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Monday 12th May 2008

First, back to Saturday, had a Packard Club 2009 National Rally Committee meeting that afternoon at our house followed by a BBQ with a good time had by all and planning for the Rally is progressing nicely.

Now to today, only a couple of hours at the workshop, because we're seeing our grand-daughters this afternoon. First up took some pic's of under the hood of the F100 mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Then walking past Wade's '37 Super 8 saw the grill, hood and radiator were off. Turns out because of the radiator water syphoning out Wade has removed the radiator and taken it to a radiator shop. Apparently the Super 8 has been converted to a pressurised system and this seems to be causing the syphoning effect. Wade's left it in the hands of the old guy who owns the shop as to which way to go, either return it to non-pressurised or fix the pressurisation problem. Wade has also taken off the water pump because although he had it rebuilt the guy who did it didn't use the new seal Wade had provided and naturally it's leaking.

Then into cleaning up the dash, instrument panel and glove box lid after the POR-15 of last week. I'll contact Harvey tonight about getting the dash to him for the woodgraining.

When Wade arrived he had a small box containing the Ammeter and Radio Head from the Super 8. These he had taken home and repaired over the weekend. Then he was off to have the flexible hose made up for his oil filter conversion and to chase some other stuff. He told me the guy doing the fuel tank for the '37 120 was over last week and the neck of the aluninium tank was the problem, being too large a diameter and at slightly the wrong angle. Needs to be fixed this week because there's a Packard Club run coming up on Sunday and with the Super 8 off the road the 120 will be pressed into service.

And last of all, Wade was able to loosen the temp sending unit nut of the back of the '41's head, but hasn't been able to remove the unit as yet although the nut is now off.

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Tuesday 13th May 2008

Took the '38 Eight down to the workshop today. Here in the state of New South Wales, Australia, each year all cars are required to be mechanically inspected by a licensed mechanic to be able to be re-registered for the next year. So before the inspection I asked Wade to go over it with me and lo and behold found that the brake lights were not working. So Wade assumed his usual upside down under the dash position amongst others in trying to locate the problem. Turns out the connection with the fuse wasn't great but it took a bit of searching and testing on Wade's part before it was solved. Wade also did me a favour and adjusted the slack in the hand brake cable. I then replaced all the sparkplugs with Champion J8C's, which appears to have cured the miss it had. A new temperature gauge complete with sending unit was also installed necessitating cutting a hole in the upper radiator hose where the sending unit is located. The sending unit hole on the head had been closed over prior to my buying the car and the upper radiator hose is now the location for the temp sending unit! After all this the '38 passed inspection with flying colours, including the required driving foot brake and hand brake tests.

Wade has also been waiting for the last few days for his '37 120 aluminium fuel tank to return from the bloke who made it and was now fixing the inlet pipe problems. It had last been promised for 10:00am today but there was no word so Wade was most unimpressed, both with the no show and with the lack of communication. Reason Wade needs the tank back is, because the Super 8 is undergoing radiator repairs, to get the 120 back on the road to participate in a Packard Club run on Sunday as part of National Heritage Day.

So then it was on to the '41. And forward progress made on the front suspension with the lower outer bushes reamed, new pin, new thrust bearing, new cotter pin and new caps installed. I might add that, under Wade's tutelege and guidence, I performed the reaming operation on the pair of bushes. Probably the first and last time I am likely to do so, although there was some comment from Wade that now I was an expert in the process!

Dependent of Wade's fuel tank situation, tomorrow we should be able to make significant further progress on front suspension re-assembly.

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By all accounts Wade is a pretty sharp mechanic, but in case he hadn't noticed, in the pic of the water pump the packing jam nut is all the way down flush against the housing indicating there is little or no shaft packing present. I've used the traditional graphited cord split rings which last forever and rarely require adjustment, but if one were to convert the cooling system to a pressure system, it's unlikely it would be as satisfactory.

Wednesday 14th May 2008

As Wade said early in the day's work "Looks like it's one step forward and three steps back". It was just that sort of day where very little seemed to go right.

Started with the remaining left side Stub Axle, which needed to have the new roller bearings pressed in, and this went well. Or so we thought. Then in trying to fit the new King Pin, it just wouldn't fit! This was after Wade had ground down a shim so that all the slack in the setup was removed. In more closely examining the Stub Axle and King Pin it was SEEN that the King Pin did not align with both ends of the Stub Axle! It would appear that because of some cataclysmic event in the '41's past the Stub Axle has bent! So, anyone with a spare Stub Axle - WTB, now!

OK, after that set back we moved onto the rear end. To prepare ourselves Wade reviewed the rear axle bearings and found these needed replacing as they were worn. Although I'd ordered a rear end kit from a large Packard parts supplier it looks like the rear axle seals made it across the Pacific but not the bearings. So Wade made a call to ABC bearings here and using the numbers stamped into the shell and the cone asked if they had these. They responded they'd look into it and, later in the afternoon, called back to say they'd have them in tomorrow. So on Friday, when I'm not at the workshop, I'll pick them up.

We also needed to replace the Pinion Seal on the Diff Centre because it had been leaking as oil had been sprayed everywhere under the rear of the '41. Commenced by taking off the Universal Joint Flange from the front of the Pinion Shaft and removed and inspected the Front Pinion Bearing which looked good. However there was no such luck with the neck of the Universal Joint Flange where the Pinion Seal seats. It had wear marks on it which were contributing to the lack of a good seating surface for the Pinion Seal. So, walked around the corner to see Ivan, he works in a machine shop where the main business is overhauling auto trans torque converters. Ivan was able, in short order, to fix the problem by turning the neck of the Universal Joint Flange so that the irregularities were removed leaving a nice surface for the seal to be able to do it's job. And all this at no charge, that's mateship for you!

We then turned to removal of the axle shaft oil seals. What a job! I presume there's a special tool/puller to be able to do this while the rear end is still in the car? Man, were those babies in there! It look numerous screwdrivers, 2 pullers, many magic words, and assistance and advice from John before the job was completed. The first one needed the rubber and spring part of the seal to be removed to permit the bigger puller, to be inserted for removal to take place, but success came only after many attempts. The second one was even harder and after removal of the seal and spring there was still no joy and John suggested grinding the outer case/housing of the seal enough to weaken it sufficiently to allow it's removal. So there was Wade with his air tools and a cylindrical type grinding attachment of Johns, but more drama. There is a further steel ring inside the outer housing and it began rotating driven by the cutting head. So after the application of enough appropriate brute force, with a couple of screwdrivers, this was removed and grinding continued. Then finally using the big puller again, EUREKA, it was out.

Because of the grinding process there were now many nasty sharp little metal pieces in the rear end housing. A first clean was made by pushing and pulling some rags through the housing from the centre to the ends. Some success but the problem remained. Second clean was by spraying on brake cleaner, a magic potion I must say as it comes in handy for many things. This was more successful but still not 100% clean. I then suggested high pressure water blasting and proceeded to take the rear end housing outside and waited for Wade to arrive with the cleaner. And waited, and waited! Turns out Wade thought I meant using the garden hose while I meant a proper high pressure cleaner unit. So I proceeded outside and started using the hose. A short time later Wade came out to tell me the high pressure cleaner was out on loan, so that wasn't an option anyway. Fortunately the water pressure there is excellent, no doubt because the local water pumping station is literally across the road! Repeated the process a number of times from both ends and both sides of the centre section until it looked great. Took it back inside and dried it inside and out with compressed air and we were ready to continue. Insertion of the new axle seals was a whole lot easier being done in minutes compared to the hours it took for the removal process.

Wade then asked where was the gasket for the the diff centre section. I replied I had seen it around but couldn't put my hand on it. I remembered seeing it inside the '41 where some of the new parts had been stored, but of course it wasn't there! Looked further with still no luck and looked again in the '41 and found it this time under a piece of the old underfelt. Great! Or so I thought. On trying it for size found it to be too small! Much cursing of the supplier, but I now have to admit I was at fault because in turning up a copy of the order tonight seems I'd ordered one for a 110 and not a 120! And my apologies to another major Packard Patts Supplier who I'd unfairly maligned earlier today. Anybody local need a 40-42 diff centre gasket for a 110? But back to the problem, now needed a gasket. But, VOILA, Wade proceeds to produce a sheet of gasket material and in rather short order the position of the centre section studs are marked by judicious use of a hammer on the gasket material. Then to the bench and the holes for the studs are punched out and the sheet of gasket material checked for fit on the diff housing, and it did very nicely, so Wade proceeeded to cut out the centre with a Stanley knife. Then with Wade coating the diff side of the gasket using Loctite gasket cement, I coated the face of the diff housing where it contacts the gasket. Next Wade coated the face of the Centre Section sitting on the bench while I coated the face of the gasket contacting the centre section. Then, after a bit of manouvering, the centre section was lowered onto the diff housing assisted by our old friend Mr Hammer, using judicious light taps of course.

As this point of time we called it quits for today because Wade is taking Gina, his wife, to the airport tonight. Gina is jetting off tonight for a holiday in Thailand with a couple of her friends leaving Wade to fend for himself.

Earlier in the day Wade had also contacted the bloke repairing his 120 aluminium fuel tank and was assured it would be here first thing tomorrow morning. Wade had also had calls earlier to say a couple of door mechanism springs he'd had wound were ready. And that the Super 8's radiator was ready. The radiator was returned to original with the pressure cap fitting removed and it has been recently recored and a pressure test was excellent.

And I'd contacted Harvey before I went to the workshop and arranged to drop the dash into him on Friday, when I wont be at the workshop, so he can woodgrain it for me.

What a day.

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Mal, I really enjoy your descriptive narratives and accompanying pictures. The "can do" attitude of you and your friend Wade is like that of a lot of Packard owner/mechanics. We don't have everything at our fingertips like a Chebby or Ford hobbyist and you folks down under work under another handicap being removed from vendors and suppliers. I'm looking forward to the picture of you driving your Packard to the first show.

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Randy,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I think you've nailed it when you use "descriptive narratives" as the term for my Project Blog entries. It's not so much a nuts and bolts account of the journey being taken, although there are elements of that, but more my experiences and the challenges met in the course of the process. And you're not the only one looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the '41 and driving it!


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And Dave,

Wade has converted the water pump seal to accept a late model, I think Mazda, seal so this would explain the location of the packing jam nut. And the cooling system is no longer pressurised as you'll see from my previous post.

Thursday 15th May 2008

Only a couple of hours at the workshop this morning. But, contrary to yesterdays effort, much more positive and visible outcomes achieved.

With Wade directing and helping, carried and manouvered the rear end assembly onto the rear springs and blocked up the pinion snout so it sat level on the springs. After Wade established the orientation of the u-bolts plates and a quick clean up on the wire brush wheel of the u-bolt threads I'd POR-15'd, it was a matter of tightening up the u-bolt nuts. And after further advice from Wade re-did the u-bolts so that the threads extending through the nuts were about equal in length.

Then to install the new rear shocks I'd bought on eBay. They fit and look the part however the proof will be in the driving which must be getting closer. But before installing them there was a search for the upper nuts and washers. Of course they were in a safe place, somewhere, but couldn't be found. So into Wade's accumulation of old nuts, bolts, washers, etc. Finally found a pair of castellated nuts that fitted and some appropriate sized washers. After jacking up the diff by what must have been a grand total of 3/16" to enable the shocks to locate on both the chassis and lower plate, then came the good part. Just about to reach under the fender to place the washer and nut on the shock mount when I sighted the "missing" hardware sitting on the running board where I'd placed them after clean up a month or two ago. It all came flooding back, and boy was I embarressed. Suffice to say the original nuts, bolts and washers are now back where they belong.

All in all, a satisfying couple of hours despite the minor hiccup as finally major discernable components have been returned to the '41.

However not everyone was happy. When I left, late morning, Wade was still waiting on the arrival of his '37 120 fuel tank. Promised for 9:00am, Wade rang at 10:15am to be told that the bloke had left earlier and still wasn't there at 11:30am. You could just about see the smoke coming out of Wade's ears! Hope he was wearing protective gear when he arrived because he'll probably need it.

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Friday 16th May 2008

Although no work on the '41 there were other things to do today, namely dropping off the dash panels to Harvey for wood-graining and picking up the rear axle bearings ordered on Wednesday. Until about 20 minutes before leaving I learnt that all the re-chroming was ready to be picked up. So a slight change of plan resulted with a the pick up of the chrome now included in my plans.

After dropping Kath my wife, off with her sister at Rouse Hill I then drove with my brother-in-law Steve to Harvey's at Toongabbie, a north- western suburb of Sydney, and dropped off the dash panels for woodgraining. When we arrived Harvey was under the Super 8 painting, with POR-15, the insides of the X-Member which he hadn't been able to reach previously. Reason he could now access the inside of the X-Member was because he'd removed the transmission with the intention of replacing it with an overdrive equipped one. But realising to fit the O/D equipped trans required extensive modifications to the X-Member those plans were shelved and the original trans has been rebuilt instead and will soon be back in the car. Harvey explained how he does the wood-graining and showed me the dash of his '37 Super 8 which he did about 20 years ago and it still looks good. He also said he'd do it for the cost of the materials only! But it would be some little time before he would be able to, as he has a lot on his plate at present. In return I said I'd see if I could find a hood ornament for the 1940 Willys Overland 440 sedan he's restoring. So if anyone has one of these out the back of the barn we can come to some mutually advantageous arrangement. See pic's below.

Next it was off to Ingleburn, which is on the south-western outskirts of Sydney, to pick up the chrome work. And this through busy workday traffic, so it was a slowish trip. Chrome looks good, the only blemishes apparent being on the tail-light bezels where there is still some slight pitting along the creases where they feared to grind further in case they cut through the metal! I'll have a better look tomorrow with Wade's canny vision assisting the appraisal process.

Finally we came back through Silverwater, an Industrial suburb in Sydney's middle west, to ABC Bearings and picked up and paid for the rear axle bearings at a cost of AU$89.83, about US$84.40. Also picked up an Oil Seal with a Stainless Steel Spring for one of Wade's projects.

All in all, quite a busy but productive day. I must confess though that I got lost during all this. Not once, but three times, "old-timers disease" is a curse! I'd been to each of these places in the last month or so and driving to the first two, took a turn one street too soon in each case. While for the last my street sense is obviously not good because I couldn't figure out the street numbers and initially ended up in the industrial unit complex next to the one I wanted. However each of these mishaps was easily overcome but it may take some time before Steve lets me forget it!

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Saturday 17th May 2008

First anniversary today of owning the '38 Eight Sedan. After this post I'm going out to the garage to polish up "Abbey-Jean" in readiness for the Packard Club run tomorrow to celebrate National Motoring Heritage Day. Will post a report and pic's of the run tomorrow, in the General Forum.

Meanwhile, this morning took the chrome work and bearings down to the workshop. With Wade, started by pushing off the old bearing from the left axle, cleaning it up, pushing on the new bearing and packing the bearing with Penrite grease. Packing the bearing was a new experience for me, but it's pretty straightforward and just takes time, not to mention a little mess, and even with my limited abilities I think I mastered this one. Next, was inserting the axle into the housing, being careful not to disturb the new oil seal previously fitted, and manouvering it past the internal oil baffle plate and inserting the splines into the diff centre. Then, using a hammer and a brass drift, gently tapping the outer shell of the new bearing into place at the end of the diff housing. Wade performed the pressing on and off of the bearings and oversighted my work in the other areas. Turning to the right axle, Wade pressed the bearings on and off then I was left to my own devices for the rest of the work required. All went well except the end of the bearing shell for the right side axle extends past the end of the diff housing by about 1/16". The left side ended up flush, so because of this anomaly, Wade's going to look at that later.

Reason Wade didn't attend to it then was he was cleaning and preparing his '37 120 sedan for tomorrows run after the new gas tank was finally fitted. The guy had turned up with the gas tank about 1:30pm on Thursday and by that time Wade was really steaming. Anyway, what the guy did was to bring it over with the new filler neck only tacked into place and after a trial fitting, which it passed with flying colours this time, finishing the welding on the bench. So after washing off what was mostly dust from cleaning the underside of the '41, Wade was taking it for a run to fill it up with gas, and to pick up some meat for the Saturday lunch BBQ which is a ritual at the workshop together with the imbibing of amber fluids. Wade also asked if I'd like to come for the ride and to have a drive. Well, I'd never turn down the opportunity to drive a Packard! So after washing up, Wade drove the 120 out and after a couple of blocks stopped and I took over the driving. Eric - just remembered, forgot to measure Wade's 120 frame for you today, but will catch up next week, sorry. Driving the '37 is different from my '38 in the following ways. Rides a lot smoother, all the suspension has been rebuilt. Driving position is a lot closer, the front seat is welded in place and has been like that since Wade bought it. The brakes are outstanding, Wade has rebuilt them and uses silicon fluid in them. And tells me the brakes on the '41 will be like that when it's finished. Steering at low speeds is easy, instead of the struggle it is in the '38, Wade attributes this to the rebuilt suspension and running the WWW radials at 40lbs/psi.

After getting back to the workshop, spent what time I had left on cleaning up the rear universal joint cups in preparation for their re-installment next week. In the course of this clean up almost ring-barked my right little finger by running the tip of it around in the space where the trunnion fits. There's a real sharp edge there as I found out!

And a final note, you can probably stop foraging in the backs of your barns and garages for a 1940 Willys Hood Ornament. I think I've found one on the net but will know for certain on Tuesday.

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Don't forget that with new cups and cones, you'll want to check and possibly correct the axle shaft end play. On those Seniors with dual axle bearings, it's done by shims behind the inner cone but on yours I believe it's accomplished by shims between the axle flange and the backing plate.