Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Wednesday 31st October 2012

Last night Wade had driven Big Red home and then this morning back to the workshop. All went well, except for Wade's blood pressure in the peak hour traffic! And yesterday afternoon Wade had shuffled Noel's chassis back into the middle Packard workshop slot and put Roy up on the hoist. Found, amongst other things, the master cylinder is leaking and there's a lot of slop in the diff when turning the tailshaft by hand. Needs to speak to Richard about tackling the situation because Roy was originally scheduled for engine work to address his known low compression/poor starting aspects only.

Started with the intention of painting the steering column, steering wheel hub and various fittings for Noel's Coupe. But..... after a lot of shaking of the pressure pack spray can of paint, nothing! Same with the second can, as Jerry Lee might say "whole lotta shakin going on", but no action again. Wade will be calling into the paint shop to have this remedied. So turned to the chassis in the hope of finishing that off. To that end I was despatched to buy a length of radiator hose from Pirtek as well as some hose clamps to suit same. But as I was leaving the carpark Wade intercepted me with a further requirement, buying a brass 'plug' to fill the temp gauge sending unit hole on Noel's 356 head. Noel doesn't have the temp gauge sending unit, it can't be found or it's lost. Fortunately Pirtek, being a hydraulics company, should have those. They did, but somewhere along the line my request for a 'plug' was translated into a request for a 'cap' for the thread sample fitting Wade had given me to take. That sorted out, with an appropriate 'plug' obtained, the radiator hose and clips part was easy. Back at the workshop the 'plug' was installed, the hose cut to length for the upper and lower sections on the inlet pipe and that was installed. Then the radiator was filled with water with two leaks evident. One at the recently purchased 'plug', the other at a plug in the waterpump housing. Some judicious tightening and now the 356 holds water. Needed a radiator cap, but the magic shelf failed to come through this time. Instead, a shorter reach cap was used just to ensure cooling system integrity wasn't compromised. Then a piece of rubber hose was fitted to the radiator overflow tube. Tried a number of different diameter hoses before finding one to fit. Oh, and Noel, looks like Tuesday or Wednesday will be OK for Fleurette but speak to Wade to tee up the specifics. As well, could you ensure you pick the 356's carb off Tim and bring it with you so it can be run properly?

During the course of all this Michael, owner of the '54 Convertible arrived. Michael is recently retired, so recently in fact that this was his first day of retirement! Welcome to the club Michael. Michael has also been waiting patiently, very patiently in fact, for Wade to rebuild the front suspension on his convertible. Michael brought over the front end kit he purchased from Kanters many months ago as well as Service Manuals so Wade can read up on these beforehand, not having done much work at all on "modern" Packards! It looks like the Convertible will soon be riding smoothly again.

And last night received an email from PhilfromTassie concerning his '26 333 6 cyl Sedan Limousine, that Jonathon of Vintage Motor Garage had advised "...we've just had the engine running. Sounds great with 45 psi oil pressure...". Great to hear another Packard is running again. Here are VMG's YouTube videos of the startup. Johnathon is the guy in the blue overalls.

Part 1

Part 2

Halloween here and the granddaughters are going trick-or-treating tonight. The new grandson is a bit too young yet for that but was dressed for the occasion anyway.

Attach file:

---

  (36.97 KB)


  (29.76 KB)


  (22.65 KB)


  (25.48 KB)


  (20.66 KB)


  (41.94 KB)


  (23.37 KB)


  (25.04 KB)

Thursday 1st November 2012

First turned to what couldn't be done yesterday, spraying the steering wheel and column parts. And the same thing happened, nothing! Well, it was slightly better, about three and a half squirts out of one can but nothing from the other. Yesterday, Wade on his way home and was going to take the cans back to the paint shop when Graham intervened and miraculously the cans worked. Must have been a one off, because this morning it was back to where we started earlier in the week. So into Big Red, cans in hand, and off to the paint shop in earnest. Easy fix, the spray nozzles were blocked. The thought being that when they were packaged by the paint shop the nozzles hadn't been cleaned after filling the cans and testing them. Whatever the reason the cans now work so the column, column sheath, wheel and brackets were given a colour coat, and they'll receive another coat tomorrow.

Turned then to Roy. Wade had discussed Roy's woes with Richard last night and the go ahead given to do what needed to be done to return Roy to robust good health. To this end Roy was put up on the hoist and inspection and some diagnostics performed. There was a lot of slop in the diff and decided clunks when the tailshaft was turned back and forth. A major clunk appeared to be emanating from the vicinity of the right rear wheel. Off with the hubcap and it could be seen that. although the axle nut was staked with a split pin there was movement! Further disassembly, removing the wheel then the brake drum allowed closer inspection and diagnosis. The brake shoes on this side had also been locking and had been backed off prior to the disassembly. Further tests, with and without the brake drum on, indicate that the axle bearing is shot, feels like there are square balls in there! The left side bearing is also bad although the wheel and drum weren't removed from that side. Feel alone indicates the bearing is shot. The master cylinder is leaking, there are indications of leaks from the rear cylinders and/or bearings too. Plus relining the shoes wouldn't go astray. Although not removed, the front wheel cylinders will also be replaced as well as relining the front shoes. The fuel pump is leaking so it will be rebuilt. Plus there's the initial reason why Roy came in low or no compression and, probably because of that, hard starting. Although it fired right up today. Of course it had a little help, in the form of liberal squirts of Start-U-B@$#@rd! And Roy was started up because the plan is to procure the parts and then start the work.

In the meantime Roy now has a new place to call home, my garage! Roy will stay there, for temporary safe keeping, until the parts ordered arrive. I live fairly close to the workshop, about 3 to 4 miles away, but Wade's first thought was to trailer it there. 1) Because of how it drove on the way to the workshop from LesF's, and 2) Because of what was seen and diagnosed with the brake drum off. Only trouble was Roy, although a 110, wouldn't quite fit on the trailer. So with brake drum and wheel back on Wade drove Roy while I drove the Ute in advance. And Wade told me to go slow, which I did, and I doubt Roy ever got above 25mph on the trip. Once at my house, backed out my Coupe then had to clear the build up of "stuff" since the last cleanup when Noel's chassis was the likely tenant. Then Wade drove Roy in with about 9" left between the back wall and Roy's front bumper. I then drove my Coupe in behind Roy leaving about 9" between front and rear bumpers and 2" for the garage door to shut.

With Roy now enjoying a tete-a-tete with my Coupe in my garage this frees up a space in the Workshop and gives Wade a chance to bring in the '33 and finish off what he needs to do to get it running properly. And speaking of which, Wade rang the guy who's going to do the body work on the '33 because of the problem with the '33's fuel tank. The tank when it came back from stripping and cleaning had a fair number of holes in it. And Wade hadn't found anybody, he had confidence in, to fix it. No problem, said the guy, send it to me and if I can't fix it I'll make a new one! Wade didn't let that chance go by, so when I left the workshop the fuel tank was by the front door waiting to be picked up by the courier!

Now at home waiting 1) to hear of the birth of another granddaughter, to my eldest son's wife, it's actually happening as I type this, and 2) to leave soon for a Packard club meeting.

Attach file:

---

  (37.23 KB)


  (18.28 KB)


  (33.32 KB)


  (36.84 KB)


  (34.03 KB)


  (36.34 KB)


  (8.71 KB)


  (31.29 KB)


  (35.63 KB)


  (29.61 KB)


  (23.20 KB)


  (23.42 KB)

Friday 2nd November 2012

Not at the workshop today but did speak with Wade in the morning. Amongst other things, he was going to give Noel's steering column parts another colour coat.

Then, this afternoon while returning from seeing our latest granddaughter, saw Wade and Big Red heading the other way on their way home and took a hurried pic of that auspicious occurrence.

Attach file:

---

  (21.64 KB)


  (46.89 KB)

Monday 5th November 2012

First task today was re-assembling Noel's steering column and column gear shift linkages, Wade had taken a number of photos prior to the column's disassembly as well as a drawing of critical measurements. Slowly put back together with reference to the photos and/or drawings as required. Once back together the column was mounted on the chassis with the old wheel in place until the painting on the K wheel is finished. During this Noel had phoned to say he was coming over a little later bringing with him the carb for the 356.

However because Noel didn't arrive when expected, rather than wait, I was dispatched to fill up a can of fuel. This was required to 1) start the 356 and, 2) start the '33 - it was coming in from the cold. Just as I was leaving Harvey arrived to see Wade, and was still there when I returned. After Harvey's departure started the '33 and Wade drove it inside but that's as far as wants to drive it. No brakes!

Then Noel arrived, bearing parts and gifts. Amongst which was fabric so I can have the front seat of my Coupe redone, thanks Noel. The parts were the 356's carb, a rebuilt gearshift lever(Yesterdays Radio purchase from Hershey) and a boot for the lever, a new sylphon thermostat(Bill Hirsch from Hershey) for the chassis' radiator, a steering column hub(somehow Noel's had been misplaced during disassembly) and some other bits and pieces. The carb was bolted on, fuel line hooked up and with Noel in attendance the 356 was fired up. Started "easily", just as the '33 did, with the help of that old standby "Start Ya Bs$#ard", it's great stuff!

After Noel left, while I cleaned up the steering column hub, Wade removed the old sylphon from the Chassis's radiator. That was my next cleaning task, the sylphon's cover, lever and other small parts. Then they were all treated to POR-15. This time I ended up with a fair bit of that on me. I've been quite good lately, but this time I pushed my luck and only wore a glove on the left hand. Of course there was a minor disaster with one on the wires used to hang up wet parts coming adrift and to save the day I grabbed it with my right hand. Oh well, it'll only take about a week to disappear, in the meantime I'm a genuine black hand! While I'd been painting parts and myself Wade had mounted the gear shift lever as well as the new rubber boot. Then turned to hooking up the linkages. Both the lower linkages had been hooked up earlier but now had to be "unhooked". The 2nd/top linkage was adjusted by this means but the 1st/Reverse was at the full extent of adjustment. So up top, the turnbuckle on the rod from the column bell crank to the lower bell crank was turned out and locked for the adjustment required.

Attach file:

---

  (26.18 KB)


  (17.55 KB)


  (30.20 KB)


  (32.29 KB)


  (40.01 KB)


  (30.68 KB)


  (28.38 KB)


  (31.60 KB)


  (35.77 KB)


  (41.85 KB)


  (30.48 KB)


  (30.31 KB)


  (40.83 KB)


  (29.32 KB)


  (36.76 KB)


  (16.91 KB)


  (36.08 KB)


  (24.98 KB)


  (29.55 KB)

Tuesday 6th November 2012

First Tuesday in November is always Melbourne Cup Day. It lives up to its informal title of "the race that stops a nation" because it certainly does that to the workshop. About lunchtime the shop is shut up and it's off to the pub for the festivities. But me? Home, write this, then off to see 3/4 of the grandchildren, unfortunately Melbourne Cup Day took a low priority this year. But prior to shutting up shop, there was some work done. First the sylphon thermostat was installed in Noel's chassis' radiator. Then some painting of the K steering wheel and the upper column hub.

Turned next to the '33 and it was put up on the hoist and an undercar inspection made. All looks OK but did notice, although there's a Kelch heater outlet in the rear floor there's nothing undercar to connect it to. I was quite disappointed because I'd been looking forward to seeing the setup after I first saw the outlet in the rear floor when the '33 arrived. Also noticed most of the exhaust system is wrapped in insulating cloth. And there's a reason for that, it gets so hot under there that the wooden floor can catch fire! And the underside of the rear passenger compartment floor is charred so it's a necessity on this Packard! Wade also showed me the right rear shock absorber has its own heatshield because of its proximity to the exhaust system. Learning all the time.

But the real reason for putting the '33 up on the hoist was to find and mark the timing marks on the harmonic balancer. To see the balancer from undercar necessitated undoing a cover which conceals it from scrutiny from below, but much more likely to secure it from dirt and debris. Wade said neither of his '34's had that cover. With the cover off, then dropped the '33 down again but before going any further Wade adjusted the choke linkage and setup, it had been running much too fast on startup yesterday. Then the portable fuel system was transferred from the 356 to the '33. '33 started, very easily, no Start Ya Ba$#ard needed this time. Then the '33 went back up and so did Wade. While I watched the harmonic balancer Wade bumped over the starter until there was an excited yell from undercar, #1 had arrived! Balancer marks cleaned off but, before applying some contrasting paint, a check of the manual revealed there were three timing settings which might apply. Which setting was required was determined by whether the engine was fitted with a low compression, standard or high compression head. To determine which head was fitted Wade climbed the repositioned ladder and there on the rear of the head was cast HC. That settled, down the ladder and applied a line of white paint but there wasn't enough contrast against the balancer. Cleaned off the white and applied gold paint. But with the same result, not enough contrast, Cleaned off the gold and onto red paint. Good choice this time, highly visible and a good contrast. Then Wade was back up the ladder with me under car until another excited cry when #6 mark hove into view and it too was marked in red. '33 dropped back down, timing light connected in turn to #1 then #6 with both showing against the marks as being too retarded. Wade tried, with the hot exhaust manifold in close company, to advance the distributor by loosening the 3 nuts under it's body but to no avail. It wouldn't advance because it was at it's limit of adjustment. Will try again tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow, Noel is bringing Fleurette over mid morning for a checkover prior to the Packard Club run starting on Friday. The run is to Bathurst returning on Sunday or Monday and has been organised by Larry51. I'm looking forward to it although there has been rain forecast, at least for the first day.

Attach file:

---

  (46.18 KB)


  (30.31 KB)


  (20.95 KB)


  (33.96 KB)


  (34.18 KB)


  (21.81 KB)


  (32.31 KB)


  (32.61 KB)


  (43.03 KB)


  (41.93 KB)


  (32.79 KB)


  (29.24 KB)


  (47.55 KB)

Mal, inability to sufficiently advance the ignition timing on 33/34 Eights with the original dual coils is commonly encountered when the distributor has been modified to accept a point conversion kit that uses modern Chrysler points. You run out of rotation because the cap clips run up against the rear-most coil, due to the pivot-to-rubbing block dimension being a bit different. If you haven't encountered this, it's an easy fix; the distributor breaker plate is only held down by 2 screws and with no vacuum advance to complicate matters, it's easy to just elongate the two screw holes and advance the entire plate within the distributor body.

Quote:Dave,

That's exactly what's happened and is the solution under serious consideration. Only one little thing, when contemplating a fix, Wade checked his spare distributor and it has 4 screws! But, before Wade looked at the spare distributor, he too was talking about 2 screws holding down the plate. We'll see later this morning when the distributor is pulled from the '33 for the remedial work required, if 4 screws just means more work!

Wednesday 7th November 2012

At the workshop this morning first up was attending to Big Red in the carpark. That bane of Wade's life leaks, whether they be fuel, oil or water, had raised it's ugly head again! This time it was oil, and after all the care and attention Wade put into trying to ensure this wouldn't occur! So after a clean up tightening, of various nuts/bolts/screws, which could be contributing to such an unseemly Packard occurrence, was undertaken. Then once inside Wade gave Noel's upper steering column hub another colour coat.

At this point Noel arrived and because of workshop space limitations Fleurette had to park outside next to Big Red. Soon jacked up and jack stands put in place. Wade then went under on the creeper and checked the trans and OD oil levels, which were OK. Diff level wasn't checked because there are no signs of any leaks, looks like that one is OK! Checked brake fluid level, it was OK, then the engine oil level which did need topping up. Looks like all Noel has to do now is give Fleurette a clean, top up with fuel, and all is in readiness for this weekends Packard Run to Bathurst.

Noel's departure saw attention turn to the '33. Distributor off and onto the bench for a closer assessment on how to correct the lack of advance adjustment with the new modern dual points setup. Solution as O_D suggested was to elongate the breaker plate holes so more turn was available. Meant a number of on and off distributor mountings and demountings, and repositioning of the #6 points set until timing for both sets of points were in sync. A finicky but worthwhile procedure with it being noticeable how engine running smoothed out once timing for both #1 and #6 was synchronised. With the '33 now starting easily and running smoothly Wade's brief on returning it to life is complete. From here the '33 should go to Dave, the guy who's doing the body and paint work. And speaking of Dave, Wade took a call from him while under Fleurette, turns out the '33's fuel tank is beyond repair so a new one will be fabricated.

Then, on my way home, dropped into see Richard, the only top bow maker in Australia and is on my route to/from the workshop. Richard's '24 30/98 Vauxhall Tourer was parked on his front lawn having just returned from a 4 day Vauxhall tour in Victoria. In getting there and back and during the tour he'd covered over 1,800 miles. The Vauxhall also cruises at 60mph, not bad for an 88 year old car, and a Pommy one at that! Because of Richard's expertise working with wood I had a question to ask, referred to Wade from a mate of his. Wade, I can tell you, the short answer is that Richard doesn't do what was asked but has given a possible lead which I'll be able discuss on Friday.

Attach file:

---

  (41.83 KB)


  (16.45 KB)


  (23.56 KB)


  (33.48 KB)


  (58.13 KB)


  (50.83 KB)


  (26.25 KB)


  (16.79 KB)


  (33.19 KB)


  (38.93 KB)

Tuesday 13th November 2012

Now back from gallivanting around country New South Wales on the Packard Club run, see this thread, so returned to the workshop this morning.

First task there was to pull the plugs on the '33 and perform a compression test, the results of which from memory because the pic's I took of the paper they were written on had too much flashback to read are, 1 = 120, 2 = 115, 3 = 120, 4 = 120, 5 = 120, 6 = 115, 7 = 120 and 8 = 125, very good! Then cleaned, re-gapped and re-installed the plugs. Started the '33 and checked the timing on both #1 and #6 and it was spot on. Then, the workshop portable fuel tank system was removed from the '33 and it's own temporary fuel tank system installed. This entailed cleaning out a 5 litre, about 5 quart, plastic oil container, drilling two holes in the cap 1) for the fuel line, 2) the other as a vent and installed it in the splash tray in front of the fuel pump. Will be enough to get the '33 on and off the back of a tilt tray tow truck and for workshop movements when required. Then the '33 was temporarily parked outside. It's now ready to go for the body and paintwork required to return it to it's former glory.

In the '33's place Big Red was backed in and put up on the hoist for a checkover and oil and oil filter change after being run in for about 500 miles. Big Red had performed almost flawlessly on the Bathurst trip and was being rewarded with some TLC. Undid the sump plug and drained the oil then removed the filter assembly which is a machined aluminium housing containing a modern spin on filter cartridge. Cleaned up the filter housing, changed the filter cartridge, a new pair of MBM gaskets for the oil pipe plumbing system and re-installed the filter assembly. Then filled with oil and ran the motor briefly. This filled the filter and cartridge assembly as well as any empty passages. Then added another 2 litres of oil and up to the full mark again. Next matter was checking the timing, which turned out to be a little retarded, now fixed. Then, with the engine warmed up, the head nuts were re-torqued and the intake and exhaust manifold nuts re-tightened. The rear brakes were also adjusted. All that remained at the time I left was to move Big Red outside, ready for the trip home tonight, and bring the '33 in.

Attach file:

---

  (28.08 KB)


  (47.08 KB)


  (53.76 KB)


  (42.32 KB)


  (46.13 KB)


  (23.84 KB)


  (44.70 KB)

Mal

Had a great time meeting you all and was certainly inspired seeing the finished product!Really enjoyed the day.

The info I received from a variety of club members was exceptional and will help considerably in my reconstruct.

As with most things in life; having a Kiwi involved (Wade) ensures success and perpetual happiness...kidding!