Here is a picture of the piston. You can see it's marked front, and the slot therefore ends up away from the cam, which puts the non-slotted side on the thrust. Seems right intuitively, but not what the manual says. I can't measure any pin offset, but I don't have the best of measuring tools here. It\s probably a set of replacement pistons; the engine has been apart in the past. Probably fine I suppose.

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I'm visiting my Dad and he has the engine apart on his new project, a 39 business coupe, and there is some confusion. The pistons are clearly marked front, and if you do that on these pistons the slot ends up opposite the camshaft. This is in direct conflict with the manual, which clearly states the slot is supposed to be on the same side as the camshaft.

Anyone seen this? What's right?

Thanks in advance
Ken on behalf of Doug.

Thanks Pat - that's some good information. I did not know about the drive shaft - thanks.

I do really like the idea of the R11. Dad already has 2 R10 cars, and he also has some of the electrical parts.

Terrific help, now to source one!

Thanks for the information and welcome everyone!

Yep I am a big convert to the OD religion. Around here the highway speed is 75 mph, and the Rambler would spin 3500 to stay with traffic, and I'm not doing that. Moved where you pretty much have to drive the highway to get anywhere and stopped driving it - no fun to be in the slow lane and have your teeth clenched at the rpm and have the old lady in the Subaru blow past you. Now with the 5 speed you can drive it anywhere in reasonable comfort, milage is way up, overheating problems are gone, and it's faster at the track. Better in just about every way.

Not that we want to drive the Packard at 75, but maybe 60 on a secondary road. Time will tell.

Ken P (weird talking to myself) Advance adapters bought the old Warn IP and are making them now. The Willys suppliers have them for sale, and a big name in the OD world is Herm:

http://hermtheoverdriveguy.com

He seems to know a lot about them, sells a version for almost anything, and also has BW OD parts.

DAF - yes we would be interested, although shipping to Canada would be a problem. I'll PM you to talk.

It's my dad's car, but I'll see what he says about adding it to the registry.

Thanks again everyone.

Hi All - first post. I'm posting on behalf of my non computer father.

Last fall he purchased a 39 six business coupe that has been sitting fully disassembled for 30 years. He has got a tremendous task to reassemble it. Currently the stack of parts is at my place, and now that the weather is improving he is coming (1200 miles away) to pick up as much as he can in a few weeks and get started on the project, for which he extremely looking forward to.

We are both big believers in that overdrive thing; I've done an OD 5 speed stick in my fairly serious street 69 Rambler, and a A500 Bricklin, and he's done a 5 over Studebaker truck and has R10 Willys and Kaiser stuff. I'm putting a Warn style OD in my 62 Willys pickup. If you want to be able to drive the car any amount the OD is sure nice.

So we are trying to figure out the best way to do the Packard. It would be nice to keep it as stock as possible, at least period correct.

I've been searching the fourm and there is a lot of information, but I am unsure of a few things.

It sounds like the R11 would be a fairly original adaptation in the 39. Am I correct in that the best thing would be to find a late 40s/early 50s Packard small input shaft transmission with an R11? Would that fit in with a minimum of modification to the car? Bolt right to the engine? Any crossmember rework required?

Are the small input R11 combo's common? What cars did they come in and any suggestions on where to look?

It would be nice to find a proper R6 setup for the car, but the consensus seems to be that are rare and not the best functionally. But that would be an option.

How about the R9, does it fit and adapt as well? I'm getting the opinion not, but it's probably not that bad.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Ken and Doug