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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.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 southmotorlifemuseum.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 entrypackardinfo.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
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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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Friday 17th April 2009

Happy anniversary Kev! And good to chat with you today.

Now back to the workshop.

Cleaned the rear sway bar and left and right front springs for "Big Red". While doing that Wade was into Noel's '39 and he found the radio's connection to the under running board aerial was broken. Further investigation revealed the aerial wire needed replacement as well. Now Noel has a working radio pulling in the signal courtesy of the under running board aerial.

Next was relocating the jackstands under the rear of "Big Red" to enable the differential housing as well as the rear springs to be removed. The diff to cure it's oil leaks and the rear springs for new bushes and cleaning. Wade also tells me he's going to replace all three hand brake cables although he hadn't intended doing so originally.

There was also a guy in the workshop today, one of Rick's mates but I can't recall his name, saying the car yard he works at has a '34 Packard there at the moment. So on Monday, if all works out, we'll return Noel's '39 to him, drop into Carburettor Service Company for some new jets for Barry's '51 Convertible, have a look at the '34 in the car yard, pick up some new bearings for "Big Red" and move the '41 into the space vacated by Noel's '39 to find and fix the noise problem.

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Monday 20th April 2009

Removed diff housing complete with centre section from "Big Red" after U-bolts were persuaded to loosen their grip on the housing. Balanced housing on floor jack and wheeled it to one side then with Wade under "Big Red" lifted it onto left rear spring then out onto floor. Removed brake line, top cover then loosened centre section nuts turned housing over so centre section was underneath housing and eased centre section off. That was my cue to go into cleaning mode again and "hours" later it was all accomplished.

While I was cleaning Wade drained the radiator of "Big Red" and removed all fasteners holding it in place. Only things remaining in place are the hood stays and these will come off once the engine crane is returned to the workshop. That radiator is one heavy piece of equipment! Wade was also undoing linkages, removing the carb and other things in preparation for lifting the engine out after the radiator.

During this a PACA member Graeme, owner of a '28 526 Coupe, had dropped in. Said that he recently started the 526 for the first time since he's owned it, and that's 36 years, so progress is being made. Noel also called in and picked up his '39 after it's radio and rear axle seal work. And Wade showed me a '40 trunk handle that Rob from South Australia had left with him on the weekend to pass onto PACA member John(aka Appin on PackardInfo).

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Perhaps I am missing the obvious, but once the diff is off, how does one reset it when reinstalling to the correct angle to the drive shaft?