Packard Motor Car Information

Re: Henry's 55 Constellation

Posted by Cli55er On 2015/8/7 9:24:05

thanks, I have some feelers out there right now. waiting to here back from a friend locally about the motor, if I can give money to a friend and save on shipping then that is optimal.

I started looking over the power antenna. the wire inside was whole except at the very top. of course taking it out and looking at it....it crumbled in my hand. I looked over some trimmer line I had laying there, it is.095 line. it fits okay, but I may look into something thicker because it has to be sturdy enough to not bend when it is pushing up the antenna.

I soaked the antenna in my magic sauce and 24 hours later and very light scrubbing this is how it turned out. I think the stuff that was on it the antenna was actually the undercoating or whatever spray from the car when it was new. i'll probably either paint it or put some herculiner on it to replicate the look even though nobody will ever see it.

it was a total PITA getting that chrome nut off. I had to clamp it in the vice and use heat and Pb blaster over and over again. luckily I didn't melt the rubber insert too bad and it is reusable. the threads on the end of the tube started to split from the rust, so I'm lucky it came off at all. i'll probably have to cut that off and weld on a piece of the same size pipe and then thread it again. if not i'll need a new one just like the heater motor.

I have no idea where that ballbearing goes either (pic 89)....I only guessed in that one picture.....its the only place I can see that it would fit. there is also a small flat disc that goes in before the ball bearing. (pic 94)

there were 3 small tubes of felt on the top too that I guess had oil at one point to lube things up. looks like it was supposed to be lifetime lube cause there is no external way to relube.

also you can see on the end of the antenna where the wire was crimped on and broke. so I'll have to figure out how to crimp on a new piece.

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