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Thursday 27th December

After recovering from the excesses of Christmas, when a good time was had by all the family at our BBQ champagne breakfast, rang Wade this morning.

Wade told me he was not going to the workshop today. I said I would be, to further prepare the front frame rails and undersides of the front fenders by doing the metal clean and metal ready steps of the POR15 process. That was the plan, until Wade said the the guy doing the front shocks had told him that they were almost beyond redemption with one completely rusted up and had been obviously ineffective for years!

I still went to the workshop to collect the '41 Manual and the '36 to '41 Parts Books I had left there. But on returning home I discovered the Parts Book, a reprint I had bought from Faxon through eBay early in December, was missing some pages! Of course some of the missing pages were of the front shock details I was after! So after composing a message in eBay to Faxon I now await a response to their error.

Contacted Merritts, Kanters and Apple Hydraulics by email chasing the elusive 41 front shocks. And, I resurrected the WTB posts on this, and the AACA Forums. Am also following up another lead which had been sidelined when the decision was made to have the shocks rebuilt down under.

Now a positive note. Saw online, in my credit card transactions, that Kanters have charged me for most of the parts ordered earlier this month. So as I type, these should be winging their way across the Pacific destined for the '41.

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UPDATE - Received a message from Faxon, they are going to replace the Parts Book tomorrow and will not require me to return the original! I have thanked them for the manner and speed in which they have responded. They appear from this little episode to be a customer service orientated company.

G'day Mal, If your front shocks are similar to a 39 120 lever action then I may have some for you at the price of postage. Have a great Xmas, Peter Toet

Peter, they are lever action with 4 bolt mounting.

Can anyone with a Parts Book confirm whether the '39 120 front shocks will interchange with the '41 120?

All help and assistance is greatly appreciated.

Mal,

If you ever need anything else from Faxon then just let me know. They are located in the same town as I am, and I have bought directly from their brick and morter location.

Also they deal in original pieces also. I bought my original '54 Owner Manual from them. But you either have to call or email them to ask what original pieces you are looking for. Their orignal pieces are not cheap, but they do have a pretty good selection of them. So if you ever want me to go look at a piece for you, just let me know.

The parts list has different numbers, however no pictures to know if they are mechanically different. The numbers could be just a different valving on the same unit. The service letters show almost a page of different valve, orifice etc combinations for different model cars and quality of ride.

The service counselors and letters were reprinted by Linda Seebach at Small World Press many years ago. Have not seen anything recent so I don't know if they are still around or if the reprints are still available somewhere. The book I'm referencing is entitled Packard Service, 14th to 20th series.

Friday 28th December

After yesterdays news about the front shocks and the measures I put in place to find another pair I woke to find one of the major Packard retailers had responded by email quoting US$750.00 a pair and US$160.00 for shipping. Talk about a budget blower! After I picked my jaw up off the floor I went and examined my other areas of enquiry. The AACA Forum had a response advising try Apple Hydraulics and # 1966. Responded that I'd already sent Apple an email and the # meant nothing because my Parts List Book was incomplete. Further response from same poster directing me to a specific area of the Apple website and advising details of #'s. Meanwhile, there had been a number of responses in this Project Blog, one of which was from Peter Packard in Canberra Australia offering a pair of 39 120 shocks. So on consulting the Apple Hydraulics website I determined that the 39 and 41 120 front shocks will interchange! Funny though is the fact that the sides the shocks are used on reverse from 39 to 41!

Phoned Peter and he advised that Noel, a member of the Packard club here in Sydney was coming down to see him next week and he'd get him to take the pair of shocks back with him. Of course Peter, being the good bloke he is, refused to accept payment for them so I am in his debt again. Still to come is rebuilding the shocks but, with a reasonable pair to start with, Wade's shock guy should be able to work with them.

Feeling much better, I headed for the workshop and proceeded to spend time spraying under both front guards and the front frame rails with Marine Clean and then the passengers side with Metal Ready. Because the '41 is now on jack stands this entailed using a large plastic tray about 3' x 3' to catch the drips and drops and because of the size of the tray I could only do half a fender length at a time. So armed with a spray bottle of the Clean I did half an under fender and front frame rail then washed it off after waiting about 20 minutes using another large spray bottle of water. It took repeated water spraying to clear the Clean then it was on to the back half of that fender and adjacent frame rail. Although the tray was meant to catch the drips and drops because of jack stand placement there was some spillage, necessitating paper towel soaking and containment where applicable.

On returning home, found that UPS had delivered a package containing the Front and Rear End Suspension Kits I'd ordered earlier in the month. Because it's now late at night, almost midnight here, after babysitting our granddaughter I will check the packages contents tomorrow before delivering them to the workshop on Monday.

Because Wade hasn't been at the workshop since the 21st the removal of the wiring harness has not yet been done and this will be my first priority on his return. But no work now is expected until Wednesday 2nd January because of: 1) the weekend, and 2) then I'm flying up to the Gold Coast and Brisbane for my nieces wedding on New Years Eve.

Thanks to those who have offered advice.

And a Happy New Year to all.

Re the reversed side to side shocks.

In the service letters book mentioned in my last post, in 1939 there are some mentions of excess friction in front suspension on certain models. One of fixes was to interchange shocks. This involved drilling out a mounting hole and using special bolts (maybe with an eccentric) and shims if needed to allow for better alignment. It sounded like this would go forward in production.

If someone has some of the pre war counselors, it would sure be nice if Kev could post. There is a wealth of knowledge going back to 32 in just this little reprint book I have. while I don't see any copyright info, there is a reprinted by company name so guess it would be verboten.

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HH, very interesting way to fix a problem.

for that insight.

Hollander's Interchange Manual is one of the best places to find information about interchanges that will fit and function. It indicates that 39 110 and 120, and all 1941 shocks will interchange though of course the original ride characteristics may not be the same. I strongly recommend Hollanders for this and other reasons, including the extensive section on ball and roller bearing interchange. My particular volume is Volume 16 and generally covers 1936 to 1949 with a few exceptions, all US-made cars and trucks.