Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Anyone know what these are far - I think my car has two

Not sure what you are asking. They just keep the plug wires in tidy order over the cylinder head.

When I installed a new set of plug wires on my '48 2262 I found a pair of 4-hole separators on the plug side of the separator block. The set on the car were made of so kind of 'breakium' or 'snapium', and did not survive the handling. They did however pulverize quite nicely. I made a replacement set from 1/8 rubber sheet stock, ? X 2 ? with ? holes ? on centers. I don't know if the set I encountered were original or OEM replacement, but the items I made looked quite a bit like the broken ones. See photo.

I thought it was such a good idea I made a few 3-hole and 2-hole separators to place along the way. I put the other separators closer to the plugs themselves to get some free vertical support.

dp

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One of my postwar Packards had plug wire separators just as you've pictured (the 4-wire one) and I'm reasonably sure it was original equipment. I think it was the '54 Patrician but it could have been one of the Custom 8s.

Did anyone look to see if it's listed in the 1948-54 Master Parts List?

Yes I think they are listed as Spacer - Spark Plug Cable

Group 4.1109
393685 22 - 25 All
439236 26 - 54 All
2 per car

The next item is 4.11092 Block - Ignition Spark Plug Cable Support
395563 22 - 54 All
1 per car

I've assumed the first item is the separator we are talking about, and the 8-hole block is listed separately as a cable support.

I wonder if anyone has an original, so we might know what the original material would be. Mine fell apart as soon as I tried to remove the first wire. It was not slotted. You would have to incorporate the spacer while the wire set was being fabricated and installed. I replicated that design on the replacement(s).

dp

David - I have the same car - It has the Ignition Cable Grommet. mounted in a bracket , and two 4 wire Spark Plug Wire Spacers (one is broken )- looks like they all are made of hard rubber The Cable Grommet is slotted -

I don't know what the material was. They were dull black, quite rigid, and as you noted, unslotted.

Micarta would have been around since 1910/1920. I've only seen an amber/dried blood color of that material, but any number of colors, especially black, could be made. My rubber ones are surely not rigid, and I'm more than willing to make some from Micarta, assuming some thin sheet stock is available.

For those like me who do not know what Micarta is:
Micarta industrial laminates are established as the premium phenolic thermoset materials in the industry. Micarta Phenolic sheet is a hard, dense material made by applying heat and pressure to layers of paper or glass cloth impregnated with synthetic resin. These layers of laminations are usually of cellulose paper, cotton fabrics, synthetic yarn fabrics, glass fabrics or unwoven fabrics. When heat and pressure are applied to the layers, a chemical reaction (polymerization) transforms the layers into a high-pressure thermosetting industrial laminated plastic.

I guess it was used because of resistance to heat?

ebay.com/b/micarta-sheet/bn_7024779560

Micarta ia a very old brand name for thermoset phenolic sheet. The heat resistance would be good because it's thermoset. It's basically circuit board material.