That would be my approach. Not original of course but far more practical if original items are simply no longer available. There are thousands of after market springs out there. Combine the right ones with some simple adapters that don't cost an arm and a leg to get made.

I can see what Packard was trying to do - provide redundancy should one of the two springs break. Don't know if this happened much, but they thought they would nip the possibilty in the bud.


Then there was that granny low gear in the four speed 7th , 8th and early 9th series so you could drive through deep sand every day.


John Oder

Just the missing washer on top, Tom. The whole retainer would be considerably more effort in that it is basically a very small part with a very coarse double start thread. The "groove" of the thread is further complicated by being machined on each side or flank of the groove to approximate the radius of the spring's wire diameter.


This was Packard's way of getting a pair of valve springs of the same diameter on each valve.

John Oder

Glad to help Tom - though the Packard design retaining business had me going there for awhile.

John

Hi Pat:

Page 109 of the reprinted 7th through 12th series service letters goes into exquisite detail on fitting aluminum pistons - such as when properly fitted, ringless, a .0015" thick full length feeler can be withdrawn with thumb and forefinger and a similar feeler .002" thick cannot with the piston in its bore. Do you suppose your engine man had this information at hand?

John Oder

Hi Tom:

Yes it would last longer before getting beat out of shape - not that that these springs exert very much force compared to say modern high performance engines.

If I made the item I would use some of the heat treated 4140 I have laying around. This steel is only slightly less hard than the springs themselves.

Although I am a "newbie" here, all of you are cordially invited to visit Practical Machinist.com where I am a moderator (antique machinery) with over 9000 posts.

Here is a link to a set of front end shackle bolts I made when I had the 726:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/johnoder/30Packard/01-1.jpg

John Oder

Howdy Thomas:

If you are up to sending parts in photo to Houston I can likely make the missing item in my machine shop. There will be no cost involved other than mailing the items back and forth.

I am assuming the missing item is a specific sized washer type part.

If the coppery look is necessary, I would have to say all I can provide is plain steel.

John Oder

P.S.
Have a fairly decent 733 axle shaft and its "hat" should one be needed. I know it is 733 as it has the single large ball bearing where the 726 has a pair of back to back Timkens.
On Edit: (There is a distinct possibility I have labored long under the assumption the big Standard Eight 733 shared the similar single ball bearing axle shaft with the 740 and 745. The reason I assumed this can be found on page 68 of Clymer's reprint of the Information book. It shows the single bearing axle assembly and a small inset labeled 726 showing the twin Timken set up. The text however, on page 71, is otherwise disposed, plainly stating both 726 and 733 were Timken equipped)

I suppose time has gone on by and everything gets more expensive. My point is this unrestored survivor was bought for $8,000 in 1991 and still thought it was a regular car.

I did make the new shackle bolts for it and recreated throttle linkage so the wretched fork lift carb could be replaced by a Detroit Lubricator Model 51. This carb really woke it up!

Here are some links to where I have it in my blog on Practical Machinist:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/blog.php?u=64161&blogcategoryid=8

John Oder