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Monday 2nd February 2009

Rang Brian before leaving for the workshop and made an appointment for Thursday 9:00am to finish off the wheel alignment. Down at the workshop started by reading the '41 Manual about Econo-Drive operation because yesterday on the drive up to Kath's sisters I thought I'd check it's operation. Suffice to say I didn't have a clue about what I was supposed to do so pulled out the Econo-Drive lockout knob and now find out the Manual says not to do that when stationary! Suffice to say, I found in theory and in practice that it doesn't make the Econo-Drive work. However I now have a proper understanding of how to operate the Econo-Drive and will put this into practice on Thursday on the way to and from the wheel alignment.

Reading the Econo-Drive instructions then spurred my interest in the O/D picked up on Saturday and on checking it, turns out to be an R9! I've corrected the original post where, on trying to read the pic of the O/D, I deciphered the markings as R6. Alright, I know, I'm old and the eyesight's not as good as it used to be, but that bad! You'll also notice I've now started calling the O/D, Econo-Drive, because the Manual I got from Russ in Canada uses that terminology while other books use the Aero-drive terminology! Think I'll just call it the O/D and that covers the lot!

Then culled the pile of parts of the obviously too far broken or rusted to be of any use as well as non Packard parts. Some of those retained will be further culled as they are dis-assembled and internal condition discerned.

Turned to the '38 and started by jacking it up and putting it on jack stands. Getting better at this now with the extra practice recently and got it set up without any hitches. Under the car, examined the clutch linkage because of the very heavy pedal pressure required in it's operation. Then with me in the cabin and Wade under car operated the clutch through a number of cycles. First with the return spring in place and then without the spring. Clutch was still heavy to operate without the spring and Wade is of the opinion it's heavy because of the springs used in the pressure plate. More than I want to do at the moment so left it at that. While under the car also checked the trans oil level, OK - because it ran down my arm when I took the top plug out. And the diff oil level, probably OK although there was no overflow this time, and will re-check after re-placing the pinion oil seal. Also took the opportunity to tighten most of the sump bolts, the bell-housing bottom bolts and the diff centre nuts. Surprising how many required that little bit of taking up.

Next removed the '38's radio because Wade, with his other "hobby" of old radios, is going to look at and repair it hopefully. His track record is good from my viewpoint as whatever he did to the '41's radio has it working well. The '38's radio although not original or correct is at least period correct so suits the car. It did work when I first bought it but soon reverted to only one volume - bloody loud - so it hasn't been used for a while. The bakelite head unit has seen better days, it doesn't have a dial pointer and has two disparite knobs. The bowden cables from the head unit to the radio/speaker box also had tight bends which could contribute to volume and tuning difficulties. And when wade took the box apart found that the ends where the bowden cables connect were virtually free-wheeling. Fortunately he thinks he has some the same at home in his radio parts "junk box" and will have a look at it on the weekend.

While Wade cleaned his '37 Super 8 I removed the spark plugs from the '38 and cleaned them up in the re-furbished blasting cabinet. What a difference, both the cabinet operation and the cleaned plugs! Can now see what you're doing when using the cabinet, the new sealing edges coupled with the vacuum hook up keeps the dust from obscuring the work at hand. Found that 2 of the plugs were closed right up and 2 others partially closed. Wade re-gapped these and checked the others than I re-installed them and fired the '38 up. Still has a small miss and Wade with a quick check by grounding each plug individually found that some had weaker spark than others so it looks like a new set of plug leads is required.

And the reason Wade was cleaning the Super 8? He's going on a run tomorrow up to Kurrajong, about 40 miles west of the workshop, where Sydney's Radio Museum is located.
http://www.pleasetakemeto.com/australia/new-south-wales/sydney/attraction/listing/9112579/kurrajong-radio-museum He's heard and knows about it but has never been there. And it just happened I was at a Council of Motor Clubs meeting as the Packard clubs delegate last Monday evening when the guy behind me said the OASIS group was having a run to the Radio Museum in February. Asked him for more details at the end of the meeting and, except for a prior commitment, I'd be attending the run there too. I'm sure Wade will enjoy the day and look forward to hearing about it later this week.

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Friday 6th February 2009

Today's story is told in two parts, see Mal's '41 120 Coupe later for the rest of the tale.

Took the plugs out of the '38 because Wade had mentioned on Monday afternoon that maybe they were too long and the valves touching them when opening might be the reason a few were closed up. Took 'em out, checked them as OK, and put 'em back. No valves touching plugs.

And talking to Wade he tells me the body for his '34 will be painted soon and next week there'll be a re-shuffle in his part of the workshop. This will mean moving the rolling '34 chassis from the corner so that it's next to where my '38 now is, I think! All will be revealed next week. The guy doing the body has one more job to finish then the '34 will be sprayed, Wade will pick it up and bring it back and start fitting it out. The guy will then do the fenders, hood and other parts requiring painting. Wade's also going to have the exhaust system finished on the '34 before the body arrives. That will entail trailering the rolling chassis to the exhaust shop so S/S exhaust tubing can be bent and fitted for the missing tailpipe and engine pipe. The S/S muffler having been fabricated and fitted many months ago.

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Thursday 12th February 2009

Arrived at the workshop to find that, earlier this week, a new dance craze known as "The Packard Shuffle" had been in vogue with Wade's '34 rolling chassis now next to my '38. This had been accomplished by pushing the '37 right back in it's slot, lowering the '38 off the jack stands and pushing it right back then manoeuvering the '34 with it's front up on a trolley jack past the '37 and '38. This in preparation for taking the chassis on Monday, by car trailer, to a local exhaust shop at Gladesville to have stainless steel engine and tail pipes bent and fitted. I think Wade would have rigged up an old soap box and driven it up but he hasn't got upper and lower radiator hoses fitted yet! Then, after the exhaust and radiator hoses are fitted and water added, the engine will be ready to be fired up.

Next will be getting the body back and fitted to the chassis. The body is just about finished with only two things to complete, the top of the body where the insert is and the grill surround which has been slightly damaged and needs repair. Once these are done the body will be transported from the panel shop to a paint shop just down the same road. It will then be sprayed and arrangements made for returning it to Wade's workshop. Other parts Wade will have sprayed include the 'valance' panels, a cross member, from I think, behind the grill shell and various minor bits and pieces. There is also some thought on how to return the body to the workshop. One being to trailer over the rolling chassis and mount the body on it for transport, another just to transport the body separately after painting. Wade also told me that before the body went to the panel shop all the doors were set up on the body and it will be painted with the doors on rather than take them off and have to re-fit them again.

All this talk about Wade's '34, but what happened today in the workshop? Not much really, just cleaning up some of the rusty parts brought back from the Central Coast recently. Wade had done some earlier in the week in my absence, an oil filter housing and bracket and a Delco-Remy coil and bracket. Don't know if the coil works yet, Wade's going to try it on the '37 120 in the near future to check. I started on the other oil filter and had to discard the body of that when rust through was found, retained the brass fittings though and the top and bracket are OK. Next was a thermostat housing but it too was rusted through so it joined the oil filter housing in the bin. Had better luck with a fan pulley and a clutch rod and both cleaned up OK. During all this Noel arrived to pick up the Battery case shell for the Optima battery he's fitting to his '39. Wade had charged up the Optima and also performed minor surgery to the Battery case shell which came from Gary O... of The Southern California Region of Packards International, being one of their clubs projects.http://www.packards-today.com/catalog.php Also rang Wayne tonight about the 2 engines needing to be picked up, but nothing has happened with them although he expects to get them organised tomorrow all going well, so I'll call him again next week.

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Friday 13th February 2009

After managing to avoid walking under ladders, running over black cats and breaking mirrors on this inauspicious day went to the workshop.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

Started by asking Wade where the '34 grill pieces were and he pointed out to me they were now boxed up and will go to the chrome platers next week. He had also put out the old wooden body rails and a cross piece which he's taking down to a guy in Canberra who's going to use them as patterns for his '34 resto. The other pieces he had out were the front floor panels which he's going to clean up in preparation for the body arriving. He explained there are differences between the LHD and RHD panels because of the mechanism used to convert the pedals from one side to the other. I've included a couple of pic's here and this link to a Picasa album for others.http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/WadesWorkshopFeb09#

First item on the agenda was to load the '34 chassis onto the workshop car trailer in readiness for it's trip to the exhaust shop on Monday. Wade hooked the trailer up to his Holden Ute and brought it down and backed it into the workshop from it's rooftop parking berth. Trailer disconnected from the Ute and manually aligned to enable the chassis to be pushed straight on. First attempt was a disaster because the front of the trailer lifted right up when the chassis weighed down the back. The trailer was then re-hitched to the Ute and succes, there it was on the trailer. BUT, couldn't get the swing up trailer ramps back into position because the rear frame rail horns hung too far over the back. And at this point Wade remembered the same thing had happened some years earlier. Thanks Wade, would have done nice to know that earlier. So off the trailer, then manouevoured the chassis into position by a bit of too and froing and turning, actually quite a bit of that, because of it's not so small turning circle so that the rear was facing the trailer. First attempt with a bit of a run up just failed. Second attempt, with a longer 15' run up, succeeded in spite of your correspondent slipping and finishing his push on his hands and knees. No doubt an hilarious sight but fortunately no images of this were captured. The loaded trailer was then backed into the depths of the workshop and Wade checked the tyres, ensured the '34 was secured properly and all was in order for Monday.

While Wade was doing that I turned to Packard parts cleaning. First up was the EE-11 carb the top of which was melted. Because it had this damage, opened it up to determine whether it was worth saving, unfortunately it wasn't so it got the bin treatment. And cleaned some other parts including a road draft tube and an oil pump pickup assembly. By this time Wade had finished with the trailer and we turned to the distributor which had been partially dis-assembled yesterday. Saved the cam from the distributor shaft along with the cap clips, all the small screws and the bakelite insulator(may use this as mine has a crack). Next I selected the steering box, which has the steering shaft oxy cut, but lugging it back to the bench it started dribbling water, not a good sign. Set it up to drain and Wade took off the bottom cover then the side cover. Surprisingly the gears look in good condition, but that's as far as we got, and will have a detailed examination next week.

And here's something for you '34 guys. When Wade bought the car it was literally in pieces. As you know he's restored the chassis, engine, trans, rear-end, suspension, steering, etc, etc. Because it was in pieces, when Wade came to the tie rod and he'd never seen one before, and because it had a bend in it thought it had suffered some damage earlier in it's life, so of course straightened it. Only later when assembling the front suspension did it become apparent that the bend was there to clear the sump so he had to then undo what he'd done before. As soon as Wade told me this today, and my eye's lit up about taking a pic and publishing the story, I sure he regretted it but agreed that it made a good story.

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Don't let Wade forget to check and make sure all the Bijur lines are free and the drip plugs functional before he drops the body on, some of it can be annoyingly difficult to get at with the body installed. And don't forget the gaiters on the springs.

Tuesday 17th February 2009

At the workshop in the afternoon and found the '34 chassis back in it's slot complete with exhaust system installed. Wade had taken it to the exhaust guy yesterday together with the remains of the old rusted engine and tail pipes to use as templates. The guy there who did the job has years of experience and when he saw the '34 his eyes lit up. When Wade told him what he wanted and whether he could do it, he showed Wade his '56 Chevy with Big Block, etc, etc, it's got stainless headers on it and said words to the effect of: "if he can do that he'd have no trouble doing the '34". Even cleaned up and re-used the heat shield where the tailpipe kicks up over the diff housing. See pic's for details.

What got done today was the dis-assembly of the trans and R9 O/D picked a couple of weeks ago. Wade has no O/D experience because all his Packards and the ones he's worked on previously didn't come O/D equipped. So rather than just pull it apart Wade studied it on a step by step basis as it came apart. Wade's got a great memory which he demonstrated on the '41 re-assembly where my 'old-timers' disease reared it's ugly head time and again, I think! Because comprehensive instructions were not included with the O/D it's dis-assembly posed some problems in finding the right way to do it. The "finding" usually came down to literally finding the circlip holding whatever it was in place before that part could be removed. And on first glance the R9's internals look OK, not that we've got anything to compare it to. All the parts we brought back showed the effects of sitting out in the weather for the last 5 years. This was in evidence internally in the trans with water penetration and some rust evident, although Wade is optimistic that they could clean up OK, we'll see.

Wade had also looked further into the steering box partly dis-assembled last week and found most of it too far gone to keep, although the worm gear might be OK so it's been retained. And today threw out the very rusty tailshaft but retained the 3 uni caps and felt washers still attached.
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And Dave,

Mentioned your concern to Wade about the Bijur lines and plugs and there won't be a drama because all the lines and fittings are new. I forgot your comment about the gaiters but I'm sure Wade will have this covered.

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Tell Wade to be careful around those 'gators, they can be pretty mean!

Gator's came in handy at The Battle of New Orleans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_New_Orleans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Q47i4zGBs

I was under the impression that crocodiles were the species most common in Aust. More than likely this is due to crocodile Dundee movies. Have no experience with either and wish to keep it that way.
My idea of cold blooded is a car that does not run well until fully warmed up.
Still enjoy your reports Mal usually one of the first things I read in the morning after my coffee. Also thank Wade for his work which makes your reports possible. Between you two all of us here have a view of down under which I have learned to admire and appreciate. Keep up the good work and good reporting .

Al,

You're right of course, there are no alligators in Australia only crocodiles.