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Tuesday 5th January 2010

First up today was removing the brake and clutch pedal assembly from the '41. With everything out of the way it's a good chance to clean it, inspect it, repair it if required, paint it and re-assemble it while accessible. While I was doing that, not very well for a fat man under a Packard, Wade was cleaning up Big Red's head and cylinder block following from his exertions on them yesterday.

Pedal assembly out, this after Wade had to come to my rescue and of course he ended up under the '41 instead of me, it was into cleaning up the pieces. First was a major clean of the crud buildup, this was done outside because of the fallout generated. Next was a manual clean in the parts cleaner to remove oil, grease and any remaining dirt. Finally, to nearly finish things off, was a session with the wire wheel. There will be further cleaning, into nooks and crannies for these and other parts, using the blasting cabinet for any parts needing a-la-carte service and of course Marine Cleaning and Metal Readying prior to POR-15'ing.

While I was doing that, Wade was assembling the roller rockers for Big Red. This was a slow, rocker by rocker, process as each rocker was finished with grub screws being ground to size and inserted then slid onto the shaft. Each step was accompanied by plenty of oil in the process, with Wade ensuring that oil was getting to each individual rocker. I did have a hand in this at the end, by holding the rocker housings upright while Wade secured the screws holding the rocker shaft in place. My final act for the day was to re-clean Big Red's crankcase. Used a small wire brush in amongst the forest of studs to try and remove the seemingly ingrained buildup followed by liberal amounts of degreaser left to soak and then washed off.

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Thursday 7th January 2010

With Wade at home this morning, refrigerator problems so waiting for the "service technician" to call between 9:00am and noon, I started by removing the bracket and rod bracing the front mudguards(US=fenders,UK=wings) to the chassis. Tried to remove the rod only but couldn't get a grip on it to undo the nut, everything just turned in the vice grips so the brackets came off too. Once off clamped the rod in the bench vice and was able to remove the nut. Cleaned these up in the wire wheel then proceeded to my next task.

About this time Wade arrived complete with PeterL's intake/exhaust manifolds which had been surfaced by Aldus Engineering just up the road. While Wade went about cleaning up the camshaft for Big Red I was into cleaning again. This time on a larger scale, climbing into the engine compartment to scrape the firewall and parts of the x-member which I couldn't reach about 18 months ago with the engine and trans in place. As it is, it's cramped and awkward anyway but progress is being made. And I've decided to remove the throttle linkage from the firewall to properly clean that as well.

During the course of this Wayne, a PACA member, arrived. Wayne works at Rhodes,the next suburb, and walked over during his lunch hour to catch up and was able to show Wayne where we were with the various projects at hand. And here's something interesting, Wayne has a '56 Four Hundred Hardtop which he bought in Oz but it was minus motor, trans and lots of other parts. Since buying it he's been hunting up parts, thanks to Eric for the Twin Ultra's, and he's just found some wheels on eBay. He did mention that he's now after a pair of rear brake drums. And it seems Wayne has a history of doing this sort of thing, because he's currently coming to the end of a resto on a '61 DeSoto 4 door hardtop which he bought as a body years ago, so starting with less than a complete car is nothing unusual for Wayne!

After Wayne left it was more scraping on my part and for today I think I've removed everything I can from a topside position. So next week it'll be under the Coupe to once again experience sweat in the ears and eyes, not to mention the dirt, grit and assorted crud trying to penetrate eyes. ears, nose, mouth and anywhere else inconvenient. All this for the love of a Packard, but it'll be worth it. Wade continued with his cam cleaning which was broken up by the parts washer being moved back into place now that a new seal had arrived and been installed. We also moved Big Red's crankcase onto the back bench, there's more light there, ready for the re-assembly to commence.

And yesterday? I didn't go down to the workshop because Wade had planned to drive down to Helenburgh to pick up some parts for the '34. But that was cancelled and he's now going Tuesday of next week to pick up various painted parts for the '34, all that then will remain for the painter to do will be the guards(US=fenders,UK=wings) and bonnet(US=hood).

EDIT - Pic of Packard added. Taken by my brother about 2 months ago.

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Oz, haven't been on your blog in a long while.

I take it from what I've seen here on page 18 that you're rebuilding the motor and trans on the '41?

Quote:Dan,

Rebuilding the motor, it was real tired. Sleeved, new std pistons, pins, bushes, rings, big-ends and mains 0.010" under, new cam bearings, new head studs, new timing chain set, rebuild oil pump, new valves and springs and hardened valve seats, etc, etc. Surface flywheel, new clutch and pressure plate, throwout bearing and spigot bush. Trans looks OK and was working well so will just be cleaned up. Overdrive however will be looked at because it wasn't working properly. Also steering box will be adjusted and a general clean and tidy up with many previously hard to get to areas now accessible.

Monday 11th January 2010

Driving to the workshop this morning and what do I see in a local wheel and tyre business? No, not a Packard, but a '40 LHD Dodge Coupe. Now these would be just as rare as Packards in Oz, so to record the moment for posterity I stopped and took a few pic's. Then onward to the workshop where PeterL was with Wade. Peter had called in to pick up his re-surfaced '38 120 intake/exhaust manifolds. During the course of our discussions it came up that Peter, who's installed an R9 overdrive in his '38, would be interested in the setup that Phil(Phils38cpe) has in his '38 Coupe when I mentioned that it engages at the press of a button. So Phil, you've posted about this but, where do I find it to pass onto Peter? And Wade came up with a question of Peter, seeing he's now the MG guru in our circles. Gina has a friend who's interested in selling his '67 LHD MGB with steel wheels and it's only done a genuine 37,000 miles. Only trouble it's in Brisbane, Australia. Any takers?

After Peter left it was into the '41 but first we moved Big Red's crankcase, now with camshaft re-installed onto the engine assembly bench. Then the crankshaft was moved onto the shop bench and after cleaning it was dropped into the crankcase. Sorry, I meant to say, lowered ever so gently into it's welcoming crankcase. That done turned to the '41's block. Helped by the fact that on Friday Wade, with John's assistance, had ground a socket extension to fit the end plugs of the oil galleries and removed them. I'd previously tried but couldn't find a tool to fit the recessed plugs used.
Wade and John, looks like I owe someone a socket extension. Wade then walked up to see Stan, and it looks like he's going to be the guy to replace Ivan for our little machining tasks. Saying that, apparently he has a mill at home besides lathes, and might even be able to do surfacing jobs but has to see if his mill is big enough for Packard manifolds and suchforth. While Wade was away I started on removing the welsh plugs from the '41's block but they resisted all my efforts and I had to call on Wade for assistance. As Archimedes once said Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world so guided by Wade, with Archimedes looking over his shoulder, a longer lever was employed to successfully free two of the three plugs. The third plug was a real #$%^&* resisting all the way but finally it's grip was broken. This one turned out to be about twice the thickness of the other two, a real heavy duty item. Wayne also called in during his lunch break and we were able to tell him we saw his 352 in Russ's Four Hundred on Saturday.

My next task was to "assume the position" under the '41 where I spent the best part of three hours scraping the inside of the x-member, the bottom of the cowl and the front floor. Not finished yet but most of the heavy work is now done, another session should see these areas ready for Marine Clean, Metal Ready and then POR-15. I don't know if it was skill or luck while I was flat on my back, but I didn't end up with mouthfulls, eyefulls or nosefulls of fallout. Tend to think it was more luck than good management. Wade did gave me a hand to remove the throttle linkage bolted to the lower part of the firewall. Meanwhile, Wade standing upright although checking on me from time to time to make sure I didn't nod off, installed the main bearing caps and torqued them down to spec.

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Wednesday 13th January 2010

Yesterday Wade had journeyed south to Helensburgh and picked up more painted panels and parts for his '34. Among them were the rear lower panel, valances, front frame covers, drivers seat(RHD), trunk rack, firewalls(2), etc, etc. Parts remaining to be painted are front and rear mudguards(US=fenders UK=wings), bonnet(US=hood), radiator shell and front seat back. Another delivery of parts arrived for the '41, namely the sleeves. And had a call from Harvey, he's after a rear welsh plug for the '39 120 he's rebuilding for his boss and, what do you know, Wade's got one! But when he called and started talking about a welsh plug at the rear of the block I couldn't remember one on the '41. Wade was able to allay my concerns because later model 120 blocks don't have one......Phew!

Spent my time time today cleaning, first the cross firewall throttle linkage, then under the car(again) this time finish scraping, wire brushing then blowing out with air. Finished by cleaning up parts of the front cross member not accessible till now. While I was doing that Wade was busy putting new plugs in the cleaned head and block of Big Red. He then installed the flywheel and torqued and split pinned it up.

And this from my previous post.
Quote: for your PM response Phil, I'm including it here for all to share. I wasn't what I thought I remembered, but it works -
"Actually I have an R11 but I do believe the electrical setup would be the same. I simply ran the wire from the governor to a on/off toggle switch under the dash. Then from the toggle switch to a relay. When the gov. hits it's set speed (around 25 MPH) it grounds the relay and energizes the OD solenoid (provided my toggle is in the on position). A lift of the gas pedal and viola _Overdrive. To kickdown I flip the switch to off and I hooked up a momentary button to ground out the dist for a sec. It's been working fine.
Hope this helps"

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Thursday 21st January 2010

After Wade spent a couple of days away from the workshop at the end of last week, and I missed the first three days of this week being away myself, I managed to get there for what must have been a good half hour today! Over the last week some things that happened were 1) More parts arrived for the '41, should only be one last lot to come, 2) Wade's finished assembling components in/to Big Red's crankcase in it's upside down state, 3) Stan, the new machinist, has already made a new clutch/brake pedal pivot for the '41(forgot to take a pic), 4) Yesterday Wade attended a funeral for a PACA members mother, 5) Also yesterday other PACA members attended former PACA member Ken Gilbert's funeral and 6) Wade re-assembled the '34's trunk rack. While I was there, took a few pic's and, helped Wade turn Big Red's crankcase right way up so re-assembling of engine components can continue.

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Wednesday 27th January 2010

After what's been an extended break, back to the workshop today. Although I did drop in on Saturday morning for a few minutes for a phone number and ordered some POR-15 for the painting phase not far away now. Saw that Noel had been there on Friday and left me some magazines, including the Hemmings Packard issue. He also dropped off the NOS rear view mirrors I bought on eBay and which I'd had mailed to the Flackmaster, guys. And took a pic of the new clutch/brake pedal pivot pin that I forgot to take earlier.

Wade had been working on Big Red's crankcase but it was the old story about 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Wade had painted the crankcase, because there were stains there which defied removal. Prior to that he trial fitted the roller rockers in their housings and thats where the step backwards occurred. Because the rockers are not Packard, there was now some interference where the middle cam bearing is held in by it's two piece brass housing. This necessitated some judicious grinding of the brass housing, just enough to give clearance, but with removal of cam , grinding of housing, re-install cam, trial fit then repeat those same steps, a day was virtually devoted to overcoming this little speed-bump.

Today, before Wade got back to Big Red's engine, we took the '41 120 engine block and head over to Redi-strip at Blacktown for chemical cleaning. And all going well it looks like they'll be ready on Monday. If that's the case when we pick them up instead of bringing them back to the workshop we'll take them straight to Wilkins Engineering for fitting of sleeves, grinding crankshaft journals, surfacing of block and head(if required), removing old and installing new cam bearings, etc, etc. It'll probably take Graham about a month but that'll work in well with Wade's timetable. Reason being he and Gina are off to New Zealand in about two weeks for South Pacific Packards National Rally known as the 2010 Wild West Wander Rally, and won't be back until mid March.

Back at the workshop, with a pickup of some washers at Lee Bros as a pitstop on the way, Wade resumed work on Big Red's crankcase. While he was inserting con-rods and upper bearing shells I cleaned the camshaft and crankshaft so come next week they'll be ready. Then I was again scraping and cleaning in and under the '41. Part way through my labours, a break I thought I was thankful for, I gave Wade a hand to lift the very heavy cast iron block onto the crankcase with eight con-rods now poking through at various heights. Now carrying the block is very manageable shared between two old codgers but then lifting it high enough to clear the skyward pointing con-rods is another matter altogether! As Maxwell Smart would say, "missed it by that much"! Necessitating calling on John to re-align the rods and another effort from the old guys to get the block up, above the con-rods and then down. The down was the only easy part, fortunately with John aligning and re-aligning con-rods, it didn't take too long but it still seemed like an eternity. Wade then carried on, in his usual fashion, bolting the block and crankcase together while I returned from whence I came, back under the '41 not to clean but to recover.

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I REALLY like that pin on the magazine Mal!

The pin came courtesy of Noel. I'll ask him where he obtained it.