Does you overdrive have any cast markings? Mine is R9A-1, but I think other R9s could offer some suitable parts.

Currently things look promising. There's one suitable main shaft that has been offered as a solution. It would a correct one.

When I can get the old one out, I can of course study, how it could repaired. The machined new spacer sound's like doable solution, yet still challenging.

Thanks for the info! I had found one slightly unreliable source about the splines for (V8 models) and the relation to Ford splines, but I misunderstood it. It was written "diameter of 13/8" which my brain translated to 1-5/8" not 1-3/8".

I suck at imperial fractions...

I reported my transmission issues couple of years ago. My transmission's 2nd gear on the main shaft has half tooth missing and the cluster gear is likely damaged as well. I did some inquiries to find a similar similar working transmission, but eventually I didn't manage to purchase anything.

I have been since looking for parts to revive the old transmission. The transmission has an R9 overdrive, so I would need a I reported my transmission issues couple of years ago. My transmission's 2nd gear on the main shaft has half tooth missing and the cluster gear is likely damaged as well. I did some inquiries to find a similar similar working transmission, but eventually I didn't manage to purchase anything.

I have been since looking for parts to revive the old transmission. The transmission has an R9 overdrive, so I would need a 354956 main shaft assembly, but I haven't been able to find one as a spare part. Max Merritt seems to offer one, but it's annoyingly expensive and my old one wouldn't probably give me the core refund due the broken gear.

But I'm pretty sure that the 2nd gear itself would be the same exact part with a main shaft that would be paired with a similar cluster gear and a synchronizer gear. The documentation says that the 2nd gear cannot be removed, but some shops seem to be refurbishing these. From factory they are pressed in to get some desired preload. So it probably has two (weirdly size?) ball bearings and some kind of locking crush washer that keeps the outer one in place.

So does anyone have any pictures or info how the gear and the ball bearing are assembled in the factory? My transmission is still in the car, as I cannot yet remove it.

I'm pretty sure that I could reattach the bearings with some method, if I just could remove them intact. The donor main shaft doesn't need to stay intact, if there is no other way to remove the gear and the bearings.

My other question is about the clutch splines. Does anyone know what is the Custom Eight's clutch spline? It should be larger than the splines used by other 22nd series models (1-1/8" 10 spline according to some source).

I removed the rear drums from my '48 during the winter. One of them was quite easy to remove but the other was really tight. The weren't torqued very evenly.

When I was putting them back together I noticed what might have caused the problem. In the shaft there was only one hole for the securing pin. The nut had six grooves and its pitch was quite thick. So if I want to tighten the nut so that it remains in contact with facing surface the "tightening intervals" are between ~60 degrees.

How is this supposed to work? Should the nuts have more grooves than mine have? I don't like the idea of reversing the nut to the last groove as this might leave possibility of rust issues in the possibly opening gap.

I did try to shake the gears and noticed that the gears did wobble a bit. I don't know how tight they are in new condition but I guess new bearings should be a lot tighter.

I remembered that my friend took apart some "forest find Packard" years ago. He did save the engine for some hot rod purpose but I don't remember what happened to the transmission. Packards in Finland usually didn't die because of high mileage so something from the drivetrain might be salvageable even with decades in the forest.

flackmaster said something about a rebuilt gearbox. I'll have ask from him.

Today I noticed that the engine doesn't idle as nicely as it did when I picked it up. I already cleaned the fuel pump but didn't yet touch the carburetor. Finnish gasoline might have washed something into a wrong place.

I noticed that timing light doesn't give very stable flashing so I checked the ignition system. All spark plugs were wrong type (seven Y-8 Champions and one UY-6) and gaps were too large. I cleaned the plugs and the distributor cap and got the engine to idle a bit better.

But inside the distributor I noticed another problem. The distributor shaft seems to have quite big amount of play. I could open breaker points by shaking the shaft.

The parts list shows that the distributor has two bushings inside that could be changed (and they seem to be available). Are those common parts to wear with a high mileage car?

Here are pictures of the problems.

[img width="500"]http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qF4VoDWwjho/Ue5cNGOfoMI/AAAAAAAACpU/A_izIC_Y1cY/w958-h433-no/Fork_ends_1.jpg[/img]

[img width="500"]http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H1PEFZMM-Eg/Ue5cNPQs-tI/AAAAAAAACpQ/-ZcgM4n0xVw/w778-h519-no/Broken_tooth_1.jpg[/img]

Is this kind of wear normal for the shifter forks? I have no idea what is the mileage of my car but I suspect that is a lot.

I have been terribly busy with my work, short summer vacation and fixing my Packard. Today I had enough time and courage to check the gearbox. I took the top cover away and thought that I had found the reason for the noises. The 2/3 gear shifting fork had really worn "contact pads". There was a lot of metal missing from the places that are contacting the "dog clutches" when 3rd gear is engaged. Still I couldn't figure out what might be causing the noise.

I rotated the shafts and found the real reason. The upper gear of the 2nd gear was missing half of one tooth. I guess I will need new gearbox.

One spare gear might be cheap way to solve the problem as the other gears were still quite ok. It still requires a lot of work and the end results won't be a very reliable gearbox.

I took photos of the problems but forgot them in workshop's camera. I'll try to upload them in tomorrow.

Before solving the annoying noise I have done other things with the car.

I got most of the lights operational and took the car to registration inspection. Nasty inspection guy could have found really long list of things to fix but my friendly inspection guy only asked me to fix front right brake. When brake pedal was pushed toward the floor the right front wheel suddenly locked. The total brake effect before that was also quite weak.

I suspected that brake shoe was misaligned and acted a bit weirdly. After dis-assembly I found that brake hose was almost completely blocked and second brake piston was stuck. I took the brake cylinder apart and cleaned the parts. Dust boots were in bad condition but I put the cylinder back together with old parts.

The car came with one new uninstalled brake hose that was quite useful. At this point I was quite sure that I needed to maintain the left front brake too and after test run this became clear.

The left one had newer brake cylinder (again with a stuck piston) but it had newish brake hose. This time the dust boots were ok. Now the brakes are pretty good but I guess the horribly old brake fluid has probably ruined the rear brakes too.

I didn't have suitable tool to pull away the rear drums so I'll handle the rear brakes later on. I did order new rubbers from eBay (LNF Brakes).

I noticed that my car has had Electromatic clutch but almost everything has been removed. Only push button, red pedal and complex accelerator linkage are still there. I can live without it but I guess I should remove the last of the parts from the car. I have fog lights but the switch is missing from the dashboard. The chromed button is there but without a switch.

Btw. I had really short summer vacation in UK where I visited really awesome Goodwood Festival of Speed. There wasn't any Packards but instead there was an incredible display of straight eight power. Even one Bugatti T41 Royale was there but unfortunately they didn't start it. It was my second but not last time there.

This was a long post but I had a long brake...

Thanks. I'll try to check what the inside parts look like. I didn't even realize that I have inspection plate inside the car...

I did test drive yesterday and noticed another gearbox related issue. If I pull lout the lock out switch the gearbox becomes a lot more noisy. I guess the noise comes from the engine braking through the gearbox. With the lock out pulled it was noisy with the 1st and 3rd gear too. This doesn't promise very good thing for the condition of the other gears too.

Actually getting the box from TX migth be actually pretty cheap. My car was shipped from Houston to Finland by Finnish operated company that provides also other shipping services. The shipping costs are calculated by the packages outer dimensions so heavy weight isn't an issue.

Hello! Some time ago I became an owner of a '48 Custom through this website. It took a while before the car arrived here but now I have it in my hands. The car is pretty much what I expected but it does have plenty for me to work with.

The brakes were in quite scary condition but I swapped a new master cylinder and now they are pretty normal. A lot of small parts have gone missing but currently that isn't big issue.

The worst problem and probably the hardest to fix is the transmission. It works pretty normally but the second gear sounds really terrible. Besides the awful rattling noise the forward pushing force seems to be a bit jerky. I guess the gears have taken damage and even teeth might be missing.

It could also be some serious shifting mechanism problem but gear damage is still my guess.

Any ideas? Should I try to find decent spare gears and rebuild the transmission or find similar transmission and swap it?

I studied the service manual and rebuilding seems to be fairly simple to do but I would need to change nearly everything if I want to keep gear pairs together. A complete OD transmission shouldn't be very hard to find but I think that loose transmissions cannot be found from Finland.

My brother took more pictures of the car. Not totally surprise but it is a hearse. The rear seat seems to folding so it is a 6-passenger hearse.




It looks quite good in this picture.




Rear seat is doesn't look very comfy and there is really weird ceremonial contraption behind the divider wall.




Rear window doesn't fit very well. Probably borrowed from some newer car.

I think my guess about the tail lights was right. The rear lights look very similar than these red bus tail lights.

http://glostransporthistory.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/images/Bus_SMCS_2012_007_Bristol%20VRT%20ECW_NUD%20105L_rear.jpg