While driving my Custom 8 in the early morning dark the headlights suddenly went off. I cycled the button and still no lights. Then, just as suddenly they came back on again. Anybody encounter this phenomenon or have any idea what's going on?

Thanks for the info. The bleeder I have is exactly the same as the original in your photo. It has a male 3/8-24 thread and a female 10-32 thread. The Dorman 13901 bleeder that you linked to unfortunately didn't work, it didn't seem to seat properly and leaked. I had it in there pretty snug and I didn't want to strip anything. You say that it worked for you? Anyway, that brass fitting you linked to seems like the way to go, I'll just order one of those. Thanks again.

Does anybody know where I can get a brake bleeder screw for my '49 Custom 8? Three of my brakes have a two piece bleeder screw, a part that goes into the wheel cylinder and a separate nipple that screws into it. One of my wheels is missing the nipple part and I can't put a hose on it when I bleed the brakes. I've been to NAPA, AutoZone and O'Reilly's trying to find something that will work but none of them seat correctly and it leaks. Is there an equivalent Dorman part does anybody know? Thanks.

Yes, it's the 356. As I mentioned in one of my posts, the "Repair and Tune Up Manual" says the gap should be between .0125 and .0175 (although the tune-up chart just says .017, period). The dwell is listed as 27 deg in the chart and in the Service Manual specs. I always try for .016" and when I had it at that gap the dwell was around 22 deg I think. When I realized the point gap was having such an influence on the high speed roughness I gradually went to .012" point gap which seemed to give normal performance (i.e. no loss of power and/or roughness). At that point gap the dwell is now 30 deg. Now, I'm using an old 12 volt dwell meter I've had since the early '70's but it seems to give a reasonable number on the dwell.
When I replace the points, I leave the distributor in the car, turn the crankshaft by hand with the fan blade and just measure the gap with a feeler gauge when the cam follower is on the tip of the lobe. I suspect that there is some error in doing it that way and that the gap may be actually within the .0125 to .0175 range. Some of the guys on this thread say they set the point gap with the distributor removed which seems like a much more accurate way to do it, although you have to be careful about marking the cam position and the position of the distributor itself. I'll probably do that the next time I do the points.

I did solve the problem, see my post of 10/24 17:54:15 on this thread. It was the point gap of all things.
To your question, the flex hose to the fuel pump was replaced about a year ago, well before all this happened. I actually had it fabricated by an industrial hose place. I never checked the fuel pump for flow rate and pressure because I assumed (perhaps erroneously) that since it was new from Max Merritt that it was ok.

Sounds fairly simple, thanks.

Do I have to have the distributor in a vice to test the bushing? I tried to move the point cam side-to-side while it was on the engine and couldn't feel any movement. I was thinking of just replacing the entire distributor since I really don't have the tools to do the things you describe in the article.
I know the Packard training document I have says to remove the distributor to replace the points but I've never done that and never remember anybody ever doing that back in the day. Is it hard to pull the distributor out? Do I just remove the wire to the coil and the bolt that I loosen when I set the timing? Or is there more to it?

Yes, I went through the whole coil thing and it was hooked up correctly. I even took the coil out of my '50 Ford (also positive ground) and hooked it up to the Packard and it still ran crappy, so it's not the new coil.

Well, I was about to order a new distributor and I still might.

The plugs are Champion UY6. I pulled one of them yesterday thinking I'd replace them since I was grasping at straws with this rough running thing. I've attached a picture. I don't think it looks bad. When I bought the car I noticed a lot of black soot near the exhaust pipe on the garage floor. The mileage was pretty crappy so I did a little research and found that service counselor on the swapped manifold gaskets and indeed mine had been swapped. So I corrected that and I did notice a little bit better gas mileage.

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