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Mal,

I ran across this vehicle while coming to work one morning. I thought it would be appropriate to post here

Cheers,

Tom

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Tom,

Thursday 31st January 2013

Plan for today was to trailer up Noel's 41 160 chassis to my garage where the chassis would take the place of Roy, Richard's '39 Convertible Coupe. However Noel phoned on Thursday evening to say that on Monday he wanted to take the chassis over to Fineline, the body and paint shop doing the finish work then the paint on the '41's body. Noel had also located the body mounts and bolts so the body can be bolted back onto the chassis for fitment and gap alignment purposes. So, by the time I'd reached the workshop, Noel had already spoken with Wade and a change of plans was put into effect. Instead, of the chassis going to my garage for a couple of days R & R, it would be accommodated at the workshop until Monday when courtesy of the workshop trailer and Wades Ute it'll make the trip to Fineline. Noel will be over late morning on Monday for the trip to Fineline. Noel is also concerned about the steering column and steering wheel not fitting through the hole in the firewall/front floor and, after looking at a pic of this area, I can see why. It also means there's some work to do before the chassis goes on the trailer.

But the '39 was going to the workshop irrespective! Finally the new wheel cylinders for the '39 and had arrived from Kanters and Wade wanted to get on with replacing them. Drove back home in the Ute with Wade, also accompanied by a battery booster pack and a can of Start-U-B@$t@rd, having not started the '39 since it arrived on 1st November. But Wade jumps in, says we might as well see if it'll start, and it turned over very freely. Optima batteries are wonderful. So up with the bonnet(hood) a few squirts of the aforementioned Start-U-B@$t@rd and Roy awakens from his slumber. Then with me leading the way in the Ute, Wade not being familiar with the locale, we returned to the Workshop. The return trip was a lot slower than the one up because of Roy's various ailments amongst which are the brakes and a very noisy diff. Being in a slow procession raised the hackles of one driver in a Honda who after the long slow run down Chatham Road, when Roy stopped at a stop sign, was immediately on the horn then tore through the stop sign himself without stopping!

Once in the workshop Roy went up on the hoist and work commenced on removing all the brakes. Then the rear axles were removed and the diff centre removed. Inspection of the the teeth on the ring and pinion as well as the planetary gears(?) didn't indicate anything amiss visually but even turning it over by hand it doesn't feel good. Looks like Award Diffs will be asked to do what they do best, fix it! Turned then to the front suspension because Wade was saying it was very noisy and clunky whenever he'd driven Roy. First thing found was that one of the left front backing plate bolts wasn't tight, even though it had a split-pin through the nut! Next discovered the left stub axle had about 1/16" play. By that I mean the stub axle could ride up and down on the king-pin. Checking the right side, all backing plate nuts were OK, but same deal with the full floating stub axle. Oh, and neither end of either stub axle had a cap covering the king-in! Hmmmmmmm, greasing the king pins must have been messy and largely ineffectual especially for the lower bush. These items weren't expected to need attention but, before doing any brake work, had to be fixed. Driving out the left side cotter pin/key holding the king-pin proved too much for the old guys, Wade and me, so Rick was recruited to provide the brute force required. Once out it was found that because the supporting thrust bearing had been installed upside down it had ingested water, rusted, seized and eventually flattened because it wasn't pivoting anymore! It was the same scenario with the right side, upside down thrust bearing, no end caps, and needing the aid of a younger stronger man to drive out the cotter pin/key, and again Rick was enlisted for that task. With the plethora of king-pin replacements Wade has performed he has a stock of parts, some "left over" from kits when not required and others which are "good" used parts. From these Wade was able to cobble together the necessary thrust bearings, cotter keys/pins and end caps required. King-pins and bushings are now good and Roy will have a stable front end without the full floating stub axle effect.

After a day spent around and under Roy, on my way home, I dropped in to see how work on my Coupe was progressing. Not much so far but Col is hopeful that with a good run it may be done in 2 weeks, I hope so. Also learned, although I'd suspected as much, that there's lots of "bog" in the Coupe. I'll just have to live with that because a full body restoration just isn't in the Coupes near future. Or even further along if it comes to that! I've arranged to go up again the next 2 Thursdays to take pic's so I can document what's happening to a certain extent. I also made the trip to check on something Noel needed to know before his body went to Fineline.

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Monday 4th February 2013

Last Friday Wade had continued working on Roy, finishing off the king pin re-installation with new end caps and a good greasing. Had also re-installed the front backing plates and installed new front wheel cylinders. That brings up another point in relation to the brakes, Roy had front wheel cylinders on the rear and rear wheel cylinders on the front! Wade had also taken Roy's diff centre to Award Diffs at Seven Hills for it to be attended to.

But today, first thing was to get Noel's Chassis onto the trailer ready for it's trip over to Fineline at Moorebank. Fired up the chassis via another great Optima battery assisted by a can of Start-U-B@$t@rd and Wade then drove it out into the carpark at the front of the workshop. Then up to the rooftop parking area where the car trailer was hooked up to Wade's Ute after taking off the removable tyre rack from the trailers front. Down to the parking area outside the workshop where Wade drove the Chassis up onto the trailer. A bit of fiddling to get it to fit, deflating front tyres helped, then it was strapped down. I was also given a quick course in Wade's keyless starting system. This comprises 2 wires, one with an alligator type clip, the other a wire with a bare end applied to a head nut. And it works!

At Fineline it was then the reverse of getting the Chassis on the trailer, only this time I was driving! Sorry Noel, I drove your Coupe before you did although I did it when it was fully air conditioned, ie no body. But because of that it probably doesn't really count, does it? The keyless start worked a treat but getting behind the wheel discovered a problem, it was locked between gears. Bit of fiddling with the levers on the bottom of the column found neutral then was able to select reverse and back off the trailer. Been over 40 years since I've operated a car only using a hand throttle, my '29 Ford A Model Tudor Sedan, and the lapse since then was apparent. Kept going for the non existent foot pedal but eventually got the hang of it. Parked the chassis outside and then it was my turn for real driving action, backing the car trailer so I could exit Fineline. Only took about 4, or was that 5, shuffles backwards and forwards turning the steering every which way, except apparently the right way, before I was in a suitable position to exit.

That done, back to the workshop and returned the trailer to the rooftop. There, with some help from Graham, unhooked it and maneuvered it into position. Also returned the tyre rack to its place at the front of the trailer. Downstairs, found Wade had reassembled the front brakes and was about to remove the master cylinder. I'd been talking to Richard, Roy's owner, yesterday at PACA's AGM and he advised the engine had been rebuilt about 4 years ago. Mentioned this to Wade today but he thinks it was longer ago than that. Reason I mention this is because of lack of compression in a number of cylinders. Thought is, it's probably sticking valves because Roy sees little active service and sits for long periods between runs, hope so. Left Wade to it as I needed to catch up with my secretarial duties following yesterdays AGM. Wasn't successful in finding someone silly enough to be Secretary so I'm stuck with it for another year. Now have to type up the minutes, not easy for a one fingered typist but I get plenty of practice here.

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Wednesday 6th February 2013

While Wade set to work removing the inner mudguard(fender) panel on Roy, in preparation for checking the tappets, I engaged in cleaning up the diff housing in preparation for when the diff centre returns and that, rear axles and brakes can go back together. Thought Wade would be finished long before I was, but it was not to be. By the time I'd cleaned the accumulation of dirt, grease, oil, exhaust and whatever else had accumulated from the housing, and cleaned up the housing ends Wade was still, literally, wrestling with the panel. At this point, to finish the rear end clean up, Wade used a slide hammer to remove the axle seals from both sides so we could then concentrate on the front of the car.

Back to the front where, besides undoing and moving the panel, Wade had also removed the carburettor to help with the panel removal process. But that still didn't give enough clearance to squeeze the panel out. Next step was to drain the radiator so the thermostat housing and radiator inlet hose could be removed. Still not enough room so next impediment removed was the fan, which also had a little surprise in store for us. There was a spacer in the fan blade and impeller hub setup. From the looks of things the impeller hub had been pressed too far on in a previous rebuild and to correct this a spacer was added! But with this final piece out of the way there was now enough room to twist, turn and manoeuvre the panel across the top of the engine and out.

Panel out, next thing was to remove the fuel/vacuum pump. Easier said than done. With the inner panel out access is still limited and necessitated bolt loosening in very small increments together with removal of all lines. Even then took a number of tries and different positionings before it was dropped out, but out it was. Next were the tappet covers and these were relatively straight forward. That done the remote starter switch was rigged up and the engine turned over. All valves appeared to be opening and closing without any sticking evident. With sticking valves as a possible cause of the hard starting and rough running symptoms just about eliminated Wade checked the clearances on the tappets for #1 & #2 cylinders in case they were too tight. And they were, with very little or no clearance. The 4 valves in question were then set to 0.009" inlet & 0.012" exhaust, about 0.002" more than the hot clearances recommended. That done, and before checking and resetting the valve clearances on the rest of the tappets, a compression test was done on #1 = 35 & #2 = 100. #2 appears reasonable but does not. Also checked the compression on #3 -> #6 with varying results, some good, some horrible. Not wanting to waste more time resetting the rest of the tappets the head was pulled and like many a thing on Roy even this had a complication. 3 of the head nuts were 11/16" while the remainder were 3/4" which they all should be. Head off it was apparent that greater things were afoot with, I call them light, scores in a number of the bores. That's where things were left for the day, Wade will take up the running again tomorrow while I play with the granddaughters!

But during the course of all this, between the removal of the inner mudguard(fender) panel and the fuel/vacuum pump removal we had a visit from Mat, packard34. Mat was there because the radio in his '34 was playing up and Wade is going to don his other hat of radio repairer to see if he can repair it. I think I'll put my money on Wade to fix it. Mat brought a big box with Dynamotor, Speaker, Radio Box and Radio Head, there's quite a lot of equipment when compared to modern units, so Wade has the lot and can find and fix any problems. And taking with Mat over lunch I was reminded of MrBumble's Seeking My Clipper's History thread. Mat has 2 Packards, a '34 Eight Sedan and a '55 Caribbean Convertible Coupe. Mat has been able to trace the ownership of the '34 from the day it was sold and was able to recite a chronological list of former owners. In fact he'd been able to meet a female relative of the 2nd owner, who co-incidentally lives in reasonable proximity to Mat. This lady has an uncommon surname and Mat, when he met her, asked the question of whether she was related to the second owner, a doctor. She was and turned out to be his niece! Mat though has given up any hope of tracing the original owner of the '34, only knows it was a Mr Brown which opens up quite a wide field for investigation especially with the passing of 79 years since it first sold. On the other side Mat doesn't know anything about the '55 Caribbean's history. Even though when Mat was in the US a few years ago he attempted to meet the guy he purchased it from only to be completely cold shouldered in the attempt. I'm sure Mat identifies with MrBumbles experiences in that regard.

Note - Over 2 years ago I promised Jerry, Yesterdays Radio that, when Roy came back to the workshop, I would take more pic's of the under running board radio aeriels. If there are specific shots or features required Jerry please let me know?

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Hi all, The side panels are more easily removed from under the guard. They were made to be removed easily to enable the tappets to be set. You may have to undo the fuel line at the carby but I always remove the panel from under the guard. Try it during the assembly phase. Best regards PT

Peter, now you tell us!

Actually, I always wondered how hard it would be to remove that inner panel through the engine bay.......now that I know...I am not going to try it. Wade has so much more patience than myself....I would probably have cut the @!!!$5#ing inner panel in half with a disc grinder and tech screwed or Mig welded it back together during re-assembly. PT

Hi all especially Mal, With regard to the marks in # 5 bore, they are not really scores, they are merely the equivalent of wrinkles on a pensioner. Those marks caused by hard carbon particles displaced from the head/piston would not be very significant in loss of compression etc and would have less effect than a piston ring gap. Valve sealing would be the main culprit and anything over 80 PSI on an all plugs out compression test for an ageing Packard 39 Six would be quite adequate for normal driving and 70 mph performance. It is after all a 70 year old 4 litre motor and does not need the perfect lungs of a 5 year old 2 litre motor to perform adequately. Packard was generous in motor capacity and I am always amazed at how well my 1927/28 533 runs at 50 mph pulling bike trailers, with 4.85 to 1 compression ratio. Most pensioners after a decent curry and onion mix could fart with more compression than that old girl. PT

Friday 8th February 2013

Yesterday Wade had pulled the remainder of the valves. This entailed further dismantling in order to be able to use his clamp type valve spring compressor. The inlet/exhaust manifolds needed to be removed but in order to do that the steering box needs to be swung out of the way, it is after all a RHD Packard. Valves out and cleaned up Wade tells me all the seats needed refinishing. Plus all the valves were marked with a cylinder number on both the inlet and exhaust. Only trouble was they were all over the place, not resident to the cylinders specified! Valves went round to Brookers Brake Service for machining of the faces while Wade borrowed some valve seat cutting equipment to recut the seats.

So, after Wade finished cleaning the block top and intake/exhaust manifold surfaces, that's what Wade did for most of the morning, re-cutting valve seats. However there are still marks/pits in the exhaust valve seats and Wade is of the opinion they are suffering from valve seat recession. He's planning on getting one of the guys from Brookers to come round to give an expert opinion. Meanwhile I was doing, what else, cleaning. Cleaned the head including the combustion chambers of carbon and also the head gasket surface. Another matter wasn't cleaning but chasing or running a tap through the head nuts, including 3 to replace the 11/16" b@$t@rds, so they can be torqued down cleanly when the time comes. Took some time to do this, after all there's only 23 of 'em. Also cleaned the intake/exhaust manifold surfaces, the tappet cover gasket surfaces and sundry various fasteners and small parts. Want to have everything ready when it's time to put it back together again. In that regard waiting on gaskets, wheel bearing seals and other parts to be able to do so. Also waiting on word about what ails the diff.

Also yesterday, after the granddaughters returned home I visited with Peaches at the beauty salon, or in Packardspeak, saw my Coupe at Col's the body and paint man who is doing the touch up work on it. Progressing with panel work on most of the body, fender and door completed. Col tells me he hopes to have primer on all those areas today. Col is still to tackle the boot lid, he's going to realign it because it's slightly skewiff which is causing the chipping around the edges.

Quote:Peter,

Good to know about the "scores".

And, from what I understand, this engine was rebuilt some years ago so should be relatively healthy and not a coughing, wheezing, worn out unit.

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Careful, I resemble that remark!

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Wade said he tried the under guard removal but without success. However we will try that route again during reassembly.

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