Countdown..

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What 39 Six parts are you seeking?
Pat

Wheelhorse, all,
As Kevin pointed out, the small brass cup and wick allow a lubrication point to the input magnet shaft. It is important to keep this lubed as it gets quite a bit of rotation, thousand RPM at 60 miles an hour.
However, lubricating this point will not correct for a weak magnet or other obstruction keeping the pointer from moving to an accurate speed. Also deeper inside the speedometer, the odometer geartrain also can suffer from old dry lube. Unfortunately the engineers never figured out a good way to provide lube to all those different internal points from the outside of the unit.

Regarding the cable, although graphite will not hurt it, originally, the rotating inner core was given with a thin coat of grease; you don't want to pack it in or pump it in from the bottom. I've repaired many speedometers of which somebody had pumped grease up through the transmission and and all the way into the speedometer making one amazing archaeological dig for me to explore. A little grease is all you need.

I hope this helps, Pat

Wheelhorse, all,
As Kevin pointed out, the small brass cup and wick allow a lubrication point to the input magnet shaft. It is important to keep this lubed as it gets quite a bit of rotation, thousand RPM at 60 miles an hour.
However, lubricating this point will not correct for a weak magnet or other obstruction keeping the pointer from moving to an accurate speed. Also deeper inside the speedometer, the odometer geartrain also can suffer from old dry lube. Unfortunately the engineers never figured out a good way to provide lube to all those different internal points from the outside of the unit.

Regarding the cable, although graphite will not hurt it, originally, the rotating inner core was given with a thin coat of grease; you don't want to pack it in or pump it in from the bottom. I've repaired many speedometers of which somebody had pumped grease up through the transmission and and all the way into the speedometer making one amazing archaeological dig for me to explore. A little grease is all you need.

I hope this helps, Pat

I'll have my speedometer biz space in Chocolate North (but will be scouring the meet for Packard, Hudson and Speedometer parts!)

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It appears the hub of the pointer is within the speedometer, but arm of pointer missing.
If this is an AC unit, the pointer is available (I believe I've got them in stock, unpainted).
Pat

1939 Packard Six owner
Bill's Speedometer Shop

Great progress Kevin. Getting glass done is a great step. Same for woodgraining. That dash is gonna be b-e-a-utiful.

Yep...meant R6. Edit to post made. Thx Howard
Pat

Well, again citing West, you should be able to tell by engine noise, along with the change of engine braking when in OD vs free wheeling before you get into OD. Perhaps find a hill that allows you to reach engagement speeds and disengagement speeds safely, drive up and down to observe the transitions. This can help to amplify the effect.

Regarding means to repair or correct, you'll need to have much more data before concluding you need a replacement system. Your car should have an [edit R9 R6], which has an internal governor, not an external with electrical circuitry to engage the OD (Regarding disengagement, there are two means to get out of OD: either getting to such a low speed the centrifugal governor disables, or, the electrical kickdown in which if you press hard on the gas pedal, a switch drives a solenoid to disable OD). So, for engagement, there isn't much to diagnose except possibly a solenoid that is, for some reason, always energized, preventing OD.

Other than that, if you haven't changed transmission oil or know when it was last done in case the car sat for a long time, that may ultimately be something to try. I have successfully 'woken up' several units whose engagement parts were stuck in old jurassic oil by flushing out the old oil with kerosene and refilling (DO NOT drive with kerosene, however). If you are energetic, there is an access hole in the floor that allows access to a top plug in the OD casting that can be used for flushing (pretty sure this is the same plug that allows access to adjustment of two governor preload springs that control engagement speed).

I realize you believe you are not mechanically savvy, but I still urge you to try to review the service and parts literature. In the meantime, it seems, back to West's point and mine, you can gather more data by making sure you can detect whether the car is still freewheeling or in OD. Get out and play.

West is correct; think of the transition into OD as another gear.

As with any manual gear shift, a shift from one gear to another is smoothest when the driver has perfectly matched the engine output speed with the transmission input corresponding to the vehicle speed. When done perfectly, there is no speed and very little torque difference between the engine output and transmission input. To make it a little more challenging (or fun if you are like me and love to drive manual transmission cars) is that the engine speed isn't constant. It will be slowing from whatever speed it was at before you changed gears; therefore, the challenge is multifaceted. Wonderful things like clutches and synchronizers make this much nicer in a manual transmission.

So, for an overdrive, there is also such a sweet spot, or range. Unlike a transmission, there are no syncros damping the transition. Nor is there a clutch, however, at the moment before OD engagement, the transmission is free wheeling and allows for zero torque in order to complete the OD engagement. The clunk you may hear or actually feel is the sudden coupling of wheels to engine, in which now instead of free wheeling, the engine is slowing the car. You feel the change from just coasting to engine decel.

So, with all that, I have found that cars with different engines, rear end ratios have diffrerent sweet spots. The suggestions I have for you, below can both be summed up as "Get Out and Play!"

•Play with different speeds at which you allow engagement. I expect you find a speed that is almost silent as well as nearly unnoticeable.My experience is that if you wind up the engine and delay allowing it to shift into OD, the degree of sound and rate of decel change is much more.

•Play with letting off the gas pedal gently, Do it across several speeds to get a feel for it. At higher speeds, this will lessen the sound as well as the abrupt change in decel since slowly backing off will allow for OD transition while the engine speed is still higher.
All of the Borg Warner ODs Packard used, the R6, R9 and R11 exhibit this, but are very robust.

Get out and play.