for all 1940-50 Packards with the 356 engine. Jim at
Antique Auto Battery
602 West Rayen Avenue
Youngstown, OH 44502-1126
1 (800) 426-7580
www.antiqueautobattery.com

AAB also, of course, can supply such bolt-in, 6-volt, positive-ground, one-wire alternators for all Packards and other cars not using the hefty fanbelt of the 356 engines.

No butchering or alteration of the car in the least. Comes with complete bracket. If you miss the dim head and taillights at idle at dusk and night, you can easily reinstall your original AutoLite or Delco generator, with its 35 peak amps only when your engine's turning 2,000 or more rpm, anytime, should you tire of having 55 amps at idle, faster battery recovery, etc.

This tip strictly for those of you who like me, have long since made your purist bones, and aren't aghast at such a simple, wee upgrade that doesn't harm our cars in the least.

Should it make the rest of you feel better, some taxis and other vehicles in the '50s had six-volt alternators.
If you don't say anything, few will ever notice your upgrade. Our cars look sleeker with the hoods closed, anyway, and those complaining at the local shine and show might get lives or go work on their own cars.

Amen. Cardinal-- Pope Kevin speaks the truth. I put a hand on my Optima to check for warmth when "trickle" charging it monthly simply to get it from 6.36 back to 6.4 volts as, again, the closer you keep any battery to 100% charge, the longer it'll last.
An old aircraft/auto mechanic/machinist, supercharged Cord-owning friend got ten (10) years on a wet cell battery in his '52 GMC pickup simply by keeping it fully charged at all times.

Underhood heat as on a warm day, parked, isn't the same thing as internal battery heat. Also, if you haven't yet, install a master battery disconnect switch.
Just make sure it's rated for more amps than your starter draws. That, and make certain you've got 00 gauge copper battery cables. "Heavy duty" from the local auto parts store in this 12-volt day won't cut it. I got mine at a Diesel big rig supply house. Have the ends soldered as well as crimped. And don't use one of those mickey mouse throw switches on the battery. Mount it under the dash on the firewall where you can reach up and flip it on or off.
Not only will it prevent battery drain when you car sits,
but makes working on the car easier.

On my '40 120, i mounted the switch on the floor just in front or under the front seat since the battery in those cars is under the floor beneath the front seat. I barked my knuckles squeezing a Type IV wet cell used in Packard Twelves into that compartment instead of the Group II 120s
came with, but that was long before Optimas were available.
BTW, any of you with prewar old-body-style Packards, do yourself a favor and pop rivet or epoxy a thin piece of plywood or other insulation on the steel floor cover of your battery to protect against the battery coming loose and the terminals arc welding your steel floorboards should you hit a bump at speed, etc.

The above gents are right as rain. Battery tenders do seem like a new old car ponzi scheme, and there are so many, as with "dustproof" car covers. As owner of a black car, let me tell ya, ain't no just thing. However, in theory and practice, the closer you can keep any battery to 100% charged, the longer it'll last.

Every month, i put a 1940 Montgomery Ward battery charger on my Optima on the low setting, which puts out a couple amps. I leave it on for an hour and 45 minutes at most,
doublechecking before and after with a Harbor Freight & Salvage ohmeter a friend and i picked a couple of back in 1997 and have never replaced the battery of. $9.95 for the little rascals. Had to have "fallen off a truck."

Don't let an Optima get more than ambiantly warm.

Optima's aren't cheap, but again, mine's eight years old, a year beyond their seven-year prorated warranty, and still as good as it ever was. If you shop around, you can still get a six-volt Optima for $160 or so. Why buy a heavy, off-gassing wet cell battery to save a few bucks
when you'll be lucky to get six years from it? Again, weight's the enemy in any serious road car, luxurious or not.

Often think how sad it was that Packard wasted time with nonsense like the "sporty" Caribbeans in the '50s, which were mechanically stock but actually weighed MORE than a regular Packard convertible, just because the Company was by then reduced to chasing after GM's lead,
in this case the dopey Cadillac Eldorado and Buick Skylark.

Had Packard remained PACKARD--- perhaps were they still in business and sorry, but after Alvan Macauley departed April, 1948, Packard was just another me-too, also-ran, following GM's lead--- they might've produced something genuinely sporty and elegant akin to the R-Type Bentley Continental. The Packard Motor Car Company of the '30s and early '40s might've.

But this is off topic other than to emphasize weight does not = "sporty." Neither do wire wheels or heavy, reworked leaded hoods with dummy airscoops. The 1951-52 Mayfair coupe with stick and overdrive was a step in the right direction, but still looked like, in the words of one auto journalist then,
"....a bigger, gaudier Ford."

Go Optima. Never ceases to amaze me how readily it turns my nine-main-bearing crank's gear-reduction starter.
Optima was founded in Sweden in 1912, produced in the US in a modern, clean factory in Colorado.

Amen, Bishop O'Toole. I carried the 32 psi maximum cold pressure in my '40 120's 6.50/16 Denman bias plies. When i sold the car after putting a total 10,800 miles on it since rebuilding it bumper to bumper, the tires still retained ALL their tread. There was NO wear. None.

Tom McCahill spoke the truth. Other than Click 'n' Clack, mainstream America'll never again enjoy such an upbeat, entertaining, accurate a straight shooter.

A little off topic, but i doublechecked my gas mileage in that overdrive car using a calculator, and got 22.5 mpg, everything stock according to East Grand Avenue, timing either 6 degrees BTDC, no more than a degree or so more. The sole deviation was i had the 4.09:1 rear axle per non-overdrive models in lieu of the 4.36.

However, the 7.00/15 Denmans i ran on my '47 Super Clipper quickly wore down by 9 or 10,000 miles, despite proper front end alignment, etc. But remember, the cars of 1941-47 were heavier than '40 models industry-wide, and the 7.00/15 introduced for '41 solely to lower cars' profiles, despite having a slightly higher load rating than 6.50/16, still left and leave you with less payload margin.

I now run bias ply-sized 7.00/15 Bridgestone LT R230 radials on my '47 Super. Yokohama offers a similar tire of identical specifications, and until the early aughts, so did Michelin. So i've the best of all worlds: historically correct bias ply-sized blackwalls with all the advantages of radials. What amazed me was the first time i put on the brakes coming off the freeway in town traffic,
the car stopped faster with radials, too.

These LT radials will take pressures up to 60 or more lbs.
depending on vehicle weight, but most of us running such sneakers on '40s Packards and Cadillacs have found 42 psi a good figure. I run 44, but that's just me. Right smooth,
velvety ride, the single best thing you can do for an old car after overdrive and a prelube device for full oil pressure after the car's been sitting.

In fairness, few of us here gathered really remember the very best quality bias plies in the day. I'm told these were vastly better than the crappy old car hobby bias plies people in third world nations wouldn't buy but old car cuckoos, as the late Jean Shepherd called us and himself, will gladly cough up obscene amounts of money for so long as they're plastered with wide whitewalls, which most people considered tacky on high end road cars originally.

As with batteries, i'm interested strictly in the car, what Packard built, and giving it every edge possible while keeping it stock--- just well-tuned, maintained, if tweaked, only per an obscure Packard Service Counselor issued to dealers.

Regardless of tires or pressure, the hard truth is that most old cars today are cosmetically restored worn out bombs with rebuilt engines, because everyone likes rebuilding engines, while overlooking all the other grueling, arcane but vital bits.

The proceeding are but my personal experience, and i bow as always to Drs. Cole and t'others, who work and have worked on myriad old cars, Packards among them, over the decades.

Deacon Weeks. If you got good service from an Optima, why not buy another? That's all everyone in my circle use, Cords, 54-year-old Ferraris among them. The Optima in my '47 Super is eight (8) years old and as good as new. 800 cold cranking amps. Weighs only 12 or so lbs. vs. 56 lbs. for the 800 cold cranking amp heavy duty 3EH i once used, or 38-40 for the standard EE (if memory serves) wet cell. No off-gassing, no terminal corrosion. Weight's the enemy in any car.
Some might have a fetish for original batteries. I don't. I'm strictly interested in the car. Batteries, tires, fan belts, motor oil weren't made by Packard.
You couldn't pay me to use one of those heavy wet cell batteries again. Packards are nose heavy enough as 'tis.

If you're concerned about "keeping up appearances," there are plastic cases styled like traditional wet batteries into which you can slip the Optima. But if you skip this artifice, you can use the rest of your long battery tray as a convenient place to put tools, etc. when you're working in the engine bay. G'luck.

!

Took the car out Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, reasoning the smurfs'd be hungover, our horrendous Bay Area traffic lighter than the usual hell. Wonder of wonders, no belt noise. All i did was rub the sides of the belt with a wet bar of soap. 34 miles, and so far, to quote that wonderful 1934 Peter Helck Twelve ad, "Hush."

Thanks again, gentlemen.

Thank you, Monsignor Cole. As is, there's p l e n t y of deflection in my fanbelt. I don't want to strain the water pump and generator bearings, and as stout as all these 356-compatible belts are, imagine they have to be exceedingly loose to slip. But if all else fails, i'll play around with the tension, too.

Here's a wee factoid for the rest of you 356ers. The original Packard part # fanbelt is one and the same as the old smooth (not cogged) Gates 676, with dimensions 52 1/2 inches x 1 1/16" x 44 degrees. The NOS smooth Gates 665 i
have and may install IF i can't get this Gates "Green Stripe" cogged belt to hush, is the same width and degree angle as the Gates 676, just 1 1/2 inches (51") shorter,
which will of course adjust away with the generator bracket.

Will do next time i fire up the dragon, release the Kraken.
But you'd think these water pump pulleys are identical, and all fit with the same snugness against the water pump hub,
especially with all four bolts tightened.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, gentlemen. The spare water pump pulley is identical to the chipped one i removed other than it's gleaming new smooth paint, so everything
remains aligned as before. Again, as the cogged underbelly of the Gates "Green Stripe" belt doesn't contact the trough (bottom) of either generator or water pump pulleys, only their veed sides according to Hoyle, i
can't divine this #!*&@!# noise.

Thank you , college of cardinals. Now all that remains is to figure out w h y i'm getting belt noise when using this same Gates "Green Stripe" cogged belt for years before i never heard a sound. As above, i replaced my chipped water pump pulley merely as it had a small chip, a cosmetic flaw only, with another 356 water pump pulley i already had on hand, tho' virgin. Before installing the pristine water pump pulley, i sanded and sprayed it black, several coats, including inside the vee, which a wise auld car friend says was a mistake, i should've left the inside of the vee unpainted.

Can't imagine just having new paint on the replacement pulley vee would cause the new noise, but what else could it be?
Again, i baked it in the oven as i do all small parts, so the finish is nearly as tenacious, durable as powdercoating.

Can smooth, slick paint in the vee account for the noise?

Have any of you noted cogged or smooth belts being quieter? I wouldn't think it'd matter since none of the various 356 fanbelts mentioned above contact the trough of the water pump and generator pulleys.

Welcome any insight before i hassle trying my spare NOS Gates 665 smooth belt, getting the adjustment just right.
Too tight is murder on water pump and generator bearings,
but neither do i want either belt slipping.