I've used Harnesses Unlimited for my '40 120 ages ago. They're wonderful people, go the extra mile, good quality.
For some reason, i used Potomac Packard's harness in my '47 Super Clipper. When i bought from them, they were in VA, just outside Washington, DC. Just checked online and they're in Georgia. 1 (706) 782-2345
I was happy with both of them.

And beware of the usual "jiffy kits" commonly sold these days, which are incomplete.

Caramba, so much for recalling something you only do once in a blue moon from memory. Checked my 1946-50 Packard Service Manual, Section VI, "Chassis," 1st edition, September, 1949:

"1. Brake Adjustment-Minor
(p.15) E. Back off the adjusting screw 16 clicks on all wheels.

2. Brake Adjustment-Major
(p.17) J. Again tighten the brake by means of the star wheel adjustment until the wheel is just locked, then loosen the adjustment 16 clicks: this procedure will provide proper lining clearance."


So now i'm wondering where i got eight clicks from, perhaps the '40 120 i owned long, long ago.

Dr. Earl -- At work, and haven't got the 1946-50 Packard Shop Manual in front of me, but i'll bet the farm it says eight (8) clicks. I've also seen that figure in supplemental Packard charts for those years.

Chad, Owen and Gene are absolutely right above. If modern cars had temperature gauges instead of the idiot lights introduced by Hudson in 1934, lotta people'd have a rude awakening. Also, modern cars have a recovery system old cars lacked. Be careful you get the right-fitting fanbelt, but don't overtighten, because it's murder on your water pump. Remember, since you're in sunny SoCal, run nothing but water and a quality rust/corrosion inhibitor, NO antifreeze, because water dissipates heat vastly better.

As a belt and suspenders hedge against getting caught in hellacious greater Bay Area traffic during a summer exercise run, i installed a nearly invisible Scott's auxilliary electric cooling fan. I've never had to use it.

You didn't mention whether your engine is overhauled, rebuilt, or largely original condition, but it never hurts to fast idle your engine while a garden hose fills the radiator at the same speed your rear block drain allows it to exit, if you can balance in and outflow while reaming the rear of the block with a length of welding rod.

We used to clean cooling systems with a quart or so of kerosene and two or three pounds of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda). Go for a 20 mile drive, drain the cooling system, flush with fresh water, maybe drive again, redrain, then fill with soft water and a product like www.norosion.com

Owned a 120 many years. Ran per the Packard owner's manual, as does my '47 356.

All the posters' advice above mighty fine. One thing for sure, Packards are not innately hot-running cars like 1936-37 Cords or Jag-ue-weres!

Chad, excellent advice above from all, and i second the Wizard's above invitation to list your lovely "new" car on the Owners' Registry. It took the Depression irritated oyster of Packard's nonpareil engineering and quality, and some GM production men, to produce the pearl, the cognac that was and is the One Twenty, arguably the finest prewar road car from either side of the Atlantic.

As mentioned, the British hp tax encouraged small bore, long stroke engines, just as well given most Britain's roads in those days before the M5, hence the One Twenty's "33.8 hp" overseas rating. One Twenties were popular in England, because of their more rational size, economy, roadability.

Many owners of '30s senior Packards, Twelves, Super Eights, prefer to drive their One Twenties.

The model designation refers to the 1935-37 models' 120-inch wheelbase. Horsepower for the debut year was 110 hp, that year's engine displacing 257-ci, same bore/stroke as the concurrent Oldsmobile, which was used in the 1934-36 LaSalle, which the One Twenty handily outsold, as well as Lincoln's new Zephyr, introduced '36, and all others in its price class. For 1936, the engine was stroked to 282-ci, in which size it ran through the final 1947 junior Clippers.

Each year, the Packard One Twenty or its later Clipper counterpart was rated Best Buy in its price class by Consumers Reports.

Since you live in warm Santa Clarita, my only suggestion after following the above gentlemen's' advisos would be to use nothing, nothing but soft water---never distilled, which is ion-hungry and leaches minerals from your cooling system, the last thing you want--- and a quality rust and corrosion inhibitor. At the risk of boosterism, i heartily recommend www.norosion.com since i and my circle, which includes troublesome Cords, have used nothing but since the mid-'90s. It's also economical as it protects for five years, though you can check your coolant anytime with litmus paper.

Owned a '40 One-Twenty many years. They're husky, dependable, wonderfully engineered, smooth cars, "climb hills like a goat," as the late Bob Turnquist told me not long after i bought mine back in 1974. Your '37 has a more traditionally bespoke look than the later 120s, and being on the shorter 120-inch wb, which Packard brought back for the 1942-47 junior Clippers, is more nimble, as good in town as country. If you want your chest to swell even more, just park next to a 1946-on Silver Dawn or R-Type on the same 120-inch wheelbase and see which is snappier as well as more elegant.

Nice going. Keep 'em flying, and please post it on the Owners' Registry.

Packard8, if the above's true, the only reason for Packard tooling the otherwise same engine for nine main bearings, then that really underscores how out of touch East Grand Avenue's non-leaders were. You get the feeling Packard's management was surrounded by sycophants more concerned with preserving their pensions than suggesting cutting edge automobiles. Spending money on superfluous inner circle nonsense like the above ranks with spending as much on bloating the svelte 1941-47 Clipper as it would've cost to design a wholly new car. Or not retaining and "sweetening" the Clipper as John Reinhart and others urged. It was good enough for R-R/Bentley to use 1956-65, albeit razor-edged and with a curved, one-piece windshield, as the Silver Cloud/S-Type.

Am sure this'll rankle many, but the company that wasted time and money on Elmer Fuddite moves like the above deserved to die. In fact, it's surprising they survived as long as they did. But Packard was one of only two domestic automakers to come out of WWII profitable, and that strong cash position allowed them to coast on their reputation 'til the inevitable end.

Archbishop O'Toole-- oh, um, pardon me, JW --- formal salutations just come naturally on such an ecclesiastical site as PackardInfo.com ----

---i mean Dr. O'Toole, couldn't agree with you more about Packard's advertising, compared with GM (& others) being "lame." Packard's early ads are fine, as are their theme ads throughout the '20s. The early '30s, at least through '34, had such gems as Peter Helck's impressive "Hush" for the '33 Twelve.

But from the late '30s on, Packard's ads, including those for the seniors, became increasingly more bush league, trying too hard. I agree with Drs. Cole, 55Guy, and others above. Some of the 1940 ads are embarrassing, downright corny, trying too hard to reach Mr. and Mrs. Mainstreet, like a silver spoon politician campaigning in a pair of new Levis.

And the bathtub ad headed "The Wizard of Ahs." Really?
Ugh. Gag me with a spoon. I'm sure. Grody to the max.

Sad. The cars deserved better, at least 'til the bathtubs and '50s also-rans.

Does anyone have, CAN anyone find, assuming any survive, any of the ads Bob & Ray did for the Boston area Packard dealers, one of their sponsors, circa 1948, when they were on WHDH? If not as irreverent as Henry Morgan, Bob & Ray were not above playing sound effects and inserting comedy voices, sighs, during commercials, as they did later on WOR in NYC in the early, mid-'70s.

We can only hope Ray Goulding's character, Calvin Hoogavin, commented, during the bathtub years, on "....the new Deluxe Eight...the new Custom DeLuxe Super Duper Eight,"
and so on.

Ray Goulding died way too young in 1990, but Bob Elliott is still around, and some of you may've seen his comedian son, Chris Elliott on various tv shows, and his granddaughter Abby Elliott on Saturday Night Live. In fact, all three generations performed on SNL.

Meanwhile, trust Cardina--- ooops, um, Mr. JW will forgive
this wee comic divergence as it pertains to Packards.

Respectfully,

The Defrocked Su8overdrive

Never met Ed Cunningham, but read one of his reminiscences of a practical joke played on a fellow Packard employee in a CCCA quarterly years ago. Didn't realize he was allied at one point with S.H. "Wacky" Arnolt, one of the first importers of sports cars to the US in the '50s, responsible for the Arnolt-MG, Arnolt-Bristol, etc. Ed sounded like an
interesting gentleman, catholic* in his automotive tastes.
Godspeed, Edward J. P. Cunningham.


* be assured, JW, we are using lower-case catholic in
the secular sense above