You see these items by the dozens in car show flea markets, should be easy to find one including the housing for about $10. There was also a smaller paper element made by AC which could replace the ceramic element, also common in flea markets.

First place I'd try (for new ones) would be Ficken Wiper Service, out in Long Island I believe. Regular advertiser in Hemmings.

I have a 56 Caribbean with an unmolested driveline. The actuator is painted engine bronze, with the stamped cover plate black. As i remember the trans # is C-526.

Frankly I'm reluctant to rely on old plug recommendations as the changes in gasoline composition, flame temperature and propogation have changed so much. So I usually take a current recommendation from one of the plug makers. Autolite's site is among the easiest to use, and for my 56 Packard they recommend Autolite 66 for a non-resistor plug (my choice). I've also used Champion RN14YC with good luck. You don't say if your upgrade of a 55 to a 56 V8 involved changing heads but I guess you know there were different plug requirements when they went from machined to cast heads (see Service Counsellors for info). If I still had the 55 heads, I'd hop onto Autolite's site and get their recommendation for 1955.

Brrrr, that's a mighty cold plug! According to my 1962 AC catalog its about the equivalent of Champion H-14Y which is also a pretty unpopular number. Only application I saw was 1961-62 Studebaker 6 & 8 cyl.

Well, it was a very worthwhile project, and even better the price was right and a portion of the sale went to the Packard Proving Grounds, a program that EVERYONE who has an interest in Packard cars and the company that made them should support financially.

One recent very valuable (to me) PAC project was the reproduction of the Mazda 3003 headlight bulbs. These are the prefocused, triple filament with triple bayonet base and were only used in the 33/34 Cadillacs and Packards. Just prior to the project, the few of these you could find were quoted at $250-$400 EACH, USED, and with no guarantee. That indeed was a very worthwhile club project!

Let me just add a though, and I'm already bracing myself for the criticism that I'm fairly certain will follow, hopefully it won't get too personal. Before the days of free information on the Internet, the national Packard clubs sought out good copies of owners, shop, service letters and parts manuals and laid out the money to have decent copies produced. I've got a shelf full of these that I've bought and use them regularly to help others. Now I'm sure the clubs have recouped their initial costs, but the point to consider is that by making the information available for free, we deprive these clubs of the funds for future projects which then either won't happen or will be priced to the point where we all bellyache about the prices.

Got my curiousity up, I've just gone back to review the second article in "The Packard Cormorant" on the Esquires. Its in the Fall 1974 issue and is a result of an interview with Harry DuBois who owned the dealership that made them. In an earlier interview he had said they only did 8 cars, all hardtops. In this current interview he says they also did 4 door sedans, perhaps 20 cars in all. The article pictures an Esquire sedan based on a Patrician, Dover While/Danube Blue. The conversion of the Patricians was much more complex, and in them (but not in the 400s) the trunk script was also changed to say "Esquire" in addition to the script on the front fenders. This particular Esquire was then owned by Pete Grave of Penndel, PA who purchased it from Russell Didgion of Springfield, VA. The earlier 1972 article pictures a hardtop 400 "Esquire", apparently also in two-tone.

1/4 inch of fuel in the carb bowl is a positive sign of fuel starvation. Fuel levels varied quite a bit by carb and application, but generally it should be within 1/2 inch of the top flange. Also a bit confused by the comment that these cars came with the pump in the tank - I don't believe that is true, sounds like someone's "improvement", which generally are not improvements.