A question for the good doctor. Why did you choose to buy the '56 Patrician given your interest in '56 Nash Ambassadors and the Italian sports car bent?

Dretcetereini: The picture of the Moretti 750 Zagato you posted is nice. The coach work of the 750 has the general lines of what Zagato offered from the 50's through the early 60's. The coach work by Zagato is very interesting. Having said that I find the car rather uninspiring since the engine is Fiat, and possibly the drive train being Fiat.

John F. Shireman

Yesterday, Sunday 4th, I replaced the leaking waterpump in my '38 with a rebuilt one. See Canberra Swap Meet post from last week for the story. Now although the car is a '38 I believe the engine is a '37 which went into the car in WW2 @ Darwin when the '38 blew it's original motor on the mail run it did every 2 weeks from South to North of the country and back. Saying that I was also told that the waterpump was a '38 because these were bigger?(and better than the '37?). Anyway there was a leak detected in the waterpump back in May and at that time a bloke in the Packard Club here rebuilt one for me. And in which he installed a Mazda bearing/seal in place of the packard bearing. The Mazda bearing/seal is fully sealed as I understand it.

But moving away from the above - there is a picture below of the 2 waterpumps with the old faulty one - left, and the rebuilt one - right. What I'd like to know is: Why does the one on the right have an oil cap, to lubricate the bearing I presume? While the one on the left from what I can see has a Slot and Clip arrangement? Does the Slot and clip serve the same function? And how often do you lubricate the bearing? With Soluble oil?

I'm asking this because I'm just curious as I don't believe with the setup I now have that I'll need to specifically do this now.

PS - Couldn't get pic to load so see the link below to web album pics of the very exciting waterpump changeover!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/ChangeoverOfWaterpumpsON38PackardEight1stNov4thNov

Thomas,

Sorry - I should have taken your use of the word "here" literally. I'll know now for future reference. Again apologies.

Sorry, I made the link the word "here". If you put your cursor over the top of the word, it will turn into a little pointer. Click and you will be brought to the site.

Otherwise, copy and paste the link below into your browser address bar.

http://picasaweb.google.com/odyssey.restorations/1934PackardBodyRestoration

Sorry for the confusion.

Cheers,

Thomas

Given the other parts included in the minor kit. which was reproduced years ago and should remain widely available, the parts issues seem to be limited to the hydraulic plunger, which is feasible to fabricate locally, and that compensator port spring.

As such, reworking the TreadleVac to accept some other innards maybe overkill. Same for the compensator port if we can come up with an alternate source for that spring.

Bendix acquired the former Studebaker proving grounds outside of South Bend, IN back in the 1960s. Bosch, apparently a successor to Bendix, continues to operate as a test track to this day. However, I doubt if they are intersted in providing parts or details of design of such an old technology. Most Amerikan automtive korporations don't give a rat's patoot about the past, but most korporate legal counsels these dyas recommend the destruction of engineering doucumentation that is no longer required, by law.

Well, if I can get through this winter and get caught up with obligations to the CVOA and P'Info.com, I wanna look into finding a reasonable facsimile of the spring and will report back with my findings. This fine-wire spring is not something you'll find on the shelf at any hardware store, but I'm confident that there's something out there that will work.

I'd like to see some engine pics and stories on the last "Packards" posted on here. Like what kind of acceleration they have, power, and performance in general. I'm interested in comparing them to my supercharged Packard V8.

dretceterini -

Welcome! Glad you found the Registry here and added your car.

Two of the '56 Pats listed are mine, but neither are restored or in roadworthy condition at present. I'm hoing to get one of 'em back on the road next summer (tired of going to the annual Warren, OH meet in a Brand X car), but it's a tall order.

When it comes to the number of Packards registered registered here, know that this site isn't even two years old. It's amazing how much info has been added in that time (with more to come), but the Registry feature was only introduced this year, IIRC.

Yet, even the formal Packard clubs don't have count of all the surviving Packards. These cars keep coming out from under the woodwork, but some owners are rather private about their cars. As such, I'm glad BigKev saw fit to design this Registry to let people decide what info they wanna include.

The problem I've had with Packard clubs collecting data on cars is that the general membership see so little results from it. I knew enough not to give info to people who came across like "snake oil salesmen" and likley collecting it for profit, but I often wonder just what the formal clubs are doing with all the info they have on individual cars.

As membership grows at this open-minded site, more cars will be listed in this Registry, and I think a lot more good will come from just having that info displayed here than in some private club roster that is "hermetically-sealed in a jar of mayonnaise."

Gauss -

Sorry to be so late in replying, but I've been trying to wrap up another installment in a series of articles for the Cosworth Vega Magazine.

I had been hoping to get out to offsite storage (ahead of turning the clocks back from DST and some foul weather approaching), but it won't happen until next weekend.

IIRC, the kit that I purchased over 15 years ago was billed as covering the 55/56 Packards and I'd authenticated that against a Bendix parts catalog that I later acquired. I'll still dig the kit out and get you the number.

BTW, "poke" is an old term for a sack or the like, and the old saw that you cited warns one not to purchase without the opportunity to examine the goods. (Odd then how many people shop online, eh?)

Meanwhile, I only ever had one ocassion to replace the internal vac supply hose on the TreadleVac - namely because someone had been in there before me and installed some plain fuel hose, which kept slipping off (to hard for the purpose). I transplanted an original, formed hose (in great shape) from a core that I got out of a field car. I masssaged it with a bit of silicone, used no clamps whatsoever, and never had problem with it coming off.

Wire ties might be a good idea, but I don't think they'll need to be much more than finger-tight (on an original, formed hose) if you first clean the inside of the ends of the hose and the corresponding fittings with mild solvent (like alcohol) to ensure a no-slip fit.

Thomas,

We need the link! Please update the post.