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Monday 11th January 2010

Driving to the workshop this morning and what do I see in a local wheel and tyre business? No, not a Packard, but a '40 LHD Dodge Coupe. Now these would be just as rare as Packards in Oz, so to record the moment for posterity I stopped and took a few pic's. Then onward to the workshop where PeterL was with Wade. Peter had called in to pick up his re-surfaced '38 120 intake/exhaust manifolds. During the course of our discussions it came up that Peter, who's installed an R9 overdrive in his '38, would be interested in the setup that Phil(Phils38cpe) has in his '38 Coupe when I mentioned that it engages at the press of a button. So Phil, you've posted about this but, where do I find it to pass onto Peter? And Wade came up with a question of Peter, seeing he's now the MG guru in our circles. Gina has a friend who's interested in selling his '67 LHD MGB with steel wheels and it's only done a genuine 37,000 miles. Only trouble it's in Brisbane, Australia. Any takers?

After Peter left it was into the '41 but first we moved Big Red's crankcase, now with camshaft re-installed onto the engine assembly bench. Then the crankshaft was moved onto the shop bench and after cleaning it was dropped into the crankcase. Sorry, I meant to say, lowered ever so gently into it's welcoming crankcase. That done turned to the '41's block. Helped by the fact that on Friday Wade, with John's assistance, had ground a socket extension to fit the end plugs of the oil galleries and removed them. I'd previously tried but couldn't find a tool to fit the recessed plugs used.
Wade and John, looks like I owe someone a socket extension. Wade then walked up to see Stan, and it looks like he's going to be the guy to replace Ivan for our little machining tasks. Saying that, apparently he has a mill at home besides lathes, and might even be able to do surfacing jobs but has to see if his mill is big enough for Packard manifolds and suchforth. While Wade was away I started on removing the welsh plugs from the '41's block but they resisted all my efforts and I had to call on Wade for assistance. As Archimedes once said Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world so guided by Wade, with Archimedes looking over his shoulder, a longer lever was employed to successfully free two of the three plugs. The third plug was a real #$%^&* resisting all the way but finally it's grip was broken. This one turned out to be about twice the thickness of the other two, a real heavy duty item. Wayne also called in during his lunch break and we were able to tell him we saw his 352 in Russ's Four Hundred on Saturday.

My next task was to "assume the position" under the '41 where I spent the best part of three hours scraping the inside of the x-member, the bottom of the cowl and the front floor. Not finished yet but most of the heavy work is now done, another session should see these areas ready for Marine Clean, Metal Ready and then POR-15. I don't know if it was skill or luck while I was flat on my back, but I didn't end up with mouthfulls, eyefulls or nosefulls of fallout. Tend to think it was more luck than good management. Wade did gave me a hand to remove the throttle linkage bolted to the lower part of the firewall. Meanwhile, Wade standing upright although checking on me from time to time to make sure I didn't nod off, installed the main bearing caps and torqued them down to spec.

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Wednesday 13th January 2010

Yesterday Wade had journeyed south to Helensburgh and picked up more painted panels and parts for his '34. Among them were the rear lower panel, valances, front frame covers, drivers seat(RHD), trunk rack, firewalls(2), etc, etc. Parts remaining to be painted are front and rear mudguards(US=fenders UK=wings), bonnet(US=hood), radiator shell and front seat back. Another delivery of parts arrived for the '41, namely the sleeves. And had a call from Harvey, he's after a rear welsh plug for the '39 120 he's rebuilding for his boss and, what do you know, Wade's got one! But when he called and started talking about a welsh plug at the rear of the block I couldn't remember one on the '41. Wade was able to allay my concerns because later model 120 blocks don't have one......Phew!

Spent my time time today cleaning, first the cross firewall throttle linkage, then under the car(again) this time finish scraping, wire brushing then blowing out with air. Finished by cleaning up parts of the front cross member not accessible till now. While I was doing that Wade was busy putting new plugs in the cleaned head and block of Big Red. He then installed the flywheel and torqued and split pinned it up.

And this from my previous post.
Quote: for your PM response Phil, I'm including it here for all to share. I wasn't what I thought I remembered, but it works -
"Actually I have an R11 but I do believe the electrical setup would be the same. I simply ran the wire from the governor to a on/off toggle switch under the dash. Then from the toggle switch to a relay. When the gov. hits it's set speed (around 25 MPH) it grounds the relay and energizes the OD solenoid (provided my toggle is in the on position). A lift of the gas pedal and viola _Overdrive. To kickdown I flip the switch to off and I hooked up a momentary button to ground out the dist for a sec. It's been working fine.
Hope this helps"

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Thursday 21st January 2010

After Wade spent a couple of days away from the workshop at the end of last week, and I missed the first three days of this week being away myself, I managed to get there for what must have been a good half hour today! Over the last week some things that happened were 1) More parts arrived for the '41, should only be one last lot to come, 2) Wade's finished assembling components in/to Big Red's crankcase in it's upside down state, 3) Stan, the new machinist, has already made a new clutch/brake pedal pivot for the '41(forgot to take a pic), 4) Yesterday Wade attended a funeral for a PACA members mother, 5) Also yesterday other PACA members attended former PACA member Ken Gilbert's funeral and 6) Wade re-assembled the '34's trunk rack. While I was there, took a few pic's and, helped Wade turn Big Red's crankcase right way up so re-assembling of engine components can continue.

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Wednesday 27th January 2010

After what's been an extended break, back to the workshop today. Although I did drop in on Saturday morning for a few minutes for a phone number and ordered some POR-15 for the painting phase not far away now. Saw that Noel had been there on Friday and left me some magazines, including the Hemmings Packard issue. He also dropped off the NOS rear view mirrors I bought on eBay and which I'd had mailed to the Flackmaster, guys. And took a pic of the new clutch/brake pedal pivot pin that I forgot to take earlier.

Wade had been working on Big Red's crankcase but it was the old story about 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Wade had painted the crankcase, because there were stains there which defied removal. Prior to that he trial fitted the roller rockers in their housings and thats where the step backwards occurred. Because the rockers are not Packard, there was now some interference where the middle cam bearing is held in by it's two piece brass housing. This necessitated some judicious grinding of the brass housing, just enough to give clearance, but with removal of cam , grinding of housing, re-install cam, trial fit then repeat those same steps, a day was virtually devoted to overcoming this little speed-bump.

Today, before Wade got back to Big Red's engine, we took the '41 120 engine block and head over to Redi-strip at Blacktown for chemical cleaning. And all going well it looks like they'll be ready on Monday. If that's the case when we pick them up instead of bringing them back to the workshop we'll take them straight to Wilkins Engineering for fitting of sleeves, grinding crankshaft journals, surfacing of block and head(if required), removing old and installing new cam bearings, etc, etc. It'll probably take Graham about a month but that'll work in well with Wade's timetable. Reason being he and Gina are off to New Zealand in about two weeks for South Pacific Packards National Rally known as the 2010 Wild West Wander Rally, and won't be back until mid March.

Back at the workshop, with a pickup of some washers at Lee Bros as a pitstop on the way, Wade resumed work on Big Red's crankcase. While he was inserting con-rods and upper bearing shells I cleaned the camshaft and crankshaft so come next week they'll be ready. Then I was again scraping and cleaning in and under the '41. Part way through my labours, a break I thought I was thankful for, I gave Wade a hand to lift the very heavy cast iron block onto the crankcase with eight con-rods now poking through at various heights. Now carrying the block is very manageable shared between two old codgers but then lifting it high enough to clear the skyward pointing con-rods is another matter altogether! As Maxwell Smart would say, "missed it by that much"! Necessitating calling on John to re-align the rods and another effort from the old guys to get the block up, above the con-rods and then down. The down was the only easy part, fortunately with John aligning and re-aligning con-rods, it didn't take too long but it still seemed like an eternity. Wade then carried on, in his usual fashion, bolting the block and crankcase together while I returned from whence I came, back under the '41 not to clean but to recover.

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I REALLY like that pin on the magazine Mal!

The pin came courtesy of Noel. I'll ask him where he obtained it.

Thursday 28th January 2010

My time today was spent Marine Cleaning and Metal Readying the lower firewall, front underfloor, inside the X-member and portions of the front crossmember. Prior to that I had to rearrange many of the parts laid out around the '41 so they wouldn't get flooded, it's a messy operation especially when it's being conducted indoors. A mop and bucket were necessities to soak up the overspray and then the water used to wash off the areas sprayed, I'm becoming quite a dab hand at it. And tomorrow.....it's POR-15 time, I'll have to be very careful as there are a lot of hard to reach, awkward places where it has to be applied.

Wade meanwhile was working on Big Red's engine. First he installed the roller rockers in their housings onto the crankcase. Then he installed the rings onto the pistons. And just before I left, with the help of John and Rick the crankcase/block assembly was rolled onto it's side on the bench. This will enable Wade to push the con rods out the top of the block, install the now ringed pistons to them, push the whole assembly back into the cylinder and install and torque up the big ends.

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Yeah, those finned rod bearing caps are really beautiful, first used in 1934, the last year of babbitt, when they went to the oil cooler and full-flow filtration.

Looking at the cotter pins on the main bearing cap screws, I seem to remember that mine were originally cross-wired in the aircraft style and didn't use cotters. I redid them that way just as an interesting exercise, cotters of course are just as effective, just a bit less elegant.

A question - why engine-green paint on the rocker arm roller covers? They were of originally painted to match the aluminum crankcase. Just a matter of personal taste?

Friday 29th January 2010

POR-15 painting time today. Wade wasn't getting in until later in the morning so it was a matter of preparing for painting including masking off part of the wiring harness. The part where it comes up through the floor under the left lower corner of the cowl and exits at the left bottom of the firewall. Not very long, but just enough to worry about, and in a very awkward place to access. Even with the engine out, the steering column is still in the way, and being right handed didn't help either. That done, and just about to climb under to start, when a visitor arrived in the form of PackardInfo member Snapey, aka Matt. Well that cut short painting for a while, with Matt and I sitting down for a very very interesting discussion about his speedster ideas as well as his family background in vintage/historic race cars. But after an hour or so of this delightful discourse I had to leave Matt to do what must be done, that is POR-15 under the '41. Though Matt came dressed to lend a hand I declined his invitation to do so and left him reading Wade's copy of Robert Neal's Packards at Speed.
for the offer Matt, it was much appreciated.
About half way through my labours under the '41, Wade arrived and caught up with Matt including an inspection of the '34 rolling chassis under the carpark ramp. Matt took some pic's for reference together with discussion about Matt's proposed Speedster project. By the time I finished my POR-15 painting they were back inside looking at engine blocks, crankshafts, etc, etc. Wade is reluctant to part with the '34's engine but the rolling chassis is another matter(I think). Maybe this from another thread could be an option? Quote: It'll be interesting to see how things develop whatever direction this goes in, I'm sure Matt will keep us updated.

Wade had asked a little earlier had I seen Big Red's block/crankcase now that the pistons were installed. I hadn't, because it was sitting on the bench shrouded in material when I arrived and I hadn't disturbed it, just taken a few pic's of how it had spent the night. Comfortably, I'd say. When unveiled, first saw the bottom end with those great finned rod caps. Next took some pic's of the pistons now filling the cylinders. Graham Wilkins in his engine work had measured and marked each piston for size, and found two differed in size a little from the others. Not much, but when re-sleeving Graham selected these two pistons as #7 and #8 with the sleeves for these cylinders being bored to suit. And it turns over very easily and smoothly using a bar on the front pulley nut, for all the weight in the reciprocating assembly very, very impressive. After Matt had departed, with Wade's copy of Packards at Speed clutched under his arm, I also bid farewell, leaving Wade in the midst of cleaning the oil delivery system for the bottom end.

Quote:Dave,

Sorry forgot to ask Wade, but I think it just is his personal preference.

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Monday 1st February 2010

Late start after donating blood plasma, Wade was about to install the sump(US=pan) on Big Red's crankcase. The oil pump and pickup together with the lower end oil plumbing system having been installed earlier. While he was preparing to do that I took the filler plug out of the '41's steering box to check the oil level. This because the two '39's that Harvey works on, as well as Noel's '39 when checked by Wade, were all bone dry. Foruntately mine was close to full and will only need a top up. Sump back on Wade then cleaned and masked it up and gave it a couple of coats of silver to match the crankcases rejuvenation.

Then Packardinfo member tabletennisport, aka Noel, arrived not quite bearing gifts but almost as good. He had a box of rear trans mounts from "club stock" and from which I chose a pair to replace those in the '41. Now I have to pay for them, so Russ I'll deposit the money in PACA's account and send you an email. Noel also filled us in about his US trip and the Packards and Packard people he saw and met throughout his journey.

After Noel left, cleaned up the replacement trans mounts while Wade attended to installing Big Red's water jacket side cover. This entailed more of one of Wade's favourite past times coating all sealing surfaces with gasket cement. It doesn't matter how careful you are with this irritatingly sticky stuff some always ends up on hands and fingers. I also cleaned up the flywheel, pressure and clutch plates for the '41 to take them to Burt Bros for rebuilding and/or refacing. When done they will then be ready then to go to Wilkins Engineering along with the reciprocating parts for balancing.

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