Hi Lee,

Sounds like these guys are right on to it. When you wet your whistle, the breather gives out. Looks like the tank has to come out.

I wish my '52 had a whistle!

BTW, I stumbled across the whistle on page 19 of the 1949 Owners Manual herehttps://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/49_OwnersManual.pdf

Cheers,
Jeff

Hi Jim,

I'm the Aussi guy with the '52 valve stem problems (ie rotating full rim hub caps wearing into the rubber valve stem). New stems are the go from my point of view.
I have tried brass stems and found them to stop the rotation one wheel but not another (as soon as the hub cap put any force on the valve stem it just leaked) my tire guy tried fixing it without success.
My final solution was to have standard rubber stems on all the wheels but I use Permatex Black Silicone Adhesive Sealant in 3 places around the hub cap to bond it to the wheel rim (standard silicone sealant just shears). It works like a treat and I placed it where I us a tire lever to remove the hub cap just to break the bond.

Cheers, Jeff

I've had this happen to me. I checked everything a number of times. Just a few drops of oil in each cyl bought my compression back.