Re: 1951 Packard 300 - Where to begin?

Posted by Ross On 2020/7/27 6:45:57

With long sleepers like yours I always try to get them running first--oil up the cylinders, crank them over with the plugs out til the oil light goes off. Then hook up a gravity feed tank to the carb and clean the points so that they conduct electricity. Fire it up. See if the trans will go into gear. Sure it won't run well and you can't drive it but you will have an idea early on what you are up against.

This is actually a type of emergency room triage. If major problems show up like bottom end noise or no movememt from the Ultramatic you can make a decision about whether you want to go forward with the car at all. It is too depressing and may doom the lad's enthusiasm to encounter a major roadblock after some work has been done. Supply of postwar Packard sedans is large and is probably already outstripping demand so you can choose your battles after you know the basic situation.