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I recently discovered a 1/2" play in the tie rod on my 1932 902. It's only on the passenger side. The driver's side seems to be tight enough. Where do I go to get replacement parts for the steering tie rod on my 1932? Thanks.

They are adjustable to a degree for wear. Have you disassembled it and checked the internals?

Dear Curtis:

The unit is spring loaded and can be disassembled.

There is a spring inside that will break if the lubricator isn't working. The 9th series was the last year for the all points Bijur system.

If you can't find a used spring you can always just shim the thing, but the lubrication issue is important.

The ball and socket are probably worn as well, but so are almost all Packards with the trouble prone automatic oiler because it broke after a few years. Those can be made by a machinist using tool steel and can be case hardened as well.

You can get the pump rebuilt and I used a homemade hand pump to prime dead systems. Very often on non-restored cars they came back to life after a week of modest pressure. Restored cars usually were botched up and required complete teardown.

If you can't find a spring, you can make one from a valve spring. We ended up making two for our 733. I forget what the spring came from, but it was quite beefy.

Thank you all for your help with this. I'm going to mention it to my mechanic and see where he takes it.

Curtis, the studs and locating cups were shot on my 1930 733 so I made some blueprints up of the parts and sent them off to Rare Parts. They remade myself and another friend new balls and cups for both tie rods and the drag link. You can contact them for new parts even though they don't show these parts on their website.

http://www.rareparts.com

The new studs are exact as originals with all oil holes drilled. The studs for the drag link and tie rod are similar but different. The steering studs and cups are the same from 3d series to at least the 9th series. Here's a link to the drawings:

http://www.packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1428

Good luck
Todd