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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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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 (!!!)

Friday 6th March 2009

Enough of Morris Minors and back to the real cars, Packards!

Before going to the workshop rang Tim of Carburettor Service Company and he told me the Carter WDO off the '41 looks OK with the metal in generally good shape. He still has to finish it and check the auto choke and it should be ready on Monday. But.....just before submitting this post Tim rang and the carb's was ready so I ducked over and picked it up. Tim explained to me the work he'd done but talk of metering rods and suchforth were lost on this individual. He did say the float level was way too low, the jets were the right size, the venturi's were the right size, the metering rods were almost on spec and the foot starter switch is fine amongst other things. But what's that? From my limited understanding of things Packard, the foot starter wasn't on the '41's although I could be wrong. And Tim tells me the tag off the carb, see pic, definitely doesn't below on a '41 Packard Carter WDO. So because the distributor is also off a later model engine it's apparent there's been some mix'n'match going on in the '41's past.

Didn't do anything at the workshop, except take a couple of pic's of the dis-assembled O/D, as we were going in the '37 Super 8 to pick up some "goodies" from sponsors that Wade had arranged for our 13th Packard National Rally later this month. First went to Flashlube at Seven Hills,flashlube.com.au/ where Terry had the box of goodies ready as he saw the '37 arriving in the parking lot. Then to Meguiar's at Silverwater,meguiars.com.au/?gclid=CK7vle2ljZkCFQcupAodIg_naA where Peter also had a big box of goodies for us. Reason we went in the '37 was that Peter's daughter, Alison, is getting married February 2010 and asked Wade if his '37 120 could be used as the bridal car, the 120 being the car he'd seen Wade in previously. Wade instead offered the Super 8 and brought it over to show him, and wasn't Peter and a fair number of other people there impressed! There could be a problem though because about that time Wade and Gina are due to fly out for the 2010 New Zealand Packard Rally. However I've volunteered to provide the Bride with what will be the ride of her life, in a Packard that is, in case Wade can't do the honours. Before we left Meguiar's in the Super 8, Wade had Peter tackle some small sections with some Meguiar's products with mixed results, because of it's coolant overflow problems some of the paint had become "stained". Where it was heavily stained the paint had become pitted and although better after application was still not great, while other areas less stained cleaned up nicely. It must be remembered the Super 8 was repainted in 1961, just before it spent the next 46 years mostly in a Museum. And another thing - it turns out Kevin, future husband of Alison, is one of my youngest son's good mates! Small world.

Just to back up a bit, on Wednesday spent a few hours at the workshop where I refitted the radio to the '38. Although not "correct" it is period correct although with some shortcomings including mismatched volume and tuning knobs and a broken dial face. But it's the only radio I have for the '38 so back in it went. It had been hanging off a sheetmetal bracket under the dash and that was part of the problem because the cables from the radiohead to the box were stretched with tight bends not allowing the knobs to function easily. It's now been re-mounted under the centre of the dash with gentler bends in the control cables. But I'll have to re-mount it again as it's too close to the cowl vent handle now! Also fooled around with Wade trying to get the O/D internals out of the case but without success. I also picked up the old 6V Battery Charger Wade had made up me new leads for. And the shelf above the bench had fallen off the wall sometime during Tuesday night resulting in stuff everywhere but no real damage just time and inconvenience to re-fix it to the wall.

So on Thursday, after Wade had rung Peter Toet(Peter Packard on PackardInfo), who is also our club's Technical Officer, Wade was able to release the working parts from the casing. Seems the problem was probably light rust holding the shaft and a gentle tap was all that was required. Yesterday Wade also put all the split pins into the clevis pins and nuts/bolts requiring these on his '34 chassis. He'd either hadn't used them earlier or only inserted and loosely expanded them. The finishing off of these was left until he was certain that all the mechanical components were working and any or all adjustments required had been done. He tells me he didn't realise there were that many split pins involved and he doesn't want to see another one!

On Monday, if I can see because I'm having an eyetest with the usual blurring drops in the morning, I'll re-mount the WDO on the '41. Wade won't be in because he's heading south to check out the progress of the '34 in the paint shop. Because I'll be left to my own devices this will be a real TEST! Tune in again on Monday!

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Carter WDO 644SA would be for a 1948-49 (22nd series) Eight.

I'm showing the correct Carb for a 1941 120 would be either a Carter WDO-478S with a mid year change to WDO-512S.

Dave & Kev,

Thanks for the two-pronged reply to the Carter WDO conundrum. Now I know what I have and what I should have!

EDIT - Added a pic of the invoice detailing the work done.

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Tuesday 10th March 2009

At the workshop a little chit-chat with Wade to start with. First about his trip yesterday to view the '34 in the paint shop. It's currently in primer with the final touches being applied to this part of the process. Next Wade advised a member of the Packard Club Bruce from Wagga Wagga, about 460km south west from Sydney, needed a set of king pins for his '38 Business Coupe. Having a spare set, Wade thought I might be able to help out which I was only too willing to do. So about 1/2 an hour after I spoke with Bruce the king pin set was on it's way, the package being delivered to the local post office in Wade's '37 Super 8 no less! I'll catch up with Bruce at the Packard National Rally later this month when he arrives in the Coupe, got to "keep those Packard's rolling".

Finding it hard to separate the workshop happenings from what happens with the '41 Coupe. The above started off in the '41's blog before I realised it needed to be separated out. And re-reading the previous post in this thread demonstrates just this dilemma. But enough of my whingeing, I'll just have be be more focused when drafting these reports.

Wednesday 11th March 2009

On the way to the workshop stopped in to say to my Dad who turned 88 today.

After yesterdays effort on the '41's distributor, I took down 20 sets of points I'd bought 'on spec' from eBay some months ago. There were 10 NOS sets for 37-39 6's & 8's and 10 NOS sets for 48-50 8's. Neither type are close to fitting the distributor in the '41 so they'll now become part of the Packard Swap Meet later this month. Barrie, if you're interested, let me know if the 48-50's would fit yours. I'll post a pic in the next few days because I left them all down at the workshop.

Then turned to the '41 and rang a windscreen bloke about re-rubbering the front and rear windscreens, with the new Steele rubbers I bought a couple of months back, but I'm still waiting for the call back 7 hours later. Well, there's always tomorrow.

While waiting for the call that never came, Wade busied himself preparing his '37's for the Rally. For the 120 this consisted of starting it up, after it had been sitting for the last couple of months, listening to the motor ticking over very smoothly at idle once warmed up, a visual inspection of components, ensuring the stop lights were working, topping up the silicon brake fluid and checking the oil level(slightly over full). The 120 had a service shortly before it went into this hibernation so things like brake adjustment, trans and diff oil levels had been attended to then. Next was the Super 8 and because this has had a fair bit of running in recent months a more detailed preparation was required. For this Wade used Rick's hoist to do an oil change and a chassis lube job.

While Wade was doing the Super 8, I was back to one of my favourite pastimes cleaning Packard parts. Specifically the R9 OD in pieces on the bench. First up the very large rear bearing in the OD Case was pressed out, but not before a mighty fight with it's retaining circlip. No doubt Special Packard Tool #xxxxx would have helped but without it Wade managed to loosen it's grasp anyway. Then pressed out the double rear oil seal, looks like they really want to keep the oil in. Then it was up to me to scrape the outside muck off, wire brush it, use the parts cleaner and finally clean it down with brake cleaner. Thought I'd done well until Wade ran a finger inside the OD case and it emerged with black oily goo over it. The humiliation! So another internal parts washer and brake cleaner application later, this time passing the white glove test! Also cleaned up the trans top and shifter arms, part of the internals for the OD and the yoke for the universal at the rear of the OD.

Then the phone call came, not from the windscreen bloke, but my wife Kath to say the grandkids were on their way again. No, this is not an excuse to avoid cleaning Packard parts, it really happened. And a great afternoon was had enjoying our two grand daughters.

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