Re: The Duchess Project: 1940 Super 8 Convertible Sedan

Posted by Joe Santana On 2022/12/6 17:34:17

ELECTRICAL: Generator installed and charging old Optimas thru the voltage regulator , but ammeter and and gas gauge still not working. I’ll attend to this myself when I have the car home later this week.

In the meantime I contacted NAPA corporate to resolve the months long optima battery issue, replace or refund due to no response from local NAPA dealer other than promises. My 6v big pulley alternator arrived, so once the gauges are sorted out, I’ll have it installed with the new optimas. I’ve yet to find someone who thoroughly understands the electrical problem causing the generator to charge until it burns its armature and the VR. And how it caused the ammeter to quit. I will dig into the dash next week.

DASH PLASTIC Several pieces of dash plastic are warped from sun mostly, and the centerpiece has a crack. LaVine reproductions has made a new set of plastic parts. I have to sent my old parts so the chrome strips can be removed and put on the new pieces. So this is an incentive to get inside the dash, tidy up the wiring, and see how the gauges could be repaired or replaced, after finding out why they aren’t working.

OVERDRIVE Ross Miller, Speedwell Garage determined that my overdrive was toast and the tranny is sloppy. Fortunately he had a senior R9 core, but no time left to rebuild it. Bill Aske, who lives nearby and is President of Mid-Atlantic Packards, agreed to rebuild it for me, if I cleaned the parts after disassembly. Car buddy Chuck McDonald drove me to Parkton and helped me clean the parts, a miserable job in the cold. Hands want to freeze as gasoline evaporates off dishwashing gloves. It took us most of daylight to get it done. Bill showed us his Packard collections and hundreds of Packard parts.
Bill then reassembled the trans/OD. Then he removed my tranny and trashed OD.
Turns out my unit is a Junior not a Senior. I had no idea, but I’m sure it happened like this. In 1965, I bought my car back after selling it and getting a Mustang. The previous owner gave me a 120 he bought for parts. It was a running car and few parts are used on a 160. However, my car had little antifreeze from being in SFO, but in the long, very cold winter of Alturas CA at 4000 ft froze and cracked. A local shop is this farming community removed the engine and tranny, and installed the 120’s. Then in 1975, my friend Vaughn Hickman pointed me to a 356 ‘47 Custom automatic. I had the engine installed. They modified the 120 tranny to work with the 356 clutch/ flywheel. We had a spacer machined to make the crank work, too. So now I’m really excited that this rebuilt senior R9 is back in the car.