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for your concern Gerd. The middle ear infection is being treated with anti-biotics and I am slowly coming good. Although Wade is a terrific Packard mechanic I wouldn't want him performing diagnostics on me!

Monday 18th July 2011

Just a pit stop visit to the workshop this morning. There found Wade has Big Red back on the road, and went for a run on the weekend, with only minor problem being with the automatic choke. Wade has also started on Noel's '39 by dropping the tail shaft out. This necessitated use of the Special Packard Tool fabricated last week for Big Red's exhaust manifold nuts. Reason being, with the '39 stuck in OD, one set of the front uni joint bolts was at the top of the tunnel and almost impossible to reach. However the ground down spanner did just fit and provided enough turn although in very small increments to undo the bolts in question.

That's all the workshop provided me with today, but there are other stories being:

Cadillac V16's
Yesterday, after returning home from a Packard Club committee meeting, found an email from a guy in Perth, Western Australia, saying this:
".....I was looking at photos on Picasaweb and saw your photo of the workshop visit (I think 2009) showing a 1930 V16 chassis being converted to a V8. I'm currently looking for a V16 chassis to do a genuine restoration - I've got many of the parts include the V16 engine. I'm a member of the Cadillac LaSalle Club of American and here in Australia. I was hoping you might know who the owner might be to see in the off chance he would consider selling it. I'm sure I can get a 1930 V8 chassis which is slightly shorter. Thanks for any help....."

He'd found the Picasa Album #'s 111 -> 120 of pic's I'd taken during PACA's visit to Sydney Vintage Car Restorations in the course of the 2009 Packard National Rally. I responded of course, not just to try and help another old car guy out but because my curiosity had been aroused, with a link to another Picasa Album and this:
".....A couple of months ago on a visit to Vintage Motor Garage @ Central Mangrove I saw a V16 and a V8 Cadillac undergoing building of new wooden bodywork. Was told these were from WA, which begs the question are they yours? Reason I ask is that I'm curious(alright I'm a sticky-beak) and I'd also like to gain your permission to mention this in my Project Blog (link here ->https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2179&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=760 Page 77 Posts 769 and 770 refer to that visit) as a follow up and point of interest. Of course I'd keep your identity anonymous. Please let me know if it's OK....."

To which I received this response:
"......Yes I flew over a couple of weeks ago to catch up with Jonathan. That's my roadster. I don't have a problem mentioning anything - do go ahead and put whatever into your blog. I'll click on your link when I'm at a computer. Thanks for the reply and thanks for putting up the photos! All I did was do a search in picasaweb Cadillac V16. By the way VMG are about to start skinning the body....."

I also sent this:
".....I have attached a draft of an article I penned about The Packard Club visit to SVCR at Crookwell in March 2009 during our National Rally. In it there is some mention of the Cadillac conversion from V16 to V8. Looks like if you and the other Cad owner can get together it might work out well for both parties. And Gil, his wife and sons at SVCR are all decent, friendly people....."

With this response:
".....Fingers crossed however I noticed on the website that they are further down the track on this project. The body is now on the chassis by the looks. But no harm in asking the question....."

Amazing the connections that can be made on the Information Superhighway! Here's a link to the VMG Site, lots of pic's of Philfrom Tassie's '26 in the Projects link.

Peter Packard
About a week ago Noel had sent me a note and a link, which I finally managed to access after some difficulty, to see a pic of Peter and Ann Packard(Toet). I'd known for some time that Peter and Ann were in the midst of organising a motorcycle exhibition in Canberra and the picture related to that event. What I didn't know was that it'd be coming closer to home than that because Canberra is about 170 miles south of Sydney.

Then yesterday an email from Peter and Ann following the opening of the exhibition on Saturday:
".....Here is a link to some photos to let you know what we have been up to over the last few weeks. We even had good coverage on the local ABC news and a good attendance at the opening.http://www.vvcmcc.org/ ....."

So I opened the link, perused the pic's and there was Peter clothed in a Packard Rally shirt and sporting his PACA name badge as well. Shot off a reply to Peter and Ann thanking them for the link and for promoting Packards as well. Some little while later switched over to ABC TV to catch the weather forecast for the next day and who was there? Why, the motorcycle exhibition and Peter and Ann being interviewed at the opening the previous day. Great consternation and yelling on my part resulted in Kath being able to see Peter and Ann on screen! And yes, in all the confusion, any interest in the weather forecast was forgotten.

The Snodgrass Award
What's that? This, from the PAC Site explains what: "The Bill Snodgrass Awards are given each year at the National Meet to the Region whose News Bulletin has been chosen as winner for the previous calendar year. A Senior class called "Continuing Excellence" (indicated by "*"), is for those who have won a First place for two consecutive years. The award is named in honor of Bill Snodgrass, who worked tirelessly in the early years of the Club, and who re-founded The Cormorant News Bulletin, and edited it for many years. The award is based on many things, among them: regularity, punctuality, quality of printing, publicity of future and past events, technical and service articles, classified ads , creativity, use of pictures, human interest and togetherness. In a word, the award is to give recognition to the Regional publication that, by exhibiting the best qualities possible, provides the maximum in service for its members."

Yesterday, Jeff or PAC052, the editor of our Packard club magazine The Packardian was presented with this award for his efforts in not just maintaining an excellent magazine but continuing to improve it under his editorship. Congratulations Jeff! The award had been picked up by DavidM from George Hamlin, PAC's VP International, during the course of the Euro Packard Meet in France last month.

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Link to Peter and Ann's TV Interview.

Excellent interview

Thanks for posting. It's always such a pleasure to be able to finally connect a face and voice with what you previously knew only as a screen name. Apologies for going off-topic but I recently had the same pleasure in meeting "traumjaegercat" (Terry) and his lovely wife at the British National Auto Museum. Here's a picture of Terry next to this interesting piece of British auto history (I forget just what make it was).

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Tuesday 19th July 2011

Sorry, that this report is late, but problems have hindered internet access the last few days, and it could be a day or two more before normal transmission is resumed.

Back in the saddle, or on the bike, or in harness, but more correctly in my case, back at the workshop on Tuesday. First, some background, yesterday Wade had removed the OD casing from Noel's '39 R6 and then spent time trying to remove the planetary gear housing and system without success. He'd then pulled off the OD casing from the spare R9 to see if that could tell him something about whether there were circlips or something on the shaft preventing the R6's planetary system from being removed from the end of the mainshaft at the rear of the trans. Although they are two different OD's, Wade was looking for a clue to help in the disassembly process because the planetary system wouldn't move at all. This morning, before starting again on the R6, the R9 was first re-assembled to prevent confusion later in case parts became intermingled. That in itself should have been easy but because of Wade's, shall we say lubrication fetish, it proved difficult to have the OD clutch rollers hold firm in place during the re-assembly. Solution was to de-lube and a much more powerful rubber band to hold the rollers firmly.

Then it was under the '39 with one of John's pullers to try and remove the planetary system. Unable to do so because the fingers of the puller wouldn't fit between the planetary housing and the trans case. Out from under and another puller was considered but first it had to be massaged back to life because of the hard times it had obviously suffered. One end of the threaded hole into which the hydraulic piston screwed had been damaged by mis/over use and required surgery before it could function again. Grinding away the damaged sections of thread eventually allowed the hydraulic cylinder to again screw to the cross-arm. But.....undercar there was again the same problem of fitting problems with the pullers fingers. Only thing to do now was take out the trans so the planetary system could be freed from it on the bench. Wade had been trying to avoid doing this because of the extra work required but what has to be, has to be. Underneath the '39, unbolted the trans crossmember from the frame, the bellhousing bottom from the trans and bellhousing, the shift linkage rods, the trans mounts, OD cable from the frame, etc, etc. And using a trolley jack and a piece of timber the rear of the engine was jacked up and a jack stand placed below the bellhousing to support the rear of the engine once the removal process was complete. Again using the jack, the trans was supported, the trans to bellhousing bolts removed and, with the aid of Grahams muscle, the trans slid rearward, dropped down and hauled out on the jack from whence it was deposited on the bench, by Graham.

On the bench there were still problems getting the planetary housing to move. Required some brute force in the form of a couple of long bars to move it sufficiently rearward that there was enough clearance for the pullers fingers to fit behind the housing. Even then more brute force was required with a small sledge lending its weight through one of the bars to provide some movement in addition to the hydraulic push of the puller. A couple of resets of this process was required before the whole sorry mess of what was once a planetary system could be removed. Consisted of chewed up and deformed planetary gears, sheared pins, assorted shrapnel and a misshapen planetary gear cage. Not a pretty sight.

Wade was then onto the phone to friend PeterL who thinks he may have the planetary replacement parts needed. Peter couldn't provide a definite answer at the time because he was out chasing parts for a Mazda engine rebuild. Talking about the Mazda engine rebuild, Peter is going to do the re-assembly of the engine at the workshop. To give Peter a dedicated working area, Wade is providing a wheeled stainless steel trolley as a bench and parts storage area. And here's where things meld together, last week our stop at Bunnings hardware on the way to Ralph Moore Autoglass was to pick up a pair of wheels which the trolley was missing. Wade has attached the new wheels to the trolley so all its missing now is the Mazda engine and the man to put it together.

With OD work suspended, pending replacement parts arriving, attention turned to Big Red on which Wade had done some adjustment work on the automatic choke earlier. With Big Red cooled right down it was time to fire her up and let her warm up until she'd regained sufficient temperature for the choke to operate properly, ie fully open after warm up. I can report the choke now works properly. Then, and I wasn't expecting this, Wade wheeled over the Crypton Engine Analyser to Big Red to start a series of functionality tests many on the Crypton but also on Big Red. Not like a modern computerised engine system where there's an easy plug-in point. For the Crypton to be connected there are a number of disparate leads which need to be connected to individual points on the engine. So after Wade connected each lead in turn, it ended up looking something like an amorous octopus with tentacles grasping and caressing various components of Big Red's engine. Fired Big Red up again, Wade pushed some buttons, the CRT came to life, with one of the CRT display functions showing each cylinder firing by a sharp peak. But there were only 7 peaks, Wade thinks he has the display set "too fine" so will adjust accordingly. While the big dial display indicated Big Red's warm idle at 465 rpm. Left Wade to play with tune and adjust the Crypton, and by extension Big Red.

Quote:Dave,

Agreed, always good to meet the people you've encountered on-line, the people are just as much part of things if not more as the Packards are.
As to being that certainly isn't a problem. This thread has very elastic parameters so as to include things in, not to keep them out.

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What a mess with the OD. With a similar problem a couple of years ago, any ideas on what or why it is happening.

Friday 22nd July 2011

Still having internet connection problems so posting this from my son's house. Probably another couple of days before the problem is fixed.

Dropped into the workshop to "give poor dog a bone" and to catch up with what's been happening. Wade wasn't in much the last couple of days although he did receive a couple of new Twelve coils, courtesy of Barry Smith, to try out in Big Red. Wade had also examined Noel's trans for the source of the oil leaks there and thinks they are emanating from the seals surrounding the ends of the selector shafts in the trans top. As an aid to this and for reference purposes he took the shaft and seals out of the spare trans top he has. The seals on that top disintegrated when removed because they had petrified with age. And this morning he'd sourced new neoprene seals from ABC bearings which will be able replacements. Wade tells me that PeterL will be in on Monday and he should have all the parts required for the R6 rebuild.

Also received an email from Noel, which says in part ".....saw the post of the planetary gears, oh what a mess!! Cannot understand how the whole thing got welded together, would it mean that something was overtightened causing excess friction?.......Anyway, hopefully the parts from PeterL will be usable....." Noel went on to also say"......spoke with David The Flackmaster this morning. He has the bonnet piece for Harvey. I told him to send it to me....."

Quote:Noel and Howard,

Seems there is consensus that what we have here is a mess! It's not known what caused the problem but any thoughts, ideas, comments or insights are most welcome.

The package from The Flackmaster should also contain some bits for Wade and myself so will bring comfort to a number of Packard owners.

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keep em coming Mal! even if it is from your son's house!


:0)

Hank

Don't believe I ever heard you mention when it happens and am sure Wade has considered it, but the article on reverse gear lock up and damage on the R9 keeps coming to mind. Granted Noel has an R6 & the electrical side is somewhat different between the two in using a clutch instead of a governor to determine engagement speed. In other aspects mechanically and the way motion is transmitted, I believe they are similar. Just wondering if perhaps in going along the gist of the article, something like the clutch not dropping out in this case is keeping that OD energized mechanically the way mentioned and the same damage is occurring.https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SC-VOL21NO15.pdf