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well first of all i have to appologize to HH56....if i had gone back and read my blog i would have noticed he advised that the torsion bars would need to go the opposite direction to take the load off of them since the body was off the car. sorry dude.....i should have gone back and read.

i bought a part washer from northern tool, but i am not that impressed as the sprayer pretty much splatters all over me when i am using it. so i just let the stuff sit overnight in the tub and i may take it back since i can just use a bucket for that.

while the small stuff that i couldn't blast were soaking, like the parts with the ball sockets etc.....i blasted the parts that i could and i can tell you that the rubber that is on the solenoids and torsion limit switch does not come off in the blaster. i had to do it all my hand. that stuff comes off pretty easy with a 90 degree pick.

any suggestions on what i should use to put that rubber coating back on beside rubberized undercoating?

enjoy the pictures. hopefully next time i will have this thing put back together. also nobody around me carries the CRC SL 3330 sta-lube for the gear box, so i bought the next thing i could find. coastal moly lube....looks the same as the other stuff and is the same color as the stuff that is comming out of the unit. it should work fine and it was 3 bucks. i will take the unit apart and clean all the gears off and put it back with the new lube.

is the torsion gear box itself supposed to be any special color or just the aluminum like it is? i was going to rubberize it and paint over it with satin black. what do you guys think?

later,

Hank

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Not to worry. I'm impressed you've got as much done on the suspension as you have without the weight of the body or the tools.

I'm not sure what the rubber coating was originally other than undercoat material. Glyptol was used in some areas. They had issues with the electrical components corroding from exposure to road conditions and water so anything to give the terminals and openings a good seal--and undercoat was certainly one good option. A modern one might be "Plasti-Dip" from the hardware store. Comes in colors, small cans, & is normally used to insulate & cushion tool handles. Can be applied many ways, and advertises a lot of other uses including sealing/insulating/noise control etc.

Looking at the service manual, I believe gearbox and electrical components were left natural --except the motor & mounting brackets which were black. Probably anything that would rust was painted. I painted the transverse bars & components to match the frame & prevent rust but am not 100% sure they were that way originally. I'd say if you would like things painted, then do so.

my dad came over and we worked on the car some more today. my dad used the sand blaster, after modifying the height so he could use it. LOL! sux getting old! LOL! ;0)

i took the torsion gear box apart and man that was some nasty, nasty stuff. diffenently had some water or condensation mixed in. i couldn't get the plug out the other side of the worm gear holder.......any suggestions. i used one of the long bolts from the motor and tried tapping it and it just didn't seem like it was moving out. i didn't want to damage anything, so i figured i would ask those that may have done it before.

enjoy the pics.

later,

Hank

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Hank,

Definitely some nasty lookin' gunk in the torsion gear box. But you should have some "happy gears" when you put that all together (minus the lbs gunk). I haven't read your blog, but assume the torsion system was working (slowly?) before the dis-assembly. The nice thing that I am learning about over-engineered Packards is that they respond well to mechanical TLC, and work as designed when services sweetly.

None of that is in my 'know how.' I am still figuring out my pre-war Clipper. Keep up the good work.

DanL

it didn't work at all, but from the advice from the people on my blog i was able to get it to work. i don't know if it was slow or fast...seemed to run normal to me....but that electric motor has some power for sure!

i am mostly doing all this as PM on the car because it is there and easily accessible now. might as well get it done now and not have to worry about it, after all the car has been sitting in a field for about 15-20 years. last time it was on the road was in the 70s according to sticker on the window.

my parts cleaner should make short work of that greasy watery mess though ;0) not to mention the stuff i use is great for waking my hands at the end of the day. ;0) yes it is safe....no petroleum based, biodegradable.



i just want my car to function great when i first drive it out of the garage ;0)

later,

Hank

well i bit the bullet today and pulled the trigger on ordering the rubber parts i needed for the frame restore from Max Merritt. overnight so i can work on it during my 4 day holiday time. they were only missing two pieces and i don't need them right away anyways.

i also ordered the paint kit from Eastwood today, no overnight allowed for some reason, must have been past the cut off time for that shipping method.

i will order the front end rebuild kit when i get the next Packard deposit ;0)

later dudes,

Hank

Max Merritt only sent one part wrong, not too bad considering all the parts i ordered.

box full of rubber....box o' rubbers.....LOL!!

anyways......

i worked some more on the gear box for the torsion suspension. got the new bearing in for the worm gear and put the clips back in. i also noticed my box had a R on it like it said in the STB about if it had an R it was checked for the clip to be in place correctly. cool....;0)i pressed the cap back in after lubing it at the end a bit.

i did some painting on some of the suspension torsion box parts. see pics. i also worked with my dad on removing the rear subframe along with axle and all. see pics for my creative way of holding the torsion bar tension so that i can reassemble later. ;0) pretty clever i say and it works great. the ties have a 1500 lb strength rating so i am pretty sure they are not going anywhere. my wife and her cousin had to hold up the rear of the frame so i could pull the subframe out sideways. wish i had a big shop right about now!!!

also image 258 shows that someone before me had this torsion gear motor apart before....they were lazy and used the wrong seals. they are flat and not tall.....dumbasses! you can see on the two pics before what is supposed to be there. no wonder mine was leaking out the bottom of it!

also, what kind of rivot is that holding the sway bars to the center pivot housing....is there a way to just come back with a bolt and shallow nut when i rebuild it. i have to replace those bushings.

enjoy everyone.

Hank

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just got done tearing down the rear subframe. what is that gooey stuff that is on the outside of the u-bolts that are on the rear diff?? and i cannot seem to get the ubolts off, do they come off or are they stationary?

also, there is a pic of the new and old bushings. i also painted the solenoids with that plasticized paint that was recommended to me. plastid or something like that i can't remember and i am too lazy to go back out to the garage. ;0) LOL!

later,

Hank

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No idea what the gooey stuff is unless congealed grease or undercoat.

The brackets are welded to axle housing but U bolts will come off. Give them a good spritz of penetrating oil down into the steel bushings & let them sit. With the water your car apparently sat in, am surprised anything is coming off without grief. A good job so far.

okay, so getting that last U-Bolt off was a PITA! i had to cut off the end of the bolt that i had flattened out from smashing with my mallet. i even let it sit for days with PB on it. didn't work. so i decided i needed to put the nut back on and force it the other way, then hammer, then repeat.

cutting off the end allowed me to get the nut back on and my theory worked, it came off. now getting the nut off was another story as i had smashed up the end pretty good again. lets just say the u-bolt is okay, the nut not so much. ;0) i may beable to reuse the U-Bolt, cause i didn't cut more than about .25 off the end of the one side and as long as it bolts back up i will reuse it.

i took the frame outside today, nice day, and washed all the soda off of it. over and over and over and over, etc... same with the rear end, etc...

going to need a new pinion seal....any words of wisdom there, besides getting the nut back on the same exact torque?

got all the Christmas CRAP out of the attic while the car was drying outside. woohoooooooo, let me tell you how much that sucked. ;0)

anyways, the car is back in the garage and ready to start from the back to the front on prepping and painting.

some parts are in the sand blast unit for cleaning and i have started putting back together the torsion motor now since i finally got those dust boots on.

enjoy the pics.

later,

Hank

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