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Thanks for posting. It's always such a pleasure to be able to finally connect a face and voice with what you previously knew only as a screen name. Apologies for going off-topic but I recently had the same pleasure in meeting "traumjaegercat" (Terry) and his lovely wife at the British National Auto Museum. Here's a picture of Terry next to this interesting piece of British auto history (I forget just what make it was).

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Tuesday 19th July 2011

Sorry, that this report is late, but problems have hindered internet access the last few days, and it could be a day or two more before normal transmission is resumed.

Back in the saddle, or on the bike, or in harness, but more correctly in my case, back at the workshop on Tuesday. First, some background, yesterday Wade had removed the OD casing from Noel's '39 R6 and then spent time trying to remove the planetary gear housing and system without success. He'd then pulled off the OD casing from the spare R9 to see if that could tell him something about whether there were circlips or something on the shaft preventing the R6's planetary system from being removed from the end of the mainshaft at the rear of the trans. Although they are two different OD's, Wade was looking for a clue to help in the disassembly process because the planetary system wouldn't move at all. This morning, before starting again on the R6, the R9 was first re-assembled to prevent confusion later in case parts became intermingled. That in itself should have been easy but because of Wade's, shall we say lubrication fetish, it proved difficult to have the OD clutch rollers hold firm in place during the re-assembly. Solution was to de-lube and a much more powerful rubber band to hold the rollers firmly.

Then it was under the '39 with one of John's pullers to try and remove the planetary system. Unable to do so because the fingers of the puller wouldn't fit between the planetary housing and the trans case. Out from under and another puller was considered but first it had to be massaged back to life because of the hard times it had obviously suffered. One end of the threaded hole into which the hydraulic piston screwed had been damaged by mis/over use and required surgery before it could function again. Grinding away the damaged sections of thread eventually allowed the hydraulic cylinder to again screw to the cross-arm. But.....undercar there was again the same problem of fitting problems with the pullers fingers. Only thing to do now was take out the trans so the planetary system could be freed from it on the bench. Wade had been trying to avoid doing this because of the extra work required but what has to be, has to be. Underneath the '39, unbolted the trans crossmember from the frame, the bellhousing bottom from the trans and bellhousing, the shift linkage rods, the trans mounts, OD cable from the frame, etc, etc. And using a trolley jack and a piece of timber the rear of the engine was jacked up and a jack stand placed below the bellhousing to support the rear of the engine once the removal process was complete. Again using the jack, the trans was supported, the trans to bellhousing bolts removed and, with the aid of Grahams muscle, the trans slid rearward, dropped down and hauled out on the jack from whence it was deposited on the bench, by Graham.

On the bench there were still problems getting the planetary housing to move. Required some brute force in the form of a couple of long bars to move it sufficiently rearward that there was enough clearance for the pullers fingers to fit behind the housing. Even then more brute force was required with a small sledge lending its weight through one of the bars to provide some movement in addition to the hydraulic push of the puller. A couple of resets of this process was required before the whole sorry mess of what was once a planetary system could be removed. Consisted of chewed up and deformed planetary gears, sheared pins, assorted shrapnel and a misshapen planetary gear cage. Not a pretty sight.

Wade was then onto the phone to friend PeterL who thinks he may have the planetary replacement parts needed. Peter couldn't provide a definite answer at the time because he was out chasing parts for a Mazda engine rebuild. Talking about the Mazda engine rebuild, Peter is going to do the re-assembly of the engine at the workshop. To give Peter a dedicated working area, Wade is providing a wheeled stainless steel trolley as a bench and parts storage area. And here's where things meld together, last week our stop at Bunnings hardware on the way to Ralph Moore Autoglass was to pick up a pair of wheels which the trolley was missing. Wade has attached the new wheels to the trolley so all its missing now is the Mazda engine and the man to put it together.

With OD work suspended, pending replacement parts arriving, attention turned to Big Red on which Wade had done some adjustment work on the automatic choke earlier. With Big Red cooled right down it was time to fire her up and let her warm up until she'd regained sufficient temperature for the choke to operate properly, ie fully open after warm up. I can report the choke now works properly. Then, and I wasn't expecting this, Wade wheeled over the Crypton Engine Analyser to Big Red to start a series of functionality tests many on the Crypton but also on Big Red. Not like a modern computerised engine system where there's an easy plug-in point. For the Crypton to be connected there are a number of disparate leads which need to be connected to individual points on the engine. So after Wade connected each lead in turn, it ended up looking something like an amorous octopus with tentacles grasping and caressing various components of Big Red's engine. Fired Big Red up again, Wade pushed some buttons, the CRT came to life, with one of the CRT display functions showing each cylinder firing by a sharp peak. But there were only 7 peaks, Wade thinks he has the display set "too fine" so will adjust accordingly. While the big dial display indicated Big Red's warm idle at 465 rpm. Left Wade to play with tune and adjust the Crypton, and by extension Big Red.

Quote:Dave,

Agreed, always good to meet the people you've encountered on-line, the people are just as much part of things if not more as the Packards are.
As to being that certainly isn't a problem. This thread has very elastic parameters so as to include things in, not to keep them out.

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What a mess with the OD. With a similar problem a couple of years ago, any ideas on what or why it is happening.

Friday 22nd July 2011

Still having internet connection problems so posting this from my son's house. Probably another couple of days before the problem is fixed.

Dropped into the workshop to "give poor dog a bone" and to catch up with what's been happening. Wade wasn't in much the last couple of days although he did receive a couple of new Twelve coils, courtesy of Barry Smith, to try out in Big Red. Wade had also examined Noel's trans for the source of the oil leaks there and thinks they are emanating from the seals surrounding the ends of the selector shafts in the trans top. As an aid to this and for reference purposes he took the shaft and seals out of the spare trans top he has. The seals on that top disintegrated when removed because they had petrified with age. And this morning he'd sourced new neoprene seals from ABC bearings which will be able replacements. Wade tells me that PeterL will be in on Monday and he should have all the parts required for the R6 rebuild.

Also received an email from Noel, which says in part ".....saw the post of the planetary gears, oh what a mess!! Cannot understand how the whole thing got welded together, would it mean that something was overtightened causing excess friction?.......Anyway, hopefully the parts from PeterL will be usable....." Noel went on to also say"......spoke with David The Flackmaster this morning. He has the bonnet piece for Harvey. I told him to send it to me....."

Quote:Noel and Howard,

Seems there is consensus that what we have here is a mess! It's not known what caused the problem but any thoughts, ideas, comments or insights are most welcome.

The package from The Flackmaster should also contain some bits for Wade and myself so will bring comfort to a number of Packard owners.

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keep em coming Mal! even if it is from your son's house!


:0)

Hank

Don't believe I ever heard you mention when it happens and am sure Wade has considered it, but the article on reverse gear lock up and damage on the R9 keeps coming to mind. Granted Noel has an R6 & the electrical side is somewhat different between the two in using a clutch instead of a governor to determine engagement speed. In other aspects mechanically and the way motion is transmitted, I believe they are similar. Just wondering if perhaps in going along the gist of the article, something like the clutch not dropping out in this case is keeping that OD energized mechanically the way mentioned and the same damage is occurring.https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SC-VOL21NO15.pdf

My niece is visiting, so I asked David, what do you think Noel would make of Stephanie? Stephanie replied, "What is Noel?" Oh, boy, did we get a laugh!

Quote:Hank,

This post is coming to you courtesy of the Wi-Fi connection at the local McDonalds, slow but better than nothing,

Our internet connection is still sick, with any luck the ISP should have it fixed by tomorrow(Tuesday) night, if not ??????

Besides that, over the weekend I was "stricken" with Bells Palsy. Just what I didn't need! Was ugly enough beforehand without this compounding the situation! Not life threatening, just an inconvenience and with time will clear, and won't interfere with Packard enjoyment activities!

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Mal, if the mountain won't come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain. You could pull the Crypton diagnostic centre on its own wheels through the Drive-In next to the internet connection...

Get well soon!

Hope you are on mend soon! A gentleman at work was inflicted with BP last year and shows no sign of it today.