Dave,

Thanks for getting back to me and for all of the info with pictures. This is a big up.

I'm getting ready to do the interior of our '32 901. I was going to buy the shades (spring roller and cloth) from LeBaron Bonney, but I they are out of business. I have the mounting hardware so all I need is the shade itself. Does anyone out there know of a good source or what the diameter was of the original shade?

I had a rough idle problem with the wife's 55 Caribbean. I checked the plugs, points timing, plug wiring, etc. before trying what I mentioned at post #3 elsewhere on this site.

I saw nothing wrong with Leeedy pointing out what was incorrect with the boot on my car and did not mind the way it was pointed out. I'm sure that everyone agrees we want to see Packards restored correctly. Sure there may be times when that is not possible, but in the case of my car's boot whoever did the snaps could have just as easily used the flap.

We bought the car that way. The restorer installed it that way and there are 2 snaps on the back of the rear seat.

Sorry it took so long. I would think any good auto upholstery person should be able to make one without a lot of problems.

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I checked the idle yesterday and in neutral the car idled a shade over 600 maybe 610. Reviewing the information in the Rochester Carburetors MODLE 4GC 1955-56 PACKARD bulletin on page 5 step 7 I saw it called out for an idle 400 in "Dr." so I set it there. This provided an idle of 430 in neutral.

I drove the car about 5 miles in city traffic. There was not a lot of stop and go. When I applied the brakes real hard, the noise came back, which is a real loud groaning noise. They don't pulsate per say, but they don't feel right. I would think that a pulsating from out of round drums would happen all the time when trying to stop.

Right after it stops running, with the air cleaner off look down the carburetor and turn the throttle valve. If it squirts gas, I would think it is very doubtful that your problem is the fuel pump since the carb had gas at that time. Be prepared that if it didn't squirt gas to pour a couple of tablespoons of gas down the carb and try starting. If it fires up and then stops (because the 2T of gas is gone), I would lean towards a fuel problem with the carb.

If it doesn't try to start, I would lean towards an electrical problem. Check and clean all connections in the spark plug circuit. Replace the 1) coil 2) condensor, 3) distributor cap & rotor, and 5) the wire from it to the distributor. Replace any frayed and damaged wires in the spark circuit.

When is shut off and you restarted it an hour later, did it start quickly or did you need to crank it over a bit? If it needed to be cranked a bit, that might indicate a gas problem.

When it stops have the air cleaner off and verify that there is gas in the carb by pumping the carb. Has the car's spark plug wire been "updated" with carbon wires? I would check the master wire from the between the distributer and the coil.

Good Luck and keep us onboard.

I checked the front brakes after driving the car about 15 miles before the fade and grabbing/noise occurred. There was shoe drag occurring. Pulled the drums on the front measuring the shoe lengths. The primary is 10.0" vs. 11.5" in the specs with the secondary 13.0" vs. 13.0" in the specs The springs on both primary and secondary appear the be the same with a diameter of 0.110" (according to Ross the front shold be weaker and the diameter about 0.01" smaller) which causes the primary to grab first and pushing the secondary against the anchor pin.

I see that in the spec sheet the material for the primary is Marshall 4112 and secondary Marshall 9051. I'm guessing that there is no way today to know what the differences are between the two.

The grabbing and the noise feel like the brakes are grabbing and releasing with a pulsing situation very fast causing the noise. I'm wondering if the cause might be with shorter length and stronger spring on the primary prevents the secondary shoe from seating against the anchor pin when the primary heats up a bit.