I am hoping that it's not the block, considering it's a '37. I saw other posts about the '38 having issues with the castings. Also the shutters work perfectly, with the proper 175 degree thermostat. We do have a bad feeling about the water pump though.

Thanks to all. Especially the pics from Kevin, looks just like the clips I made. So now I have a couple options on the attachment of clip to bezel. I will let all know how and what I did. I do appreciate the help.

The 51-6 instrument regulator needs a ground but the gauges do not. If the cluster is grounded and regulator having a good screw contact with the cluster does not help check for grounded wires going to the senders or faulty senders. To test the cluster ground just use a volt-ohmmeter with one clip connected to a clean rust free spot on the body sheetmetal and the other to the cluster. The meter should read a direct short or maybe a few tenths of an ohm higher. Anything more than that then check the cluster to dash mounting screws and nuts for tightness or you could just run a 16 ga wire between the cluster and a convenient screw going into a cleaned rust and paint free area on the body sheetmetal. The output of the sender is pulsed 12v but the duration and speed between the pulses provide an average of 5v to the gauges. Because of the pulses an accurate average voltage may be hard to read on a typical home Volt-ohmmeter but if you read a solid 12v with no fluctuation of the meter there is a good chance the regulator is not working.

The temp sender usually does not have too many issues other than outright failures. You could check the wire terminal and make sure it is not bent and touching grounded metal. If that is OK then remove the wire and check the sender resistance with an ohmmeter. There should be around 200 ohms on a cold engine. On a hot engine it may be harder to check but at normal running temp I would expect it to be somewhere around 25-30 ohms.

The gas senders can be a failure item due to sitting in the harsh environment and rusting or corroding. On the wire at the gauge coming from the sender, if you disconnect the wire from the gauge you should read about 70-75 ohms at empty and 10 at full. Depending on how much gas is in the tank you would see something in between that minimum and maximum value.

Hello BigKev,

I was thinking the same thing. What should I do to test for good grounding ?

Joe

Fall is in full swing here, so I took the opportunity to get some pictures by some beautiful maples.









As nice as it looks, it still runs like crap. It died every time I came in for a stop on my 20 minutes drive. And I would describe it as lacking power. The shaking when putting the engine under load is more pronounced. Today in 3rd gear with the pedal to the floor (trying to get up to speed) the whole car was shaking, not just the shift lever.

I think I'll be removing the distributor and sending it off to Parkers Packards for a rebuild. I may end up sending the carb as well. I rebuilt the carb, but something is obviously not right. Maybe these are just more finicky than the post-war carbs? At this point I rarely drive this car because I can't trust it. I have no idea when or where it will leave me stranded.

-Kevin

Cluster not grounded correctly?

Hello Packard Fans,

My Temperature and Gas Gauges on my 56 Patrician go to the right after starting the car. I changed the Instrument Voltage Regulator and still the gauges go to the right.
Any suggestions ?

Joe

Sorry to hear about Sandy, I met him at some of the earlier Packard Club national meets and bought from him on occasion. A dedicated hobbyist and vendor, he set a fine example for others to aspire to.

Quite a few of the parts in the photos are unrelated to Packard so might take some sorting out and making an inventory (at least a rough one) before a sale can be done. Also, I suggest selling the cars separately.

Quote:

I wonder what kind of ticket for that I'd get at the next National!