Have you ever been blamed for something and you were totally innocent? Finally had time to get under car for inspection. Put fluid in master cylinder to see if it would pump pressure into system, it seemed to but pedal would slowly go to floor, filled again and same response. When I looked under car was a medium size puddle of fluid below driver rear wheel. Further probing found where exhaust pipe bottomed against short steel line to wheel cylinder cracking it at the fitting. Need to bleed system and road test after our winter weather is out of here and will update. Believe it or not snow predicted for Louisiana on Sunday. Still will be very skeptical when driving it.

The "1" thing that is forgotten on this post as in many others is the car is "HIS so let"s respect the choices he has made. As I see it he will have a Packard on the road and out of the garage even if he chooses wind power.

"I don't know the specific working pressure for the BTV, but would guess not much more than 1000psi (likely not enough for disc brakes)".


BH

FYI I have had a disc setup on my 56 for app. a year and no problem of BTV not operating the discs properly except when it had a total failure which was no fault if disc brakes system.


Bill

Jack,
Does mean that the A/C comp bracket and acc. drive might be commercially available for the Packard V8? Sure would be nice for those of us that lack the tools for fabrication.
Bill

Fred, you are now hearing from one who just recently experienced it. I had my BTV rebuilt by Ed Strain app 2 years ago, have had no problems with it until about 8 wks ago when I drove my car to a show, everything worked fine all day except on way home went to stop for red light and pedal to floor with no hint of brakes, no sign of fluid anywhere under car but fluid missing from reservoir. Have not removed unit yet to inspect. This car will not move again until I have designed and updated the brake system, I will not give this type of unit another chance at me and my wife who was also in car.

ps: I also have converted to front disc about a year ago and the BTV operated them just fine.

I am also impressed with it's simplicity. I was wondering for those of us that have adapted to front disc brakes could you instead of using a tee to split front and rear from booster could you use an adjustable proportioning valve with line to front using a 2 lb residual valve and the one to rear 10 lbs then you could dial in amount of front to rear braking? Just thinking. Anxiously awaiting test results.

Bill

Just returned from Cruisin the Coast and guess what, met another Packard owner who has experienced total brake failure with no prior warning from the system. His vehicle is a 1956 Executive 4 door with 35,000 miles on it.

Bill

Had a spare moment so I checked fluid level, almost empty, about at top of partition cast into bottom, try to have more whenever I am able to pull it.

Eric,
Thanks for the reply and for being back on here for a go to source. It will probably several weeks before I can tear into car but when I do I will pm you for number. Thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge.

I had planned on doing that but it probably will be a while getting to it. Had planned to take it to Cruisin The Coast next week but will be taking "MODIFIED" Studebaker which has upgraded safety features. When I do pull it off to apply Eric's design then I will post what I find. Eric, I searched web for the F-series recall but was unable to find specific recall for booster reinforcement, any suggestions?
Thanks
Bill