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Thanks. Yes, tire pressure was checked and adjusted previously. No pulling when braking, only driving.

I had used Marvel in all the cylinders that originally read 0, with #8 being one of them. Didn't seem to change the reading at all. I have a borescope that I'm borrowing from a friend....I'll see if maybe I can see what's going on with the valves and seats inside the combustion chamber while I crank.

-Kevin

The fuel tank finally showed up from Auto City Classics. Not their fault, it was all FedEx. I was surprised to see a few differences between this one and the one that I had bought for my own car back in 2020. Both came from the same company.

Mine was painted in a silver color, with the inside of the tank being bare stainless steel. This new one is bare stainless steel everywhere.

The filler neck on the 2020 tank is low compared to the original tank. The new tank has a much better fit and bends on the filler neck. The vent pipe is also much larger than the original.

The replacement sender has a shorter arm than the original. This is likely why it currently barely registers on the gauge....I only put in about 4 gallons. Tested the gauge beforehand and the resistance works as expected. I made a new sender wire to attach to it, and a new connection to the original wire inside the trunk. I'm glad we cut the hole in the trunk....the sender is easily visible now and we don't have to deal with the hassle of dropping the tank anymore.

Some quick test drives up and down the driveway confirmed that everything is working as expected with no leaks. I warmed it up to temp several times and did some running.

-Temperature sender is not working, but temp gun on the engine shows it staying steady.
-Tapping is non-existent at first, but within 3-4 minutes it begins as the engine warms up. Coming from #1 valve area. I'm assuming lifter, but possible that it could be an exhaust leak??
-Still no compression on #8. Valves seem to move freely with no visible sticking. I just put Seafoam in the crankcase (along with Marvel) in an attempt to hopefully free up sticky lifters, if that is the problem. What else would cause zero compression on a single cylinder? Blown head gasket out the back? That seems weird to me. The car has only run for a total of maybe 20-30 minutes since it arrived at my place, so More running may or may not help.
-Car pulls to the left while driving. Not a small amount. Confirmed all the brakes were adjusted appropriately. Is there a quick way to manually check and adjust alignment?

-Kevin

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Looks like a 51-54 horn ring plus Packard emblem. Some Clippers had the ship's wheel instead. My Clipper Super has the Packard logo.

Looks like a nice piece and the price isn't bad. Should clean up okay. I may have a need for it, I'll let you know.

-Kevin

If I had the space I would love to take on a project like this. Love the '37's and love the coupes. The price is not too bad I think, especially with the parts included. Lots of work still too be done but would be a fun project.

Problem is I have three cars I'm working on at my place and have completely run out of room. One will be heading to brother in law soon. The others will take up space in the shop during winter white I try to find space for other vehicles to keep out of the weather. Not enough space for a protect of this caliber.

But I were to take something like this on, I would definitely keep it.

Thank you both. I realized that problem with reverse and OD a few weeks ago. I went to back out the car, and nothing happened. It took me a second to realize that the overdrive knob had been pushed in, probably from kids getting into the car. Pulled the knob out and worked fine.

I'll mess around with it this coming week to see if I can figure out how it works.

-Kevin

The overdrive is for not original, but I'm not sure of the type. From the information I could find, the name I mentioned before (Lloyd Young) was a guy who specialized in installing overdrive in vintage cars that didn't originally have them.

I've attached pictures of the controls on the steering, as well as the unit itself. It is mounted immediately before the rear axle. Maybe someone will recognize it.

-Kevin

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Did my longest test drive tonight, only 4-5 miles though. Too busy with other obligations so that's all I could squeeze in.

Car seemed to perform well. Or at least it didn't die on me at all, or leave me stranded. I'll count that as a win.

A couple of notes:
-Fuel gauge is inoperable. I haven't taken the time to track down where the problem lies. Probably with the float I'm sure.
-Electric fan is working great. Can't hear it from in the car at all.
-Brakes are meh....Fronts seem to be adjusted right. Rears not so much
-The shifter shakes a good amount during a certain RPM range. I don't know if they all do that or not. Transmission has full fluid and is clean.
-General driving characteristics seem to be okay...but I have nothing to compare it to. I've never driven anything from the same era, and certainly not something so big and heavy. I have no idea if the characteristics (acceleration, power, noise, etc) are normal or not. I have no reference.


The car has an overdrive installed (from Lloyd Young). I have no idea how to operate it. I used it once but that was nearly 10 years ago. My dad knew how to use it, but he's no longer here. There is a knob on the side of the steering column. And a light on the other side. My guess is that it's similar to the factory-equipped overdrive, where the knob is pulled out, let off the gas, and overdrive engages. I have no idea if the disengagement is the same as factory.

Also, there is a sticker on the dash with conversions of actual speed vs dash gauge due to the overdrive. I thought it was only with the overdrive engaged, but now I'm thinking the speed is off all the time. What shows on the gauge is slower than what I'm actually doing, by a good amount.

-Kevin

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We've got a great NAPA in our town. Locally owned, all the guys there are old car/hot rod guys. Anything I need they will find it. And they ask about the projects every time I go in.

Haven't had much time to mess with things lately. But I did tackle something yesterday in my efforts to improve the running of the car. A good friend of ours who is well-versed in old cars mentioned the plug wires as possible culprits.

To my knowledge the plug wires have not been changed since the car was originally restored (maybe 15-20 years ago?). The black insulation on the outside was cracked in several places and the wires were stiff. My concern was that the current was jumping to other wires and throwing things off.

I made new wires from 7mm metal core wire stock (including the coil wire). New connectors and new boots. I routed the wires away from each other (still need to find a good solution to organize them). I didn't get time to do much testing, but the initial findings are positive. The car seems to be much smoother and I was able to dial in the timing and idle more. I hope to get time to road test this week and see how it does.

So now everything in the ignition system is new, except for the distributor itself.

-Kevin

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Some good progress this last weekend. I've been plugging away at things on the 200 when I can, and Mort was able to come up and help get some major things done on Saturday.

We replaced all the wheel cylinders and brake hoses. Only one cylinder showed signs of leaking, but we went ahead and did all new as a precaution. Mort will hang on to the originals to rebuild in case they are needed later.

Brake shoes weren't terrible, but the primary shoes on both rears were pretty worn. So I replaced with some good ones I had from my Panama. We performed a major brake adjustment on the rears to recenter the shoes in the drum.

Fronts were good, so we repacked the bearings and put everything back together, along with a standard adjustment for the front.

We flushed the brakes as well. The fluid was nasty. Fully black like used oil. It took quite a bit to flush the lines and get clean fluid coming through. Much better now. Pedal feels good and stops well. There is a small leak at the junction block on the rear axle. It appears one of the flares is messed up. So I'll be replacing the brake lines back there as a precaution. Mort already cleaned up the junction block and axle vent so the axle can breathe properly. Put the wheels back on and torqued the rears to somewhere between 200-270 ft lbs. It was over 200 before we cranked the nuts to allow the cotter pin to slide in.

One of the lug bolts on the rear was somehow messed up by a previous owner. The threads were pretty bad, and it damaged the threads in the drum. I picked up the right size tap and die (9/16 fine) and we were able to save both the drum and the bolt.

Mort also rebuilt the fuel pump using a kit from Then and Now. He did a good job and it works perfectly. Before we installed that, we blew out and cleaned the main fuel line to be sure it wasn't plugged. All good there.

I cut a hole in the trunk to access the fuel sender should we ever have a problem. Fuel tank was supposed to be here but it got delayed and will likely be here this week. To test the car we hooked up fuel hose to the main line, through the hole in the trunk, and into a gas can. Worked fine for testing on the driveway but I wouldn't take it on the road.

Car started up immediately and ran fairly well. The carb needs some definite work. Morticus will rebuild the original carb. Transmission works in all gears, but seems to jump into direct drive at like 20 instead of 35mph. We'll need to do some research on that. Brakes stop well. Still a bit rough...I don't think #8 has fully gained compression yet. And the engine is nice and silent initially, but within a few minutes the loud ticking starts from the front. Either #1 lifter is bad or maybe an exhaust leak?

Overall a productive day and some big steps in the right direction. And for good measure we got some pictures so Morticus can make a Registry entry.

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