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Wednesday 14th December 2011

Posted a pic on the 28th November of a Signal Stat 900 turn indicator unit. Subsequently bought one, off eBay, which arrived today. See it has a 12V flasher can on it, hope I didn't buy the wrong one! Wade, will leave it on your desk at the workshop on Friday for your return Monday after the trip to Gil-bloody-gandra.

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Monday 19th December 2011

My late arrival at the workshop allowed Wade to check over the Signal Stat turn indicator unit and confirm it will be fine for The Fossil, determine which wires are what and locate a 6V flasher can to replace the 12V it came with. Other arrivals besides the Signal Stat were a new engine mount for Gina's Celica, the "new" front seat back top for Big Red and a book "The Restoration of Vintage and Thoroughbred Cars". The engine mount finally arrived from Japan after being ordered early in November, usually takes days, not weeks extending into months! The seat back top for Big Red was fabricated by Noel's mate Tony using a spare '34 seat back top. Back on 13th September Tony had picked the seat back top up, returned with it the next day for a trial fit and called in a few times since then for further fitting checks. Besides a section added in the middle, about 4" IIRC, the seat back top needed to be straightened because the '37 seat back has a lot less curvature than a '34. The book, don't know who dropped that off, was appreciated with Wade thinking it good of them even though most of the work has already been done! Wade showed me a number of things he'd been working on last week, mounting of the back up light on the right rear bumper bracket, drilling of holes in the cabin timber framing and running of cable and finally being able to run the radio antennae cable down the A pillar. The last is what I left Wade contemplating when I last saw him. He finally managed to get a pull cable down inside the pillar, connect it to the antennae cable and through it came without any of the dramas associated with trying to pull it up through the pillar. Of course it also meant the plug-in end for the radio was now at the wrong end of the cable and was cut off, but more about that later.

Time for the road trip to pick up Juniors flywheel, clutch and pressure plates from Burt Bros. Only trouble was. it wasn't ready! The pressure plate needed to be re-assembled and wouldn't be available until tomorrow, and Wade was advised to ring first! Funny, because as we were walking into Burt Bros Wade said, maybe he should have phoned first! But it wasn't an entirely wasted trip because on the return journey called into Jaycar and purchased a antennae cable end and a fuse holder for the Signal Stat. Also on the return journey Wade had a call from Barry Smith, answered by moi because Wade was driving, to let Wade know that AndrewO'H, the owner of the '26 426 water pump, was dropping in tomorrow because he was down in Sydney on business.

Back at the workshop turned to The Fossil and while Wade was sorting out screws and things to mount the trunk latch ends I cut down the Back up light mounting bolts to accept dome head nuts and re-mounted the light, after of course getting Wade's approval it was in the right spot. That done I enlarged the holes in the rubber mounting pads for the trunk latch ends, they ware slightly too small and not quite correctly positioned, think they came from Steele's, but....Shhhh! By the time I finished that Wade had all the mounting hardware ready and on they went. Next was the trunk lock, but before going back on a few pieces needed cleaning and painting and will be caught up with tomorrow. Then the connector for the flasher unit was given attention with all the wires and clips first removed, necessitating Wade making a tool by grinding down an old hacksaw blade to fit into the slots to release the clips, worked a treat! The old crimped on wires were then removed from the clips and replaced by larger diameter wires soldered into the opened up jaws of the crimp lugs and slid back into the flasher socket. Next was the replacement antennae cable end which was spliced onto the radio end of the antennae cable. Left things there, but I'll return later this week for a catch up on progress and file a pre-Christmas report.

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Friday 23rd December 2009

Catch up visit with Wade this morning before heading off for Santa duties. Learned that he's spent a couple of days on his back in and under The Fossil fitting the toe board, connecting the Signal Stat turn indicator unit and connecting up the radio. Only wires still loose under there are for the electric fuel pump and the Trippe lights. Reason being the electric pump, to be used for priming only, and the Trippe lights aren't themselves fitted yet. Going back to the toe board, Wade found, with the radio in place, he couldn't fit the toe board but removing the clutch and brake pedal foot pads allowed him to do so. Also found the brake pedal is rubbing on the toe board so more work required there while the turn indicators work as does the radio.

In mentioning the Signal Stat turn indicator unit, I found another one on eBay. This one NOS and cheaper than the one I bought for The Fossil! Have a view to mounting it in the Coupe to replace the flimsy, generic unit presently in use. Also bought a pair of NORS Uni-joints off eBay for the Coupe. When it was up on the hoist about a month ago it was noticed there was some slop in the uni's. Think I was fortunate to find these at $30 each plus $15 shipping. A real bargain when compared to the major vendors prices of $125+ each plus a hefty shipping fee! Will fit the new uni's in the New Year when the Coupe goes up on the hoist for an oil change and grease as part of it's annual inspection for registration renewal.

Whoops! Just about to submit this post when I saw Chris, starliner, has sent me two emails. One of pic's of the current state of the body on his '48 Woodie two door project, the other a quick word about the same topic ".....as you see a little progress has been made , TJ reckons those tail gates are the most difficult panels he's ever made. I think he has faced the challenge and been victorious.....". I'm sorry I missed being able to inspect the progress in person but Santa had to switch his phone off in attending to his "normal" shopping mall duties!

Don't expect to be back at the workshop until January so to all on PackardInfo, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Back on 3rd November in this post I identified a Detroit Electric as 1915.

in fact it's a 1916! And will be on display at the NRMA Motorfest on 26th January in Sydney when city streets are closed for car displays as part of Australia Day celebrations.

While this link provides some details of the Detroit's owner and his cars, impressive!

Mal, a year more or less is very important!







[picture source: www.strangebillions.com]

Friday 30th December 2011

Dropped into the workshop to give Misty, the shop dog, a Christmas bone to chew on. Also found Wade there, he's been pottering around getting a few things organised for next year. Has Juniors accelerator pedal linkage, together with a pic of same, ready to go to be rehabilitated with a new cross shaft and bushes in the shaft bracket ends. Likewise with the water pump for AndrewO'H's '26 426. Although Andrew provided Wade with another pump on his visit earlier this month it will require a new shaft too. Another item he's been "pottering around" with is the NOS oil pump for Junior, that has been opened up, cleaned and re-closed together with an application of grease on the gears to aid oil pressure from the initial start on the engine following it's rebuild. Also on the bench is Juniors surfaced flywheel, rebuilt pressure plate and a new clutch plate.

And that concludes 2011. Accordingly, to all on PackardInfo

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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Friday 6th January 2012

Had a query from Noel this morning "....Just wondering if all is okay with you? No posts from the workshop lately. Is Wade away? Are you suffering from separation anxiety??....". To which I responded "....Have been involved with some family stuff the last couple of days but did drop into the workshop for 5 minutes yesterday. Wade has been fighting with the toe board on The Fossil for the past 2 days but won't be there today, because he and Gina are going away....and will be back on Monday ....". To which Noel replied "....Gee, sounds like you have reformed! Putting family stuff in front of Packards!!....".

And because I had to clear the Packard club's mail box nearby also dropped in this morning to give Misty, poor dog, a bone. While there took a couple of pic's for what they were worth.

There had been some Packard activity earlier in the week when those club members who could, attended the funeral of a club member who died recently. A roll up of 9 Packards and about two dozen club members provided a fitting tribute for a long time member of the club.

Should be back at the workshop on Monday with regular communication recommencing then. Intend to bring the Coupe in next week for an oil change, grease, replacement of the flexible fuel hose between frame and pump, replacement of uni-joints and removal and inspection of the fuel tank for a leak and work to fix same. Need to do this because the Coupe's registration renewal is due at the end of next week.

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Monday 9th January 2012

New Year but an old problem for the keyboard challenged, moi! Hit the wrong key and lost all of what I'd typed for this post into cyberspace somewhere! Not to worry, just have to it all over again. Wonder if I'll ever learn to save as I go or create it in word or elsewhere then transpose to PackardInfo? Probably not!

Anyway, the plan was to take the Coupe to the workshop today for it's annual physical. That came unstuck when an unforeseen engagement popped up for the afternoon, so tomorrow is now the day. Wade too was also expecting the Coupe so didn't really have anything planned for the day. Although he was bolting back in Juniors main bearing caps. Juniors block, head, crank, rods, new pistons, new valves, etc, etc are going to Wilkins Performance Engineering tomorrow for the machining and fitment work required before they return for final assembly.

So turned to that standby of note.....The Fossil. The RHD toe board still required work, with holes to be drilled in the upper flange to mate with the bolt holes in the LHD. Also required some final fitment massaging of the holes necessitating a number trial-fits, removals and filing of holes before good alignment was achieved. Then turned to the metal floor board. The RHD floor board had been destroyed in the fire that consumed the original RHD body while the LHD floor board that came with the LHD replacement body was too far gone to use. Instead it had been used as a template for a new floor board. But, in doing so, the panel beater had missed the necessity for clearance of the clutch and brake shafts and linkages which translate their operation from the RHD setup to the Packard factory LHD situated clutch and brake mechanisms. Necessitated the panel beater cutting out a section of the newly fabricated floor board and welding in a raised section to clear the various linkages. However the fit between the toe board and the front floor board was in turn compromised because of this. Some trial fits on the bench, a little judicious grinding of the toe board and viola a much better fit.

The original toe board and floor board had felt strips riveted to them which acted as seals. But not having any felt, a trip to Grippy Rubber was in order to source a modern replacement material. Also was going to call in at ABC Bearings for bearings and seals for the 426 waterpumps and into Lee Bros for some fasteners. At ABC, which was the first stop, sourced the bearings and seals for the waterpump rebuilds OK. Next stop was Grippy, but they are still in Christmas shut down mode and don't re-open until Monday 16th. That canned Lee Bros because the fasteners are for the toe and floor boards final installation and without the felt that wasn't going to happen today. Instead after the engine parts drop off tomorrow Wade will also call into Anglade Engineering with the pump housings, bearings, etc for the waterpump rebuilds and then visit Lee Bros which is on the way back. Left Wade to draft some engineering drawings for the pump rebuilds.

Also heard from Dave and Shelley about their '39 Twelve which "....is sitting on board outside the heads and should be unloaded on Wednesday....". Can't wait to see it! But that'll be in March when I head to Queensland for my folks birthday celebrations. Other Packard news is that Wade and Gina enjoyed their weekend away going up the coast in Big Red where they were guests of Barry and Cheryl Smith. Barry had also invited Max Hood, a true Australian Packard Doyen, along for the weekend. Wade and Gina arrived just after Max did and Max was flabbergasted to see Big Red arrive because he didn't know Wade and Gina were coming! And it looks like Wade has plenty of Packard work for the foreseeable future with Richard asking him on the day of the funeral last week if he could look at Thelma, a '39 110 Convertible Coupe, with little compression but not rattly or smokey so probably valves. And also Roy, a '39 120 Convertible Coupe, which has been off the road for some years so needs a good "going over" before it can return to the road.

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Gerd,

Cryptic crosswords were never my forte! I wondered what you were referring to in this post:

Quote:

I need wonder no more! My post of 23rd December 2010 was headlined thus:

Quote:

Too late to change it now after our esteemed Webmaster tightened the leash on editing/removing posts more than a week old. Hmmmm.....wonder why he did that? Perhaps you know?

Tuesday 10th January 2012

Took the Coupe to the workshop this morning for it's annual check and service. The Coupe first returned to the road back in January 2009 and in those three years of traversing the Australian countryside I've clocked up about 10,000 miles of basically trouble free running. Saying that there have been minor matters that cropped up from time to time but nothing that caused the Coupe to "fail to proceed".

First thing, after the Coupe went up on the hoist, was draining the oil. It was nice and hot, which I can attest to, when removing the sump plug I always get some on the hand! Then onto removing the tailshaft because both universal joints were being replaced with a couple of NORS ones bought off eBay near the end of last year. Getting the tailshaft out was the easy part, getting the old unis off was another matter altogether. As Wade explained, it's just a matter of knocking through the captured trunnion housings at each end of the shaft and they come apart. Thought was to retain the parts, because although a little sloppy they still worked well, and put them on the shelf just in case. Trouble was the trunnion housings didn't knock through because the cross body of the uni closed against the body of the tailshaft before the trunnion housing cleared the tailshaft. Necessitated brute force in the guise of vice grips together with a large screwdriver levering against the vice grips. While I moved the vice gripped trunnion housing back and forth Wade levered against the side of the vice grips. Slowly, ever so slowly, the trunnion housing emerged from the tailshafts grip. Once that first trunnion housing was off the other almost fell out as predicted. Both uni joints were the same so there was no respite after the first one. In turning to the NORS uni joints Wade felt they were a bit stiff and needed to be cleaned and repacked. Fine, except thats about 25 tiny rollers that have to situated in each of the eight trunnion housings. It takes a lot of time to clean each trunnion and insert the little rollers. Finally got that done, also cleaned out each cross and regreased those. Inserting the captive trunnion housings in the tailshaft was a whole lot easier. Utilised the bench vice with one trunnion housing lightly knocked in and the cross positioned in that trunnion. The tailshaft was then positioned in the jaws of the vice with the opposite captive trunnion housing positioned to enter the tailshaft retaining ...... and the vice jaws wound shut. Wouldn't push the captive trunnion housings all the way in so a socket, sized slightly smaller than the trunnion housing was used with each side completed with the retaining circlip being pushed into place.

By this time a couple of hours had elapsed and Wade needed to do his parts run to pick up Ricks bearing from yesterday, also some bearings John required today, to drop off Juniors engine, drop off the 426 waterpumps and to drop in to Lee Bros for the fasteners foregone yesterday. Wade had loaded up the ute with the engine and waterpump parts yesterday and after a quick tutorial on tailshaft/universal joint fitment, meaning he watched and helped me fit the rear uni joint to the diff yoke, I was left to carry on while he ventured forth. Needless to say the mechanically challenged, MOI, hadn't finished the front uni joint by the time Wade returned about 2 hours later! Started off well by installing one of the bolt on trunnion housings to the OD yoke then rotated the tailshaft 180 degrees to mount the other. My first and, as it turned out, my biggest mistake because the cross body fell out of the trunnion housing I'd loosely bolted in! Besides picking up the trunnion housing, picked up my pride and started over. Checked the rollers in both trunnion housings were still properly in place, they were and tried again. Bolted one trunnion housing in then carefully rotated the tailshaft, while maintaining a hold on the semi-installed trunnion and uni cross. Had a lot of difficulty in getting one bolt to start on the final trunnion housing but finally did. Along the way dropped the lead light which turned off then the rechargeble hand held LED light which also turned off. When I say turned off I really mean went out and wouldn't come back on. So there I was struggling with the uni joint, in the X member behind the OD, which has very limited access, and almost in the dark to boot. Fortunately Graham came over and fixed the lead light so although it was brighter there still wasn't a eureka moment with a flash of illumination as to why it wouldn't go together. Graham also lent his muscle and, more dexterous than mine, hands to the effort but without success.

Instead of carrying on, I know when I'm beaten, turned to the other unfinished task which was within my capabilities or rather the lack of them finishing the oil change. Put the sump plug back in, lowered the Coupe to the floor, rounded up a funnel and part filled a 5 litre container with 3 litres of oil. About half way up the dipstick and with 1 litre being approximately 1 US quart completed the fill with another 3 litres of oil and with the manual calling for 6 quarts, this worked out well.

Coupe back in the air and returned to my futile task. Wade arrived shortly thereafter and following his own limited attempt said he probably knew what the problem was. One of the rollers becoming dislodged and settling in the base of a trunnion housing. Pulled one off, and there it was, sitting snugly across the bottom of the housing. Realigned the pin with it's brethren, reinstalled the trunnion housing and it was surprising, well it was for me, how easily it went together from there! Tightened up all the bolts on both front and rear trunnion housings and it was done, Finally!

Next task was replacing the flexible line between the metal fuel line from the fuel tank to the fuel pump. Only trouble was I couldn't find the replacement I bought from Max some months ago. Fortunately Wade also had a new one from Max "on the shelf", so that was used in lieu. And when I find the fuel line I bought I'll replace the one Wade came to the rescue with that. That was the easy part. While getting the old one off isn't hard it is made more difficult if there's still enough fuel left in the tank that it runs through when you undo the flexible line from the metal line from the tank. Sorry no pic's, you'll just have to take my word for it, that I gave a great representation of the little boy who put his finger in the dike. Also complicated by the fact that the fuel pump heat shield severely restricts access to the fuel pump head of the flexible hose. Had to remove the two screws from the heat shield and bend it back in order to gain the required access to the fuel pump fitting. All back together now but untested as yet. Still a few things to attend to on the Coupe which will be done tomorrow.

Note: I've used the term trunnion throughout this post, I hope it's correct!

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