Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
Posted by Tim Wile On 2012/6/9 13:47:53
I've done some smaller detail work on the Four Hundred but nothing major lately. The big news is that I took it for its first major excursion since the brake system was fixed and I must say that it appeared to work like a champ. The brakes stop the car on a dime and the pressure it takes on the pedal is much more like that described in the owner's manual. I would have loved to have driven one of these cars when they were new!
Back to the story . . . I had joined my daughter and granddaughter for lunch this past Friday and decided to drive the Packard to the diner where I was to meet them. My granddaughter had never seen the Packard and I was curious as to her reaction. I was also curious how the car would stand up to the stop-and-go driving in town since my temperature gauge was inoperative - or so I thought.
With the re-built carb, the car idled at stop lights rather nicely and the rumble of that Packard V-8 turned the heads of a few youngsters who had been left out of middle school early on Friday. Pulling out from a stop, there are times the transmission shifted smoothly and sometimes it was a bit more jerky. I also observed a jerking motion when I would let off of the accelerator and the car would coast a bit. I'm not sure if that is the engine or the transmission causing that. However, when the gas is applied, it takes right off again.
As I pulled into the diner after a 15-minute drive from home, I noticed that the needle on the temperature gauge had moved from "C" to about a quarter way up the dial, or about half-way to the centre point. I observed the same slight movement on the way home after a 15-minute drive. So, it appears that the gauge does work, but it takes some time for the engine to get up to operating temperature or is there something else happening that I should be aware of and/or concerned with?
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=103093