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After the visit today I tried to recall what I could of the conversation I had with the first guy that began restoring the car.

I am fairly sure he said I had to grind the crank to fit the bearings I could find.

Hi Mal, You will probably find that the Copper and whitematal bearings are Bedford. many people make the mistake and put the Byrellium Copper bearings into a packard with a non-hardened crankshaft. The end result is that in marginal lubrication the copper bearings work harden and chew out the crank. The "tin/lead" bearings are also Bedford ( last set which I obtained was from Tasmania) but suitable for Packard cranks. I have used them in the past. I believe that you will find that the rods have been tunnelled to accept the Bedford ACL bearings. Let me know if you need some bits. Peter

Wednesday 9th November 2011

No Packard work yesterday, we were on the Morris Minor Picnic Club run to the Careflight helicoptor base at Westmead hospital. Most interesting and informative, and Harvey and Carol joined us in their '40 Willys, see this album..

Today though it was back to Packards, with a road trip occupying the morning and early afternoon. Loaded Junior's block and crank together with #3 piston and rod into the back of Wade's ute and off. After running an errand for Gina which took us in the opposite direction we then set a course for Wilkins Performance Engines. There Graham measured up bores, taper, out of round on the block and the big end and main journals on the crank. Pistons are marked 0.040" but the bores are now in the vicinity of a further 0.008" over. The big ends are in the vicinity of 2.055" while the mains are "I can't remember", should have taken a pic of the numbers Graham noted down. The various numbers didn't look good which was confirmed later. While there we also saw the engine out of Chris, starliner's '53 Mayfair Hardtop which Graham is going to machine, etc, once the parts arrive from K's.

Back on the road again and around the corner to Award Diffs who had called Wade yesterday to advise the pumpkin out of Barry's '38 Twelve was ready. They'd fitted a set of high speed gears which necessitated machining of both the back of the crown wheel and the face it bolts to. Speaking of bolting to, Terry there advised they used EH Holden diff bolts for this, they were exactly right. Additionally they also replaced the very large diff bearings, this was unexpected as there had been no noise detected from failing bearings. Next stop was for double insulted cable for the Crypton Engine Analyser then to Grippy rubber for rubber stripping for The Fossils radio speaker.

Back at the workshop unloaded the diff, block and crank and were just in the midst of re-shuffling Packard Corner when Junior's Dad, John, arrived. Wade walked John through what had been discovered today and John advised he thought the guy who had the engine rebuilt said he'd used Bedford bearings.
for the confirmation Peter. Wade also advised John we were going to pull the crank out of the '39 Six engine which has been sitting in a corner since a new heart was transplanted into JohnM's TJ Richards bodied '39 Six Sedan in 2009. Once John departed took the tailshaft out of Junior, dropped Junior down and re-installed the front wheels, then finished the re-shuffling of parts and equipment. Reason for the shuffling is that Wade and PeterL are going to the Bendigo Swap Meet leaving on Friday and returning on Monday. While Wade's away Big Red needs a secure domicile so she's going into the hoist slot while Junior is moved one slot over. So if John or Rick, or even Peter(the guy who owns it) needs to use the hoist it will be accessible.

After shuffling parts but before shuffling Junior and Big Red the '39 Six engine was brought out of the naughty corner. Up on the engine crane, drained what was left of the oil, removed the sump, oil pickup, oil pump, front cover plate and timing gear. Once all these parts were off the short block was laid on the mobile engine bench next to Juniors bare block. Removed all big end end caps and pistons and rods, main bearing caps and then removed the crankshaft. Although some wear on the journals measurements reveal it has a lot more meat left on it than the one from Junior. Accordingly it looks like JohnM's crank and rods will be used in the rebuild because it's journals haven't been modified like Juniors were. A quick comparison of the big end shells showed the Bedford's are wider.

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Hello,
I notice you are working on a 1934 Packard, is it a RHD?
I need to find a right hand drive steering box for a 1934 Packard that is in good rebuildable condition so I can drive my car, maybe you have one there for sale. I have a RHD 1102 and any help would be great.
Cheers Roberto cityvitnage@hotmail.com

Thursday 17th November 2011

Just a few hours at the workshop this afternoon. Wade had been in Tuesday morning and taken the spare Six crank over to Graham Wilkins. Graham miked it up and found both the big-ends and mains to be Standard, but all journals will be ground 0.010" under to clean them up. This morning Wade had removed the water distribution tube from Juniors block but not without a fight. Not to worry, on the magic shelf Wade had another one! This afternoon, while I started cleaning parts, Wade was tackling the front oil gallery grub screw which was proving quite recalcitrant. Still hadn't removed the remains of it when I left but it looks like it'll be drilled out and tapped to the next larger size together with a hex head grub screw instead of the square one at present. Also mounted The Fossil's speaker box on the firewall.

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Tuesday 22nd November 2011

On the weekend the Flackmaster requested some pic's "....of the routing of the overdrive cable to the overdrive lever, the precise location of the overdrive relay and frankly most other pictures of the real world install pictures as opposed to service manual diagrams...." Because ".... There is a guy local to me who is going to install an overdrive trans into a 41-120...." Took the in-car, firewall and topside routing shots on Sunday and teed it up with Wade to put the Coupe up on the hoist today to take the under-car pic's. So that was the first task, shuffling Big Red out and the Coupe in and putting it up on the hoist. Still pretty clean underneath. Although there is a minor rear main seal leak, a leak from the OD lock out lever and a leak from the vicinity of the fuel pump. More of leaks a little later. Took the under-car pic's and these will be emailed to the Flackmaster after I've finished this post, sorry David. With the Coupe up in the air also gave the undersides a good checkover and cleaned the grime, mostly from the old exhaust system before it was replaced by the stainless setup about 18 months ago, from the tailshaft, diff housing and fuel tank. After the fuel tank surfaces were cleaned a small puddle was noticed under it on the floor which was first thought to be from the cleaning. Closer examination showed it to be petrol and that it was likely coming from the area of the top of the tank. But, because I'd recently filled the fuel tank, it was decided to examine it further when the tank is closer to empty. I'd also had thoughts of replacing the flexible fuel line from the fuel pump to the rigid line on the front frame but the full fuel tank also precluded doing that. Discovered too that the rear springs are different side to side. Also tightened the U-bolt nuts, after Juniors experience, just wanted to be sure. In cleaning the tailshaft found the uni-joints have some play so will procure a pair to replace them. So the next time the Coupes on the hoist there'll be a bit of work done and not just the grease and oil change I was expecting

While I was puttering around under the Coupe, Wade was removing sparkplugs and other plugs and fittings from Juniors cylinder head. Tomorrow the cylinder head together with the block will be taken to be tanked. Yesterday Wade had also rodded out the two block length oil galleries, this is a must before sending the block out to be cleaned. The lower gallery was relatively clean but the upper one was full of thick sludge, so Wade rodded this one out again today. Yesterday Wade had also drilled out the three gallery screw in plugs, retapped the holes and purchased new plugs from Lee Bros.

Re-shuffled the Coupe out and Big Red back in then turned to The Fossil. First the mounting nuts for the radio speaker were replaced by dome nuts, being on the engine side of the firewall. Then a length of hose was going to be installed at the rear of the engine between the pipe running from the intake manifold to the pipe running to the regulator on the firewall. Only trouble was the clamps for the hose were too big, because the original vacuum hose was a larger outside diameter than the modern hose available. Not the magic shelf this time but the magic bucket full of old hose clips/clamps came to the rescue. Four were found, one of which turned out to be brass after blasting off dirt, rust and old paint. Because these needed to be painted Wade also took the opportunity to paint some other parts including part of the hand throttle linkage, some other clamps and the body and back cover of the STARTIX unit. Then, while I was painting Wade was fitting another hose to another part of the vacuum system and also re-routing an oil line which impeded the operation of the accelerator linkage. All the bits being put on lately have been in, around or near the firewall. They have to be sequenced, to prevent impeding other items which need to be installed. But there appears to be light at the end of this tunnel with Wade talking about it getting close to the time the foot plate and the dash panel can be installed.

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Mal, I don't appear to have the thief-proof # from the 34 in my listing. Any chance you could forward that to me along with the vehicle number? The numbers above 185000 are beginning to be of special interest as it appears that the majority of them are RHD and at the high extreme of the #s for 1934.

Wednesday 23rd November 2011

First up today Junior's block and head were taken to Redi-strip for chemical cleaning. Should be ready for pick up early to mid next week.

Back at the workshop turned again to The Fossil. The parts painted yesterday were ready but the body of the STARTIX unit will need to be done again. The hose for the vacuum line at rear of the engine block was connected up and clamped with the freshly painted hose clips. Next the Ride Control assembly and bracket was mounted to the firewall and connected to the lever inside the left frame rail. The vacuum pipe connecting the vacuum regulator to the wipers was also hooked up. It too was painted yesterday and had been hanging free waiting for just that occasion. The two drain pipes from the upper cowl vent were then connected to the Y junctioned pipe that runs inside the firewall and exits at the base of the engine block. The radio box was the next to be addressed with it being mounted on the inside of the firewall. Lastly the oil pressure line from the rear of the block to the flexible line on the firewall was installed.

Lots of "little" things done but there's still a whole lot more to do. Surprising how long each one takes, always seems to be some problem, big or small, to contend with. Slow progress but progress nevertheless.

Quote:Dave,

Thought I'd already posted those details but instead of trying to backtrack that, will PM you the info.

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Monday 28th November 2011

All of an afternoon spent with three things accomplished, it's amazing how much time is spent putting things back together, think I've said that before. The three were 1) mounting the fuse block on the firewall, 2) installing the dash, and 3) mounting the steering column brace/bracket.

Fuse block was straight forward just needed to be mounted somewhere the wires from the new wiring harness would reach. Wade had worried about it but now the radio is in place a nice spot was available above the radio speaker. Wade said he didn't know where he was going to find fuses to fit the fuse block but it turned out fuses used by the rice racer boom box boys are perfect!

The dash, well that was an altogether different story. Wade said it was a fight to get it out of the car originally and it proved to be quite a fight to get it back in. With the radio box and speaker in place there was no room to manouver and at one stage, in fact for quite a while, the unspoken thought was they'd have to come out. However perseverance is a great attribute, Wade having plenty of it, and it finally slipped into place. Fortunately too, there are a couple of indents in the bracing of the left interior of the cowl which facilitates the process. That actually turned out to be the easy part, getting the screws in which fasten it to the rear of the top rear bracing of the cowl was more difficult. Wade's back is not the best and after spending most of the afternoon on it under the cowl sure won't help. But with the dash now in, The Fossil is looking much better.

The steering column brace/bracket also proved to be a difficult fit. Part of this and also the foregoing dash episode are probably attributable to the fact that the body was LHD originally and is now set up for RHD. The holes which bolt the brace/bracket to the bottom of the dash panel were out by a fair bit necessitating some un-Packardlike attention to one of the holes in the dash panel so everything fitted. But now it's all together and looks good!

Expect Wade will be having a few drinks after todays effort 1) in celebration, and 2) to ease the aches in his back!

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Mal, thanks for sharing more of the adventures at Wade's. I have seen turn signal switches fitted to pre-war automobiles where the body of the switch and mounting bracket have been painted the same color as the steering column. They look like they belong in the color. Just a suggestion.

(o[]o)