I vote for the condensor (having lived through similar symptons in the past), followed by the coil. Condensors are cheaper than coils so I usually start there. Fuel starvation causes through-the-carb backfires. Ignition problems --usually--give through the exhaust backfires.

Before you spend a lot of time and trouble, try this: locate your throttle linkage on the top of the engine, particularly the pull rod that connects from the arm on the firewall to the carb. Clamped between two locknuts on that rod is a tab of metal that operates another linkage. Mark the present location with a piece of tape or something. Screw the two locknuts, and thus move that tab about 1/8" toward the rear of the car. Take a drive and try it. Should shift a little higher. If not, move some more to the rear til the shifting feels right. Moving it too far is not dangerous, and will only make the tranny shift high and hard. It is actually more dangerous as it is; the shift pressures may be too low and make for slippage. Also, the little rod that is attached to that tab should be in the center hole of three at its opposite end end.

All this can be done in the space of a few minutes without having to take the car anywhere. All you need are two 7/16 wrenches.

After you have checked the othe other sources, particularly the pivot for the big idler arm in the center of the frame, you can useually adjust a lot of play out of the gear.

On gears through 47, you will need to pull the pitman arm, take the top cover off, and extract the roller asssembly. It pulls right out. Remove a few shims from where the shaft sits in the housing and reassemble. Tighten down the pusher screw on the top til it is just touching with the wheels straight ahead. Try it and repeat if necessary. Put in a new pitman seal while you are there

My first swag would be about .060 for maybe half a point, but you need to check the space over your valves. Still, the biggest bang for your buck will be a nice simple porting job, and smoothing out the edges of the little saucer that the valves sit down in.

Just for entertainment value, | will throw in that the Melling pump has very nearly the same diameter shaft, within a few thou., and the same bearing length (2 inches) as the Packard, also no bottom bearing.

I have noticed when testing pumps on my rig that the vac pump adds a very considerable load onto the drive motor when present. This additional load may cause the rapid shaft wear so many have noticed. The drive shaft theory is also very intriguing.

But I would still love to understand the exceptions, like an untouched 104K mile 55 Pat I had a few years ago with oil pressure well above the center dot on the gage, and never a sound from the lifters, even after the vac pump portion later failed and started letting a lot of oil into the manifold.

No separate wire to the battery for that. The output from your generator goes to the regulator and from there down to the the battery cable at the starter. The terminal on the starter acts as a junction block for several circuits on the car.

Maybe I'm confused here, but if you want to take off the breaker plate, just remove the advance, the two screws that hold on the cap clips, the one screw halfway round between the two clips, and the terminal block. That comes off by undoing the nut on the inside of the distributor. All that takes just a couple of minutes on the bench. Your breaker plate will then just lift out complete with points, condensor, etc. If you want remove the breaker cam, then you have to do as Eric is describing, but I've almost never had to do that for any normal distributor refurb.

Interesting factoid a bit off thread: I've never needed to replace bushings in a V-8 dist as they are lubed with an oil cup and wick. I have always needed to replace bushings on the same dist. on a 53/54 with the grease cup.

A lot of funky idles on the older cars come from a loose upper bushing on the dist. Quick test: turn in your grease cup while the engine is running. If the engine speed changes your bushings are loose.(Dwell changes as the cam moves sideways.)

There was an accessory brochure with everything from exterior visors to wheel chocks, but have only seen one in 35 years of Packard play, and that was looking over someone's shoulder.

Close, but no cigar. Your dipstick is under the car on the left front corner of the tranny, just behind the bellhousing. You'll see a 3" tall tube sticking up with a cap on it. That's the one. Check it with the tranny warm, and RIGHT after you've turned the car off. You can add fluid by pulling back the carpet and put it through the vent that is just under a little access plate there, but there is no dipstick there.

When doing a complete refill, take a 2' piece of heater hose and jam it into the fill tube and bring the other end up into the engine compartment. You can jam a funnel into that and fill to your heart's content.

Despite rumors, the 49-54 Ultras are not all that picky about fluid level. They hold almost three gallons, for crying out loud. I've seen them do just fine more than two quarts low. Just last week in fact.

Vacuum advances from most any early 50's 8 cyl Delco distributor will bolt right on, but to maintain the proper advance curve you must use your old spring and shims. Even the 53-4 Packard advances can be used, as if they were easier to come by. I have used Stude, for sure, and Olds and possibly Caddy. I pick them up at flea markets whenever I see them. Once they have started to leak, death is imminent, so don't even bother to put a leaky one back on.