10-8-17

Had a wonderful ride in the car yesterday with my wife. The car was running great and the oil pressure is still fine (haven't investigated the oil sender for the idoit light yet). We were cruising around 35mph and I noticed the speedometer needle wasn't a little bouncy like it usually is. I turn to my wife and say "hey, look, the speedometer is reading smooth now!". I was on cloud nine..for about 20 seconds. Glanced down at the speedo again and...the needle was at 0! I haven't dug into it yet but apparently I broke another speedo cable. I chalked the first one up to possibly old age, but with a second one out, I guess there is something wrong with my speedo. Another project on the list. Probably won't get to it until next season though. I have too many other non-Packard projects to work on right now. Oh well!

I watched this video series from a '47 which has all of the same steps that I needed to remove the pan from my '52. Hope this helpshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uyrBl3oq0I

Thanks JW, I already have the T fitting in place. I am using the manual gauge that came with the car, but I had removed previously because I didn't like the look of it in the car. I'll have to find a new idiot light sender unit to replace my faulty one.

ptv That's a good point. I have one on my spare engine. I'll have to price them out. If cheap I'll buy a new one otherwise I will remove it from the '51.

OK so I tried to pump oil into the oil sender hole and got 10-15 squirts in before oil started to stream out of the hole. I put my T fitting on the sender and screwed it into the engine block. Then I put a few more oil squirts in the T until oil came out. Last I added the old oil line to the aftermarket oil pressure gauge.

Fired the car up and the oil light is still on, but the gauge is reading 40! That was great to see! I guess I will need a new oil pressure sending unit. I don't want to stare at an oil light while driving the car even though I know I have pressure.

For now the aftermarket gauge cluster (just oil pressure and AMPS which is useless for my application) is laying in the hole the kick panel would be just to keep it out of the way until I decide where to mount it.

Thanks for everyone's help on this!

Thanks JW, I bought a T fitting to add the oil pressure gauge to the idiot light. How did you pump oil into the hole? I have a funnel that I was going to attach a hose to, but I'm not sure if that is enough to prime the pump?

Thanks Howard, I guess putting the pressure gauge back on will be the next project. I actually have an exhaust pipe expander, but it is frozen from lack of use I guess. Maybe I'll soak it in PB plaster and see what happens for future use.

I was finally able to get everything put back together. I bought a 18" 2" extension pipe with a flair to attach to the existing pipe.

I managed to cut off the end of the pipe with the extra pipe attached (of course half way through the pipe, the extra pipe broke free!) using my cut off wheel in the grinder and a flush saw in my multi-tool.

Once I got the end cut off it was supposed to be a simple matter of putting the flared end over the pipe....nope! It wasn't big enough! I was just about ready to throw the pipe when I decided to try the 2" side and low and behold it slid inside! I guess this whole time I could have just used a 2" extension pipe inside the old pipe instead of trying to put a pipe over it!

Got all the pipes clamped up and lowered the car. Filled the engine with 6 quarts of oil (still showed low and the oil filter wasn't even filled yet). She started right up, and was quieter than before. Still a roar from the front when I revved it up. I wonder if an oil bath air cleaner would make it more quiet.

Anyway the oil light was still on and stayed on even with me revving the engine a lot. I hope I wasn't supposed to prime the oil pump or something. I didn't remove it, just took the pick up off.

Howard mentioned adding an oil pressure gauge. The car came with a 3 gauge set, but I pulled it out because I didn't like the look. Maybe I could add it under the hood until I get it sorted out. Can I add it and still have the idiot light work? Maybe a T fitting? I'm hoping the pressure sender is just going bad.

Yes this has been so much fun! JW thanks for your suggestion. I would just buy a new exhaust but the thought was I have a decent one sitting on my scrap pile so I would just zip it on the car thinking it would be a quick upgrade. So much for that!

So I've been thinking and I guess the next thing to do is to cut off the doubled up pipe and put a 2" coupler on there. Then I'm wondering if the adapter that is going into the muffler is not going in far enough and maybe putting an extension pipe on the coupler will put enough pipe in the muffler to make it seal. I guess I'll have to look at it again when I feel like crawling under the car.

Well now I'm thinking I should have left well enough alone. Finally got the pipe cut. Rest of the exhaust came out easily because the bend that goes over the axle was so rotten on top that I was able to tear it apart easily.

Went to put the other exhaust in and hit a snag. I couldn't get it twisted and turned into place because of all of the bends in the pipe. I ended up cutting it in 2 places. Where I cut the pipe by the muffler, part of the muffler pipe was left and would not come off. I figured I would get an adapter to go over it and reduce it back to 2".

Went to the auto store and bought 2 2" exhaust couplers and a 2" to 2-1/8" and a 2" to 2-1/4" exhaust pipe adapter. Got home and tried the adapters...no good! The 2-1/8" was too small and the 2-1/4" would not go on even with some hammer persuasion.

Back to the store and the only other adapter option was 2" to 2-1/2". I tried that and it was really loose! Managed to get the clamp tight enough to hold it on, but I doubt it is going to keep the car quiet. Then to make matters worse, I went to tighten a clamp on the muffler side and it is too loose too! That one had a 2" pipe that I was able to remove.

That was enough today. Frustration really kicking in!