The 52 will indeed bolt right on, but will lack the the little boss on the rear runner where the throttle linkage bracket bolts on. Will take a bit of fabrication to overcome this.

Packard used Naples Orange on the rims of cars that were painted black, yellow, or grey. A really good match for that is 84 Ford truck Bright Bittersweet. I have it on my 56 and it looks quite nice.

Would actually expect to see about 7.2-7.4 volts with the engine running at 1500 or so.

You can try polarizing, you only have to jump from battery to armature for a fraction of a second. If your car is hooked up as originally, that is positive ground, that means battery negative post to the armature post on the generator.

I am guessing that the commutator on your generator has oxidized from sitting and won't conduct. You can clean it up with a bit of scotchbrite.


Easiest generator test in the world is this: Remove the fanbelt and wires from the generator. Ground the field winding to any convenient point on the engine with a small jumper lead. Jump battery power down to the armature terminal. The generator should happily and evenly run as an electric motor drawing oh, eight amps or so. If it doesn't run, runs lumpy, or draws a lot of current it will need some loving.

You can also do this test on the bench with a battery charger, just be sure to ground both the case and the field terminal (positive) and apply neg to the armature post.

I test this way before putting any generator back in. It pre-polarizes. If I have put new brushes in, I let the thing run over lunch time to seat the brushes.

As crude as it sounds, I recommend doing the first straightening of the bracket on the car as it is conveniently and rigidly fastened down. Have done this many times. You will need quite a good sized sledge or wood splitter to whack it back to near normal position. As the fellow who taught me said: "if you want to shape metal, use a small hammer, if you want to move metal, use a large hammer". I don't heat them as the bracket is mild steel, bends back fairly easily, and I don't need the fire liability.

If desired, you can then remove it and make other small improvements.

You will almost certainly need new outer rubbers. An important aspect of installing those spring clips is to press the stabilizer and new rubber into the arm as far as possible so the clip does not have to do it while being installed. Use an extra clamp or large vise-grip to clamp the stabilizer bar to the suspension arm right next to where you are working.

You'll have no problems other than the 54 axle might or might not have a different wheel bolt circle.

Just to save you some troubles, do try running some 90 weight GL-1 gear lube in the tranny before you swap it out. They do not like the usual GL^4 (too slippery)and will clash. Also, on your existing rear axle, make sure the pinion nut has not backed off.

These are both common problems and and might be very easily repaired in an hour. In my experience, the synchros are seldom bad in any of these cars, but even rarer on an overdrive car as the freewheel assists the shifting.

One can change the 48-54 engines from 288s to 327s and vise versa without a moments care as the castings are the same. Its just a change of crank and rods. Likewise with the lifters--one need change only the cam and lifters and change the size of the bleed hole in the front plug of the cam gallery. When Packard charged you extra for the 327 they made a nice profit as there is hardly any extra cost in the engine.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Let interested parties have a ride or better yet, let them drive one. That is Packard's strongest calling card. I regularly let folks drive mine and lend them out to friends for "date night" and such.

If your Packard is not a pleasure to drive, figure out why and fix it.

51 and 52 Pattys got the die cast louvres with the rounded ends. All others that got them at all got the stamped stainless with the galvanized backing plate.

Interesting and ungainly extension above the windshield of the phaeton in post 49. Yet more headroom needed??

Believe you will find that the 356s came with skirted filters.