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Dear africapackard:

Loose pinion nuts are something I never see so I wonder just what caused the problem.

What the manual is talking about is Pinion Turning Torque to Rotate. That requires a special inlbs torque wrench and a special plate wrench to hold the flange.

The procedure is to carefully tighten the pinion nut until the torque required to keep the shaft turning is in the specified range. With the differential gears removed.

When servicing the pinion seal the minimum required is to remove both brake drums and preferably both axles and measure the Total Torque to Rotate using the inlbs wrench. Then reinstall the nut and very carefully tighten until the Total Torque to Rotate begins to increase above the starting point. That sets up the preload for the pinion bearings.

But given your situation has no starting point this is not possible so let me give you some specs from the DANA Axle manual which are similar to Packard except Packard didn't use Total Torque to Rotate. They used a dialed in differential preload method which I use today as well and requires some special tools.

Now Dana typically calls for Total Torque to Rotate of 7-11 inlbs above the Pinion Torque to Rotate for old bearings of 10-20 inlbs. So pull both axles and shoot for the 24 inlbs that Packard specified for new pinion bearings.

But be careful because if the differential is in the same shape as your pinion then you could go too far. If your differential is still noisey then it has probably been damaged.

As for threadlocker - blue should be fine, but red requires heat to remove.

Good luck with your car.

PS: this is all very technical and the common method is to just air wrench everything together and hope for the best.

[quote]

Those pinion seals start to leak when cars sit idle. I don't know why, but it happens to modern cars as well. People who buy modern cars and then stash them hoping to make a mint one day find out that the cars become junk from just sitting./quote]

VERY true. My '55 needed both the pinion seal and output shaft seal on the transmission.

Tim is right on about the damage done to "sitting" cars. Even if its just enough to warm up the engine, my cars get driven at least once a month. Fortunately as Oregon doesn't use salt, and Snow can be substantial but fleeting, it's possible to keep to that schedule in the winter as well.

Dear all

With the diff out it is now clear that there is no damage luckily. Except for old age wear! I will just have to live with that. The diff was very quiet before the loose nut.

By the way, it is a cleveland or Hug Loc nut on mine, but its taper fit has been lost, so wont stay. The car has only been driven shorter distances a few times and without oil in the diff I presume that the nut held for these short distances.

My Seal number is Victor 49357 or US patent 2240332. Different than the one mentioned here? I am asking Max Merritt about this as his also looks like a Custom 8 seal.

I prefer driving my cars as often as possible even with rising fuel prices here. Up to now, however, the car has given me some kind of issue every time I drive it, so it has to be parked for long periods to fix some kind of issue. Luckily we don't get snow here.

And Tim, I will probably use the non - technical way of tightening the nut, although I do have a friend that used to work for the Packard distributors in the early fifties. He knows his stuff but is getting on in years.

I removed the vent screw and cleaned it. It was totally blocked.

I now have to start the long waiting process for parts so will keep you updated.

Regards
Barrie

Here is some pictures to show the wear on the teeth. Also the part numbers for the seal I have installed.

There is a groove in the yoke surface where the seal needs to run, will also have to look at that.....

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Hard to tell from looking at the pictures of the ring and pinion teeth if I'm seeing just a normal contact pattern, or if there is actual wear. If there is no wear, you might consider using some indicator like Prussian Blue and checking the contact/wipe pattern of the teeth and if it's off, adjusting it and the backlash. But if there is wear on the teeth, best to leave it alone and hope for the best - adjusting tooth contact and backlash will change the tooth contact and if there is a pre-existing wear pattern, it's too late. You might want to ask your old time Packard guy to just take a look at the tooth contact pattern and advise. I wouldn't be concerned too much about what appears to be a bit of wear on the spider gears, though again that could just be an optical illusion.

Barrie,

Any progress on the differential of your Packard?

(o[]o)

Hi JW

I managed to install the new pinion seal today and also tightened up the new pinion nut. As I dont have the necessary tool to measure the torque required, I just simply tightened it as best as possible - i.e. very tight! I used a Cleveland Nut and also Lock tite. It should never come loose again. I am hoping to start assembly soon, but is still waiting for the axle shaft seals.

The markings on my ring gear is as follows -

373215 - 4.1 Packard 3-50 59056

What does this mean for my ratios?

Regards
Barrie

The number 4.1 is your axle ratio.

Aaahhhh! Is this ratio good or bad for a car without overdrive?

Dear africapackard:

Okay, Loctite is good.

But before you put it together see if you can rustle up some gear contact pattern paint around town. Then using your hand to load the ring gear have someone turn the pinion.

A good pattern should be in the middle of the teeth and the backlash should be .005 -.008 or small enough to grind a piece of heavy paper. You can get tooth contact patterns on line, but here part of the Dana manual.

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