I have to agree with Packard 12 Fan. My 34 Packard had only done 2500 miles before the babbit in the rods gave way. I'm now getting the engine rebuilt. I was amazed to find out that the engine was from a 36 model and yet still had babbit bearings. So the major problem with the later styled bearings is that they are hard to find. Hence this is why I believe when the car was restored 8yrs ago got the babbit treatment.

Fellow Packard members

Thought I'd drop a line to say that the 1955 Caribbean which I purchased a few months ago has finally landed down under. I picked the car up today and well... I LOVE IT. The car needs a bit of work but thats the fun of it all.

Now I have a quick question, i am sure i will have many more. Basically when we examined the engine the car seemed to have only 3 readable numbers on the engine no: 167 is there meant to be more numbers than this used to identify the engine.


Basically today we drove the car from the docking area to my mechanics so tomorrow we will have a good chance to look over the vehicle. I will post some images soon.

It feels like christmas

Regards,
Mat

Hi Peter,

Well if you've been waiting years for the slippers I don't like my chances of finding any

Regards,
Mat

Thats pretty interesting,

How long have you owned the vehicle? could it have been done by a previous owner?

NEW DEVELOPMENTS...

Whilst talking to my brother I thought back and remembered the engine in the 34 is not a 34 engine. In its earlier life as a young lady she was involved in an accident involving a cow which damaged the front end and required a new engine. The engine was replaced with a 1936 engine no: 392916. Meaning from what I can gather should have had slipper bearing not babbit yet this appear to be what was used. now, I know that many of these engines were pretty much built with simillar if not the same specs. So would it be correct to say the best option here would be to try and locate slippers and install them. As this is a 36 engine, im hoping this should make things a bit easier.

Thanks,
Mat

All the information is quite helpful. Yes, I have to admit the car Russell is referring to is my 34, I guess at the moment she has seen better days. The car (since restored) had only done 2500 miles before the tappets began tapping. Then a loud banging noise began in the engine. I limped the car to the mechanics (i know I should have turned the car off as soon as I heard the noise)

A hard lesson learned. Now the big rebuild begins. I now have a bettter idea of what to do in regards to bearings.

I will let you all know how the rebuild goes

Kind regards,
Mathew

Thanks to everyone for their help. I am away for a few days but when I get back home I'll give them a good clean and change th wiring to #10 gauge wiring and this should hopefully correct the issue.

I'll let you know how i go with it

Thank You,
Mathew

Dear All,

As many early Packard owners may notice there is a difficulty of vision at night with 6 volt headlights.

My concern is that if I happen to be caught out at night in my 1934 Packard the quality of the headlights is quite poor. This is understandable as I am still running the 6 volt system, which I wish to keep it as. I have changed the globes to 6 volt helogen globes which made a slight improvement but nothing drastic.

Basically does anyone else experience this problem, or is their any ideas/ways to improve it whilst still retaining the good old 6 volt system

Kind regards & many thanks,
Mathew Rattray

I also thought that I'll attach an image of my latest purchase. Yes another Packard. This one is a 1955 Packard Caribbean Convertible. This car should be coming out to Australia in a few weeks. The interesting thing is I was reading an article posted a few weeks ago about 55-56's with manual transmissions. This particullar Caribbean has a 55 Clipper engine in it with a manual transmission (which i found out later), I do plan however to convert it back to an automatic transmission system. So if anyone has any information on where i can get a suitable transmission & Torque converter (I realise this may be the wrong section to ask about parts) it'll be appreciated

My mother tried to stop/slow me down on buying Packard memorabilia, I guess she never said anything about cars

Some of you may remember this car it was listed on ebsy a few weeks ago, so yes, I was the silly person who bought it, I couldn't help myself.

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It is great to see that there is young blood interested in Packards. I have attached an image of my 34. I purchased the car at the age of 16, even before I had got my License. I plan to take the car over to South Australia to attend the Bay to Birdwood Run. One of Australia's biggest Bi-annual runs for classic cars. The run usually attracts over 1000 vehicles and this will be the longest run the 34 has been on for a long time

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