Hello call for advice ;I am going to have the noisy valves adjusted on my 52 200 thundebolt adjusted by a genuine mechanic ,and wanted to help the mechanic as much as possible by getting the scoop from the knowlege bank .

It looks like from the manual that I can have them adjusted with the exhaust and intake manifolds on thats great !, is this true ,can you get to all of them?Seems like a reach!

I have heard a legend it was possible to get to them by taking off the inner fender on the right side ,
this will necessitate removing the heater asssembley I guess

can one get to them with the motor in the car?

I should hhave a valve cover gasket already on hand to bring with me anything else I should have on hand?

Ive since moved across contry ,

the engine has about 70,000 mi So perhaps I should replace the valves when I bring it in ,who could grind valves correctly these days ! then have them adjusted ,

,I was hoping not to have a huge bill .

.Will a dwell tack read a 6 volt system correctly if it was designed for neg ground 12 volt engines?

Yes Yes !!thats what I wanted to do, but the wiper arm base covers the end of the shaft where I thought I might place a drop of oil ,thats why I was wondering if the arm came off exposing the end of the shaft so I could get to it with the oil.You guys are packard geniouses!

I have a three termina switch just replaced it ,I should have turned it to accy for the music THANKS!!

thank you for the very helpfull info

the clatter is constant ,not just on a hill ,worse when cold
sounds like the valves need adjustment ,Ill have to enquire af the mechanic as it sounds tough !
I could do the plugs ,Id inspected the points and they are in great shape;
yes the fellow did pull the pan then the crank then the pistons out the bottom of the engine to fix the rings supposedly thatwas the way not to have to pull the engine perhaps I was gettiong my leg pulled

tucson packard's site advertises that hey have tanks

As I zero in on getting the 52 fixed up ,The valves in the straight eight clatter .
The fellow that sold me the car said "that's what they sound like ,don't worry about it".It is a happy clatter something like the sound of a deisel ,
but my desoto with a 236 flat head six is so quiet when running you can barley hear it ,Ive had to put my hand on the car with the hood closed many times to see If it was vibrating or not ,to see if it was running or not.

I have a hunch the clatter is too loud and wondering if I should get the valves adjusted ,seems like a big job so I was wondering if I could do any "routine maintenance" ;the engine has an original 68,000 on it .I have had the piston rings replaced,by dropping the crank ,there were two broken oil rings on the car when I got it ,So the heads never been off ,I didnt notice any spots where the head is leaking gas .
.Currently the car does not smoke ,seems to have good vacumb ,starts up fairly easilly .The engine pulls well up the big hill I live on .I will borrow a stethoscope to check if its any one area on the head thats louder that another to check for generalized clatter vs one spot that is the loudest , and try to do so when the neighbors arn't looking so they dont think Im more nuts than I am .
So I am soliciting advice;

Could the timing be way off causing clatter? What is the proper timing ? right at TDC?
Does a regular timing light work on a 6v positive ground car? I am planning on getting one today .I guess I will need a dwell tackometer too .
If I change the timing, then I will have to redo the dwell, is that right ? I heard of an old mechanic's saying "timing affects dwell but not the other way around"or something like that ,very mysterious. The dwell was way off because I reinstalled points right out the box not knowing how to set them .I was insttructed by the machanic that they were off,and he adjusted them to 30 degrees dwell .this made a huge positive difference in quitness and higher end performance.As for the plug gap ,I did the same thing,installed out of the box ,whats the gap supposed to be? Could overgapped or undegapped plugs cause the valves to clatter because of poor combustion ?Inerestingly the clatter got much quiter after the Generator rebuild and the rewiring to correct the coil hook up ( it was wired backward)

Hello thanks for the tip! The radiao now works fine ,after fixing the power supply issue ,
Im not sure if the antenna ia acutually hooked up inside the antenna mast assembly ,the cable looks fine between where it plugs in to the mast assembly and on the other end to the radio,I do get several channels ,would I get anything at all if the internal connection was bad?

Mystery question : I was enjoying the radio with the ignition turned on so I could listen with the engine off while I was removing the TRICO motor for its rebuild ,(I found the Hindi channel on am ),and the coil was getting warm .Is this normal or have I miswired something ?

SLAP HAPPY PAPPY!
I removed the TRICO moter ,it was a snap as you said it would be ,;and dissasembled it ,sure enough ancient hardened grease ,
after a clean out the reassembaly was a snap ;I couldnt wait for a rebuild kit with fresh gaskets as its rainy season here ,
so re-invigorated the existing ones with some ATV gasket material carefully applied to the case edges ,
I couldnt find silicone grease at the local ace hdwe but they had teflon grease which seems to work admirably .reinstalled ;Nice active wipe ,two speeds and park as mentioned .I rebuilt the spare unit at the same time which was frozen with the same problem.It actually was slightly different from the installed motor ,as instead of one vacumb supply nipple on the right side of the top there was two, one was an extra vacumb nipple ,one on both sides of the top.There is a vacumb line that runs from the fuel pump that heads back to the transmission and is shared by the trico in my 52 /200
My family didnt seem to share my enthusiasm for this momentous occasion either ,not even the puppies .\
I lubed up the spots where the internal cables ran through pullies under the dash with the same teflon grease .I want to lube the shafts that run the wiper arms where they run forwaed through the firewall ,do they pull off? I didnt see a set screw or tab to depress .I want to get some grease in there somehow as the last part thats not freshened up .

AH Getting closer ,Dorothy sings !!(thats her name ,because the first 52 I had that got katrina'd came frm kansas )The radio was powered by a splice from the hot wire that came from the center breaker off of the instrument panel ,It wasnt off the left one .I undid the splice and put the hot wire to the radio directly on to the on to the same post ,it read 5.9 volts on the volt meter that I may have figured out ,voila ! it was a bad splice and I hear the vibrator humming ,it sounds like someone using an electric razor in the next room ,unfortunatly where I live all I can get is rush limbaugh .Is this post o.k.? There is a modern 10 amp fuse in the line .
when I go down the hill I should be able to get some oldies and mexicano on the am radio if the antenna connection is all the way to the mast .I can pull the antenna up and down ,and the motor for the mast whirrs but theres no movement .I saw that the antenna lead was in the radiaq and attached to the side of the mast .Next is to tear down the antenna?