Kev, It's funny about the book prices. A couple of years ago I was shocked to see the "Packard , A History..Kimes" selling on Amazon for $250-300 a pop because the book was then out of print. I even considered selling mine. Then it was reprinted and you can buy one on E-bay any day for about $40-50. Supply and demand I guess.

John,

Thanks for you offer. I will take full advantage of it once I can get started on the Pre-War pages.

Your $50.00 turned into a good investment. I couldn't believe how much they are asking for that book. I am suprised that havent issued another reprint.

Kevin: The book you mention at the end of your post, I happen to have which was published in 1996. The copy I have
was purchased a couple of years ago,and I think I paided 50.00 for the book.

Any information that this book contains on Packards I will gladly supply to you.

ASK THE MAN WHO HAS THE AUTOMOTIVE LIBRARY

John F. Shireman

Just through I would say thanks to everyone that have been participating here on the website. It's nice to see it grow a little bit each day.

The Owner Registry is really filling in nicely. I think we almost have every model in the the 55/56 years represented.

Also thanks to those that have taken the time to add part information to the Part X-Ref. It makes it so much easier to have all of the contained in a central database then having to search all over different forums and website to locate it.

A few people have asked me about when the Model Info pages for the pre-war cars are going to come online. Too be frankly honest, I hope to put some serious work into it after summer is over. With the summer giving me longer days, I am taking advantage of them to work on my car. Once the time changes and it's dark by the time I get home from work, then I will switch back into research mode and start working on the Pre-War Model Info pages.

Also I hope to enlist some of you pre-war experts out there that can help decipher and document some of the same type of information that we used on Post-War Model Info pages.

The Model Info pages are not something that is just thrown together in an afternoon. The Post-War pages took myself, Brian, John and Dave almost 3 months to compile, fact check, and manual enter all of that information. Also trying to locate as many factory renderings(illustrations) to use for the pictures was also time consuming. So if anyone has any of the renderings for the pre-war cars or the any for the post-war cars that are currently missing, we would appreciate the help. These typically came from the product Brochures, Magazine Advertisements, and Salesmen Fact/Data Books.

Also if anyone runs across a newer edition (1996 printing date and newer) of "The Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942" for a reasonable price, then please let me know. The newer editions are going for over $300 on Amazon. That is outside my budget.

Thank again for all the support....

Eric,

If I remember right, at one point in time didnt you come up with a HEI conversion for the Straight 8 motors?

I'm just curious how that worked and what was involved.

There are 2wo posts on the TL MOTOR. one is up, the other down. Attach a piece of wire from the + post of the battery and touch the other end to either one of the posts on the TL motor. If the TL motor does NOT run then u know therr i s a problem with the motor.

Thanks Mr. Pushbutton and BH for your feedback. I will endeavor to check the solenoids with a negative ground wire and will make a 12v test light for additional testing. I hope to get to this in the next couple of days. I will report back with my findings.

Regards,
Robert.

For this kind of diagnostic work I don't like using a digital voltmeter--I much prefer a test light or analogue volt meter. The digital meter flits around a lot before settling on the voltage it indicates. The analogue meter makes a nice sweep upward to the voltage. For simple power/no power tests the light is just fine.

Robert -

A voltmeter (digital or otherwise) is nice, but a simple 12V test light may be all you need.

Though you say the fuse looked good, please make sure you have voltage feed at the buss bar for the solenoids and both terminals of the dash-mounted cut-off switch (in the ON position), which controls power feed to the compensator control box.

Then you can try grounding the terminal on either solenoid (with the orange or blue wire) and listen for clicks and/or motor response.

Let us know what you find.

running that ground wire won't accomplish anything--the control box down on the frame sends a ground to the solenoids when it calls for a change in riding height (= engages the T/L motor). The solenoids would work just hanging on their own wiring in mid-air if everything was OK.
Take a ground wire and touch each control terminal on the solenoids, briefly--and see if there is any action. If not check the power at the buss bar that feeds both solenoids. That much is easy to check, and easy to diagnose and repair.
If you perform this check and you get T/L motor action, it's time to look at the control box.

Do the above test and we'll get into the control box later.