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And may your next 44 years of driving experiences with your 320 engine be as uneventful as mine have been.

I am all for that Dave!

Dave,

Last night Wade diligently sifted through his records of both '34's and here's what he found.

His original '34
Thief-Proof # 185078
Engine # 378261
Chassis # 378207
Body 716-446

USA Replacement
Thief-Proof # 180711
Engine # 375842
Chassis # 375787
Body 716-143

Additionally Wade provided a list of all owners of the '34.

- Mr W Guest
- A Queensland Farmer.
- Max Hood, a former President of the Packard Club here, who restored it.
- Next owner was Tony Packard, a Holden(GM) dealer whose slogans were "Just up the Windsor Road from Baulkham Hills" and "Let me do it right for YOU".http://video.aol.com/video-detail/tony-packard-holden-car-dealership-1980s/833944928
- Harvey Claypole, a Packard Club member was the next, he ended up disassembling the '34 for purposes of re-restoring it.
- That's where Wade came in, buying the '34 in pieces and in boxes and has been slowly putting it all back together over a number of years.

Wade's now waiting for the body to be painted and as of Friday last week it was due to go to the paintshop, which is about 1/2 a kilometre down the road from the panel shop where it was. Then once the body is reunited with the chassis much more work is required to get it back on the road. And make no mistake, although the '34 will be to show standard, it will be extensively driven.

Wade started the '34 up again today to demonstrate the vacuum assist for the brakes because he'd connected it up late yesterday. Very interesting to see it in action even without the '34 moving. Wade also said that it's actually attached to a control on the dash which allows you to adjust the strength of assistance required. And another thing I noticed, is that the handbrake operates on all four wheels. No handbrake turns here thankyou!

And a couple of pic's, please excuse the quality as I photographed them direct from an old photocopy.

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Many thanks for your diligence and the data (which wasn't in my prior data) and for the bit of history on the car. You're right and I've noted it before in other threads, that Bendix 14" mechanical brake system with the variable power boost is quite a system, I wish my 56 Packard had brakes that good!

Of course in hindsight it should be obvious that in cars with mechanical brakes, the typical parking brake works of all 4 wheels. But I can remember as a kid when I learned it the hard way. I was out for a drive and came into the garage, set the parking brake, and decided to remove the front wheel. Jacked it up, tried to turn it and couldn't and was scratching my head wondering how the wheel had "siezed up" so suddenly as just moments ago I was driving it.

Tuesday 3rd March 2009

A little extra-curricular activity today. Went on the monthly OASIS run to Woy Woy. Met at a McDonalds outlet at Thornleigh, a northern suburb of Sydney, then in convoy headed up the Freeway to the central coast turning off at the Central Coast highway then onto the road to Woy Woy. Wade took myself and Harvey from the Packard Club in the '37 Super 8 and Peter from the Packard Club met us there as he lives up that way. The Morris Minor Picnic Club had 3 cars, there was also a Peugot S/Wagon and some American muscle in attendance and all up about 20 people. Go tohttp://morrisminorpicnicclub.com.au/clubsite/ then Events in the main Menu, then OASIS Events. A good time had by all with a pleasant drive there and back broken by a good lunch, liquid refreshments and fine company.

And yesterday was a pretty ordinary day and, after a bit of chit-chat with Wade, decided to tackle the diff we got from Wayne last month. My main interest was in the wheels as I thought I might be able to use them on the '41. Loosened the wheel lug bolts first, only three on each wheel, and removed the wheel/tyre assemblies. Then the axle nuts, the left side split pin came out easily but the right side one with a combination of rust and being a size too small defied all attempts to remove it. But, a rattle gun proved a mere split pin was no obstacle at all to overcome, and the nuts came off easily under the power of compressed air. Next, using Harvey's puller removed the rusty brake drums, the hardest part here was getting the puller aligned and assembled on the drum. But once that was in place, using a large crescent wrench to tighten the puller up and a small sledge for some forceful persuasion, the drums came off relatively easily. Took the brake backing plates off without disassembling the shoes or other fittings and have retained them on the shelf as "spares" together with the brake drums, although these have 'rust issues', but are being kept just in case. The axles and bearings look OK and are being retained too. The diff centre too has 'rust issues' but will be retained, BTW it's a 4:25:1 ratio. The diff housing together with the sway bar which couldn't be detached have been consigned to the metal recycling bin. Then tried to get the tyres off the rims, but they weren't responsive to our attempts with hammer and bars. So I took them around to the tyre shop where the stuck on tyres were no match for their equipment. But now I know why they were so hard to remove, they were rusted on. So my dreams of a couple of extra 15" wheels came to nought. Last piece of equipment we'd brought back was an across the engine type air-cleaner but it had a lot of deep rust pitting so it too went in the recycling bin.

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"At the end of that the timing light showed both number 1 and 6 as being spot on."

Mal, about your 24 February post: This subtle comment went right past me, until it reappeared in my mind this morning. I had forgotten that even firing, multiple cylinder engines, can have their ignition timing set on either cylinder no. 1 or the other cylinder that follows it at 180 deg.

I don't know why one would check the ignition timing using both cylinders, but it would show if something were out of synch.

I remember that on some V-8s in the early '60s the no. 1 cylinder was difficult to connect a timing light lead (this was in the days before induction hook-ups). We would check and set the timing with the other cylinder that followed no. 1 by 180 deg. as it was easier to make the connection. Sometimes the timing marks were on the opposite side of no. 1, and we would use the other cylinder to set the timing in order not to have timing light leads draped over a running engine.

Thanks for the memory.

JW, some Packards like my 34 Eight require timing for two sets of cylinders, or pre-synchronizing the two sets of points beforehand to fire at a precise interval. That particular NorthEast system uses dual coils, a double-ended rotor which fires alternately at one end, then the other, etc., and each set of points serves only 4 cylinders. The object was to get a very long dwell and hot spark. The system works flawlessly. Some Cadillacs, later Packards and other makes used a similar system though with a single coil. If you have an interest you can PM me and I can send you an article I had published some years back on how to synchronize the two sets of points beforehand so you only have to time once.

Perhaps I should elaborate a bit. One set of points is conventionally mounted and you time this set in the usual manner by rotating the distributor body. The second set sits on an internally rotateable plate so that it can be adjusted (timed) without altering the timing of the first set. Of course you've got to remove the distributor cap each time to adjust it, and that's the reason to synchronize the two sets ahead of time. A synchronizing tool is shown in the 10th or 11th series Service Letters. I was never able to find the original tool so my method can be done with "stuff at hand". Of course having a Sun or equivalent distributor test stand with an adapter for the NorthEast (later Delco) drive end would be the ultimate.

Owen, thanks for the clarification. You are correct, the "older" dual coil systems were much different and required a different procedure to set the ignition timing than the "newer" single coil systems. I guess one could say that they were essentially two systems contained in one distributor. I can imagine that synchronizing the two required much care and skill. Slight change of subject, I believe the second generation Cadillac V-16s had a procedure to set the engine idle as being at a comfortable walking pace (can't remember in which gear though). At least this is what an owner of one of these cars told me. Thanks again.

Shoot at me if you will, but after all those cute little Morris' I could't resist adding the following picture of yours truly in a Riley RHD right here in New Jersey. No, I don't own it, and needed help getting in and out of it.

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Quote:
Dave,

The automotive world is very broad in it's reach. Although I wouldn't expect to see you in that piece of "badge engineering" nevertheless I'm not surprised. I take every opportunity presented to expand my first hand experiences by riding or driving in any car if offered. Both my sisters had Morris Minors many years ago and for my best friend, one was his first car. One of my sisters Minor's had a unique rust repair to it's floor, it had been completely filled with about 1" of concrete to cover the rust holes and provide an even surface! Didn't pass it's registration inspection which necessitated not just a proper rust repair but excavation of the concrete floor, a very expensive repair to say the least. The upside of this - after removing the considerable weight penalty of the concrete, performance was markedly improved even though a Minor, at least in stock form, was never a performance machine!

EDIT - I thought I had the pic's of the Morris Minors in the post intially but on going back and checking found there were two of the same pic and it was incorrectly captioned both times, so deleted those and added these.

Re the Morris Minor not being a performance machine. Somewhere I have the memoirs of the first salesman employed by the Bentley company, published in 1954. He remarks that the performance of the 3 litre OHC Bentley is practically identical to a Morris Minor or Austin A35 (!!!)