I have not heard that before. I stay away from the silicone because of an extremely bad experience many years ago, and only use Dot-3 or Dot-4 in every car since.

Thanks guys -- it turned out to be a blown fuse of the two on the headlight switch. I noticed it as I was under the dash a little while ago and now my brake lights work fine and I have cancelled my appointment at the euthanasia clinic.....this always happens right before our drive to Cape Cod every September.

I was driving my '47 Super 8 home the other day after getting the engine rebuilt, and I noticed at one point that my brake lights were not operating. This happened several years ago on a cruise and a friend replaced the brake light switch in the parking lot of the hotel -- easy. This time around I did it in my garage, using the spare I had bought after we got home from our vacation and this one failed also. Could this be another bad switch or is there a fuse somewhere that I don't know about? Also, the bleeder screws are absolutely welded shut and I've soaked them with PB Blaster to try and turn them to bleed the system, even thought I was careful not to introduce any air into the master cylinder while reinstalling the new switch and I do have brake pressure with no soft pedal. Am wondering if there is an unfortunate air bubble that is preventing the switch from activating, but I have never had this issue with any other car after a swap-out of this switch. Any ideas?

The plastic tubing on my '47 Custom was also in bad shape and most of it was missing on the pulls, so I went to the local pet store and bought some aquarium tubing to fix it. The passenger side wasn't too bad so I started with the driver's door -- the last time I was making a hard turn and cut the stuffings out of my knuckle in the process, so I knew it was time. Easy! Once I got the hang of it the job went extremely quickly, so I ended up doing the three other doors that afternoon. Very pleased with the results too, and they look so much better now. As I was wrapping the line I kept a good tension on it so that the tubing would flatten out and look stock in its appearance, then stuck each end under the bracket and tightened the screw to lock it into place. Screwed the door frame panel back into the door and each one has stayed put since I did them last summer.

It doesn't look correct to me, or at least not the same kind of material that came from the factory.

After some further investigations and a very strong suspicion about this car, I came to the conclusion that it is very likely a rather infamous '38 Packard from Central Florida that I was warned about several years ago. There was one photo of the dash that gave it away and I remembered a small spot on a glove box door that leads me to believe that this is the same '38 Super 8 that had a bad history of deferred maintenance and a rash of other rather expensive problems. I am not only walking away from this deal, but am not even walking towards it any longer so it looks like I'll be staring at the road through the windshield of my current Packard for the time being. Thank you all again for your responses.

Auggie

Thanks for all the advice, gentlemen. What I probably need to do is fly out to see the car in person, and then do an assessment. The seller did send me a video of driving in a parking lot but I need a slightly longer clip to see the car perform in all of the gears -- there's a strange noise coming from the transmission while in first gear that does not sound like the typical "whine" and it's a little worrying. Facing a possible engine and/or transmission rebuild is not what I want to sign up for the first time I back it out of my garage.

I am looking to purchase a '38 Super Eight sedan and have a question or two. I know it's a fairly different animal than my '47 Super Eight, engine-wise, but are there any specific things that I should be aware of? Someone told me years ago that engine blocks and/or heads can be delicate and are prone to cracking, along with rear ends that tend to be geared too low for modern driving (my current Packard has overdrive and can cruise all day at 70 with ease). I've always loved the styling of this year and am seriously considering putting one in my garage after many years of looking. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Auggie

Well, I connected and re-tightened the screws on the lockout switch on the cable just above my right knee today but I did notice that the knob and shaft were a bit loose, so I adjusted the switch slightly with an open-ended wrench for good measure. Took a look at the governor and all connections were torqued down nicely, so I went for a drive and whoosh! When I got up to 30 miles an hour I pushed the bakelight knob all the way in and the light came on, then I let up on the throttle and I was finally in Overdrive (and ecstasy). Seems like the problem is solved but I'm sure as hell not taking the car back out until we drive down Cape Cod in two weeks! If it happens again I guess I will gently jiggle the overdrive lockout shaft until it reactivates, but will keep my fingers crossed and hold my St. Christopher medal to my chest until we get to our destination three hours away. Thanks again for your guidance!

Well, I checked all the connections under the hood again -- tripping the relay box by hand did result in the main solenoid clicking, so at least there is power to the main control. Looking at the switch on the overdrive cable, the two wires were not that tight so I reconnected them and tightened down the screws, but not before touching one of them to the cable itself (the green finally came on). I didn't have time to check the solenoid connection or the governor but I imagine the problem lies in that part of the electrical equation. Now I just need an engineering degree and a stiff drink to figure out the rest...