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To Starliner:

We hold all be here for the betterment of the hobby, but above all for the safety and welfare of fellow collectors and the people who might be injured or killed in an accident.

Litigious or not, our society adn courts deem truth as the absolute defense against libel. INtent also counts, with the lack of malicioius intent it is difficult to prove harm.

You know of a supplier who may have sent out defective valves which can cause failure but you are afraid of the consequences. A few months ago the Toyota gas pedal issue was in the papers, did any paper you know of say
"the gas pedals of a popular car may stick and cause fatal accidents?" NO. Did any papers say the pedals were supplied by Denso?? Darn right they did.

So you WILL write to the company, putting many at risk in the meantime?? When did yoiu discover this problem??

Let's add light to the allegedly dangerous subject, not jut the heat that's been generated for so long.

By the way, although I've asked to hear form peple who have experienced sudden BTV failure I've yet to get one note or call. From the "sky is falling" crowd's posts I thought I'd be inundated.

Fred Kanter
Kanter Auto Products
Boonton NJ

Fred, you are now hearing from one who just recently experienced it. I had my BTV rebuilt by Ed Strain app 2 years ago, have had no problems with it until about 8 wks ago when I drove my car to a show, everything worked fine all day except on way home went to stop for red light and pedal to floor with no hint of brakes, no sign of fluid anywhere under car but fluid missing from reservoir. Have not removed unit yet to inspect. This car will not move again until I have designed and updated the brake system, I will not give this type of unit another chance at me and my wife who was also in car.

ps: I also have converted to front disc about a year ago and the BTV operated them just fine.

Rowdy, When you do remove it, I would really be curious about the gasket and that relief port discussed earlier here and in one of the other BTV threads.

Missing fluid was my symptom except no failure because I rarely drive the car. Was starting my AC change and decided to pull BTV for access and do some other work down there. Checked fluid, mostly for the heck of it and was surprised reservoir was only about 1/2 full since the car has maybe 100 miles on it since the BTV was installed. After pulling unit and opening vacuum side, found a considerable amount inside.

Rowdy,

Great, but not so great. Sorry you had a scare, good nobody was injured, now I have a real live incident to investigate. I think you will find the missing fluid in the vacuum section, unless you had a wheel cylinder or brake line leak.

If you are not going to be driving the car ( guess not with no brakes) I would much appreciate it if I could send a call tag for the unit so I can investigate the failure and report in this forum. I'll return it to you assembled.

Nice to hear that the BTV was adequate with the discs. Hope to hear from you.

Fred Kanter
Kanter Auto Products
Boonton NJ

To packard v8

I ended up using the original 1954 valve which was the best of the 3 valves I now had , the replacement valve sent by the supplier was ok but in my view not as good as the original ( this car shows only 41,000 miles and I reckon its a true reading and the valve like most of the rest of the car reflects that low mileage . The BTV has now been back in the car for over a month and I have been starting the car and checking the pedal every couple of days with no sign of pedal pressure loss . Meanwhile I have finally got the car registered for road use to-day and will be seriously testing everything especially the brakes . If there are any problems I'll let you know

Regards Chris

To Fred Kanter

Obviously I do not have the the faith in the law that you do

regards Chris

Starliner.
There is another Packard owner in Oz with similiar BTV problem on his 55 Carib. He is Packard34 on this forum. Maybe the two of u can get together and compare parts and technical issues and share back with us.

Here is a link to his recent BTV experience:

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3867&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Do u have a Ford Starliner too???

In Post #1 starliner shows 2 compensator valves and Eric Boyles/Turbopacman soon, by post 6 or 7 tells all of us they are made in China or Mexico, following his relentless rants aopbut the poor quality of foreign parts.

On post #11 ( I think) I show 3 valves, #1 being an old Bendix supplied one from the 70's and ask Eric, with his ability to tell th country of manufacture by looking at a low resoluiton photo on a computer, to tell all of us what countries there were made in. His eventual reply was that it was unimportant because BTV's were no good anyway. Strange, because in another post he says he will make a video on rebuilding BTV's for all of us to see "within a week". Well that never happened, surprised?

Now, the information you all have been waiting for ............#'s 2 and 3, also made in the USA.

BTV no good Strike one
valve #2 Canada or Mexico Strike two
valve #3 Canada or Mexico Strike three

In another post someone offered "proof" that the auto companies who had been using BTV's for 8 years realized they were no good/dangerous as by 1961 they stopped using them. What happened is called progress, no doubt a better item came along, namely a simpler power unit with a manual master cylinder bolted to the front of it. Spell "CHEAPER"

NO doubt it was more reliable but cheaper and in GM's case mostly made in-house was the clincher.

Fred Kanter
Freind of the Truth

To: Starliner

So you are hesitant to name the supplier who might be putting many of us at risk of an accident or worse because you don't have the faith in the legal system I do. HMMMM, I am presuming the supplier is in the US and you live in Australia. US courts have no juristdiction in Australia for a start.

Next, send my a private email with supporting information adn I'll publicize it and take the risk. Fair enough, we both get waht we think is right. You are protected adn all of Packardom is also informed.

Fred Kanter

Fred Kanter writes:
"... ask Eric, with his ability to tell th country of manufacture by looking at a low resoluiton photo on a computer, to tell all of us what countries there were made in. His eventual reply was that it was unimportant because BTV's were no good anyway. Strange, because in another post he says he will make a video on rebuilding BTV's for all of us to see "within a week". Well that never happened, surprised?"

Answer:
Someone please correct me if i am wrong but it is my understanding that Eric has been censured from this forum. So he will not be able to participate in any way. In one short correspondence from him i got the impression that he would like to have all of his content of this forum deleted just like Guschas content is deleted. CONTACT ERIC for further details.

Bottom line. There is no point in wasting band-width requesting his participation if he is no longer serving.

Hopefuly, that will change in the near future.