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Monday 15th August 2011

Kevin! First thing I noticed when I arrived at the workshop was.....the Daimler wasn't under the car park ramp or inside, it had gone! Believe it had made it's exit early Friday morning. And in talking to John later, he expects the work required to get it running could take about a week, all going well. After that ....who knows? Apparently it was South African delivered so how that's likely to effect the 'Blue Slip'(road worthiness certification) process is unknown. Think the Daimler's been in the workshop for about 3 & 1/2 years, so it's not before time it moved on.

In my absence, at the end of last week, Wade had been working on Big Red, again. This time replacing plugs, plug leads, distributor cap, rotor and coil. This morning he was pulling the distributor out, again. Distributor was completely dis-assembled and every component checked. Bushes are good, no discernible movement. Centrifugal advance good. Vacuum advance had been checked earlier. But the groove in the distributor housing, which locates where the plate runs on three ball bearings, over the years has left indents in the housing where the balls rest. Solution was to gently file the grooves until the indents were smoothed out. After a good clean up re-assembly commenced including a new set of points. It was difficult enough to get the three ball bearings into place but the new points set provided challenges of it's own. The part of the points set which screws to the plate wouldn't "sit down". After much looking, retrying and fiddling, finally determined the end of the points which pivots was the culprit. A slight filing of the hole coupled with prying the split end of the points a little further apart fixed things. Re-assembly complete and distributor back on Big Red, time to fire her up. But no, the old girl wouldn't co-operate. Advancing or retarding the distributor didn't help and simple grounding tests revealed no spark! Back on the bench and in the vice, testing with the multimeter confirmed nothing was going through the points. Re-gapped and checked the points, still no good. A light file of the points and there were signs of life, use of the heavier points file followed by the light points file and success, turning the rotor brought appropriate responses from the multimeter. And this with a brand new set of points, seems there was some sort of "film" covering the points, although as part of the assembly they had been cleaned to rid them of any grease following from the multiple earlier attempts to get them to sit down. Distributor back onto Big Red and this time, success! Fired up and ran, allowed to thoroughly warm up and using John's timing light the distributor setting was fixed.

During the course of filing and checking whether the ball bearing indents were smoothed out one ball bearing was lost under the bench. Could it be found? Not at first. It appeared to have gone to that secret place, every workshop must have one, where fallen and lost nut/bolts/parts/you-name-it disappear to and are almost never found again. Anyway while I was down on hands and knees torch in hand peering under the bench DavidM phoned. David was seeking someone who could build up the cam on his '12 Maxwell. Wade pointed him in the direction of Graham Wilkins, the guy Wade uses for his all his engine work. If Graham doesn't do it himself he certainly would know who would. Anyway I became all excited, a little later when Wade told me this. Thinking David, on top of boosting compression from 3:1 to 4:1 with Arias pistons was going to put a hot grind in as well! Wade brought me back to earth, when he explained it was to build up the back of the cam where it was worn excessively. Well I could hope couldn't I? That old hot rodding blood still has some life in it yet. Oh, and yes, we did find the ball bearing, but not until we'd exhausted all other possibilities. It's always the last place you look. Not on the floor or in the trash tin near the corner of the bench, surprising how many things end up in there, or in the immediate vicinity. It had bounced off the bench into a u channel on the front of the bench drawers, rolled along the channel then dropped into a box Wade uses as his electrical "junk box".

Big Red done then it was The Fossils turn for some love. Last week Wade had trial fitted the right rear mudguard(fender) with some of the bolt holes still to be aligned and fastened. First removed the boot(trunk), which was just sitting on the rear of the car, and also the trunk rack for access and panel fitment purposes. Then, instead of starting on the right rear mudguard(fender) Wade retrieved the left rear mudguard(fender) from the loft above the office. But it took a while because while Wade was up there Noel called, he was just keeping finger on the pulse. Back on the workshop floor, while I held the left rear mudguard(fender), Wade attempted to start some bolts to bolt it to the body. Then, while I held it some more, Wade changed the bolts he was using for longer ones because he couldn't get them started. Turns out it wouldn't have mattered how long the bolts were they weren't the right diameter, being too small. That ascertained Mal's back was given a rest with the left rear mudguard(fender) returned to terra firma while bolts of the correct length AND diameter were sourced. Next time round it was a much easier exercise with the right parts. There were some alignment issues but some gentle nudging and manipulating soon solved that. Turned then to the right rear mudguard(fender) and the missing bolts also of the correct length AND diameter coupled with the aforementioned gentle nudging and manipulating soon fixed what Wade had left from last week.

I've also included some pic's of Barry Smith's '38 Twelve Club Sedan, which he forwarded yesterday. Barry and the Twelve, along with wife Cheryl, will be in Sydney at the end of the week for the Shannon's Eastern Creek Classic display day on Sunday and entering the Twelve in the Concours. Because of that and because Big Red and the Twelve are being garaged overnight at the workshop, Wade and Barry are leaving early Sunday morning for the event. Concours cars need to be in place early in the day. That then leads to me picking up Gina and Cheryl later and conveying them in the '41 to the event and, for this small kindness, I believe Gina is supplying lunch.
Gina, looking forward to your wonderful repast!

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Seems a shame (to me) to abandon correct ignition systems on the 34 Eight. It was a keynote feature of the 33 and 34 models and performance from it was outstanding and little or no good reason to abandon it. Though correct NorthEast points for it have become a problem in the last 20 years, adapting it to modern Chrysler points is easy, and there is even a simple little conversion kit you can get.

In addition to only a single coil, the other thing that makes the incorrect system stand out is the vacuum control. Sorry, it's the purist in me speaking.

Quote:Dave,

My post referred thusQuote:Big Red is to all intents and purposes a '37 Super 8 and is not The Fossil, a '34 Eight. Might have to include a legend with each post, setting out my terminology in reference to the cars being worked on to avoid viewer confusion. Such as:

Big Red = '37 Super 8 Club Sedan.
The Fossil = '34 Eight Club Sedan
The Coupe = '41 120 Club Coupe
Noel's '39 = '39 120 Touring Sedan
Mat's '34 = '34 Eight Sedan
John's '39 = '39 110 Sedan with TJ Richards body
Etc

I have assumed constant readers, and there seem to be a few of those, are conversant with my terminology and consequently have fallen into a trap of my own making. Will try and be more specific. Another thing which could have caused confusion is that yesterday my narrative went from working on Big Red's distributor to The Fossil's rear mudguards.

Trust your purists concerns are resting easier.

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Wednesday 17th August 2011

Drove my '41 120 Club Coupe down to the workshop this morning. Reason being, there's been a strong smell of fuel during and running the car recently so needs to be checked out. Into the workshop, air cleaner off, visual inspection of carb and fuel line fittings all looked OK, Front jacked up, jackstands in place and Wade performed an under car inspection of fuel lines and fuel pump. Slight oil leak didn't help in the inspection process but it appeared the fuel pump area was suspect plus there was some evidence of a possible leak from the carb. Mal dispatched to clean oiled fuel pump and surrounds and also cleaned away evidence of the possible carb leak.

While cleaning undercar JohnM arrived, John is the owner of the '39 110 TJ Richards bodied Touring Sedan. John's son is presently fabricating new throttle linkages for the '39 because at full throttle the butterfly is only about 70% open. Wear over the years has been that significant! But even at age 86 seems that John still want's more power! Once the throttle linkage is fixed I'll arrange with John to go and see Col, the guy who touched up the paint on my '38 Eight Touring Sedan(since sold), for a quote to fix the scrapes on his '39 110 TJ Richards bodied Touring Sedan.

After John left changed the plugs out of the '41 120 Club Coupe for the spare set in the boot. Then fired it up and left it to run for a while. About this time Noel arrived, he was there to pick up the radio case which his mate TonyW is going to paint for him. Noel took the opportunity while there to see the heater Wade had mounted in his '39 120 Touring Sedan for him. Wade explained the heater hoses weren't hooked up yet because the rear of the engine is presently being held up with a block of wood on a jackstand pending the R6 OD being repaired and re-installed along with the transmission. Forgot to mention to Noel I'd brought down a NOS radiator cap for the '39 120 Touring Sedan to replace his less than pristine cap, and that the Autolite plugs I'd changed out were replaced by Champions!

Following Noel's departure, back to the '41 120 Club Coupe checking for leaks. None in carb area but undercar it appears the flexible line between the hard line and the fuel pump is weeping rather than leaking. Not having a replacement handy, at this time it's not a big problem, so left as is. But will pursue a replacement for fitting as soon as possible. Wade had also noticed that part of the throttle linkage was not fully returning to it's stop point when the engine is idling and stayed at a "fast idle" rather than a smooth almost silent Packard idle. So while Wade was working on his '37 Super 8 Club Sedan, aka Big Red, I disconnected the linkage, wound the linkage rod out about 1/4", re-connected the linkage and fired up the '41 120 Club Coupe again. Settled immediately into the measured purr a Packard idle most closely resembles. Wade then applied some soap to the '41 120 Club Coupes fan belt and the noise level dropped again, sounding more and more as a Packard should. Or should I say "sounded less and less as a Packard should"? Because one of the hallmarks of a running Packard engine is that it is whisper quiet!

But enough of the Packard propaganda after all, in this Forum, I am preaching to the converted! Time to turn to the '34 Eight Club Sedan, aka The Fossil. Needed to remove some of the bolts holding the left rear mudguard(fender) as well as those holding the 'guard to the rear panel. Why? Because the fuel filler pipe wasn't through the hole in the 'guard. Just a small detail overlooked during Mondays 'guard fitment. Once fixed, moved on to returning the luggage(trunk) rack to it's rightful place on the back of the '34 Eight Club Sedan. With 'guards now fixed to the body and the rear panel, what was once a good fit for the rear panel was now not so good. The holes on it's upper surface didn't fully align with the mounting holes in the chassis, Coupled with the alignment issue is the access issue for these holes. The one on the right side is bad enough but the left side, with fuel tank in place, is almost inaccessible. After much frustration on the left side, using a mechanics telescoping magnet on the bolt from below, reversed the procedure by inserting he magnet through the hole from above and pulling up the bolt thread first. Immediately screwed on a nut so it didn't slide back from whence it came. The right side bolt hole although more accessible had suffered more from the 'guard bolt up than the left. Meant a number of 'guard bolts on the left side were again loosened while some of the 'guard to body bolts on the right side were tightened further, not having been completely bolted down at this stage. This aligned the panel hole and the chassis hole just enough for the bolt to be inserted and, it too, had a nut quickly screwed on. 'Guard bolts previously loosened were again tightened. Now for the luggage(trunk) rack. Tried to do the right side bolt first but without success, trying to do one side at a time throws the geometry out of whack and can't be done. Instead, because the bolts were the subject of the Law of Gravity, they were taped around the bottom of the protruding thread to hold them up without a nut. Worked too! Wade held the luggage(trunk) rack while I guided the brackets and bolts together quickly securing them with washers and nuts. The '34 Eight Club Sedan now looks more like a car again with boot(trunk) temporarily in place and luggage(trunk) rack permanently affixed.

And Dave(O_D) I've had my fun, going back to the way it was with The Fossil and Big Red. Besides it was too much typing!

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Friday 19th August 2011

What was going just be a drop-in at the workshop turned into something a little longer. Reason for the drop-in was to see Barry Smith's '38 Twelve Club Sedan in the metal. Barry had driven it down from his home at Tamworth, Tamworth being about 250 miles north west from Sydney. Barry did the the trip in two stages, about 200 miles, on Wednesday, and 115 miles, on Thursday, this better suiting his trip planning. This on a freshly and fully restored Packard that now has a total of only 400 miles on the clock. Ran flawlessly without any problems or dramas. Barry told me, besides the usual Packard chit-chat, that he'd sourced NOS and re-pro parts for the Twelve from, amongst others, the recently deceased Dick Benjamin and The Flackmaster. The Twelve is now being cleaned, primped and preened for it's Concours debut on Sunday. Lots of cleaning and polishing, which I interrupted by taking pictures and talking to Barry about certain things on the Twelve as they caught my attention. Barry will get some cleaning help on Saturday because some of his Tamworth mates are coming down and will be pressed into service to clean and polish every under car nut, bolt, nook and cranny. Because unfortunately, on the second part of the trip, the Twelve was accompanied by rain so road grime needs to be removed. Speaking of rain, it's raining here today with the forecast being for more rain Saturday, tomorrow, easing off to occasional rain and showers on Sunday for the Concours. Here's hoping it's a lot better than that on the day!

While Barry was cleaning and polishing, cleaning and polishing and cleaning and polishing, Wade was working on The Fossil and had fitted the re-chromed taillight stanchions and lenses and connected up the stop and taillight wiring. Wade had then moved onto remounting the rear bumper and that's why my drop-in become more than a drop-in. Was pressed into service by Wade for the bumper remount. The bolts used to temporarily hold the rear panel in place were removed and new bolts together with the bumper bracket clamp and chrome cover were readied. Moved the bumper into place and after a trial fit and a couple of adjustments for centering, it was bolted in and tightened up.

Next stop Sunday and the Shannon's Eastern Creek Classic.

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Monday 22nd & Tuesday 23rd August 2011

Although at the workshop on Monday didn't post, instead doing double duty for that now. On Sunday during the course of the Eastern Creek Classic Wade picked up a spare R6 OD courtesy of PeterL. The trouble was that Peter hadn't parked his '38 Eight Touring Sedan with our Packard club's Packards but with his local car club whose display area was situated on the other side of the venue. Wade was pooped by the time he finished lugging the OD back to Big Red. Still, the missing major ingredients for Noel's R6 OD rebuild were now to hand. By the time I arrived at the workshop Wade had already dis-assembled the R6 and had started cleaning parts for the transfer to Noel's OD.

But first the Solenoid needed to be affixed to the OD mounting plate. This is hard enough to do in the car but maybe even more so when the spring on the actuating rod isn't constrained like it is when the OD housing is bolted on the mounting plate. Spring has to be held back and the actuating rod inserted into the pawl, I think that's what it is. Ended up having to make a "Special Packard Tool" out of a piece of scrap steel, which I then held in a pair of pliers while Wade held the solenoid at an angle together with holding the actuating arm with small long nosed pliers to prevent it slipping back, which it does if any pressure is applied to it. This was still difficult to do but became fairly expert at it by the time we'd finished.

Next was testing of the Solenoid. But it wouldn't co-operate, instead it resulted in burning smells. This was one of the reasons we became expert at clipping the actuating rod into the pawl. Lots of re-assembly and dis-assembly and, as I said to Noel in an email, there was progress but it was of the two steps forward and one step back type of progress. The solenoid was disassembled, at least the "top" part of the unit was, the bottom part containing the coils was left intact. Besides, if there was anything wrong with the coils, replacements aren't exactly readily available. What was found was that the contacts all needed a real good clean and that a washer between the phenolic plate and the base of the unit had come adrift. Once cleaned up and re-assembled, worked fine. About here I have a small confession to make. Said to Wade "I have a OD solenoid at home, I bought off eBay a couple of years ago". Went home to retrieve it only to find it was an OD governor! Boy, was I embarrassed. Especially as R6's don't use a governor!


From there it was onto cleaning and parts re-assembly in earnest. These were complementary tasks with parts added to the OD, in sequence, once cleaned. At each step, sun gear added, planetary gears and casing added, planetary gear housing added, sprag clutch added all was checked to ensure everything fitted correctly. All went well until the sprag clutch was fitted, This is the last step before the OD housing is then fitted to the back of the trans and OD mounting plate. After the retaining bolt was tightened, everything bound up! Loosen off the bolt a fraction and the mainshaft turns! This led to a number of dis-assembly and re-assembly attempts trying to find where the problem might lie. Eventually through some trial fittings of washers of different thickness a fix was found where the assembly rotated without binding up. Progress again, but to Wade it "didn't feel right", but by this time the day was done so further diagnostics weren't undertaken. Besides a nights reflection on the problem wouldn't hurt.

Wade had also received a package from the US, containing a pinion seal for one of the Packards owned by Harvey's boss and a rear axle oil seal kit for Noel's '39. In addition, when I arrived home, I also had a package from the US, see this thread. Contained parts from The Flackmaster for Noel - a book, Harvey - '37 Super 8 bonnet(hood) louvre and from BigKev for Wade - a set of door latches, from a Packard vendor who doesn't ship outside the US , and for me - 2 gearshift knobs, a starter solenoid and a heater valve.
DAF & BigKev!

That brings us to Tuesday. Rang Harvey and, because I was passing his house on another matter, arranged that I'd drop off his louvre and pinion seal, But first had to pick up the pinion seal from the workshop where Wade told me he also had to run an errand that morning so it all dovetailed together.

Back at the workshop turned again to the R6 OD. Although the mechanism was together, except for the OD housing Wade "didn't feel right" with it, so again it came off the back of the trans. The spare trans with R9 OD was also hoisted up on a bench and the OD dis-assembled, although it's not the same as an R6, it's similar enough to provide some help and guidance. It was a struggle to pull the R9 apart to obtain one spacer for comparison and possibly replacement purposes because someone, and it wasn't Wade, had re-assembled the R9 incorrectly. The spacer out of the R9 was 0.055" thick against 0.070" thick for the spacer from the R6. Wade was looking for a thicker spacer, so that effort turned out to be all for naught. But what it did do was turn our attention back to the R6 and it's trans. Not noticeable until an extra careful inspection revealed it was a very small burr on the mainshaft where the spacer seated. Didn't really look like it could contribute to Wade's "didn't feel right" feeling but it proved to be so. An in situ repair was carried out to save the trans having to be being totally dis-assembled, the mainshaft fixed and then re-assembled. All entry points to the trans were filled and masked then using a very small file the burr was "deburred" and the mainshaft and area around it very carefully cleaned. Still another re-assembly of the OD components and this time it felt right! Can't remember the exact words in "The Book" but it talks about there being imperceptible movement once the components are assembled. We had that before but in rotating the assembly it seemed tight, for want of a better word. In comparison the R9 was bloody tight but now we knew why with the spacer in the wrong place there. Now besides imperceptible movement the assembly rotated much more freely, although it would be going to far to say you could spin it! Now for the last parts, putting the sprag clutch rollers in place then installing the OD housing. After a good application of grease to the sprag clutch to hold the 12 rollers in place, the clutch was loaded up and a rubber band used to secure the rollers for the fitting of the OD housing. Only took two attempts, first time when turning the uni flange to jiggle the mechanism into place I did it the wrong way allowing the rollers to release, second time I got it right! As I'd said earlier to Noel, progress was on the two steps forward one step backwards basis but finally we're in a position where it all caught up and the trans/OD unit is ready to go back in the '39.

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Quote:

Mal, be prepared because at a certain level of expertise it will be difficult to distinguish between craftsmanship and magic.

"...As a professor, I emphasize design as a philosophy, not a practice. Minimalism is one of the ideas I introduce, eliminating everything to leave the very soul, the very essence--what chefs do with nouvelle cuisine. I bring books to class that help expand the students' thinking. A favorite of mine is Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. Wabi-sabi is the Japanese aesthetic of imperfection. At a certain level of expertise, you can play at imperfection, intentionally making something imperfect to achieve a kind of perfection. If you see a real master, whether a chef or a baseball player, once they reach the very top of their craft, sometimes they do a little different thing that bends the rules, and that gives them the edge. ..." [Jinbae Park, Interior Design Faculty]




sources
quotation:http://www.fitnyc.edu/4157.asp
picture: www.geburtstagsgeschenk-online.de
inspiration: Mal
magic: Wade

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Gerd, You've done it again!

Mal,

Are those door latches similar to the one I posted that about a couple of weeks ago? If so I had those also. :)

Quote:
Now you tell me!