Your master cylinder has check valves in it to hold a light pressure on the wheel cylinders, if indeed the master cylinder is for drum brakes. These valves make it very hard to vacuum bleed a system, and there is always the problem of air leaking in around the bleeder screw threads. Air is a lot less viscous than brake fluid!

Bleeding brakes is easy as pie once the master cylinder has been bled--sounds like you did that just fine. NO expensive equipment is needed, just a jar with a bit of brakefluid in it, and a length of rubber hose that fits well to the bleeder; the other end just submerge in the fluid in the jar. Then its just pump the pedal slowly til you have no bubbles coming in the jar. You might get some small ones because of air leaks around the bleeder, but no major eruptions. No need to keep opening and closing the bleeders--that's why we submerge the hose.

If the master cylinder is stroking properly, ie pushrod adjusted correctly, it usually takes about 12 strokes to get the right rear clear, then maybe 5 for the left rear. The fronts around 8 on the right and 5 on the left. I include this count so if you've pumped 50 times and one wheel still isn't bled you'll have a hint.

I've bled 100s of Packards using no more than a plastic peanut butter jar and 2 feet of hose. Alone.

I usually reach in on the upper left corner where there is a gap and grab it with my needlenose vise grips. Tubes that are wet like yours will often come out with a moderate tug.

You are doing a nice thorough job, and although it is "mission creep" you might want to yank your freeze plugs and pressure wash out the block. 1948 was a long time ago and there can be deep sediment--and the plugs themselves can be about ready to go.

And speaking of putting faces to names, it would be great if a couple of y'all would take a few photos of some of these Infofaces and post them. This is the only area of life where I don't know what my friends look like.

The site seems to be having a bit of heavy weather lately. Spring fever, I expect.

Go to Napa and buy two 88128-R bearings and two CR15142 seals. The seals are the inner axle seals and will keep the gear lube from leaking out and washing the grease out of your nice new bearings. The bearings come complete with the retaining rings that must be destroyed to remove the old bearings.

Any gasket encountered in the assembly (between the grease catcher and the backing plate) can be replaced with a fingerfull of silicone gasket maker. I never bother making those gaskets.

These bearings are wonderfully long lived and used in a large number of cars so you will never need to revisit this issue.

The push on nuts go on the bottom edge of the grill, then you run the screws up through the splasher, then the filler into the grill. This all help to make the grill a lot less delicate.

Got em. Probably in quintuplicate.

The postwar tubes are brass and almost always good. I have several available. They will not cause temp fluctuation. Only engine cracking if missing or totally plugged.

Got it. Its a detent spring and cap from the manual valve. There are two of them that oppose each other at the forward end of the manual shift valve, the right hand block in figure 74, page 25 of the Ultra service manual. You can see them in schematic in the fluid diagrams.

They are pressurized so that the car becomes harder to move from gear to gear at the selector the faster you go. This is one of my least favorite features.


In any event, you will need to replace the spring and cap and stake it in Place. Otherwise you will have a major governor pressure leak and consequently no upshifts.

The taxis had the stainless frame around the window glass to prevent breakage when the doors were slammed.

Not to worry, that is a weep hole that is to allow any water that should happen to get past the seal to not get into the bearing. That way the pump is still failing, but not as quickly!

Miraculously, at 80K+ miles my 51 200 still has its factory installed water pump still pumping silently. An important key to happy water pumps is not to span the fanbelt any more than necessary. I always run mine quite loose: when I was just your age I cranked the fanbelt on my old 50 Super down nice and tight and ruined my new waterpump in just a couple weeks. Making just $1.65 an hour on weekends the expense scarred me for life, and I still run my fanbelts quite loose.