Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Troubleshooting performance issues on my Six (idles and revs fine sitting still, but falls flat on it's face when given any gas while driving), and plan to replace the points - they look okay sitting in the distributor. Are there any peculiar or unique aspects to this process that I should know about before I attempt to remove and replace these points? I am also replacing the condenser - the distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs and wires, and condenser were all replaced about 500 miles ago, right after I acquired the car last July; additionally, I replaced the Carter electric fuel pump last summer, that was just spitting gas, and added a fuel pressure regulator and pressure gauge - pressure set to 2psi per Daytona Parts Company recommendations. The condenser tests bad using my analog multimeter, according to the method I see used on youtube (they were using a digital multimeter), but so does the replacement I just bought at NAPA. Also just replaced the ignition coil, then learned how to test it. Used my vacuum tester to check the vacuum advance - it advances and holds vacuum well. I also rebuilt the carburetor - Carter WA-1, then replaced it with a brand new Daytona UN2 series. As there are no visible timing marks on this engine, I will use the "penny over the spark plug hole" method or attaching my compression tester to the #1 spark plug hole to find TDC and check/adjust timing. All insights appreciated.

A chronology of the problem and any other running differences with the changes you have made would be helpful as you don’t indicate if the problem has been happening since you purchased the car last July or occurred since.

The Service Manual, section 33 Ignition Timing, on page 18, references figure 31, on page 19 which shows timing marks, are they not on your car?

And once the hard to see and use timing marks on the flywheel viewed thru the peep hole have been found, many have fabricated a pointer out of heavy wire or scrap metal and marked the vibration damper at a couple of the important spots duplicating the flywheel mark locations.

Neatly done and attached to the chain cover bolts in a similar fashion to how the later engines mounted a pointer, that small mod saves a lot of future time and effort. You might even be able to find a bolt on factory pointer from a later six engine. The marks on the vibration damper don't need to be as elaborate as the flywheel marks, just a single line or two maybe done with a light tap of a chisel at the major timing points and highlighted with white paint should be enough to let you know if something falls seriously out of spec. If more precise marks are needed the original setup is still there.