Well I made the trip to Napa today, and bought the pieces I needed to rebuilt the front brakes.

The existing shoes still had alot of meat on them, so I couldn't bring myself to order new ones, so I am just going to reuse them after a little cleanup (see pic).

Napa had the wheel cylinders in stock for about $11 bucks a piece. I also had to buy new seals as the existing ones were shot. I found out that for some reason the '54 uses a different seal than the '53 or the '55's. The seal in the '54 is National 6456 (Napa NOS17131 $14.99), I belive the 53 or 55 seal is National 5975. I confirmed the one year status looking at the Max Merrit website. They list a different part number for '54. The '54 seal is actually cheaper in price than the pre 53, 55 seals. Weird.

The seals were not in stock and had to be ordered, but they will have them by tomorrow midday. My Napa store is able to get just about anything in about 24hrs.

They also had the rear wheel cylinders in stock, but I will wait on those until I get the fronts all done.

I bought a new hardware set (springs and hold down hardware) and new adjusters a few months ago off of ebay, so I didnt need those from Napa.

I went to use my AAA card to get the 7% discount that Napa gives card holders, when the clerk sad he would give me a better discount, and he knocked %20 of the of the total bill. Must have been my lucky day.

So the plan is to pull the backing plates off, derust them, and paint them. I will also clean up the existing shoes to remove the surface that is on them. I will clean the drums up, and them take them to Kragen and have them turned, and then hit the outside with a little high temp paint to keep the rust off of them.

While the backing plates are off I will finish the degunking of the steering knuckles, and try to clean up the rest of the front suspension. Currently the front suspension and steering is nice and tight with no slop in it at all. So hopefully rebuilding it can wait until later. I will take the time to paint all of the suspension pieces when I paint front frame clip.

Once all of that is done, then I will reassemble the brakes. All of the brake lines need to be replaced as the fluid that was in turned to solid rust many years ago. I already have the new lines, I just need to install them. But I will wait until the frame is cleaned up and painted. So that will be one of the last things on my list.

I just want to get the brake mechanicals all taken care of, and then get the car back to a rolling status as soon as possible. I may need to move the car around to finish the garage renovation, and having it on jacking stands with the spindles showing really doesnt allow me to move it.

I still need to do a little more derusting on front frame clip, then it can get painted. I also need to clean up the firewall so I can shoot it with some Metallic Bikini Blue rattle can paint from Tower paint. I hopefully can get all this done by Thanksgiving.



All parts numbers have been added to the Cross-Reference to help the next guy out.

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Thanks, Terrill advertises in the PAC news letter for years and their prices are about as low as I can find so maybe they are the people to go with, Thanks.

Can't tell you where they came from but in the past I've bought sets for various years from Terrill Machine. The engine rebuilder didn't squawk when I gave them to him like he did for some items so they must have been decent. No longer own the cars but at least 2 are still in area and as far as I know, no problems.

"Owen" I haven't got as far as checking the journals for scuffing, taper or clearances yet but that wasn't the question. I see that there are several suppliers; Kanter, Merritt and others, even an E-Bay store but the prices vary by as much as $100 a set. If the bearings have not been made in the US or Canada in some time by big major bearing makers the suppliers are using either NOS or the ones made from offshore (China?). I just thought I would throw the question out and see what experiences others had buying bearings from the known suppliers.

I don't know if these bearings have been reproduced or not, but even 15 years ago they weren't that easy to find in some undersizes. I'd suggest what's more important than the brand of bearing is the condition of the crankshaft; if you've got a slight knock and the shaft if more than 0.0005 out of round or scuffed, it's not going to hold any bearing for very long.

I've used SAE 85/140 gear oil in Packard overdrives and manual transmissions for many, many years, never with a problem. I suspect the problem is not lubricant-related.

Thank you for the replies. As far as the oils, the owner manual says S.A.E. 140 viscosity in warm weather all the way to 80 in extreme cold weather. That's quite a large range of thickness. I have not changed the oil as of yet. Maybe dirty oil is the problem.

All of the wiring is hooked up to the aero-drive solenoids, I also checked for loose attachments. If anyone knows of an old Packard mechanic in Central Florida, please advise.

This winter one of my projects is to inspect and if necessary replace the main and rod bearings in my 356CID engine Packard. It has a dull knock at start up when hot that instantly goes away when oil pressure builds and the oil pressure when hot is not the greatest at idle. I have been searching publications and the net for the best price and I find that they are all over the map. I am concerned that lowest price is usually not the best quality so I am asking what others have experienced with bearings and if a good brand name or supplier can be suggested.

Welcome also. Regarding the overdrive, have you been able to determine if it is electrically disengaging as if the kickdown switch is misadjusted and coming in early or if it's mechanically failing. There is an overdrive manual here in the Articles--Service Manuals and Wire diagrams (item 31) section you can read or download which might be of some help.

Bill,

Welcome aboard, I'm sure you'll find this a rewarding and interesting site with plenty of people willing to offer advice or assistance.

Regarding the overdrive, I don't have any experience with these but having just imported a '41 120 Coupe from Idaho which is O/D equipped, but doesn't work although it's supposed to check out fine mechanically, so I'm about to find out! Yesterday I was speaking with some members of the Packard club here and the first thing they said was use the correct grade of oil in it as too heavy a grade can effect the operation of the O/D. As I learn more I'll let you know.

It would be good if you could complete an entry in the Owner Registry of the '41, including a pic and history, so we can all see and enjoy it.

Again, welcome.