Andrew, If I read all the above correctly I'm wondering if your 47 Custom Super Clipper indeed has the correct engine in it. All 356 engines were Autolite-equipped and as you have a Delco distributor and a non-356 Delco? starter, you might check your engine # to determne just which engine type is in the car.

Or perhaps I missed something in the preceeding comments.

PS - I'm reminded of a 47 Custom Super Clipper 2150 with blind rear quarter windows once owned by Bob Skop. It had a replacement 288 engine in it.

Well, ain't that a kick in the teeth. You're right. I checked and referenced the engine number with the reference chart on this site and found that I have a 1954 inline 288 engine out of a Clipper Special. Probably out of an ambulance, because where the heck else would they get that starter from.

I never saw that coming.

But I don't think it's the same car. My car doesn't have blind quarters.

Either way, I guess I just found out that I was had.

Anyways, does anyone know where I can get a starter for a '54 Packard Clipper Special?

John Ulrich has a rebuilt Auto-Lite MAX4052 ready to go. $450. I ordered it.

Guess I'll be looking to put some overtime in at work very soon.

I'm just thankful I found one. Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep everyone posted on how everything turns out and if I can cure that hard starting when hot problem.

It called Kanter to see if by chance, they had a starter available.

They don't.

But the gentleman I was speaking with was able to determine that the starter that was in my car was a high output model for a 1953 and 1954 Packard Short Wheelbase Military Ambulance produced by Henney, of which only approx 352 were made. That was its only application.

Maybe it kind of fit, but not fully and it lead to its demise. That and the fact that it just wasn't the right starter.

Now I feel extra bad that I destroyed it.

As JD stated, the correct starter for my car is an Autolight MAX4052.

So the search begins.

I need to start to keep a journal of this car's history so that the next care taker of it will know what its been through and what's been done to it.

I was going to sell it but now I feel obligated to get it squared away.

Well, I'm in the market for a new starter if anyone has any leads. I'll try to contact Flaskmaster to see if he still has that one and if it's for my car.

Did any of the starter bolts appear loose?

No sir, it was up there nice and tight.

Maybe the castings were just okay and now that these starters are 65 years old, the metal has fatigued to the point where they are now failing.

The tag on the starter: Delco Remy 1108015 2L20

I do have a Delco Remy distributor as well. My '47 has a delivery date of Feb 1948 if that means anything. It also has a S/N that starts with 2150, not 2151, even though it's a limousine with the partition window and jump seats, not just the jump seats.

So who knows?

Time to find a correct replacement starter.

Wow! You're not running 12v are you. Thought that kind of damage only happened to that combination. Is that the correct starter for a 356? I thought those all used the reduction gear type such as JD mentioned.

No sir... 6V on a battery that I was afraid was going to die.

I really don't know if it's the correct starter. I'll pull the numbers off of it and check. Now that I'm looking into this car more, nothing would surprise me.

Here's a spark plug that I pulled with the .050 gap. This is pretty indicitive of all of them. Champion J11C.

And here is the wiring going to the starter after I removed all the loose fabric insulation and electrical tape that was just hanging off them.

I should have known better than to operate the car with these issues. For now, I'll tape up the exposed wiring until I can get a new complete harness and I sourced new, modern Autolight plugs, part #3136 that are still produced for the old applications. they are direct replacements for the old 10mm AC M8 / Autolight P6 plugs.

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Pulled the starter. This is what I found:

Here's why the engine wouldn't start when I attempted to push start it.

I'm thankful that the flywheel isn't destroyed. As it is, it only had a few chewed up teeth. I took a picture of the worst area. I'm not too happy about the flywheel damage, but there's nothing I can do about that. I don't think it's enough to cause any problems. Any thoughts?

I'm happy though to see that the horrific noise I heard wasn't a catastrophic failure of my engine!

Looks like I need to find out if that starter is still available. I'll look to see if I can't send Flaskmaster a PM.

What could have caused this to happen? Combo of the starter getting stuck engaged along with the engine firing up with me giving it extra gas when it finally caught in order to keep it from dying out immediately?

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JD, that sounds like my starter. I'm going to pull it off tomorrow.

The engine compartment wiring has a lot to be desired. Looks like a lot of hodge-podge over the last 65 years. Redoing all of it is on my to-do list but I know it's a big job, expensive and time consuming. I'll probably order the engine harness from Rhode Island Wiring, looking at about $600 or so after its said and done. Maybe this winter, if life is good to me.