Re: I'm New Here...First truly old car and first Packard

Posted by su8overdrive On 2024/3/20 19:11:36

Duck soup. Pick up isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, 90% or better at any drugstore, or denatured alcohol at Ace, etc., flush the brake system until only clear, clean alcohol emerges. Blow out all lines with compressed air. Even a small home compressor like you'd use for bike tires, balls, pool floats strong enough.

Regardless brand, all DOT 5 silicone brake fluid is made by Dow Corning, so whoever has the lowest price. You'll never have to replace it. I know a fellow w/ '40 120 conv., '40 180 Darrin, '42 160 drophead, all three have the same DOT 5 since the 1980s, still looks new. The USPS fleet uses nothing but, as has for decades arctic military posts.

The only thing you'll ever have to do is adjust your brakes once in a blue moon, and that dear little if you anticipate stops, use engine braking. Caramba. 1925 Cole had self-adjusting brakes, as did, today's version, 1946 Studebaker. But by the late '40s, Packard was increasingly phoning in their cars, focused on their less hassle, more lucrative govt. and jet engine contracts, living on a no longer deserved reputation, following GM, not a leader in anything since the 1920s, unless you count outside sourced things like air conditioning and Torsion Level. Our Wagner brakes are good, but unremarkable. Indiana-built Crosley had four-wheel disc brakes for 1949, Chrysler Imperial that year had a disc/drum combination through 1953, not true discs, like the '55 Austin-Healey 100S on all four wheels, followed by Jensen's Model 541 the next year.

Drum brakes can stop you as fast as discs, just not repeatedly.