Re: BigKev's 1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Sedan

Posted by BigKev On 2010/4/19 20:02:01

Some additional progress today. I removed the air-cleaner to get a better look at what was going on with the carb. I think the fast-idle problem is in the linkage. It's binding somehow. Not sure if it is in the throttle linkage itself, or at the carb itself. Using the turnbuckle on the linkage I lengthen it until the fast idle screw on the carb was firm against it stop with no play. Then it seamed to slow down to where I expected. Problem is when I work the linkage it sometimes doesn't go back to that stop. Perhaps a 1/8" -1/4" off the stop and this is when it starts running fast again. If I work the linkage a bit then it goes back to the stop. So I guess I could disconnect the linkage at the carb and see if the carb throttle itself resets to it's stop using it's own spring. Perhaps that would tell me where the sticking may be happening.

I remember when I got the car someone else had put another spring between the vacuum line that goes to the distributor and carb throttle. But I figure that was because the spring on the firewall was broken. I guess I can work through the various parts of the linkage until I figure out were the "sticky wicket" is. It could just as well be in the peddle pivot under the floor.

I ended up running the battery down from all the starts and not having charging system hooked up, so I will have to wait for it to charge back up before investigating further.

On some other checking I let it run until it came up to temp and it sat at between 185-195 measured on the top of the head with a infrared thermometer . So far no overheating. The smoke has also now started to dissipate. Perhaps I have finally burned off all the penetrating oil.

Also I hooked a vacuum gauge to the open vacuum port on the manifold. It was ready a steady 18lbs. When I first started it was at 20lbs, and then crept down to 18lbs after warming up. Normal?

Slow and steady progress. I need to clean up the garage a bit as I had a bit of an oil spill yesterday when trying to pour the old oil back into the bottles for recycling. Plus I have more tools outside of the tool box than it it!