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Progress today.

Thanks Ross for the tip on the spool valve. I pulled the cover off and sure enough it was very loose. I tightened it up, then backed off a bit until I could just move it with my finger. Made a new gasket because the old one was leaking everywhere and put it back in. Test drive was much improved, but I still need to tighten up the steering a lot. I rented a Pittman arm puller to do that with. That's the next goal this week.

With the help of PGH, I was able to work through the issues my generator was having. It's been a minute since I've dealt with a generator so it was helpful to have him give me some tips. I disassembled it and found it was pretty rough inside.






Cleaned everything up, polished the commutator, seated the brushes (they had a small contact patch), ran a few electrical tests. Reassembled and bench tested with success. Reinstalled and finally had the ammeter show a charge in the car:



Charging at 14V on the low end and above 14.6 on the high end



When reinstalling the generator I noted that I was at the end of the adjustment for the belt (too big). So I picked up a new, correct belt from NAPA and installed it. Much better now. Adjusted to 1/2" deflection with thumb pressure. But now I can hear the water pump bearing making noise, so that will need to get dealt with at some point. I also noticed that the flex fuel line was super close to the fan belt, flirting with disaster. So I changed the orientation on the 90 degree elbow so it pointed straight down and moved the flex line out of the way. This was before:



Got the car running and warmed up. Mixed up 4 tabs of stop leak in warm water, then slowly poured the slurry in the radiator once it was up to temp. It seems to have successfully plugged the small leak I had in the middle row of tubes. Another test drive slightly longer this time was encouraging.
1.) The TL did not lift the rear when turned on while driving.
2.) TL works as normal still in P and N....5-7 seconds before activating following change in stance.
3.) Charging system seemed to work the whole time. Lights on, under seat heater fan on. Gauge stayed right in the middle and didn't discharge.
4.) Underseat heater smells like burning rubber. So it'll probably never get used.

Next up is tightening steering, checking for other worn steering parts, and changing all brake hoses and cylinders. At that point I should hopefully be ready to do some long drives and see how it all goes.

Kevin

What i found about steering gear play. The screw that's on top.
Can't take up play.

You need to knock the shaft back up.. loosen that slotted screw. Hit the shaft from the pitman arm side.

Keep backing out the slotted screw, hitting shaft up.
Till you get the feel you want.

I don't know if the bushings are worn. I thought they were tapered. Ross said no. And I have new bushings and they look straight..

Maybe shims can be used to keep shaft up .

Or, the ball bearing is worn.. Haven't investigated it.

On the Monroe.

Any play is the stud that the pitman arm bolts to. Forget what it's called..

But that stud wears. And the rubber seals?

So see if that stud wobbles,, real loose.

FWIW adjusting the flathead drive set screw on a manual gearbox gave the expected result on my 55.

Put the front of the car in the air last night and checked various steering components. I'm getting a bit of play in the wheels at 9-3 o'clock, so maybe replace the tie rod ends. Not seeing any play in the kingpins. But I get a good amount of play at 12-6 o'clock, so I'm thinking bearings are due for replacement. Looking around for those right now. Lots of varying info in the parts cross reference.

Also pulled the Pitman arm and adjusted the steering gearbox. It was super loose before. Feels much better now, though I don't have a spring scale to check the actual tension. Lock-lock and putting the wheel back 1/2 the distance offsets the steering wheel to the left slightly. So I'm thinking I'll need to pull the wheel and recenter it once I have everything hooked back up.

Brake hoses came also. This weekend is replace all the other wheel cylinders and brake hoses, then bleed the whole system.

Quote:
Believe it or not, Amazon has small inexpensive spring scales. Most are calibrated in grams or Newtons but here is one brand calibrated in grams and ouncesa.co/d/gDgZyzI For those only available in metric, conversion is not that hard and several online calculators can do it for you.

Since there is a wide latitude given in steering numbers, not really sure how precise it needs to be. Since most Packard literature does mention specific numbers when working with the steering box, I guess sometimes it might be nice to know how much of a difference the removal of a single shim or a minor 1/8th tweak of a screw made. If the adjustment can actually be measured more than perceived as being successful guess that would be a good thing.

Today:

Finished adjusting the steering gear. Between that and the spool valve adjustment, the steering is significantly improved. Much more responsive. Still some floating and unpredictability, which I'm assuming is more due to very old (no date) bias ply tires. Nowhere near as bad as it was before.

Also replaced all brake cylinders with new, and new hoses front and back. Corrected some brake shoe springs that were installed backwards, and bled the whole system with new DOT 5. I confirmed that the old fluid was DOT 5 by putting the old with new DOT 5 and they instantly mixed. Interestingly, the new big bottle of DOT 5 I bought today at NAPA was also yellow colored, instead of purple. Same brand, same part number. My guess is the big bottle has been sitting on the shelf for a few years and the purple color was lost.



Adjusted all the shoes again and went for a test drive. It is virtually unchanged from before, which is frustrating. Braking is mediocre at best. My Panama with non-factory manual brakes stops way better than this one does. To come to a full stop from speed I really have to crush the pedal. It's not anywhere near the floor, and I'm pushing as hard as I can. Not close to what I would expect these brakes to do.

I believe there is a leak somewhere in the master cylinder. No idea where. It was rebuilt in the past. Might also be a leak at the brake light switch. All connections are tight as can be, but it is damp up there. Maybe leaking through the switch?



I wonder if the vacuum assist is not working. But when I have my foot on the brake and start the car, it falls away slightly like it's supposed to. But it sure feels like crappy manual brakes when I'm driving. Either way I'll probably have to have the BTV rebuilt. I may just pull my core from Rusty and send that in. Swap that for the one in the 400 when it's done.

Sounds like there is air trapped in the system somewhere. Rebleed the entire system. Pressure bled it if you can. I've heard Dot 5 can be hard to bled as it can become aerated.

I'd definitely have the BTV rebuilt sooner rather than later and by a good reliable vendor. Some on the forum have found after the fact that even though they advertise heavily some crappy ones are out there so do the homework. Personally, I would see if Ross is still willing to do them and if you could get on his schedule if he does.

Do check the bleed again and you can check for a vacuum leak by idling the engine for a few minutes then turning it off. There should be enough in the reservoir for 2 - 3 assisted pedal depressions before it turns hard as a rock and barely moves. If you can't get much assist after the engine is off then your check valve at the manifold might not be closing or something else is leaking. Reservoirs often developed pinholes and of course the hoses crack or leak at loose connections.

Unless it is being sucked into the vacuum side you should see any fluid leaks via the usual wet spots on the floor and it would disappear from the reservoir. It would take a fairly severe leak to diminish braking that much though. After a couple of stops with a big leak it probably wouldn't stop again either. The valve you need to worry about leaking is the compensator valve visible thru the cap opening positioned in the bottom of the reservoir. If that blob of rubber fails to close the port completely you will know it instantly as the pedal -- slowly in the case of a small leak or abruptly if it fails to close at all -- sinks to the floor. You will also know because if that valve fails, typically the car sails thru wherever you wanted to stop.

That vw switch has metric threads..