Re: Wile Family's Second Packard

Posted by Tim Wile On 2012/2/24 22:52:22

I've done some routine maintenance work on the Four Hundred when the weather was nice. The old headlamp bulbs were replaced with new Xenon bulbs that I had originally picked up for the Patrician. Aiming the right hand side one has been a challenge due to a damaged headlight bucket. I fixed the bucket and will be back to trying to correctly aim that headlight when the weather improves.

The dash needs to be cleaned up but it looks promising. I also replaced the ratty wiper blades with replacements that I had also originally bought for the Patrician. It has been a long time since I had a car with vacuum wipers and I had forgotten how slow those things are. Step on the gas and they stop. Brings back memories. I think replacing most of the vacuum lines is probably in order.

The most pressing project under the hood appears to be replacing the heater core and re-installing the heater hoses with new hose lines. The prior owner had just replaced the core and had not yet replaced the lines. I'm not too happy with the shape of the core he put in and I'll most likely yank that out and put in a spare that I picked up a few months ago.

Playing with the idle screw has resulted in a better running engine, although it is still rough. There is a new distributor cap and plug wires on it and I'm wondering if the new stuff is compatable with the older engine. I've read some posts about higher resistance wiring and stuff causing Packard engines some problems. I wonder if I should get plug wires that are designed for the older engines. Thoughts??

Enough for now. Thanks for all of the best wishes regarding the new acquisition.