll have a great record of your accomplishments, an auto narrative.

Joe

Thanks for the reminder, JW. I think I did after all those alerts at the time, but I can't remember now, so I'll remove the wheel and make sure it's greased, and also not leaking since I reused my seals.

I'm suffering these symptoms. I took it to a shop and they scoped it to be the carburetor pump sticking and not delivering enough fuel under load, such as up a steep hill when you keep the pedal down. Pumping the pedal corrects the situation temporarily (so you at least get home). Mine's a 40, so I would rely on the advice of someone familiar with your year and model.
I added some fuel stabilizer and aviation fuel. Both improved performance, but just incrementally. I have to rebuild the carburetor.

Experienced continued problems with "fluffing," JW. I tried some Stabil and that helped. I added 10 gallons of aviation fuel, that helped even more. But I finally took it in to a professional shop for analysis. It's my carburetor. Electrical is perfect, which made me pretty happy since I spent some time on that, cleaning up the distributor and adding new wires.

When I was trying to figure out the timing, I followed the book instead of common sense. The manual shows clockwise firing order, but eventually figured it should counterclockwise on my car. In the process however it backfired pretty loud a couple of times and may have caused a problem with the carburetor. The analysis was that the engine wasn't getting any fuel under stressful situations. The carburetor pump is sticking or something. Pumping the pedal helps. I've taken it out for an evening drives in the country without any real problem. Steep hills are touch and go, however.

I was reading (dangerous for me) that there is a spring associated with the carb pump that should be 1-1/2 in in length and maybe needs stretching if it's less than that. I'm going to order a rebuild kit.

Bruce (Abbott Instruments) finished my clock and it runs perfectly. Of course, that handy hole I got used to into the glove box after many months is blocked by the clock.

David Moe was at the Portland SWAP Meet this weekend with a large booth. Fun to see so many items I no longer need. Olson Gasket was there, too, so I ordered some gaskets to stop all leaks from pan and vicinity. I managed to get oil on my clutch plate. Since I sealed the back end of the pan by adding copper washers, it's much better, but in a lug it wants to slip, so I'll get a new plate from Gary Brinton, Prineville, Oregon.

At the show I was also looking for some items for my sons Joey (53 Buick Super sedan), John (65 Mustang convert and 62 Corvette) and James (61 Jag 3.8 sedan). Joey took some enhanced pix of the Duchess last visit here.

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