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Friday 23rd April 2010

Arriving at the workshop found Big Red up on Rick's hoist with Wade "topping up" all the grease points. Although all the suspension had been rebuilt and greased prior to Big Red going back on the road, Wade ensures that after some initial running in that all greaseable components are "topped up", just in case. He then set about checking out his fuel tank sender unit, because the gauge had a flicker, to see whether it was grounded properly and the sender was functioning properly. This necessitated me climbing a ladder to get onto the hoist then into the front seat to turn the ignition switch on or off and then monitoring the fuel gauge while Wade was under Big Red plugging his multi-meter in at various points and bypassing wiring as required. Turns out there was a faulty connector and its replacement has solved the problem.

While Wade was working on Big Red I was installing valves, valve springs, etc then setting the tappets, specified as 0.007" inlet hot and 0.010" exhaust hot. First I had to clean up the valve spring retainers although they'd been cleaned previously. Four months cleaned back to bare metal left some surface rust which the media blasting cabinet fixed. Inserted each valve into place from the numbers Graham had marked on the head of each one. Then valve by valve the anti-rotator, valve spring and retainer and then applying the valve spring compressor, doing the corners first because these are the least accessible, to enable the collets(with a light smear of grease so they stuck) to be slipped into place and the spring compressor released. Only had one mishap at the end of each valve attempt where one of the collets slipped out and had to be done again. Of course there were lots of slips along the way with collets regularly slipping out of oily fingers. Fortunately Wade had provided a telescopic magnet, he's done this before, so I could easily retrieve any errant parts. With all valves, springs, etc in place it was onto setting the tappets and because the settings given in the book are "hot", and I was doing it "cold", the inlets were set @ 0.008" and exhausts @ 0.012". Will go over the settings again on Tuesday to ensure they are all OK.

Quote: Peter,

for the info, my mechanic will be pleased!

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Tuesday 27th April 2010

Short half day at the workshop. Started by re-checking the tappet clearances. Then onto cleaning up the front of the engine plate and the gasket surface of the timing case cover prior to re-fitting them. Oiled up the new crankshft seal. Also cleaned up the snout of the crankshaft and the hub of the balancer/lower pulley, and that's where a problem reared its ugly head. While cleaning up the snout of the pulley hub noticed what I thought was a crack. The more I looked at it the more it looked like a crack. And why would this be so? Because it is a crack! Up to this point the engine assembly had been going well, slowly but well. But not to fear, surely Wade would have one tucked away? Almost, he had half of one, but unfortunately it was the wrong half. The half I needed was the hub half, not the outside balancer half which Wade had. But what about the worn-out engine out of John's '39 which was slowly leaking oil in the corner? Looked the same, even though it is a 110 and not a 120 engine. Only way to find out was to take it off, clean it up, compare and try it. Came off easily, cleaned up well, compared very favourably but was too tight a fit. Some massaging with 400 paper on the interior of the hub and a likewise cleanup on the crankshaft snout and there we had it. A nice snug fitting pulley/balancer. Next Wade put in a call to Graham Wilkins about my concerns about whether the new pulley/balancer itself needed balancing. The answer was yes, and because I was leaving soon for granddaughter sitting duties I took the opportunity to leave at that point to drop the balancer off with Graham. If I'd had the time I could have stayed and taken it with me, but because I was on a tight timeline said I'd come back tomorrow. And here I got a surprise, Graham said he'd drop it in at the workshop tomorrow morning because he has a delivery to make in the neighbourhood!

And what was Wade doing while I was discovering a crack in the fabric holding the universe together? Besides confirming said crack, finding the wrong half of a replacement balancer and removing the old balancer from John's '39 110 engine, he was re-installing the radio back into Big Red. He was doing this outside in the sunshine, a lovely autumn(fall) day here in Sydney and while doing that had a call from Noel. Outcome of which is that Noel's '39 120, presently in my garage, is likely to go down to the workshop tomorrow. It'll change places with Old Blue, Wade's '37 120 and Wade will start work on replacing the wiring harness. Only trouble is, I fired up Noel's '39 yesterday with the intention of giving it a short run to keep things circulating but never left the garage. Couldn't find Reverse or First gear and it appears the shift is hanging up for want of a better term. The plan is that Wade will drive Old Blue up late tomorrow morning, work on getting the shift fixed in the '39, then driving the '39 back to the workshop.

Other recent items of interest, were working on the running boards again yesterday with still work to be done on both boards, and receiving delivery of the chromed & domed head nuts and washers I'd ordered last week from Max. Seeing Harvey's nuts the other day, I just couldn't resist the allure of the "bling".

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Mal, it seems that rebuilding Packard engines at the Workshop is easy as 1-2-3. I like how the rebuilds of the inline 8 engines have been documented!

tracking the ''bling''....well you are right about this one Mal. I think its a way to see, how long one postage can travel from point A to B!

Wednesday 28th April 2010

After donating blood plasma and platelets earlier in the morning started Noel's '39 up and still couldn't find anthing other than 2nd and top gear. Noel had given some instructions "I think I probably left it in overdrive. You have to pull the lever out (under the dash near the vent handle) in order to reverse it." and "by the way it needs to be in neutral before you pull the lever right out. If it sticks half way, which sometimes happens, you can pull it out all the way while the engine is running. The idiosyncrasies of vintage motoring!!" Well in, out, idiosyncrasies or whatever it still wouldn't go into reverse! Called Wade, I'd alerted him yesterday about this, and a little later he arrived. Brought his shop light with him, I'd alerted him about that too, because there's not much light in my garage. Found the gear linkage out of whack which some gentle persuasion easily fixed. Back in place some dry runs shifting gears and it all looked and felt to be working. However after starting the engine, although there was an improvement, now had first but still no reverse. Turned to muscle power, mainly Wade's while this fat guy sat behind the wheel, to push the car out into the driveway and roll it down onto the road. Thankfully my driveway slopes downhill from the garage. Wade then slotted Old Blue into the garage, took over driving of the '39 and he followed me back to the workshop. Once there another manual effort was required to back it in but this time Wade steered while John, Graham and I pushed her into the recently vacated bay.

Wade then set about familiarising himself with both the new harness and the wiring as it presently is on the '39. Wade also removed Noel's radio, although he'd fixed the speaker previously(It didn't actually have a speaker in the speaker box and Noel had wondered why it didn't work, not even static!), it still doesn't give a good sound. So Wade's nights as well as days will be taken up on working on Noel's '39.

While Wade was doing that, my efforts were directed to the '41's engine. Turns out Graham Wilkins wasn't able to bring the balancer over this morning so he had it couriered over in the afternoon. First up was re-installing the oil gallery plugs on the outside of the block. Next the new large cam gallery welch plug at the rear of the block. Then the new head studs, all 27 of them. The bellhousing was then bolted back on to the block. At this point the flywheel was going to be re-installed too, but......no bolts! Seems they are still with Graham Wilkins so I'll contact Graham tomorrow morning and pick them up before going to the workshop. Finally the timing cover was installed, but not before it was exchanged for one from the seemingly never-ending supply of parts on Wade's shelves. My cover had a dent in it where the cork seal is meant to seal. A quick clean up of the "new" timing cover, liberal application of gasket cement, pre-oiling of the new timing chain and gears and on it went.

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Things are really moving ahead there at the workshop.

Love the look of those new pistons and shiny bores Mal! I've got a box of 8 new ones which I get out every now and then for a bit of 'inspiration'!

Pity it will be along time before I get them moving 'up & down' like they should!

Thursday 29th April 2010

Before leaving for the workshop phoned Graham Wilkins about the missing flywheel to crankshaft bolts. Graham rang back a little later to say he didn't have 'em, or couldn't find 'em, but did suggest he could source some ARP replacements. Discussed with Wade on arrival at the workshop and after he scrambled through the "junk box" found 7 of the bolts of which 6 cleaned up nicely which was good 'cause we needed six. I then rang Graham and told him of "our" find and he agreed ARP bolts probably weren't necessary on a standard 120 engine. However, a little later, Wade also rang Graham as we were trial fitting the flywheel because there appeared to be two sets of alignment marks. This was quickly sorted out and we continued fitting the flywheel to the crank per Wade's marks. Flywheel on, next was the clutch and pressure plate which was accomplished thanks to Wade's spare spigot shaft but.....Wade then realised we hadn't installed the clutch fork! Off with the pressure and clutch plates and a slight re-positioning of the engine on the bench so the bellhousing slightly overhung the end to give clearance for the clutch fork. And, after the fork was bolted to the bellhousing, back on with the clutch and pressure plates.

During this Wade had been in and out of Noel's '39 familiarising himself with and inspecting the wiring harness and starting dis-assembly of portions of it. Along the way he has discovered a number of not too good connections, inappropriate routing and other less than satisfactory situations, he was not impressed! But what could I do next on the '41 engine? Why re-install the tappet covers. Fairly straightforward, even for me, the only real drawback being the gasket cement used. I tend to be fairly heavy handed so consequently end up with this sticky substance on myself as well as the gasket and sealing surfaces.

What else to do on the engine? Why the oil pump and the water pump. Had previously dis-assembled and cleaned the oil pump but still needed Stan to drill the new shaft so the gear could be pinned to it. Although Wade's done this before it was decided to have Stan, our machining man, do the job. Wade rang Stan and arranged I'd take the pump body, new shaft, pin and gear over to Stan on my way home in the afternoon. Wade also marked up the instructions that came with the oil pump kit so Stan had everything he needed for the job. The water pump? Although it was functioning well when we took the engine out for rebuild it was decided to rebuild it as well. And here's where some advice would be welcome. There is a clip that positions the shaft in the housing which inserts via an access hole in the housing. And when taking the clip out, it snapped! Wade would like to know if the groove is also present in the housing as well as the shaft? Or if anyone has come up against this situation and how was it solved? Doesn't want to jump into it and push the shaft out and damage the housing. So, HELP!

Speaking of pushing things out, I was entrusted with pushing the old throw out bearing off it's collar. Now in this situation, rather than being "entrusted" it was more akin to a pilots first solo flight. While I'd watched and assisted on numerous occasions where Wade had pressed things in, out, off and on I'd never done it myself! At this juncture Noel arrived with some parts for DavidM, which he'll pickup tomorrow, together with manuals and wiring diagrams for the '39. Leaving Wade and Noel to discuss things, I managed to press the collar out of the old throw out bearing. Then, reversing the operation, pressed the new bearing onto the collar. Although relatively straight forward, I think I gained my wings on my first solo attempt!

And speaking of wings, Wade and Gina are off in Big Red tomorrow for the Wings Wheels Wine & Wool weekend at Mudgee. In preparation for which Wade had spent some time today checking Big Red over in readiness for the trip.

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Sunday 2nd May 2010

Between short sessions power sanding the '41's running boards, short sessions because the palm held belt sander being used heats up quickly, I thought I'd do this.....
Quote:
But.......It doesn't seem to appear in the Parts X-Ref.

Kev, what am I doing wrong?

Mal send me the info you are trying to add and I will try it from my side.

Quote:Kev,
for the offer, but I tried it again today and it worked!

Only trouble is, some time ago I promised the Flackmaster I'd put in some cross references for '37 Super 8 wheel bearings which I didn't do at the time. Now, with the passing of time, and "old-timers" disease playing it's part, although I have pic's of the parts and boxes with #'s I don't know which refers to what! Sorry David, I now know I should have done it at the time.

Wednesday 5th May 2010

At the workshop this morning found Wade under the rear of Noel's '39 continuing with it's re-wiring. So I started by cleaning up the back plate and the "special" nuts and bolts for the '41's water pump which hold it to the pump housing. After I finished that, Wade emerged from under the '39 but instead of continuing with the water pump attention was directed to the oil pump which Stan the machining man had returned yesterday in our absence. Stan had pinned the oil pump drive gear to the new shaft and gear. After lubricating the new gears and shaft, cleaned up the pump housing and end-plate surfaces, coated the surfaces and the gasket with gasket cement and bolted it back together. Next re-inserted the distributor drive together with the circlip which retains the drive in place. That done attention turned back to the water pump. Needed to pull off the fan pulley boss and then press out the shaft and bearing. What a job that turned out to be. Needed to use Rick's hydraulic press because John's press(too narrow) couldn't accommodate the pump housing in the way it needed to be held. Even then it was a real struggle with the hot spanner being brought into play to heat up the boss. The heat treatment, just a gentle heat both times, had to be repeated because in adjusting the press setup partway through things had cooled sufficiently that it was holding fast again. Got there in the end, and speaking of which, the other end now required the press treatment. This was the part Wade was concerned about last week because the bearing locating clip was broken off, but he'd been assured by PeterL that he'd encountered this problem and the shaft and bearing would push out without any problems. No problems, but it too was very stubborn, resulting in the bearing shell breaking but no damage to the pump housing, pheeew! While I cleaned the pump housing and the impeller Wade returned to his re-wiring. Cleanup here was a mixture of scraping, wire-wheeling and media blasting. Cleanup finished, it was then the reverse of that done before with the new shaft and bearing pushed into the housing then the impeller and new seal pushed on the shaft and finally the boss pushed onto the other end of the shaft. At this juncture I left Wade to return to the re-wiring while I went home to mow the lawns. This might conjure up visions of vast manicured green swards of lawn so maybe I'd better just say "to cut the grass". Oh, and Wade tells me he was a bit perplexed to find 2 wires in the rear part of the new harness both marked R. Turns out they were for a reversing light. Wade had forgotten to specify which side the light was located so they provided wires for both sides!

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