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I took my 53 clipper to T?V today for the bi-yearly saftey inspection, and they told me that I have play between the pitman arm and the cross link. The technition also said that this joint is adjustable. I never heard of this joint being adjustable. Is it true, or was he thinking of old Daimlers and ZIS/ZIL?
Here is a photo of what he was talking about. You can see between the two red arrows I drew in where the grease/grime has been pushed away by the free play.
Is this a case for a new/rebuilt pitman arm? (I did all A arm bushings, tie rods a few years ago, but not pitman/idler arms)

Thanks guys!

The other bad news from T?V was they want me to remove my clipper airplane hood ornament They are worried about me spearing a pedestrian! OK, I kind of understand that. Might try and replace with a swan if I can find one. -That would just maul a pedestrian, not cut them open :-/

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I would replace the stock hood ornament with one of these, direct from West Texas:

TORO!!!

love the alternate ornament.

I'm sure this has to do with the European pedestrian safety law. I would check if it is proper to apply it retroactively to your Packard. If he insists, take off the ornament, get the permit, and put it back on when you get home.

G'day Mike,

I'm not much of a mechanic but here's my The pic below is of the type of cross shaft/tube on my '41 and I hope it's similar to your '53 Clipper's. The internal retaining "nuts", 15.001 and 15.008 in the pic, are locked in place by split pins. The "nuts" can be adjusted by screwing them in further to take up slack/wear through the springs onto the cupped pieces which contact the balls on the Pittman arm and the centre steering link. Hope this works out.

And of course Eric got right to the nub of your other problem, pity he didn't have a solution! Here in Oz older cars which don't meet current specs are exempt if they are "stock", so things like killer hood ornaments are permitted.

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I'd suspect that the statistics for family members braining each other with the simple claw-hammer would be far more alarming than the statistics for pedestrians speared by hood ornaments. The number of non-problems that bureaucrats can think of to "regulate" never ceases to amaze.

As Mal said you can just tighten the screw-in end caps to take up the slack. Also on the 51-54s there is a tension spring in the cross shaft on each end so there is going to be a little bit of movement by design.

I have an extra hood ornament off of a 1952 Packard hood. It's complete but not in pristine condition. I would like to keep it but if you really need it let me know via PM.

Wow, the inspection tecnition was right about adjusting that. Thanks guys. I'll have a look in the shop manual about tension/torque specs. Hope to get to that this weekend.
The common opinion I have gotten about the hood ornament in Germany is to just take it off when I go for inspection and put it back on afterwards.
Mit Freundlichen Gr??en!
Mike