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Tuesday 11th October 2011

Wade had taken Fleurette home overnight and there she was sitting in the carpark when I arrived. All looked promising as far as oil leaks were concerned with no obvious puddles after being parked at Wade's overnight. But to better check things out, once again Fleurette went up on the hoist. And check out she did. Trans good. Engine OK after sump bolts were tightened, the front and rear oil seal leaks although minor are major to fix properly so will be monitored and tolerated for now. The pinion seal was pristine clean but....seeing there was no excess oil under the car it was apparent there was oil seeping from the pumpkin to diff housing joint. All the pumpkin bolts were tightened, the area cleaned, and no doubt Fleurette will be up in the air again tomorrow showing off her bottom!

Once Fleurette was back on the shop floor Wade had a job for me to do on her, re-install the front seat squab because it had been skating around on the trip home and back. The squab fitment has been a problem for Noel previously and it also proved so today. And in trying to get it in today we actually ended up taking it out! On the bench, upside down, it was apparent that the right side "clip" had been moved from it's stock position. But left that as is(sorry, forgot to take a pic) and with some brute force the squab returned to where it should be.

Another pet peeve of Wade's, besides leaks, is rattles and Fleurette has many to contend with. However there were two in the same area which Wade was determined to address, those emanating from the horn button and horn ring. They annoyed Wade so much that at stages on the trips home and back Wade was gently holding the horn button to prevent it rattling. After getting the horn button and ring off the steering wheel hub the cause of one of the rattles was readily apparent, a very ineffective spring under the horn button. The spring looks like it was hand wound from very thin wire and has lost whatever tension it did have earlier in it's life. Wade again turned to his magic shelf but no horn spring, instead the next best thing a '34 door handle spring, looks very similar to the real thing! And it worked. The other rattle, after careful observation of the horn button, horn ring and steering wheel hub, was the spokes of the horn ring contacting the hub. A judiciously placed piece of tape on the hub, for each of the three spokes, and another rattle silenced. Noel, although it won't be as quiet as your old Roller, I'm sure you'll notice the difference.

Then it was time for The Fossil to receive some attention, back on 30th September I wrote, Quote:So, instead of returning to where we left off yesterday, we returned to where we'd left off a week and a half ago.

Started on the left window by cutting about 1/4" off the front end of the top bailey channel the window glass winds into. The packing and rebending processes meant the channel was now too long. Wade used a fine cutting disc on his angle grinder and, after draping The Fossil in more old sheets to protect the paint from little hot metal mini meteorites, the cut was made. So quickly so, because I had my eyes shut(my form of eye protection in this instance), that I could hardly believe it was already done. Then the trimming and insertion of packing, redrilling of screw holes and refitting the bailey channel. Done, but Wade wasn't happy. Could still see the edge at the bottom of the glass, just, but it was the ragged edge from the sealant used that was bugging him. Because Wade would never be able to sleep peacefully again if he didn't "do something", Wade did something. He pulled the window out to trim up the offending ragged edges. Only this meant the outside door handle came off, the door lock mechanism came off, the wooden frame that encompasses the mounting of the door lock mechanism, the window handle and the quarter window mechanism came off. Then finally the quarter window frame was undone, the door window manipulated out and the quarter window frame temporarily re-installed. Door window on the bench the offending ragged edges are now ragged no more. Then back it all went into The Fossil. Left side done, now for the right side. This time disassembled everything first and gave the offending ragged edges the haircut needed, then reassembled everything into the door. Followed that with the packing and refixing of the bailey channel.

And Wade is phoning John, Appin, tonight to arrange for John's '40 110 4 Door Touring Sedan to come in for it's broken universal, trans, OD or diff, one of these, all of these or some combination thereof to receive attention.

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Sam Irwin - Tall Tales but True! (chapter II)

Quote:




Mal, try to connect Sam and Matt who is looking for a RHD steering box. To quote him:
Quote:

BTW Due to excessive demand the Picasa link in post #872 has conked out.

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Quote:Gerd,

Matt is probably looking for a RHD steering box with a faster ratio than one off a Packard can offer, to help the Biposto in it's time on the track. Besides, although I had already planted a seed with Sam for another Packard part that Matt desires the response was underwhelming. I think Sam wants to hold onto all parts of his "parts car".

Concerning the link in post #872, the response from Sam when he saw the album was that it was nice but he didn't want to share his backyard with the world. Therefore I have limited the visibility of the album in accordance with Sam's wishes.

Thursday 13th October 2011

Yesterday, in my absence, Wade had spent a lot of time on the rear door windows of The Fossil. Had disassembled all rear doors hardware, removed the window glass and tidied up the channel the glass sits in. Had also shimmed the right rear door bailey channels to obtain a snugger fit for the glass. The glass had been running smoothly but wasn't running vertically because there was too much movement between the glass and the bailey channel. Now the glass runs both smoothly and vertically. We started on packing the left side bailey channel this morning and were almost through doing that when there was a whisper in my ear, wasn't expecting that!

It was Annet, (Appin)John's wife. They'd followed their '40 110 Touring Sedan over, on the back of a tilt tray tow truck, for repair of a broken universal joint and possibly more. Out in the yard there was the '40, have to find out if she(he?)[John, you'll let us know won't you? ] has a name, on the back of the tttt in a most undignified stance. The snout of the diff was pointing directly down. The tttt was backed into the entrance of the workshop and the '40 unloaded and then pushed over to the hoist. Up on the hoist inspection revealed the broken pinion flange universal joint, the hand brake cables had snapped or been torn from the backing plates AND the "mounting pads" on the diff housing had broken off, hence the diff's rotation. Visual inspection at the trans/OD end of things didn't show any apparent damage but that would be looked more closely later. Another thing which wasn't broken was the rear flexible brake hose, in fact that was probably the thing that prevented the diff housing from rotating further. Just as well it didn't break too otherwise the car wouldn't have been able to stop at the time of the incident!

Because Annet was taking John to work, after the '40 was delivered, they didn't stay for the tear-down although they did enjoy a coffee, made by that Master Barista John, before they departed. We were also joined by Harvey, who had called in to see Wade, with Harvey very quick to offer assistance in the form of a brake drum puller which Wade declined, more of that later.

Proceeding to the tear-down, first the front universal joint was disconnected from the OD flange. The rational here was to determine whether there was apparent damage to the trans or OD. This was to be checked by dropping the '40 down and starting her up, except it didn't. The battery was low having sat for about a month since the incident happened. However, after a 12V boost, the '40 rattled into life and after warming up a number of tests in gear, in OD, locked out of OD, etc showed that end of the drivetrain is working fine. Back up in the air serious tear-down began with the remnants of handbrake cable disconnected. The tailshaft, which Annet found in the grass verge by the side of the road after the incident after John couldn't locate it, had it's rear universal joint removed and the replacement John had bought off eBay some time ago "just in case" fitted. At this stage it was looking like the major part of this repair was to be the re-welding of the mounting pads to the diff housing.

At this point lunch intruded. It's a tradition for a formal lunch at the workshop every Thursday. although even that has become subject to change. Lunch today was homemade pizzas made from a variety of ingredients including ham, cheese, tomato paste, cherry tomatoes, prawns(shrimp), figs, salami, etc, etc washed down by your beveragec of choice. All I can say is, it was delicious and for the record mine was Coca-Cola. But like many Thursday lunches it was spoiled by a constant stream of deliveries and other distractions, So much so that formal lunch day has now been moved to Tuesday, starting next week! Even Harvey returned during lunch bearing a brake drum puller which he was determined Wade should have in case it was needed, and it was!

Lunch and other distractions aside it was back to the '40. Rear wheels off, axle nuts off, brake puller applied and each brake drum eventually came off with a loud pop. Thanks for the puller Harvey. The brake drums were being pulled to check for damage to the hand brake cable fittings, there was none, but a leaking right axle seal was discovered instead. Also disconnected the brake lines and removed the backing plate assemblies. So far, so good. But.....then Wade noticed the pinion flange for the rear universal joint was bent! Hadn't wanted to take out the pumpkin but this development changed all that. Propped up the snout of the pumpkin, drained most of the oil, undid the pumpkin to diff housing nuts, "broke the seal" holding the pumpkin to the diff housing then removed the prop and rotated the pumpkin while I held it. Gravity then took effect and I staggered to the bench with the pumpkin, not helped at all by tripping over the rattle gun on the way, but I made it. The pinion flange was removed and from Wade's magic shelf a replacement flange was produced. The replacement flange was cleaned up along with the full floating mounting pads. It is apparent the right side mounting pad is not looking as healthy as the left side pad. The left side pad has a flat "bottom" sitting on the bench while the right side pad has a bend in it. Additionally the left side pad "fits" snuggly from whence it was wrenched while the right side flops around, to coin a phrase.

Parts required at this stage are new hand brake cables, new pinion seal, new rear axle seal kit and new rear flexible brake hose. But that could be subject to change as work progresses. Additionally I'll pull the sparkplugs and clean and re-gap them and Wade will conduct compression tests while the plugs are out.

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Ouch! That certainally looks like it hurt - not to mention the damage it would have done to the laundry bill!

Is there no retaining strap or cross member on the car to prevent a broken prop shaft from 'poll volting' the car as it looks like has happened here? I remember hearing stories of some of the very early Ford Falcons in Australia having a habit of doing this and know that a number of people fitted leather or metal straps under the prop shaft just to the rear of the front universal to stop it from happening. If the rear uni lets go it just drags the shaft on the ground (that would be after it spins around at strange angles and flogs a few things to death), but the front one breaking? I shudder to think what might happen with a much lighter car and I have hear tales of diminutive Austin 7s being put onto their roofs.

Friday 14th October 2011

Arriving at the workshop I was put to work cleaning the diff housing of the dirt, oil, grime and grease adorning it. But just prior to that the diff housing "on the shelf" was inspected in case it fitted. It didn't! While I was doing that Wade did some housekeeping, including refilling the grease gun, then started on the mounting pads preparing them for re-attachment to the diff housing. I joined Wade at the point where brute strength was no longer making an impression. Instead Wade turned to the hot spanner, mounting the right side pad in the vice and using the oxy torch to heat it then re-shaping it, taking a couple of attempts before it attained the required shape. Part of this process were a number of trial fits on the cleaned up diff housing on the bench. Finally the mounting pads were placed on the rear springs, still in the car, and the diff housing slid back into place. Result? Looks pretty good! Then while Wade ground the stumps of the welds off the insides of the mounting pads I cleaned up the gasket face for the pumpkin as well as the oil slick it had deposited on the bench top since sitting there from yesterday. Wade then ground off the weld stumps on the diff housing using an angle grinder. Mounting pads back onto the springs and diff housing onto the pads and it felt as well as looked good. While Wade was busy organising the arc welder, for John to tack weld the pads to the housing, I was doing more cleaning, this time the U bolts, nuts and washers. Wade and Graham then departed, to walk round the corner, to have the mounts securely welded to the housing. Only trouble was the guy wasn't there. While they were away I took the opportunity to clean still more parts in readiness for re-assembly.

And just prior to leaving for Friday lunch, Wade picked up Noel from the railway station.. Back at the workshop Noel took the opportunity to see John and Annet's '40 110 and hear of it's tale of woe. Noel was then able to depart in Fleurette. I trust he had an uneventful trip home, he deserves it.

Quote:Matt,

Fortunately this era Packard has a X member which surrounds the front of the tailshaft and the front uni. Would make a hell of a noise if the front uni broke but shouldn't pole vault. What appears to have happened in this instance is that the diff housing U bolts weren't tight. Seems John had been hearing a "clunk" for a while, thought it could be the uni joints and checked those and found them to be OK. Because of the loose fasteners it looks like the movement of the diff housing trying to rotate finally reached a point where, when the car was put out of OD coming off the motorway, it finally snapped the welds, snapped or pulled out the hand brake cables, bent the pinion flange and broke the rear uni joint. Luckily the rear flexible brake line between chassis and diff housing remained intact so Annet, who was driving at the time, could bring the car to a stop. All that was accompanied by a lot of noise and because the front universal joint mounts to a splined "slip" joint which permits fore-and-aft movement of the tailshaft it only has one way to go, backwards, and it slid out on the road without any complications.

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Yes There WAS a loud noise.

When I was interested in the car and Annet asked how big it was (and we all know how big these things are comparitively), I told her it was a Junior model. Of course, eventually she saw it, but it has been called "Junior" since then.

John, now that you mention it I have heard that story before. "Junior" it respectfully will be from here on in.

Mal, this is a spectacular failure. She is lucky the rear brakes continued to work to bring the Packard to a safe stop. Checking the rear spring u-bolts is now on my list of maintenance items. Remind Wade to replace the flexible rear brake line as it has most likely become compromised by absorbing the force of the rotating differential. Thanks.

(o[]o)

Quote:John,

We're on top of that as evidenced by the prior day's post Quote:

Regarding your other comment of:

Quote:
Actually John, Annet probably pulled up on the front brakes only because the flexible hose was kinked to such an extent that brake fluid couldn't get to the rear cylinders. Lucky the line held otherwise, being single system hydraulics, there would have been nothing!

Also received an email from Noel, wherein he said ".....I had a good trip home yesterday. All went well but there seems to be a bit of a squeak under the bonnet which I'll investigate further next week....." Wonder if it's because Wade fixed the horn button and horn ring rattles that Noel can now hear the squeak?