I don't buy anything on junkazon for ethics reasons. For example, they hire people to work in their hell hole and when they get sick throw them out. In the UK an entire town quit and junkazon had to bus suckers in from out of town. The place is a scourge run by sociopathic spoiled brats.

Merritt has been passing through via the catalogue as long as I can remember. That's not necessarily a bad thing if you don't want to do the research as to all of the various sources. However, the drop shipping thing is new to me so I would do the research to find the source. For example, Steele does the rubber so go there directly.

I see this site has some of that already. I have a folder of suppliers for my own use, but a lot of those chaps are no longer doing business.

You don't have to remove the steering wheel. The horn wire that comes through the switch rods needs to be disconnected. The light switch at the bottom of the column comes off. The switch interlocking contacts come off after unbolting the switch housing. The throttle gear is then taken off, a pinch bolt holds the switch lever assembly in place and the unit then slides out the top of the column.

On closed cars the steering column may need to be unbolted and lowered. Cover the upholstery to prevent soiling.

Yes, you don't have to pull the trans. The tail shaft housing unbolts like a normal trans. However, if it is really pouring out it may not be the seal, but the speedometer gear being installed backwards. To check, tape some paper towel over the vent on top of the trans and drive the car. If it gets soaked, the gear is installed backwards.

Dumpster is just a figure of speech. Would you prefer hopper? The bodies are piling up, people have died in the ER waiting room, the politicians are yelling at each other, and the nation is going broke.

The only misinformation I see floating around is people dismissing this situation. Well, not me. I work with people who have small children and the stresses on those children when their parents are too sick to get across the room is a disaster. A lot of children are going to orphaned over the next few years and I, for one, don't want to contribute to that.

I always hooked up a hand vacuum pump to the distributor tube. The unit should hold vacuum. Additionally, the unit feed is ported vacuum so the timing should react per the service manual specifications for a given amount - somewhere in the area of 11-15 inhg, but don't hold me to it. In other words, the unit doesn't need to be stressed to 25 inhg to be tested. You also can watch the breaker plate reaction visually using this method.

As well, timing is worth little if the dwell varies when you raise the rpm to 2,000 rpm. Varying dwell indicates a worn distributor shaft, breaker unit, and possible drive gear wear. This means the timing is not steady and can cause intermittent pre-ignition. This can cause engine overheating.

As for visual inspection of engine noises, you can buy instrumentation to measure such using a volt meter or DSO. The sensors can be glued or bolted to the motor with the wires run into the passenger compartment. Another method is to bolt a long copper tube to the motor and measure the resonance through the tube using a microphone. This will prevent distracted driving and the risk of crashing the car. This is also an easy way to isolate various engine noises by cylinder, chassis noises and rattles. On the proving grounds it is the only safe way to do such at speeds over 140 mph.

That's it for now. I have a paper copy of Dr. Zhivago and a higher mathematics book to work through to keep me from getting sick.

Nothing special insofar as anchor points. You can strap the differential housing and control arms in the front. However, the suspension must be turned off or battery disconnected. On the 56's the battery must be disconnected otherwise the car will try to go into park and can burn up the shift motor.

No mail delivery today. Dismissing caution is not a good idea right now.

After heavy rain I went outside to check the battery voltage in my car. That was the first time I went outside in five days. I have plenty of left over food thanks to stocking up during a big project at work which precluded free time for shopping.

I am enjoying this shutdown. I wake up when I want and go to bed when I get tired. The only problem is the purpose of the shutdown is to see if you get sick. I'm not very far from where they are putting dead bodies into the dumpster. Even the nurses and doctors are getting sick.

I'm not trying to bring your business down, but mail service is becoming sporadic. Thus, part of the reason for the IRS extensions. I have bill invoices that are overdue and I haven't seen a mail carrier.

I am not going buy anything from junkbay. I don't use junkazon for ethics reasons. Thus, shipping Packard parts by mail might be risky. I don't know what is going on with UPS and FEDEX except that FEDEX has thrown past shipments of mine in the trash and recorded them as delivered. And no they didn't leave them on my door step. They threw them in their dumpster.

This will wake you up:

The sheriff is dead. Two police officers are dead. The trains aren't running, the plants are shut down, the hospitals are over flowing. Employees at the SHAP plant have died.

I haven't gone out the front door since Monday, but have some mathematics to keep me occupied. As long as I don't get a fever or a dry cough I will enjoy my practice retirement.

I find this excerpt from the Packard manual amusing:

"It has been found in the past where servicemen have resented the idea of diagnosis, believing their guessing was accurate enough. As a result, they were determined not to use instruments, or to belittle the idea of instruments being needed when they believed they knew from experience what service they could sell when the car drove in the service department."