Re: Shout Out to Jason at AER

Posted by HH56 On 2019/11/24 10:42:41

To the best of my knowledge the linkage bushings have never been repro'd. I believe there are 8 per car but they are not all the same bushing and some also differ between conventional body linkage and Clipper type linkage. They are also non stock sizes and have a rounded shape at the circumference to allow for a slight twisting movement. Ordinary modern bushings from industrial supply places will not work for the linkage ends.

When the changeover from the rubber isolated to all steel bushings was first suggested in service letters of the 41-2 period Packard issued a kit of the involved pieces. After the war they made different service kits of bushings for prewar and the later models so when linkage wear problems became an issue a dealer could again change all the bushings prone to having the most wear.

I do not believe any of the complete kits are still available but some of the individual bushings are. Unless something has changed in the last couple of years, todays problem is no one vendor has all the bushings that are used in the complete linkage and there are some bushings that appear to be NLA.

Adding to the bushing problem is the ends of the rods that fit into the bushings are also prone to wear so problems can be on either or both places. Some who have taken their linkage apart found so much wear at the rod ends that instead of a snug round end fitting inside a bushing it was a half round surface with a lot of movement. The worn rods had to be welded to restore the diameter and then resized for the bushing. The intermediate pieces that hold the bushings and change direction of the linkage rods can also have wear problems in their shafts which result in lost motion.