Re: So you drove your Packard home

Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2010/8/19 5:04:15

I bought my 1955 Patrician around New Years 1998-1999. It was located in Salem, OR and although I had not personally seen it prior to purchase, a car-savvy uncle of mine who lived there had looked at and driven it and reported back to me. So, I changed the return flight from a business trip from Denver to Las Vegas to Portland instead with the intent of driving it 1,100 miles home.

I discovered later from docs in the glove box that the engine and T-U had been overhauled a few years earlier by Trowbridge Automotive in Salem (a well respected and old time Packard shop). But, I did not know this at the time of purchase.

So, I flew into Salem and the seller picked me up at the airport and we went to his place to conclude the purchase. Everything seemed OK, but I barely noted that he stated that he had put a new battery in it. I drove it to my uncle's and spent the night.

Early the next morning I departed. It was raining. It was then that I discovered that the vacuum wipers barely worked! A stop at an auto parts store from some Rain-X helped that until I cleared the rain about 100 miles south. A few other things became apparent: it had a noticeable forward rake because the T-U was not working and all four tires were out of round (bias plies), but the vibration was not unbearable.

About sunset I was about 50 miles short of Bakersfield, CA. It was then that I noticed that the headlights were becoming dimmer and dimmer. I limped into Bakersfield and stopped at an all night Wal-Mart. By that time, the battery was dead. A new battery had been installed, eh? Because my Dad had owned a 1955 Clipper when I was in High School, I vaguely recalled that 1955 Packards were positive ground, but the guy I bought it from (not the owner who had the overhaul done) had hooked up the new battery with negative ground! So, although the ammeter pointed to the "C" side, the generator had been not charging the battery! Instead of messing with it at that point, I bought a new battery at Wally World and hooked it up correctly as positive ground.

For those of you familiar with the area, you know that in between Bakersfield and Las Vegas is the Mojave Desert! Had the date of this trip been a little off from minimum daylight, I would have probably been in the middle of the Mojave Desert with a dead battery. So, better lucky than good in that case.

Me and the Pat made it to Las Vegas at about 4AM without further incident. When I got safely home, I symbolically (or maybe not so much) patted the Pat on the dash and thought: "Thanks! I'll fix all these little things wrong with you -- you deserve it."

Craig