Re: 51Packards....52 Packard 200 Deluxe!

Posted by Charles On 2016/9/17 16:11:42

9-17-16

Did a little tinkering today. When I bought the car the drivers side hood hinge was missing the spring. I took the spring off the hinge I saved from the '51. It was a pain to get on the car! I finally got it on using a heavy screwdriver through the eye of the spring and prying it on the hinge. The I used a hammer to help slide the spring down the screwdriver. Also used it to tap the end of the screwdriver to get it back out when the spring was close to being in place.

Next I removed the copper plate from the starter to clean up as Ross suggested. Used a large file on it, the nuts and the washers. I used steel wool to clean the lugs on the starter. After getting it all back together I started the car. Might be my imagination but it felt like it turned over even faster than before. I let the car idle for 15 minutes, turned it off, waited another 3 minutes and then restarted. Fired right up. The real proof will be after driving the car for a while. That's when the symptom really shows up.

Ever since I swapped my grills a couple of times, the hood latch would not catch. I tried adjusting the bottom plate but that did not help. Started loosening the spike on the hood and tried again. Now it latches! The sweet spot appears to loosen on side and keep the other side tight. I can live with that.

I noticed while I was under the hood that the overdrive cable and the wires for the overdrive are rubbing against the levers on the steering column. How is the cable supposed to be run through the engine compartment. Maybe it's missing a clamp somewhere.

One thing that drives me nuts is the woot woot noise coming from the vacuum side of the fuel pump. It is not hooked up to anything because the wiper motor system was disabled by a previous owner. I was thinking of running a hose to connect both sides to itself to eliminate the noise but I don't know if that would work or damage the fuel pump.