Please keep us appraised of what you find! I am interested in more information of this linkage, so if the company is willing to give some dimensions and angles that would be fantastic.

Since I got wheel cylinders to finish up the braking system I was thinking I might as well do front wheel bearings. I found a post on the AACA website by Randy Berger that said the following:

55-56 Senior front wheel bearings

55-56 Senior bearing inner 348640 - Timken 14130

55-56 Senior bearing outer 379474 - [color:"red"] Timken 12580 race-12520

55-56 Senior bearing seal..367675 - Victor 49237.

is that information true? when I look up Timken 14130 it only includes the bearing and no race, is there also a different race needed for that one?

How is the install going?

Is there a reason you didnt go with the 4L80E? Would the 4L60E be able to handle the torque and weight of a packard?

I was able to take some time off around Christmas and get some additional work done to the car. First I was able to install new body mounts. Some where in okay shape, others where badly degraded. I got all new ones from Steele Rubber and used grade 8 hardware to hold everything in place.

While I had the body lifted off the frame (by use of hydraulic jacks) I replaced the fuel and brake lines. I got the brake lines from classictube.com and they fit really well, but I had to bend my own fuel lines. Bending wasnt bad, I did that by hand since the benders I had kept kinking the tubes. I used stainless tubing throughout.

I did not get new wheel cylinders so most of the brake line ends are just sitting there. The front brake hoses and 4 wheel cylinders are on order. Ill post part numbers once I verify fitment.

I started the process of getting the dash board installed by installing firewall insulation. I ended up going with dynamatt and 1/2" dynaliner to help with sound and heat.

I installed the wiper motor and wiper mounts but had a hard time getting the cables connected since the wiper assemblies I used were different (these had better chrome than the ones that came off the car). After searching here and the service manual I disconnected the wiper arms from the mounts in order to get the cables connected to the motor and the tensioners set. Ill wait until the car is running to make sure they are set right before I install the arms again.

I ran into an issue with the restored evaporator. The exhaust port on the evaporator was angled in such a way that the port I needed to connect the expansion valve too was going to contact the blower port. So I removed the evap box to get that fitting rotated hopefully in time to get the dash board in the next time Im in town.

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Welcome.

I also have a 56 Patrician that I am trying to get back on the road as well. I chose the route to take it all the way down so I wont be able to get it on the road for another year or so. But I also started a build thread on this forum in the project section. I believe mine is titled Vacation Car- 56 Patrician. Or something like that.

good luck!

I can measure it and let you know!

When it comes to the earlier cars, I may have part of a grille mesh in steel in storage. I do not know if it originally came on my dads Caribbean convertible (4 before 1040), but that car currently has a gold mesh

Only update is that I am working on polishing up the gold mesh that is apart of the grille. I have been using turle wax rubbing compound and Its turning out nicely!! I plan on coating it with a protectant to keep it from oxidizing and what ever else I had to scrub off of it.

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Oh, so its suppose to be purple... good to know then!

but yes I already got the brake light switch Purchased from packardparts.org, but just didnt have enough time to install it this go around.

So I did a little more digging into this vehicle over the weekend. I know Ross rebuilt the BTV and the individuals installed it and also fixed one brake line. But as I was looking into the reservoir it looked full but could not determine what fluid was in there. So I sucked it out (it looked a little dirty anyway) and bled the system with DOT 5. Well I got the car out of the garage and took it up the street, no more than a mile round trip. Accelerated and stopped fine. Kept the trans in low. I parked it when I got back to the house to move cars around. Before I moved it I checked the fluid and it was half empty... According to Ross the seals he uses are DOT 5 compatible so there has to be a leak somewhere... I did not see one initially so more work is needed there.

I did a little more diagnosing the brake light situation. I was able to confirm the switch was of the two prong type. Well peeling back the electrical tape it revealed that the color wires did not match what the service manual said. Pealing it back further did reveal the dark green and light green wires, but also a violet wire (it should have been pink). I was able to confirm that the green wires went to where they needed to go, but I was not getting power to the violet wire. I dont know how this happened but the 7.5 amp fuse that should be used on this circuit was actually tied into the shifting harness? Dont know why, there is no mention of a fuse there in the service manual. But I did notice a fuse wire not attached to the solenoids (which was red). Well it turns out the violet wire is connected to that red wire. I didnt put in a new switch but I did jump both light and dark green wires. The brake lights activated and I got the suspension to automatically level. Well not as good as the cars do in the youtube videos, but as good as it always did.

Things have been kind of slow on this car. Spent a little more time on the Caribbean, but I did get the evaporator box assembled! So that should be able to be installed. Just need to determine if I can get the connections through the firewall with the expansion valve installed or not...

I am going to use dynamat and dynaliner on the firewall since the insulation that was there was pretty ragged.

Hope to order the exhaust from Waldrons Exhaust soon.