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Most auto generators have a directional listing for rotation. Either CW or CCW.
John

Yes. Directional listing. But that does not explicitly mean that the alt is inoperable in the reverse direction operation.

Furthermore, then IF direction of rotation IS a significant factor for operation then need to determine which alternator would be correct for the opposite CW rotation and use that one.

The radiator and shrouding is fairly close to the front of the engine and belt location so even if a reverse rotation alternator is available there is really no room for one. I believe that situation is typical on most post war Packards.

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Various photos of AC work in progress. There are other and different photos in the blog to confuse the issue but these are showing what I hope will be the final version.

Was constrained by the width of trunk shelf and prewar enclosure. Found that the Hurricane trunk unit from Old Air Products. was one of the narrowest modern units available. Picked that and reworked and reoriented in various ways as shown early in the blog and then the final photo so the components would be in a straight line. Settled on this layout and made a custom plenum and diverter assy to accommodate both front vent and the stock package shelf.

For some reason Packard mounted the Clipper compressor on the left side of engine and conventional bodies used the right side. Have not seen a real setup to know how they did it so made a custom bracket to place the Sanden compressor in the approximate location. I had bought the fan compressor drive pulley when they were reprod many years ago. Finding that large belt and modern wide groove pulley for the Sanden was the biggest issue there. Lowered the oil filter and made a custom vent tube which was used on the 356 engine so both would fit under the bracket.

The return air was a challenge. I do not know for certain how Packard did it and did not want to cut or modify any structure in the car. The intake on the modern unit also dictated where it had to be. Had originally made a full length plenum to fit behind the rear seat back to take in air from both the package shelf area and from under the seat. That moved the seat back forward an inch. Finally decided I did not need the top intake so made a small unit to mostly fit between the X braces. That lets the seat back stay in position at the top with only a small kick out at the bottom. In combination with raising the seat bottom as Packard did I also decided on some unobtrusive front grills in the seat bottom.

One of the custom additions was front vents. The duct size to the front was constrained by space available under the headliner. Used two 1" flex ducts on each side feeding the front vent plenum. Not ideal but with the two adjustable round vents inserted it does provide a tolerable air flow. The vent on the package shelf was made from scratch to duplicate the look of the stock 41-2 unit.

The final part was using aluminum AC tubing to more or less duplicate the Packard route and location of components. The custom dash knobs for the new controls are shown earlier.

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Howard, here are the photos I took of the AC'ed 41 Clipper. I don't know how much use they will be to you. Wish Terry and I could have got together so there could be more of how Jim installed the AC system. I did note that the top switch on the LH side had COOLING on it.

(o{}o)

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John, thanks for trying. It would have been nice to see what all was changed to make the compressor fit on the drivers side of the engine but unless Mr. Hollingsworth made something special, the photos you took of the vent already show something different in Clippers.

In the conventional car photos the vent sits directly on the shelf with the adapter piece connecting to the evaporator inside the vent. On the Clippers it appears there is an interim adapter piece or spacer the vent sits on to to raise the outlet above the top of the rear seat back.

I saw that piece in the so called McArthur car but it looked so crude I thought it might have been something that was done by an army mechanic. It appears to be factory only with a much nicer version in the Hollingsworth car.

A fair number of conventional body AC cars are out there but only one or two known Clippers so far. It would be nice to document the differences for posterity or for someone who stumbles across another AC Clipper missing some pieces.

To be fair to Terry, he was agreeable to let me photo the installation. I was not able to meet up with him to do this.

Also, it looked to me like the rear seat cushion bottom was solid with no vents in it. Hard to see, but I think it is this way.

(o{}o)

it looked to me like the rear seat cushion bottom was solid with no vents in it.

That I believe. Think I read the conventional body rear seat bottoms were raised some and air entered at the floor. Clippers probably did that too but never found anything saying exactly how much the seat bottoms were raised and if there were any other changes.

I raised mine half an inch but with the fairly high pile carpet and the way the seat springs hug the floor in the back didn't look like much of a gap. I added the vents so air could flow in sort of a channel in the front of seat and removed some burlap wrap on the side springs so air could get thru.

It would be interesting to know the reason Packard went to the expense of making all the parts needed to move the compressor to the drivers side. They already had the parts for the right hand side and it is the same engine so there must be something else that caused the move.

Exhaust manifold heat?