Weird Things

Posted by 55PackardGuy On 2012/12/7 0:02:49

So my niece came over tonight to see the Clipper. (She's 16, she loved it).

Then soome weird things started happening. It turned out that the battery was stone dead. Couldn't figure it out. Nothing left on (I thought) and no door ajar.

I hooked up the battery charger and realized for the first time that this car was converted to negative ground! I should've noticed that earlier, but as luck would have it I double-checked the marks on the battery (in the dark) before I hooked up the charger.

Then, another weird thing. I figured out that the reason the battery was dead was that the radio was left on. I had driven around a couple of days ago with it turned on, cuz you never know, it might start making noise. When I got home, I must've left it on. Not a dumb thing, because it shouldn't work without the key on, right? But apparently the thing stays on when the key is off! Hooked up wrong or what????

Then, the weird stuff continued. After letting the battery charge up for a while, I started the car, and it was missing pretty bad. I thought probably just a little too rich on the choke, idling too much or whatever. But when I looked under the hood, the #2 plug had a ring of wet around it on the head. The plug had backed out and was loose!

What's up with that? I took the plug out and of course it was wet, but other than that it looked OK. I tightened it back in carefully in case the threads were stripped on the head. Seemed to tighten all right.

I never touched the plugs since I picked up the car and put at at least 200 miles on it. It's possible that the mechanic who worked on the brakes also removed and checked the plugs and forgot to tighten one, but I don't think so. I'm gonna ask, because the weirdness continued after that.

While we were waiting for the battery to charge, we looked around inside at some of the memorabilia in the glove compartment and tucked behind the vanity mirrors. Apparently, every scrap of paper on this car was saved. On the driver's side I found a Wisconsin cab card--in the original envelope, dated 1986, with (probably) the original owner's name on it. Neat. So I told my niece about other parts of the car's history that I'd discovered, and about when the most recent owner's brother, who had the car before him, died.

So then, there's this:

After the plug was tightened and the car started again, there was still a slight miss. I figured maybe the plug was still wet, and I'd run it for a while. Anyway, the miss just didn't want to go away, so finally as I was looking at the engine I said, "What's the matter, don't you like your new home?" And the miss immediately stopped.

Part of the mystique of the marque, perhaps? I think of all old cars, but especially Packards, as a little bit haunted. I don't think this one is going to change my mind.