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Sounds like everyone's getting ready for the big rally.

Now, where did I put that master cylinder... ? Looks like the Carribean will be joining us on the rally mid way through

Booster & master cylinder are in Sydney awaiting A Rebuild. The car goes but doesn't stop!

Packard or no Packard I will still be there and looking forward to meeting all the guys from the U.S and new members

Friday 3rd April 2009

On Wednesday 1st afternoon the OD trans was looked at again because it wasn't able to be turned over by hand. Ended up taking off the rear housing mount, taking out the main shaft and spigot shaft. Examined everything, including counting teeth on gears because the cluster, reverse idler, 1st/reverse gear and top gear had been replaced and all counts agreed. So put it back together and you know what? It works! After not being able to turn it now turns freely! Can't explain it. Then Thursday 2nd, early in the piece, Peter a guy from the Packard club arrived to work on his son's Fiat gearbox. Peter lives up on the Central Coast about an hour and a half away but he's staying in Sydney at the moment and doesn't have access to his usual facilities. He'd rebuilt the Fiat trans but couldn't get it to select any gears so he brought it over to work on. Turns out when he rebuilt it he'd selected reverse gear to set it up and that's a no no you should only select any of the forward gears for set up. But with John's expert advice, although after pulling it apart, Peter now has a working Fiat trans. And Peter helped me by picking me up from home after taking the '38 there so I could return for the '41.

Anyway after the '41 and '38 were "regenerated", to coin a phrase, a re-shuffle of workshop Packard parking arrangements took place. Wade, while waiting for the '34 to be painted, is taking the opportunity to apply some TLC to "Big Red" aka the '37 Super 8. The '38 had been occupying the space near the roller door where "Big Red" normally resides so when the '38 vacated "Old Blue" took up that slot. This gives Wade a driver Packard in "Old Blue" while "Big Red" is off the road. Wade intends to do the front end, the brakes, oil leaks and some other things while he has the chance. Wade is also looking to fix the waterleaks in "Big Red" because his Kiwi mate Bryan, who drove "Old Blue" during most of the Rally but had bummed a lift with Wade for the Restoration Workshop run, had found some more leaks. These were from the cowl, with Bryan upside down under the dash while Wade was driving through the rain on the way to Crookwell. He spotted some leaks which he said were coming from the screws holding in place the canvas webbing on which the hood rests on. On taking off the right upper section of webbing it became apparent where the water was coming in. It's not from the screws but from "slots" over which the webbing sits and it was leaking through there and running to the screw ends from which it was then dripping inside the '37.

Now to today, but first after Peter and I left yesterday, Wade had removed the four road wheels and the front brake drums but was stymied by the rear drums. Wade was using Harvey's heavy duty puller but without success and no amount of hammering and not so gentle persuasion could get them to shift. The puller, tensioned right up, was left on the right rear drum overnight but still not a sign of shifting. And despite more hammering and tightening and hammering and tightening it still refused to budge. All else having failed, out came the "hot spanner", or oxy/acteylene set which was used to apply some judicious heat to the hub of the brake drum to help the process along. Some lusty heavy hitting by John and POP!!! off came the drum! Note - no heat was directly applied to the axle itself the heat was applied to the hub only. Turned to the left rear and same story, so the "hot spanner" treatment was again applied in the same manner and with the same result. Then disassembled rear brakes, removed hand brake cables, removed brake wheel cylinders and the backing plates. Wade took his own pic's of each brake for future reference and in doing so found that one wheel has the main brake springs reversed from the rest, see pic's. The rear wheel cylinders were also leaking so he got there in time before that became a real problem. Looks like the hand brake cables will be re-used but only after a good clean and lube, they were virtually inoperative. The rear axle bearings should be reusable but the seals will be replaced. The rear axles are big impressive items, very thick and with 2 bearings each side, I doubt you'd ever break one! Left Wade to continue by disassembling the front brakes but I can see next week Mal will be in full cleaning mode. Not just for the components taken off "Big Red" but the underside too which need a fair bit of "dusting", it's dirty. So all those skills I acquired when cleaning under the '41 will again be called into play.

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Monday 6th April 2009

Wade had been busy after I left on Friday and had removed the right front brakes and backing plate from "Big Red". Today he proceeded to remove the left front brakes and backing plate. He then removed the master cylinder and proceeded to clean up all the cylinders, master and wheel, before taking them around to Col, his brake guy. All will probably be stainless steel sleeved because there was a lot of gunk in all cylinders and 3 of the 4 springs in the wheel cylinders were broken. Looks like he got to the brakes just in time and this after "Big Red" has done many, many thousands of touring miles in the last 18 months including the steep descent to Kiama which had the '41 smoking it's brakes! Wade also looked at the rear axle bearings and seals with the left rear needing replacing, see pic of bearing cup. The right rear bearings and seals will also be replaced although they are in a lot better state of repair. Because of this he's currently in the process of removing the inner bearing cups.

While all this was going on I was engaged in some exciting brake component cleaning and finished the day with 3 out of the 4 brake set components looking much better than when I started. And during all this Peter, he of the Fiat trans, arrived and advised his son's Fiat is now up and running well. Peter also pitched in and made some gaskets for the O/D trans reassembly and he'll be back on Wednesday for more!

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Wednesday 8th April 2009

First, back to yesterday. Enjoyed some R & R with the Morris Minor Picnic Club on their run to the Buddist Nan Tien Temple at Berkeley about 65 miles south of Sydney.http://www.nantien.org.au/ Wade and Gina went in "Old Blue" their '37 120 Sedan while I drove the '41 Coupe. And I've been conducting some mileage checks recently with the '41 getting about 10mpg in US gallons or 12mpg in Imperial gallons for the Southern Highlands and Mittagong. While yesterday this "improved" to 10.75 & 13, the other set of plugs Wade installed late at Mittagong might have made the difference!

While down there I took the opportunity to scout out the Australian Motorlife Museum at Kembla Grange a little further southhttp://www.motorlifemuseum.com.au/ And it looks to be a very good venue for a monthly Packard club run in the near future.

Now for today. Had a visit from Gina who dropped in and "inspected" Big Red. Then while Wade tackled the front suspension of "Big Red" I was engaged in cleaning up the rest of the brake parts. Wade removed both sides but the right side had to come out complete with the shock, there being no way he could get the upper outer pin out in situ. And speaking of the shocks on the left front at least there wasn't any resistance when moving the shock arm by hand, definitely need a rebuild. Wade had also de-lined the front brake shoes by drilling out the rivet heads and punching the body of the rivets from the brake shoes. Interesting to see on the inside of the linings they are marked "Primary" and "Secondary". Wade is also attempting to remove the rear inner bearing cones from the rear axle housing but so far without success. Use of a slide hammer is impossible and he's considering some alternatives. And if there's anyone who's had experience of this on a mid 30's Super 8 we'd be interested to hear how it was done.

And yesterday I 'd spoken to Wade about PackardInfo member Bill B's request to me as to where he might be able to locate a '37 120 water pump pulley and fan. See Owner Registry entryhttps://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/registry/View.php?ID=407 Of course Wade had them "on the shelf", being from his '37 120 when he replaced the badly cracked block '37 motor with a '46 motor and it's accessories. Now it was just a matter of getting them from Sydney to Brisbane, about 550 miles north. And it just so happens that on Monday I'm flying north to visit family on the Gold Coast but about 50 miles south of Bill. I've also made arrangements with my sister for her to take the pulley and fan with her when she goes to Brisbane next week. At that point Bill will have to travel about 10 miles to pick up the "goodies" aka, "rare and vital Packard parts". Feels good to be able to help out another Packard owner.

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Sounds like your are arranging your own "Berlin air-drop" of Packard parts!

Thursday 9th April 2009

Dull day at the workshop. After all, how exciting can scraping and cleaning Packard suspension parts be? While I scraped, Wade was further disassembling front end components with a little help from me from time to time. The right upper outer bolt was particularly tight needing a puller and the rattle gun together a little ingenuity and it yielded in due course. Wade also removed the front seat squab, front floor, and with a little muscle from yours truly, the toe board. This to facilitate removing the engine and trans to address the oil leak issues each has. The grill surround and radiator will also be removed prior to the engine's removal. Also needing to come out are the rear shocks, these too need rebuilding as they are both leaking.

Wade had been expecting Noel to arrive with his '39 120 for some attention to the radio which contrary to my thoughts hadn't been fixed prior to the National Rally. The aerial issue was OK but power wasn't getting to the radio, this was on the Friday before the National Rally. The taillights also weren't working then and Wade had jury rigged something to overcome that and now Noel was coming over for the real fix. But he didn't make it, being too busy, and will bring the '39 over on Tuesday.

And to all - Happy Easter

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Quote:
Bill,

Fan and pulley arrived on the Gold Coast today, expect a call from my sister soon about delivery/pick-up arrrangements.

Tuesday 14th April 2009

Last night fell into an old trap, lost my post on the days activities, should know by now because it's happened so many times before but got lazy. Anyway, here goes again.

After returning from the Gold Coast, actually it was grey with the rain so didn't live up to it's name at all, it was off to the workshop. Wade had been busy in the morning removing the driveshaft from "Big Red" as well as both rear shocks. He's now contemplating removing the rear end but before doing that has to re-site the jackstands currently under the u-bolts. I started on scraping front suspension parts again but hadn't been going very long when Noel arrived with his '39 120 sedan for some of Dr Wade's personalised Packard treatment.

After some re-shuffling of cars in the workshop, Noel was able to back the '39 into the space between "Big Red" and the '34 Chassis, Seemed that Wade had the left rear hupcup off and loosening the wheel lugbolts before it had come to a stop he was so anxious to "treat" this patient. Reason Wade was doing this was the big stain on the WWW, with thoughts it could be a leaking brake cylinder, axle seal or both. By this time I'd caught up with Wade and had a trolley jack under the rear end while Wade slipped some jackstands in place. Harvey's brake drum puller then did it's job on the brake drum, no dramas like on "Big Red", and once off all was revealed. Brake wheel cylinder not leaking - good! Rear axle seal leaking - bad! The oil had been running out the drain hole, good, down the outside of the backing plate, through the slot in the wheel then down the outside of the tyre and WWW and of course also down he inside of the tyre. At this point I gave Noel a lift back to his warehouse and left Dr Wade to continue administering treatment to the '39.

Noel's warehouse, which besides containing the remaining PACA "Club Stock" also has a primary function of handling table tennis equipment. Noel's background is in Table Tennis and he has a storied history in the sport. In fact Noel organised and ran the table tennis tournament at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. I also saw Noel's table tennis memorablia collection, but forgot to take a pic. Suffice to say table tennis has come a long way from the long handled bats and cork balls of over 100 years ago. Also learned some things about modern table tennis equipment and the much higher tech approach to the sport now. Finished up with Noel showing me pic's he'd had received from PACA member Col in North Queensland who's restoring a '38 120 Limo as well as his restored '20's Model T Ute.

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Wednesday 15th April 2009

After the vampires had finished with me in the morning, and they had to have two bites with a miss in the left arm but struck blood in the right, down to the workshop in the afternoon. Found Wade had fixed Noel's left rear axle seals and it was all back together. He'd also installed a NOS breather cap, provided by Noel, on the diff housing as the original did not have a hole in it to breathe! This was where I came in and while I pumped the brake pedal Wade bled the wheel cylinder which had been disturbed.

Then came the real work of the day, cleaning the left and right front suspension components. First scraping the excess grease, dirt and gunk off, then into the parts cleaner for more of the same and a final going over with brake cleaner. Not perfect, but a lot tidier to handle, there'll be a final clean and paint(POR-15) before being reassembled with the parts on order from the US.

While I was cleaning, an essential part of any Packard work or restoration, Wade was finishing off the '39 by cleaning up the WWW tyre, reinstalling the wheel, tightening up the lug bolts, tightening and split-pinning the axle nut and re-installing the hubcap. Next he was onto the '39's radio and found there were two blown fuses, now fixed so the radio now works! Except when plugged into the aerial! Works fine through Wades finger but I doubt Wade wants to act as Noel's aerial. So now he has to find out why the under running board aerial isn't working.

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Thursday 16th April 2009
Quote:
Bill B emailed me today after receiving the '37 120 parts referred to above saying "Thanks for transporting the fan and pulley to Queensland and for getting your sister to bring them to Brisbane. They are both in good condition and will be easy subjects for a "make-over"............reconditioning will not get done until next week. Should get both manifolds back next week complete in new shiny black, so slowly getting there! Probably ready for a month-long visit to the upholsterers by mid to late June barring any unexpected hold-ups." So it looks like his '37 resto in going well.

And a few pic's of todays cleaning exercise at the workshop this afternoon.

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