Thanks for the lead!

Where can I find a front seat coil spring for my 1940 Packard 120?

This is great advice! I am constantly learning more about how this car i am restoring used to be.

Tim

This is great news! I am sorry to get back so late. I have been dealing with the death of my Mom.
From the pictures I see an awesome kit one can install. did you do this for your car? Do you know where I can find a kit like this...or at least what parts I need to put one together?

Thanks for all your help!

Tim

Yes it appears to be. I have verified the motor is electrical and it is consistent with the shop manual, the wiper washers are still a mystery. More disassembly of the rats nest under the dash is in order.

Tim

Does anyone know how the washers for the electric motor wipers worked? I assume they used manifold vacuum, but I cannot fine any documentation on it.

Tim

Hello Ross,

I am back at trying to start my 1951 300. I watched your video and found it useful. Especially the way you set the timing. I have always used a timing light. I did everything you showed and I used starting fluid to make sure I would not flood the engine. I even took off the front lifter cover to insure my compression stroke had both intake and exhaust valves closed. I do not even get a pop or back fire.

I am now wondering if I have a bad coil or condenser. Anyone's thoughts?

Tim

Again Dave thank you for helping me. To answer your questions:
I have confirmed that gas is getting to the cylinders. Today I took all the plugs out and saw some where soaked with gas. I would say the gas is fresh. Here in Oregon I only use non-ethanol and it is not very old. It doesn't have a turpentine smell at all.

The car was sitting my garage several months and I tried to start it in November. It would not start so after some troubleshooting, I found the fuel pump had gone bad. I ordered a new one from Max Merritt, cleaned all the lines, drained and flushed the tank and she fired right up.
However, that is when I noticed the back of the cylinder head was cracked. So I drover her to my 60x50 workshop, (barn conversion) to begin the teardown. This was in early February. So with all of this Covid-19 insanity, I was unable to get the head back from the machine shop for 3 1/2 months. "Commercial" work to precedence.

To answer your question...yes I am trying to start the engine without the timing cover on and damper removed, only so that I am not wasting time with assembly and disassembly and of course, as soon as it would fire up I would shut her down and clean up all the oil. That is another thing. With all the cranking, I see the oil pump doing its job by pumping some out to the timing chain.

One other thing, I did check the dwell and point gap. there were 27 degrees and .017 as the manual requires.

What should I do now? Should I inspect the tappets and locate the compression stroke for #1 cylinder?

Tim

Hello Dave,

No luck.....

I double checked the firing order and it is good.

I do get spark while cranking. All plugs light up.

I am getting good vacuum pull when I put my hand over the carb. while the engine is cranking.

I filled the carburetor bowl with gas and even pour some down the choke opening.

at TDC where I get the engine where #1 is on the compression stroke I notice the crank and cam "O" do not line up, but you said that is should not matter. At TDC, or close to it, the distributor rotor is pointing to #1 terminal.

I have seen gas getting to the cylinders. I took all the plugs out to spin the engine to see if I was getting a strong spark.
Could all of my hydraulic lifters collapsed? Do I need to take this cylinder head off again?

I could pull off the tappet cover and crank the engine around to see when both #1 intake and exhaust tappets can be spun. This will let me also know if at least half of them are working or not.

Arg!

Tim

Thanks Dave,

I will double check the firing order and make sure fuel is being delivered. I did at one point have all the wires connected to the plugs as they were sitting on top of the cylinder head and they were all snapping very well. It is hard to believe the firing order would change since all the wires in their harness have a specific length and location. Here in Oregon we can buy non-ethanol gas that is what I only use. I also will will fill the carb from the top by removing the 2 screw cover plate over the metering rods.
I am considering also having the wife crank the engine to see of there is sufficient vacuum pull at the carb.
I will let you know tomorrow of what I find.

Tim