Re: Stewart's 1955 Packard 400

Posted by HH56 On 2016/1/5 14:32:13

The original switch doesn't care about polarity. It has small heater windings that bend a bimetal strip for the time delay so doesn't matter which end sees ground or voltage. As I understand it the reworked boxes eliminated the heaters and bimetal portion and use a solid state timer circuit for the time delay. Those are the polarity specific boxes.

Not sure I am following which short link arms you are asking about -- the transverse bars between the compensator assy and ball end lever on the short torsion bars or the short torsion bars into the load link at rear.

If it is the transverse bars a load or some means of moving the rear axle closer to frame has to be applied enough to compress the suspension and get it more toward neutral or center of travel. That will rotate the ball joint levers on the end of short bars toward the center of car and away from inside the frame. Once those are a few inches out you can block them and keep the levers from moving. The compensator can be rotated so the center "V" lever is positioned for length. Once lever ends are positioned the transverse bar sockets should clear the frame and ends will slide over both ball joints to be connected. Once bars are connected then remove the blocks and when some body weight is back on the suspension all should work. I wouldn't try moving the suspension via the compensator with no body weight on the car. It will stress things considerably.

If it is the short bars into the rear load link then again weight or some kind of compression has to be applied to move the axle end of load link up in the bracket. The hex the short bars insert into should then be clear and accessible in the frame bracket.

You might read thru Cli55ers blog to make sure I am correct but IIRC he had a unique way of compressing the suspension. Believe his 4 wheel drive pickup was the right height so he could drive it over his padded Packard frame a few inches so frame would be held down by the bumper. Once the frame couldn't move upward he used a floor jack under the rear axle to move the axle and bars to the more centered position. Don't remember if he connected bars while it was held this this way or just chained the suspension in the centered position and then removed the truck and jack.