125 mph around I-285 in Atlanta is just keeping up with the minivans. It's great when a plan finally comes together!!!

I too want to say this is the best Packard site out there. My brake switch went out last weekend and I went to Autozone and Advanced last night trying to find it. No luck. It is a very common switch and I knew they had to have it, they just couldn't find it. If it doesn't just pop up on the computer they can't help you. Came home pissed off, jumped on this site, went to the parts ref page, F4805, took that number back and they pulled it of the shelf. This site is a phenomenal reference.

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I had this nagging question many years ago, as my '37 115C called for an SAE 160 in the diff. Having spent many years in fuels labs for the military & private companies, this bugged me that I couldn't find the specs for this oil. So I called SAE. They put me in touch with Janet Jedlicka, the archivist, and she found and sent me the 1929 specs for SAE 160. SAE 160 back then was a summer lube with a viscosity range of 160-170 SUS (Saybolt universal seconds) at 210 deg F. Comparing that to modern oils, it falls right into the lower range of modern SAE 90 oils. Yes, SAE has changed their Specifications. So I called The Gleason Works and spoke with Herman Stadtfeldt, the vice president for research and development. I'll try to post his letter here, but Gleason made the machines that made the hypoid gears for Packard and I figgered they'd probably know what lube is needed in these gears.

(paraphrasing:)

Dear Mr. Carlson:

Thank you for inquiring about the Packard hypoid gear. In fact, The Gleason Works is a machine tool manufacturer for gear machines. All the different Packard hypoid gear sets were manufactured on Gleason machinery. Gleason employed an army of application engineers who provided the development of the individual gear set with respect to size and ratio as a service to its machine tool customers.

The lubricants were manufactured by Shell and other mineral oil companies but were sold like original equipment under the vehicle manufacturer brand. The optimal oil specification with respect to additives and viscosity were determined by the vehicle manufacturer and mineral oil companies using test rigs where they ran the axle drives for many months. The viscosity was and still is the most important factor. The attention was paid to the right additives. Hypoid sets tend to score because of the sliding velocities. To prevent the scoring, a highly toxic "lead soup, active sulfur" type was used to enhance the scoring properties of mineral oil. Today, the use of these lubricants is prohibited by law.

The interesting thing is, that you can use any of today's off-the -shelf hypoid oils (like Castrol Hypoy C Gear Oil (SAE 80W-90) to replace the axle lubricant in your vintage car and still have a better operating axle than the early oil with the special ingredients. The specification of the average axle lubricant between the thirties and the fifties is SAE 90 (MIL-0-2105).

I think that was just the distinction between the 6 and the 8 cyl. Wish I had a super, I'd love to see what the motor feels like. Had a guy in the Atlanta club tell me "you really f---'d up not buying a super, you don't have a full classic". Well, sorry. Next time I find a car in a barn I'll call first to see if you approve.

I'll check again, but don't recall this zerk.

Thanks, No, not a super, just a deluxe.

Man what a difference that cleaning made. My old grease doesn't even look like grease. It looks like some kind of geologic formation. And the first owner had the entire undercarriage sprayed with this very thick sticky waxy material. It definitely sealed the car, there isn't a speck of rust, but what a mess to have to do any work under there. It gets in your hair, and clothes and does not want to come out.

Thanks I appreciate the info.

All shined up & ready to cruise!

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Did my yearly maintenance this weekend.

First off, thanks to whoever had the post about checking the shock oil. Mine were both bone dry, filled them as described and the change is amazing.

Greased every single zerk according to the Shell lube chart, everything under there is coated with so much ancient grease, you can't even see what it is you're pumping grease into. I hesitate to clean all that mung off. I drives me nuts, but does it make any sense to just leave it be?

There is a spring-loaded flapper on the exhaust manifold. It moves freely, but what's the point of this?

I want to drop the oil pan, I guess I'll have to jack the engine up to get at the bolts behind the cross-arm? Every bolt on the pan was loose. Do you guys loc-tite these?

The Shell chart mentions an oil filter. Does one exist? Is there a strainer anywhere in the system?

Thanks,

Keith

Of all the colors in God's spectrum, what would make someone choose "vomit"?