Dear Steve:

It's also a good idea to cover the starter, distributor, and dip stick with plastic to defelct the coolant. The dran plug only need be tightened to say 7ftlbs using a small wrench and thread sealer.

It has been ages since I did one of those, but I think the muffler has to be out, splash pan off, and the pipe fed through from the back.

The manual has an interesting tip on how to center the exhaust in the frame to avoid rattles. Check it out.

Dear Steve:

The clinking noise may be due to the reaction member(stator)having too much play and banging against the turbine. I've seen the vains nicked up from this. The ultramaitc should not make any noise. I suppose if the one way clutch shaft was brinelled it might make a noise as well, but Hydramatics will make grinding noises in the presence of torque converter end play problems.

As for filter service here is a Chrysler Part number

04446728

This is for a little magnet they put in their transmission pans to collect chips. I don't know if it will fit the UM but it might. It requires a locating dimple via a ball peen hammer. It can also be stuck to the outside and help keep the crud down.

Good luck with your car.

Hi folks:

When it comes to ebay and high priced cars, is there any reason to believe the numbers?

We can set up a scam right here. I can put up a car and have some cronies bid the thing up to the reserve price. Then put the brakes on. A great sucker's play.

Believe me, I have had to deal with (more like cope with) a few old car scoundrels in my day and if cash doesn't change hands I have no reason to believe the numbers. And even when cash does change hands the stories told don't mean very much either. Heck, I have an Elvis record that I paid thousands for. I'm looking to sell it at a loss. Actually, I only paid a quarter.

I'm not saying ebay is bad, only that, unless the car is a known commodity paying an inflated price on ebay is nuts.

On ebay I buy little stuff and have had my share of dogs, but I never spent more than $25 on anything there. It's a great place for parts, but for sight unseen cars? Oh brother!.

Dear IrishPackard:

Let's see:

Overchoked - Miss disappears when warm

Underchoked - miss disappears when warm

Sticky valves - miss disappears when warm

Stuck open heat riser - miss disappears when warm

Faulty breaker plate/bad distributor ground/faulty breaker gap - should miss during uphill acceleration

To test igniton get a calibrated spark tester from an auto store. Your car should produce a minimum of 20 Kilovolts with 25Kv optimal.

Next hook up a vacuum gauge. If the needle is fairly steady and 17inhg or higher you have a system problem not a mechanical problem.

Some carburetors will be overly rich when cold because they are worn out and the choke pull off doesn't work anymore, but low motor vacuum can also cause this problem. Thus, do a compression test. Choke pull offs need at least 90psi of compression to work.

Good luck with your car.

Hi Dave:

Yes the high end cars seem to defy gravity. But I knew Noel Thompson for years and he took a bath on some high end Duesenbergs. The sky high prices people pay for Bugattis leaves me scatching my head. And like VanGoughs I simply do not understand why tycoons want to pay so much for paintings by deceased starving artists. I suppose part of the thrill is denial by proxy of a person's value.

I suppose it is entirely possible for prices on some cars - like the Type 41 Bugatti Royale - to remain aloof indefinitely. But I don't think that people will necessarily be making money on them. If you paid $30 million for the Binder Coupe Deville and your estate sells it for $25 million. That is a huge loss.

Another thing is that today's new money is very selfish. Out in Hollywood People like Jack Benny used to give part of their fortunes to fund a retirement home for supporting actors. It closed down a few years ago because today's overpaid Hollywood bums would rather blow their dough trying to impress each other.

So yes some of these cars may always sell for a bundle, but I think as much money will be lost due to greed as made.

Hi Folks:

I totally agree with Pat Green. These cars are something you have to like having and keeping after. You don't buy a pair of shoes and expect to sell them for a profit.

The economic reality is that wages are falling, asset values are falling, and tax revenues are falling. There is simply no way these cars can appreciate in the absense of some insane speculative run up.

The old car hobby got started as a by product of national prosperity. The big players like Harrah and Nethercutt never expected to make money on the cars. They just liked spending big money. I remember when Jack Nethercutt had a Packard at Buck Hill Falls and him saying how much he spent to get the fenders perfect. He was totally pleased that it cost a bundle. That is the way rich people think. They don't go into Tiffany and complain they can get a watch at Walmart for 40 bucks.

However, that kind of spending can inflate a market.

Today things are different.

I will never forget talking to a rather wealthy old woman. Somebody's name came up and her disdainful response was "Isn't he the person with the old cars?" It was as if she couldn't understand why anybody would be so interested in reclaiming her own trash.

Hey wait a minute:

Let's look at a few contingencies for the benefit of lucky Packard 12 owners.

First is the radiator. It has to come out for service. That's a big job. Next, the water jackets have to come off and the system flushed out to prevent clogging the radiator. I knew an old timer who drove on the Pennsylvania turnpike when it first opened. He told me the side of the road was crowded with cars that were boiling over because they had never been driven at high speeds before.

Next is the oil filter. It has to be replaced. Take the price of a typical Wal-Mart filter and multiply it by 100.

After that, the pan needs to come off (easy as pie) and the oil pump sent out to be be rebushed. When the bushing is worn the pumps sucks air and the motor blows up.

Next is compression. The Packard 12 needs a minimum of 100psi otherwise it will have problems with the burn rate and run hot. Once I had a newly rebuilt twelve in a stall that I used to run to heat up the building. It sounded (or didn't rather) like a million bucks but the motor puts out a lot of heat because of the burn rate. They had problems in the 30's and started the aluminum heads and raising the compression to mitigate that.

Another big issue is oil. If the motor is full of sludge then detergent oil will stir everything up and destroy it.
So if the only option is mineral oil, the car is not suitable for extended or high speed use. Thus, the wiser men in the old days who would use it very sparingly.

The Packard 12 is great to watch when it is running properly. When they were new I think the Eights were better all around performers, but machinery gets old and today the V-12 is the best all around senior motor.

I'm not trying to be a spoiler, but I can run up a list of people I have known who took original V-12s out on the highway and promptly blew them up. So you gotta take care of that motor.

Dear Steve:

Yes those old dashboards are hard to work on. Mainly because when the car was built they hung the complete assembly inside the car, hooked up the wires through the front and put it in place before installing the windshield.

But here is a tip that will save your back from injury:

Get a helper and remove the front seat assembly. This will allow you to lay on the floor instead of trying to contort yourself around the seat.

I typically used this method when working on a car with valuable interior work. I would get bitched at because it took a few extra tenths of an hour, but interiors cost up to $35K and so I thought it was worth it.

Good luck with your car.

Dear MIDan:

I would only rely on odometer readings in the presence of service documents. When those cars were new they could rack up impressive mileages. For example rural AgVets typically would drive up 100,000 miles in a single year on their cars.

Additionally the car is too ratty, and even if it was a true low mileage car, it has not been stored properly, and thus, has a lot of hidden problems.

If you bought the car and started driving it a lot it would probably blow up. I dealt with an original V-12 that was low mileage because the block was cracked in a zillion places and it couldn't go around the block without boiling.
So figure at least ten grand to make it safe to drive more than ten miles a trip. In the old days wiser men would use a car like that to go to a local meet once or twice a year. Today's crowd wants to drive something like that 65mph on the interstate and so they blow up.

The Packard twelve cost roughly twice the price of the typical American home when new and so they are expensive to maintain.

Good luck with whatever direction you choose to pursue.

Oh and yes, a banjo steering wheel was an option.