I too have a rebuilt treadle-vac and it works fine. I think the kits from max or Kanter are only for the hydraulic side of the T/V. If you need to rebuild the vacuum side then you must buy another kit. Double-check me on that. I had mine rebuilt by Ed Strain who advertises in HMN. It was $215.00 which included the shipping back to me.
Welcome to this Packard forum and your car is gorgeous.
The PAC club and Packards International both have websites you will want to examine.
There is also this website which has an active Packard section.
http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.php?Cat=0

All Packard owners are pretty good people and most are willing to help out a newbie so don't be afraid to ask.

Nick: Here is a nut shell history of the empire that E.L. Cord built, its was wide in range and in some abigger operation than Packard.

When Cord was in its heyday it may have operated three plants. However closer the to the truth is that the plant at Indy production wasn't that great in number, being that Duesenberg was produced there.

Cord became vice-president and general manager of Auburn in July 1924. By 1926 he became the major stock holder in Auburn. That same year Cord bought Duesenberg. from 1927 through 1928 he bought vacant industrial buildings that had been used in car production. largest of the buildings was Central Manufacturing Company, which earlier built some bodies for Auburn.

In 1928 Cord bought Lycoming Motors along with its subsidiary Spencer Heater both located in Williamsport, Penna, which is my home town. Lycoming Motors became a subisdiary of Auburn.

In 1929 Cord bought Stinson Aircraft and Columbia Axle. Cord in 1930 founded Century Airlines to prodvide passenger airline service and to bid on govermanet air mail contracts. 1933 Cord bought New York Ship Building, he also took control of Checker Cab, and with it the Parmelee System which operated cabs in New York City and Chicago. To those he added the Yellow Cab Companies of New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.


John F. Shireman

PS: I do have some productions numbers on Auburn, I will psot them on Saturday night

Thank you for that reply.
I was hoping someone out there had good success. Having just purchased the vehicle I have no experience with them. My plans are to purchase the Rebuild Kit from Kanter or Merritt.

Are there any other sources?

I will check the cables tonight, the ground cable isn't a braided cable, so I will try your suggestion and buy one from Tractor Supply. The battery is an 800cca 6V. Brand new as of November. IF I recall correctly, these cars DID come with a braided ground. I worked on a '39 Six and it had a braided ground.

Remember, these cars started every day, winter and summer when they were new, and properly maintained they should continue to do so on 6 volts. Battery cables should be O gauge at a minimum.

I suspect I'm going to take a lot of flak from some on this forum over this answer, but that unit was, in addition to Packard, used on millions of GM and Ford products in its time, and was not failure or problem prone then. There have been some failures in collector cars which I sometimes think might be related to rebuilds by unknowledgeable folks, or using old,dried out NOS rebuild kits instead of modern kits. My own experience with 3 cars with Bendix TreadleVacs over 30 years is that I've never had a problem. I know others will present horror stories.

Thanks! Got it.

Totally dis-assembled now.

Has anyone done a conversion on these things? In my searches I've read that these are failure prone, and will leave you without any brakes at all.

Anyone have a excellent history with these?

Turbopackman is absolutely correct re: battery cable gauge (size). If that car came with a braided ground cable make sure it has a good one now. You can still buy braided groud cables from NAPA, Tractor supply, etc. in many different lengths.
Make absolutely certain that someone before you did not put 12V cables on the car--they won't do the trick.
You might also consider getting an Optima 6V battery after the one you have dies. They put out a lot more amps than the lead acid 6 volters we're getting these days.

What gauge are the battery cables? Anything smaller than what was stock will cause it to crank hard. Also, did you put fresh fuel in it recently, or is the old stuff from November still in there? It's possible that the gas has went bad, this newer stuff can go bad rather quickly as compared to 20 years ago.

Here are the basics:

1940 120 sedan
Rebuilt starter, brand new battery, new solenoid, good grounds, good cables. Engine has a new head gasket, and the car was just running in November. It stays garaged, as it is being restored.

We are considering the idea of a 12v conversion, but would rather keep the car pure and original. Any ideas out there?

Also, when it does run, once it warms up, it stalls and dies, like it starves for fuel. Has a new gas tank with electric fuel pump. It gets plenty of fuel. The climatic control was one notch rich (stock setting), I adjusted it to about three. It seemed to do okay after it got up to operating temp. But once it cooled down and we tested it again, we had the same issue. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Once we get it to stay running, and we drive it around the block, the car falls on its face in second gear. It has a slight miss at idle, very noticeable while driving, especially in second. The wires are OEM style, but they are arcing to the block. My experience says this isn't normal.

And finally, the Aero-Drive is jammed, luckily not in gear. How is this repaired?