Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

BigKev Quote:

Olds oil pump rotates the same way as the Olds HEI. So, for the V-8s it's Olds.

Craig

To make the chevy distributer fit,the shaft had to be cut to length and a hole drilled to secure the packard drive end.The housing was cut to length to fit in the stock packard stand and the end machined out to receive the stock chevy bushing. It has its own oiler, and you can use the vacuum advance or the manuel spark advance.

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I did a little studying on this. It looks like a good solution would be a standard points GM distributor or an after market with a pointless electronic module that is made for 6v positive ground. Trying to use an HEI and running it on 6v won't work.

A new distributor is about $100, the electronic trigger is $50 and I think I can do the machining for $50. But without the oiling, I think it might be worth the effort and $$ to put in sealed roller bearings.

Having an easily swappable unit might be nice for someone that's looking for that.

This was my first post, and the response has been great! I appreciate the expertise and the rationale for the responses. We'll give the Chevy unit a try, and let you know how it turns out. Thanks for not beating me up for experimenting a little with improved touring in mind. I'm committed to maintaining the originality of these cars, and everything we're doing is easily reversed for the judging. Thanks again.

Cap from an Autolite used on the 120 of the same era seems to work on my '39 that runs the same distributor as the '38 Super. About 20 bucks and seemingly available at NAPA.

Quote:
"Thanks for not beating me up for experimenting a little with improved touring in mind. I'm committed to maintaining the originality of these cars, and everything we're doing is easily reversed for the judging."


Welcome aboard Occasawright. Your statement above is exactly my philosophy too as well as a few others here at P'info.com. Over the years there has been several developements such as an Olds oil pump conversion for the Packard V8, GM automatic trans w/OD conversions, brake conversions among several other modifications of lesser effort. All of those mods were developed in view of various controversy surrounding OEM parts/price/avaialbility etc.

Keep us posted on your experiments. Looking forward to your continued participation here at P'info.com.

Long distance touring reliability,maintenance etc is the goal for many of us too.

G'day occaswright,
Like to add my to PackardInfo too. And a request, would the owner of the Packard you're restoring be interested in adding it to the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo or you doing it on his behalf if that's OK?

And a thought, seeing you're in Dayton Ohio, what about contacting The Citizens Motor Company there for any needed Packard parts? You never know your luck!

Ozstatesman.
Thanks for the tip on Citizens Motors. That's one i was not aware of.

Thanks for the welcome. I am the owner, and will add to the registry. The Packard Museum in Dayton is familiar territory, and I'm likely headed there today as I'm searching for a Carter BB-1 carb (for a completely different auto), and will tour the distributors in the parts area.
In response to this quote from 39Super8:
'Cap from an Autolite used on the 120 of the same era seems to work on my '39 that runs the same distributor as the '38 Super. About 20 bucks and seemingly available at NAPA.' I'll check with them...would you have a part number? The fitting of the cap to the distributor may be a problem as some are slotted and others use pins.
Lastly, before leaving the thread, I need to re-ask, 'Is there a potential concern for the advance curve? Wouldn't it need to be checked a made to match the original specs? ' Thanks.

I wouldn't worry about the advance curve just yet. Drive the car and see how it performs. If some advance curve change is needed then there ought to be a wide variety easily obtained weights and springs available for the chevy distributor.

The distributor can be placed on a special ditributor machine for fine tuning according to packard specs for advance and retard. I don;t really know for sure but quite frankly i doubt that any change will be needed.

Look at the pic of the Chevy distributor above. It has the vacuum advance AND manual mechanical advance. USing both mite allow for some preliminary experimentation with respect to advance curve. I like the idea of having both.

Drive the car. If it performs reasonably well then what's to worry about???