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G'day all, I am always amazed how much longer an R9 Solenoid is compared to an R6. I have never fitted an R9/R11 to a 35-38 Packard chassis as the two components require so much more mutilation of the cross member to fit the items. Fitting a Packard overdrive to a pre 1939 is very much comparative to a modest boob job.....If you have all the body except..you know ....well, then, if counselling for the status quo fails .... a voluntary lot of considerable pain and it may be worth it to you in the end, so long as you maintain it. In other words,T##,s upgrade = Packard Overdrive retrofit. P.S. Both cost about the same in the long run but the overdrive can be left in the garage. Best regards Peter

Friday 25th February 2012

Didn't expect to get to the workshop today until Noel rang. He was on a train to go and pick up his daily driver from the workshop which had remained there when he left in Fleurette yesterday. Original plan was to return later yesterday to pick up the daily driver but, as often happens, the time to do so slipped away. The other side to the call was I too was on a train, no, not the same one, after donating blood plasma in the city. Anyway, arranged that Noel would continue his journey by four stops then I'd drive him to the workshop. There we found the Picasso of Packards, the Michaelangelo of motors, but more commonly referred to as Wade painting Juniors engine/trans/OD, head and other pieces. Head is still separate from the engine, to facilitate using the head studs as pick up points for the engine lift, and will go on once the engine is reunited with Junior. Concerning all these parts being painted Packard Engine Green, like the streakers defence, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

Ray Stevens - The Streak - Ex YouTube

And Noel, a few pic's of one of the Bonnet(Hood) catches on my Coupe.

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Monday 27th February 2012

Surprise! Surprise! Arrived at the workshop to find Wade had put in a big day on Saturday installing the engine/trans/OD into Junior. Also bolted on starter, generator, fuel pump and installed oil fill tube. So this morning, while Wade was sorting out gear linkages under Junior, I installed the tailshaft. It also turned out that on Friday Wade had painted the sump(pan) on Juniors engine. He'd hoisted the engine/trans/OD setup on the engine crane to gain the underneath access required. Then, after installing the tailshaft, installed the OD mount, engine snubber bracket to the frame and bolted in the OD mount. Thought was not to re-install the engine snubber because one end is loose but ended up doing so by turning the snubber around, so if it drops it will trail and not pole vault. Then assisted Wade with the linkages. The bell crank mounted between the master cylinder and the frame had to come off to accommodate fitment of one of the linkage rods. The other had been taken off during dis-assembly and was much easier to refit as a result. The trans top then went back on followed by the shifting arms on the top of the trans. Supposedly this was the easy way to do it but one proved otherwise but did go on eventually. During the course of all this Juniors Mum and Dad, Annet and John, arrived to see the progress their offspring had made. Were pleased to see things going together and this time I ended up in a pic, courtesy of Annet, see below. Following their departure more wrestling with linkages and suchforth. Also installed the solenoid and governor to the OD and replaced the spade connectors in the OD harness in doing so. Also filled the trans, OD and engine with fresh oil. Don't know how many times Junior went up and down on the hoist, but it was like a bride's nightie yo-yo! Still have to align the gear linkages, and because of the interchange of part including the trans top this is proving hard to do but should be right tomorrow.

Stephen, steve-52/200, will be taking up your questions with Wade tomoorow.

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Tuesday 28th February 2012

A long morning with Junior again yo-yoing up and down on the hoist in trying to locate and fix the shift linkage problem. Had finished up yesterday thinking a longer linkage rod, for 2nd/top gears between the steering column arm and the fore/aft rod, was required to fix the linkage alignment issue. Another linkage rod, sourced from the part shelf, was cut down in length and reshaped as per the rod that was too short. This morning cut a thread on the new longer rod and installed same. Trouble was, it worked with reverse, 1st and 2nd gear but not with top. Determined that the bell crank for 2nd/top that transfers motion from the steering column link to the fore/aft rod was hitting the bracket which holds it and the master cylinder. Much scratching of heads, much inspection and introspection before finally biting the bullet and taking off the trans top shift levers and pulling the trans top off. Wade hadn't wanted to do that because the trans top that came off Juniors trans wasn't as good as the one that replaced it. But with the fore/aft rod for 2nd/top pushing the bellcrank against it's bracket without being connected to the column change something just wasn't right. Wade actually explained this too me a couple of times before the penny dropped because I thought the problem was tied up in the new longer linkage rod. It wasn't. What it turned out to be is that the 2nd/top splined shaft in Juniors original trans top has the wide positioning splines in a slightly different place from the positioning of the same splines in the replacement top. Not much mind you but that fraction of an inch on the spline translates to somewhere in the vicinity of 2" to 3" by the time the various length levers and consequent mechanical advantage come into play. So, sorry John and Annet, although you now will be able to change gears you won't have the benefit of new seals on the splined shafts! One of my tasks today was using a very small triangular file on the internal splines on the trans top shifting levers before the levers would slide on to the shafts with relative ease. But while I was doing that Wade reconnected the oil pressure gauge line and the road draft tube. Speaking of the oil pressure gauge line hook up, at one stage yesterday Wade changed out the straight into the block fitting he'd previously fitted(probably a 120 fitting) for the right angle fitting that came on Juniors engine. In all the fiddling yesterday with gear linkages Wade had noticed that one of the linkages would have hit the oil pressure gauge line if left as is. Just goes to show that although things look like they will work they often don't. After all Packard's engineers did do things for a reason.

A welcome break came with lunch of home made pizza and your beverage of choice to wash it down. Returning to Junior it was time to tidy up a few more thing before the head went back on. First of these was making and installing a pointer for the harmonic balancer. While Junior does have the flywheel pointer to the timing marks there, this isn't as user friendly as a pointer and marks on the harmonic balancer. However to install the harmonic balancer pointer had to remove the front engine mount yoke which entailed postioning and then slightly elevating a transmission jack and block of wood under the sump(pan) before undoing the retaining bolts to the engine and mounting bolts to the frame. With the engine mount yoke off measured up the width and length required before sourcing and cutting and grinding a piece of aluminium to fit then drilling a mounting hole and bending to shape. A few more passes on the grinding wheel to put a point on the pointer and......it fell apart in my hands. Bending the aluminium had weakened it and the final grinding was enough to cause failure. But better it happened now rather than later in Junior, because once everything was bolted back on it wouldn't be coming off a second time. For the next attempt, sourced some steel and following the same cutting, grinding, drilling and bending processes it's fine. Well it's still in one piece. Left things to Wade at this juncture, the pointer will probably be on Junior by the time I get there tomorrow!

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Don't hit me but I have two of those shift thingies. One is for a floor shift and the possible one has 52509 on it.

Number on inside is 395386 which I can't seem to match in any parts book.

Wednesday 29th February 2012

Arrived to find the front motor mount yoke back on together with the new timing mark pointer. Then onto a more substantial matter, installing Juniors head. Block and head surfaces both cleaned, a good squirt of oil into each cylinder to aid in initial lubrication and to help establish compression on first start up, clean up of the new gasket, a good copper spray to each side of the gasket, on with gasket followed by the head. Followed by the washers and head nuts torqued down in increments to 63 ft/lbs, except for one! One of the new studs had stripped in the block! Wade didn't have a heli-coil of the right size but a call by John to Col of Brookers Brakes soon found one. Then, a very delicate operation, tapping the old stud hole to accept the heli-coil without removing the head which was successfully done. Did this by using grease on the end of the tap and carefully and slowly tapped the block, changing the grease a number of times and then carefully cleaning out the stud hole. Fitted the oil filter bracket, housing and connected the inlet and outlet lines, with a short visit by Noel revealing the filter is a genuine Packard one by the script on the canister top! With oil in the engine, slightly overfull, plus more added to the filter canister before the canister lid was tightened down Wade wanted to check there was oil pressure. So, using a booster pack, 12V was used to spin the sparkplug less and carbeuretor less engine. After an initial spin cycle I adjourned to the front seat and observed that the second cycle moved the oil pressure gauge up slightly, so Houston, we have oil pressure.

Then on to fitting a set of NGK plugs while Wade cleaned up the distributor cap and installed it. In order to mount the bracket for the sparkplug wires, the head nut to mount the bracket was cracked loose. But when re-torquing the head nut slippage occurred. Fortunately it was just the head nut stripping on the new stud so wasn't as big a drama as the one experienced earlier, a replacement nut proving all that was needed. Also mounted the coil and connected the ignition wires. Next was the carb and it's associated linkage. The carb itself is fine, although it's a non standard carb, but the linkage was something else. The firewall cross shaft accelerator pedal linkage has been rebuilt and now operated fully without any slop. The linkage setup, as it was, hadn't permitted full movement of the carb butterfly. But now, with the rebuilt cross shaft linkage, the rod between the bell crank on the manifold and the cross shaft was too long. So needed to shorten up the linkage rod except it was as short as it could get. Some time ago I'd brought down to the workshop a container of rod ends and linkage arms, I'd collected about 45 years ago. Finally, I thought, they may come in useful. By swapping out one end of the original linkage rod, combined with shortening and re-tapping the brass body of one of my linkage rods to 10/32 NC thread a rod of the requisite length was available. Except, it didn't work! Although one end of the rod had been bent to reduce the offset between the accelerator cross shaft arm and the bell crank it bound up about half way through the length of travel required. Solution here was to fabricate a length of steel strapping so that the accelerator cross shaft arm pushed directly in a fore & aft movement with the strap extending the cross reach of the bell crank. AND, another linkage rod, the previously fabricated rod not working at all in this new environment. Fortunately Mal's box of bits provided a small rose joint(heim joint) and a rod which together appeared perfect for this new situation. Appears to be working but Wade still isn't happy so will be further reviewed once Wade returns from Gil-bloody-gandra on Monday. At this stage would have attempted a short test start of Junior irrespective but, being out of gas, that too will happen on Monday.

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Monday 5th March 2012

Noel oftentimes uses the term "Dr Wade" and I too must admit to using it from time to time. I was reminded of that, in arriving at the workshop, to find laid out on the bench the parts about to be bolted back onto Juniors engine today. Seemed to be like the instruments laid out prior to an operation. Besides the water pump, the one Wade rebuilt not the new "Chinese" one which Wade has some reservations about, there were the tappet covers together with new gaskets for all. But I didn't get to hang round for long, being sent on an errand to pick up 20 litres of fuel to partly replenish Junior's empty tank. Returned to find Wade had fitted the backing plate to the water pump and was in the midst of applying silicon sealer to mount the pump and new gasket to the engine. With the water pump, fan, pulley and fan belt mounted, emptied the fresh fuel into Junior and turned the engine over using a booster pack to get fuel through to the fuel filter and carb. Except no fuel came through. Instead of pulling fuel through Wade pushed some through using compressed air and a rag to effect a seal between the compressed air line and the fuel filler neck. Didn't take long to get fuel through to the carb using this method, but there was a problem. The right angled fuel line fitting going into the carb was leaking. Pulled it off and discovered, besides the crack in it, it was the wrong fitting. The correct fitting has a ferrule inside against which the fuel line flared end seals against, this one didn't have a ferrule! Not to worry, Dr Wade just picks a correct fitting off the shelf and fits it, no leak now! With fuel up it was time to see if Junior would start, he wouldn't! Timing wasn't right, so back to basics. Set #1 @ TDC, easy to do now with the pointer and marks on the harmonic balancer assisted by being able to observe the valves without the tappet covers in place. Pulled the distributor to free up the bolt and screw at the base that allows for incremental adjustment then ensured the rotor was facing #1 spark plug lead. Was a little off so tweaked into position and the distributor tightened down. Time to give Junior a real test and because we'd been joined by Junior's Dad John, during the course of these proceedings, there now was a proud parent in attendance. After a few false starts Junior came to life, but didn't run for long. Without any coolant ran just long enough to ensure oil pressure and no rattles, noises or very importantly leaks. With vital signs checked Dr Wade left the patient to convalesce while going on to mount the tappet covers. The rear tappet cover was a real b@$t@rd to manouvere and hold in position then get the bolts in place. Installing the front tappet cover was somewhat easier, helped by raising Junior on the hoist to be at a better working height. The rear tappet cover might have been a bit easier to install at a more comfortable working level but old habits can be hard to break.

Here's a YouTube video compilation of the little videos I took of the various start attempts, culminating in Junior coming to life for John.

After John's departure, buoyed no doubt by seeing Junior's first cries after months of silence, I re-installed the transmission inspection plate and the front floor carpet. While I was doing that Wade was fiddling, sorry Dr Wade was testing and diagnosing Juniors needs in regard to the carburetor linkage problem. That done we left Junior and the workshop to visit JohnM. Earlier John had called me, because he couldn't make contact with Wade. However I passed the call onto Dr Wade who arranged to make of all things, a Packard housecall on JohnM's '39 Six TJ Richards bodied Sedan! On the weekend John couldn't get the '39 started, changed coil and condensor, but it still wouldn't go. Arriving at John's, and following a few basic checks with the meter, which indicated the battery was a little low, the '39 sprang into life. Maybe it was the bedside manner? More likely it had just been flooded yesterday following an hour or so of repeated start attempts and now with a head clear, so to speak, was ready to roar. Or does Dr Wade have mystical Packard powers which normal men cannae ken? While there also took the opportunity to inspect the throttle linkage on the '39 and, because John's son Paul had made up a new linkage system, persuaded John to contribute his old linkage to the cause of getting Juniors linkage system working which he was happy to do.

Back at the workshop there was more discussion, fabrication and fiddling all in the cause of Juniors throttle linkages. Ended up making a new linkage rod between the firewall accelerator linkage lever and the bell crank arm. But not before a number of other plans had been mooted, mocked up and discarded. Also turned to a pic I'd taken about a month back when in the process of cleaning up the intake/exhaust manifolds prior to cleaning it up for painting. That one pic showed the bellcrank mounted on the manifold. But most interesting was the bellcrank was 180 degrees around from the way we were now mounting it. Although it "didn't look right" decided to pursue that avenue because around the other way it wasn't working anyway. Well, turned out just what was needed. That and fabricating a new linkage shaft out of a piece of scrap round, two rod end bearing(aka heim or rose joints) together with offsetting the linkage rod from the lever arms with spacers so it operated in one plane only. So now we have a throttle linkage, although not Packard, but importantly it works!

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Tuesday 6th March 2012

Was it fortunate or unfortunate I didn't get to the workshop until lunchtime today? I'd prefer to think of it as a fortunate occurrence because our daughter and one of our grand-daughters visited us precluding hands on Packard time till later in the day. When I did get to the workshop, the usual Tuesday lunch was in full swing and as I sat next to Wade he asked me how I liked the Diet Coke I was drinking. I proceeded to go into some detail about how it compared to Coke Zero and Pepsi Max, much better than either in my opinion, but still failed to be a patch on the real thing. After my speech Wade then informed me that yesterdays experiment had worked. What experiment, you say? Why the experiment using Diet Coke to loosen the temperature gauge sending unit fittings. Would have used Coca-Cola but there wasn't any in the workshop fridge so settled for the next best thing. Used an old Tooheys New beer can with the top removed into which I poured most of a can of Diet Coke then inserted the sending bulb end and fittings of Juniors Bourdon Tube temperature gauge. Wade had been trying for a week or so to loosen the gauge fitting from the cylinder head fitting but without success. Initially Wade had unscrewed the cylinder head fitting from the cylinder head without removing the sending end fitting because the head needed to be hot tanked. Warning - Do not do this at Home! Since then the fittings had been "attacked" from time-to-time but without success. Wade had also used penetrating oils also without success but now with the end in sight the freeing of the fittings was more urgent. Mounted the beer can and its contents on Juniors head yesterday about Noon occasionally jiggling the contents and then left it overnight. This morning Wade was finally able to separate the pair, clean it all up and re-install the tube in Juniors head. Wade also asked if Diet Coke can do that for a gunked up temp gauge fitting just imagine what it must be doing to my stomach! The foregoing reminds me of this recent thread.
Wade! Here I am as a recently diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic and what little I have in the way of a simple pleasure is now painted as a threat to health! Or maybe that's just the Dr kicking in again?

Besides the temp gauge sending unit fix Wade had been busy preparing Junior for bigger things today. Had finished off the throttle linkages, further tidied up the wiring on the firewall and got things ready for the next big step - putting Juniors front clip back on. So after lunch that's what we did. First Wade put a new rubber pad under the radiator collar then the front clip was moved from it's resting place of some months back to it's rightful; position at the front of Junior. Five guys easily manhandled the clip onto the wheel-less front of Junior(it's easier that way) then Wade dropped under the front of the car to issue alignment instructions and to ensure the new rubber pad was in its rightful place. Loosely did up the radiator to firewall stays, so it wouldn't go anywhere then raised Junior up on the hoist. Re-installed the front bumper bar, twice. First time the pair of brackets on each side were inside the frame rail, didn't want to work that way. Second time one bracket per side inside and one outside the rail, worked easily that way. Re-installed, loosely, the mishmash of mudguard(fender) to body bolts then the welting and then tightened up the bolts. Wheels back on, dropped Junior to the floor again and inserted a spacer between the front hoist arm and the frame to gain clearance for the running boards. Then back into the air and bolted the mudguards(fenders) to the running boards. Another mishmash of bolts and nuts here, some of which were replaced, they just had to be. Finally a new upper radiator hose was installed before time ran out for the day. Tomorrow, running board side trims back on, new lower radiator hoses and pipe to be installed, re-install the inner mudguards(fenders), air cleaner on, bonnet(hood) back on and aligned, tightening of various finger tight bolts and Junior should be just about ready for a test run.

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Wednesday 7th March 2012

While Wade started cutting and fitting new lower radiator hoses, I started on re-mounting the running board side trim pieces. Wade offered this advice "the points go to the front", only trouble was both ends were pointed! Fortunately the left side trim was marked on the inside "l/side front" together with an ">", so that sorted out the direction I should be heading. With Junior about half way up on the hoist it was a pleasure to use a mechanics stool to scoot under the car after aligning and inserting the attaching lugs into the mudguard(fender) and the running board. I was going well with the left side until Wade had to drop Junior down a fair bit to enable a different angle of attack on the lower radiator hoses. I was also co-opted into this exercise, using long socket extensions from the left side while Wade positioned the hose clips from the right side. Once the lower hose was in place filled the radiator and started Junior up. First back-fired through the carb but a little judicious advancing of the distributor soon fixed that. For the brief time it was running appeared to be running well, again no contrary noises and no oil or water leaks, but.....there was a fuel leak! Fuel appeared to be running from the accelerator pump so Junior was shut down and the problem addressed. While Wade was removing and dis-assembling Juniors carb I returned to the running board side trim and finished fitting both sides. In the meantime Wade had discovered the cause of the fuel "spill", a piece of plastic(I think) thought to be interfering with the jet. Wade also took the opportunity to change out the rubber tipped needle for a steel one he had, doesn't trust the rubber ones and their compatibility with modern fuels. Carb back on and all was well but this start up required a 12V boost. This although Wade has had Juniors battery on charge for the last day or so. Ran this time for quite a while with Wade adjusting the idle speed and mixture not helped by the lack of a return spring on the throttle linkage. So that was the next matter to be addressed with a return spring from the lower bell crank rod to a bracket mounted to the steering box mounting bracket. Then Wade switched over to his old Optima battery(7+ years) in lieu of Juniors battery while I attempted to re-install the right quarter kick panel. The kick panel had been removed because one of the fender retaining bolts was now a nut and bolt in lieu of the captive nut scenario it should be. Just couldn't line up the mounting screws on the kick panel so gave it away for now but will return to it tomorrow. Then the big moment, the test drive. All went well except, after a corner or two, the rain belted down and then stopped just before we returned to the workshop!

Back at the workshop Wade used an infra-red pistol style digital thermometer to check the temperature because the temp gauge only went up to a bit over cold on the gauge during and after the run. Maybe the sender is allergic to Diet Coke? Temperatures along the head checked out at a range of 170 > 180 degrees so knowing there was good heat in the engine Wade re-torqued the head. Then onto adding more bits back onto Junior. The inner mudguard(fender) panels took a bit of wiggling and jiggling but they are now back in, and the splash shield on the left side of the engine was re-installed. The bonnet(hood) was also re-installed. And a stronger return spring replaced the too weak one originally mounted. Only a few pieces left now, the air cleaner, the horns and the kick panel are I think all that remain to be re-mounted. Did try to remount the air cleaner, it's an oil bath for those interested. But, because Wade had used a very thick insulating gasket between the carb base and the manifold, the retaining strap holes don't line up, so that's another matter for tomorrow. Tonight Wade will take Junior home and tomorrow mornings return run to the workshop in peak hour will be a very good test. Tomorrow I'm also taking the Coupe down for Wade to take a look see at the OD, it won't engage.

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Mal,

Great story about getting the engine running again.

I too found a problem when the front bumper on my 115C would not fit right after being removed and replaced by a local body shop. The left front fender was removed to be refinished because of damage done by brake fluid. Don't forget to screw in the master cylinder cap when bleeding brakes. Anyway, placing the brackets on each side of the frame rail, instead of both on one side, fixed the problem.

I also noticed the fan belt. It looks to be too narrow and riding in the bottom of the water pump pulley groove.

Thanks again for sharing with us all the adventures at Wade's.

(o[]o)