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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.

Monday 23rd February 2009

Arrived at the workshop in the '41 to find Wade had already been and gone, but he soon returned together with 20 litres of fuel for the '34 which was poured in and the tank and fittings inspected for leaks. Last week he'd bought some radiator hose of the right diameter and cut and installed the upper and lower hoses required and filled the cooling system with water. Earlier today when Wade arrived at the workshop he found two leaks, one from the lower hose and the other from the sending unit in the head, and these he's rectified by some judicious tightening of the fittings concerned. So today was going to be the big day, when the '34 finally roars back into life after many many years of silence. Wade then took the Optima battery out of his '37 120 as the Optima he had for the '34 had been appropriated for the '37 Super 8 when it's battery expired. Rigged up a temporary ignition circuit using the Optima and used a booster battery to turn the starter. Firstly without the ignition circuit just to get oil circulating and fuel through the lines to the carb. At this point another inspection was undertaken of the fuel lines and fittings for any leaks and lo and behold there was one. This was from the pressure dome(I think that's what it's called) on the fuel pump, hadn't been tightened enough but soon fixed.

Then a few pushes on the accelerator pump to confirm there was fuel coming through, there was, and a few squirts of quick start spray down the carb throat and all was ready. With Wade wielding he jumper cables on the starter side and me positioned on the carb side of the engine to manipulate the throttle Wade made contact. Motor spun freely gave a small lurch but did not fire. More quick start down the carb throat, more priming and another go, also unsuccessful. Same again and this time she sprang into life sounded good but didn't run for long as we both noticed the oil gauge was reading zero. As the motor shut down however Wade noticed the oil gauge actually returned to Zero. It was pumping so much pressure the pointer had gone right around the gauge and was resting at the back of the stop on zero, there being no stop at the highest indicated pressure of 75 on the gauge. Ah-ha, says Wade we'll have to adjust the pressure relief valve spring. This was done although not without it's own share of minor problems finding spanners and sockets to fit but finally accomplished. More quick start and fired her up again, with the same result, pointer on the back of the zero stop! Some more adjustments, more quick start and now running at just over 75 lbs. Further adjustment to the relief valve spring, and after the quick start, this time we were running at about 45 lbs pressure. During all this John when asked how he felt it sounded said it was running retarded so a quick advance on the distributor timing was made. And earlier Wade had noticed oil leaking from the vicinity of the oil filter, which he thought he'd fixed by tightening some of the oil pipe fittings in that vicinity. However after the last firing the oil leak problem was greater rather than better so running was suspended while the leak was investigated, and by this time the booster battery was weakening so it was put on charge for service later.

Now Wade has modified the oil filter to incorporate a modern spin-on filter in lieu of the correct cannister style filter. But you wouldn't know this from external appearances, Wade has retained the cannister and the plumbing and fittings are all carefully concealed but fully functional. First Wade carefully inspected the external features to determine where the oil was escaping from. Then after dis-assembly the internal components were likewise inspected. Not much to see, and it appeared the only way oil could be escaping was by too loose gasket fitting. This was addressed by making some new and thicker gaskets and ensuring all fastenings were tightened appropriately. Then back to the rigmarole as before. Optima for ignition, booster for powering the starter, quick start down the carb throat and although the motor turned over this time it wouldn't fire. Couldn't pursue this course of action because by now the booster was loosing power and slowing considerably. So there the '34 was left, the booster put on overnight charge for tomorrow while we turned to the '41(See Mal's '41 120 Coupe Project Blog for details).

And here's a little known fact - '34 Packards bite! Well Wade's did! While getting some tools to work on the '41 in my haste, because it's fairly close between the '34 and the '38, I caught my calf on the right rear running board bracket of the '34 and drew blood.

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That first start is a pretty exciting moment, isn't it!! That is one spectacular-looking chassis.

As to the oil pressure, I've had my 34 Eight set such that the pressure relief valve opens at about 60 psi; this was after I blew out the seam on two repro Purolator L-6 filters (I'm now running a Burr Ripley conversion which like yours is not distinguishable from stock, externally) with higher pressure. So 60 is the max cold pressure, running hot is between 35 and 55 depending on road speed, and hot idle is about 25.

I believe the correct paint color for the external oil pressure relief valve is engine green, and the acorn cap and the hex head (for the filter relief valve) should be nickel plated.

Please remind me, was this an 1100, 1101 or 1102 chassis, and which body style (#) was mounted originally?