Re: Who wants to tell me about points?

Posted by David Grubbs On 2012/8/17 17:39:08

I'd suggest you join a local Packard Club or other old car club and find an old grey haired guy to teach you. It's not too difficult to tune the old Packards, but at first it's like juggling with your feet. Stick with it and you'll get good.
First step is to get a shop manual, or at least a Motor manual for the 48-50 cars. You will need a timing light and a multi meter, plus a good feeler gauge as a minimum. Remember if you change the points or adjust them, you also have to adjust the timing. I was taught many years ago that you always replace the condenser at the same time as the points. You should also get a new rotor and probably a new distributor cap. If at all possible, try to get a cap with brass contacts rather than aluminum. Maybe this is a picky point with me, but I like the brass versions better, as I think they work better.

First replace the condenser, then the points. You have to remove the distributor cap and bump the engine over, usually with the starter, until the points are fully open. Adjust the points using the feeler gauge. This is tricky, you just want to make the points tight enough so that the gauge will have a little bit of drag on them when you pull the feeler gauge out from between the points. Then test the engine and see if it will start. Once it starts, you can hook up the multi meter, turning it to "points" and see if it reads to the correct dwell. If it doesn't, you will need to monkey with the adjustment on the points some more. After you get that set up, then adjust the timing by loosening the clamps on the distributor and turning the distributor left or right. The timing light is hooked up to the battery, and by shining the light on the harmonic balancer on the front of the engine, you can adjust the timing to the manual. It is best if you clean off the marks ahead of time, with the engine off. Rub a piece of white welders chalk or a spot of paint on the correct timing mark. This makes it easier to see. I always like to tune my cars up in the garage where I can turn the lights off to make the timing light show up better. After the timing marks are set properly, tighten down the distributor. Now test the engine - it should start easily and quickly. Once you've done that, take the new distributor cap and line it up with the old one, using the notches inside of the cap. Swap the spark plugs wires to the new cap, one by one so that you don't get them in the wrong order. It also helps to take some masking tape and mark each wire ahead of time, to help prevent mistakes. You can now swap out the rotor. Hopefully now everything will run correctly. Course all of this assumes that the carb is working ok, and that the vaccum lines are on tight and not leaking.

I would also suggest that first you drain the old gas out of the tank and put in fresh gas. The old stuff is going to be bad and will mess up everything you've tried to do. Also drain the old oil and put in fresh oil - I like the Shell Rotella, 30 weight. Also, you should pull the old plugs out and clean and adjust them to specs. The old flathead Packards are good at collecting water around the plugs and getting rusty. While the plugs are out, I like to put maybe a teaspoon of automatic transmission fluid in each cylinder to help loosen things up. It will make the engine smoke when you start it, but it helps free up things. I would also recommend that you turn the engine over with the starter or by hand at the very first, just to make sure that you don't have a stuck piston or other nasty things going on.