Quote:


The plugs are Champion, and there's no "R" in the part number, so I know that they are not resistor plugs. I also have a spare box of Autolites, that I will have to check and see what they are.

Jeff

Quote:


On your cam, you can see some minor scoring where the rubbing block rides. Mine is significantly worse. My scoring is quite deep, I'd say 3 to 5 times more than what's on your cam, and it's definitely taken some meat off the edges of the lobes.

I'm going to give the system a try with the solid wires and see what happens. My father is an electronics guy, so he may be able to whip up a filter that I can add to help combat the electrical noise from the wires. If it doesn't run right, I'll have to put the points back in or get a set of modern plug wires. Either way, it's $80 to $90 out of my pocket, since it was my idea to go with the Petronix.


Jeff

Quote:

The piece with the 8 bumps that opens and closes the points is worn down. The edges are rounded off a bit where the rubbing block for the points rides. I would have to guess that it wasn't lubricated often enough. As far as I know, this isn't uncommon with points type distributors. With a worn down cam, you loose your point gap as you try to get the proper dwell setting. If the gap isn't large enough, it can burn the points because it won't be able to break the arc.

The rest of the distributor is in great shape. No slop in the bushings, the mechanical and vacuum advances work fine. It has a nifty little device on the side that you fill with grease, then turn the knob every so often to add new grease to the bushings.

The service manual says that the car should have an Autolite, but it has a Delco, so I don't know if it's the original or not. I do know that manuals aren't always gospel on mass produced items, and parts get substituted often when they run out of the right ones on the assembly line.


Jeff

Quote:


Do you have resistor wires or resistor plugs on the car? I just checked the wires that I bought from Kanter, and they are definitely solid copper wires. My car has the tiny 10mm plugs, so those are non-resistor also.


Jeff

Quote:


You're just a wee bit off on your guess.


Here's a better picture.

Attach file:

---

  (42.38 KB)

When I compose the longer posts for my resto blog, I type them up on Microsoft Word, then copy and paste them to the forum to avoid issues with the timer. If you don't have Microsoft Word, you can use your email program to do it.

Jeff

That's pretty impressive fuel mileage. It would even be a few MPGs better if you could buy real fuel instead of the corn swill that they sell these days.

Considering how bad your trans looked inside, it's truly amazing that it works at all.


Jeff

My thinking was that it's finally time for the fun part of the project: putting the car back together, but the fun was short lived. One of the first orders of business was to bend up some new hydraulic lines, and I hate bending lines! Dell suggested using flexible plastic lines, and I will recommend that to the owner for when the time comes to finish the job. There's a big mess of lines under the back seat that will need to be replaced. I just did the engine compartment, and the lines that run behind the firewall pad. Once that unpleasantness was out of the way, it was time to install a nice new wiring harnesses that the owner bought from Rhode Island Wiring. They did a very nice job making up the harnesses. There were only a few minor fitment issues that I plan to tell them about, so that they can make some improvements for the next 22nd series owner who needs new wiring. Attaching all the components to the firewall was basic nuts and bolts work. I installed stainless screws in the holes that the factory had plugged with wads of dum-dum. These holes would normally be for the upper row of firewall pad retaining pins, but due to the hydraulic lines being in the way, the pad sits too far out to install the pins. I used a bit of artistic license on the voltage regulator and overdrive relay: orange for Autolite and dark blue for Delco. The colors show much brighter in the pictures than in person, but I may have to redo the regulator in black or gray. I'll see how things look when the hood is on. I was just trying to add a little visual interest to an otherwise mostly black engine bay.

A big milestone was getting the dash back together and installed in the car. That went fairly smooth, though it's a tight fit to get it past the windlace. Also, I found that it's best not to install the wiper control until after the dash is in place. I bought a roll of anti-squeak padding from Dennis Carpenter to replace the ratty old stuff. It's a bit narrower than what Packard used, but worked out fine.

With the dash in place, I could feed the engine bay wiring through the firewall and get it hooked up. I replaced the original metal and cardboard terminal block with a modern plastic one made for semi-trailers. It has a fourth terminal that can be used for fog lamps if the owner desires to install them. I had an extra instrument lamp switch that I installed in the fog lamp position. To add fog lamps, wires will only need to be run from the terminal block to the lamps. One of the upper bumper halves was off of a car with fog lamps, so it has the mounting hole drilled in it.

Next to go on were the hood latches and control rods. The springs on the latches were quite challenging to install, though I did manage to come up with a decent technique to get them in place.

The steering column was also harder to get in than expected. I installed it in the car piece by piece, but I think it would have been better to assemble it first, then put it in. It's a real tight fit to get the long column tube through the upper jacket. The paint that I had applied to the tube got all scratched up from sliding it through. I tried to polish out the scratches, and ended up turning the satin black paint to gloss black.
The last thing to go on was the front lights and related wiring. Somehow, I managed to misplace most of the screws for the parking lamp bezels. Hopefully they will turn up soon, or I'll have to buy new ones.

It's finally looking like I'm making some real progress. One would think that it won't be long before the engine is ready to go back in.



October 2013. Packard starts to go back together.

Attach file:

---

  (77.42 KB)


  (85.34 KB)


  (78.29 KB)


  (106.91 KB)


  (80.08 KB)


  (100.56 KB)


  (90.29 KB)


  (85.36 KB)


  (91.30 KB)


  (88.80 KB)


  (102.63 KB)


  (77.04 KB)


  (54.79 KB)


  (83.69 KB)


  (83.46 KB)


  (82.16 KB)


  (77.02 KB)


  (72.63 KB)


  (93.27 KB)


  (101.75 KB)


  (99.49 KB)


  (78.31 KB)


  (92.37 KB)


  (64.76 KB)


  (71.52 KB)


  (95.33 KB)


  (89.31 KB)

Before you open up your new can of Plasti-Dip, look around for anything that could use a coating of rubber on it. Once the contents are exposed to air, it has a very short shelf life. Old tools that need new cushions on the handles are good candidates to use up left over material.

The 22nd series cars have plenty of clamps to dip in the rubber. I managed to save about half of mine. The rest were too rusted to mess with. Soaking them in lacquer thinner makes it real easy to remove the old rubber.

Jeff

Attach file:

---

  (68.56 KB)

I'm really happy that this thread just got resurrected, as I installed a Petronix kit in the '48 Custom 8. Problems with the overdrive circuit and solid wires never entered my mind. I decided to switch to electronic ignition because the cam in the distributor was worn to the point where I would never be able to get the proper dwell out of it. Now I'm hoping that the wire set that I got from Kanter isn't solid core wires.


To find out if they have a kit for your car, you need the part number off of the distributor.

http://www.pertronix.com/support/ignitor-kit/default.aspx


Jeff