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professionally rebuilt. there is a place called Seller's that has been in Fort Worth for YEARS and my dad has sent alot of work their way. just recently to with my sister's alternator on her car. he talked to them about the packard and they said it would be no problem, they could do the torsion motor and the generator easy.

i thought about just cleaning it up and testing it, but my dad was not liking the idea, but you know me i am young and silly so i will probably try to clean it up good and see if it will work better.

what kind of lubes are okay to use on it. is PB blaster okay to get the gunk loose with. i didn't use much of the carb spray before so it didn't damage anything.

i will have to get some electronics cleaner, plus i could get some rubbing alcohol if needed too as it just dissipates w/ no residue.

can i use a wire brush or would it be better with like a lite grit sand paper on the motor and flat plates inside?

thanks for all your help HH56!!

Hank

On the outside, use anything you're comfortable with--just put rags or something so anything liquid doesn't run inside.

I'd use sandpaper on things inside just because it's so easy for a wire brush to slip and possibly damage something. 2-300 on field poles and 4-600 on commutator and brush ends. Be gentle with brushes as they can break or wire can pull out. On commutator after the sandpaper bit, you can use contact cleaner or alcohol. If alcohol, then blow it dry.

PB is OK on brush holders--just be sparing and not saturate the brushes or they will smoke a bit as it burns off. Then a drop of motor oil on hinges. As to lubrication, the worm end is already taken care of and the brush end can be motor oil or white grease. Look and see if there is an oil cap or just an end plate. Remove that plate and see if there is a felt. If felt, then put a few drops of oil on it but don't get so much that it drips out.

I'd either give the motor to a professional starter shop, or at the least, put the armature in a lathe, cut it down lightly, undercut the mica, test for shorted segments, and probably put in new brushes. For the gear box I very strongly recommend Sta-Lube SL 3303, a product of CRC stocked at many NAPA dealers. If's a graphited molybdenum grease with teflon and very similar to the original special lubricant which Packard never identified.

Owen. If u will please add the Sta-Lube recommendation to the X-ref for 55-56's. Or i will if u say so. Either way it's important info to have listed there.

well, i got the motor running on the torsion system. i cleaned it all up as good as i could. i am still going to get it rebuilt though.

it works when i bypass everything and go straight to the motor, yes i was careful to not bend anything while operating.

the solenoids work, but when i do it to correct way i only get one solenoid to click and nothing happens, so something there needs to be looked at.

changed my avatar too.

later,

Hank

A little more info on what do you mean by "correct" way.

I expect the rod link from torsion bar to control switch is still connected but without the body weight, the switch is energized and trying to lower. Depending on how it was left when parked, it might be at a limit but currently it certainly can't do much because with no body load, it should be driven to activating limit switch.

Disconnect the control switch to bar link and leave disconnected. Switch should spring return to center. Then look at limit switch and see if bar on switch is touching either of transverse link bars. If so, then limit sw is activated. If not then make sure limit switch is free to move either way about 1/4 inch and springs back to center. If all of those conditions are OK, then more electrical troubleshooting is needed.

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correct way as in the way the manual says to test the torsion suspension when troubleshooting is need.

i hooked the red fused wire that goes to the starter up to the positive, then i took a starter switch and connected it to the negative side of the battery and the other end either A or B on the control box. A goes one way and B the other. but when i do it all i hear are clicking noises from the solenoids and nothing moves. if i bypass all that and go straight to the motor it turns. i can set the lateral bars to where they are even, as in the car is not all the way up or down. i can see the frame move up and down based on the tire height to frame level. so, i am pretty sure the limit switch is not activated, but i must be honest i don't really understand how that weird ass looking switch works. what spring........??? does it move or does it just ground out when the bars touch either side of the switch??

i don't understand and i can't make out much from that scanned document, but i have seen that switch before.

thanks for all your valuable information.

....including.....how do i take all this apart without hurting myself or messing something up, i have heard about the bars being spring loaded and to be careful around them. The frame is going to be dipped, so would you just leave all that on there minus the motor and gear for the torsion suspension?

my thought was to leave as much on the frame as i could to have it all dipped at once and primed at once.....how would you do it???

thanks,

Hank

Sounds like missing a connection or two.

If you hear both solenoids, then the limit switch is OK. All it does is open one or another set of contacts that would drop out the solenoid for that direction. The switch bar has a spring which keeps it centered, and when one of the transverse links touch it, it moves to one side or the other and opens that contact.

The solenoids & motor get power from the red wire, and when you use the starter sw on A or B, that completes circuit to solenoids so they energize and would provide power to the motor. It sounds like the motor as you describe the hookup has no ground. Please correct me if I misunderstood the hookup, but with no ground on motor, no action. How are you hooking up when driving directly?

The other missing connection is the lt green wire that goes to middle terminal on control switch. It would normally get power from brake light switch and enables the control switch to work. Right now, we can forget that one since you're just trying to move the motor--that circuit is not necessary now with the starter switch.

I would get a jumper cable, connect pos on battery to car chassis, connect red wire to neg battery terminal and use the starter switch between chassis and A or B on control switch.

I would not have the car dipped without removing everything but will bow to others opinions who might have more experience with the process. Not sure of the dip chemicals but there are lots of rubber bushings, bearing and things that would probably be destroyed. There is no way to remove the bushings and pieces without unloading the bars and removing them which takes special tools. I had my frame media blasted, but still removed everything--fortunately I had access to the tools.

wouldn't you want to hook the red wire to the positive as that wire goes to the starter which is positive ground????

i guess i was assuming the motor got the positive ground when i hooked up the red wire to the positive on the battery, but that isn't how it works it sounds.

so, battery positive to frame, red to negative side of battery and then the starter switch goes to neg or positive and then to A or B.

before i was hooking red wire to positive battery and then starter switch to neg. battery and then to A or B and the solenoid would make noise, but no movement of the motor. so there is no movement on the motor because i didn't have positive to chassis ground at the same time???

i am sure somehow there is a way to fabricate the "special" tools to get this stuff apart. what do the tools look like?? and does the club have rotating set they lend out?? i don't really care about the rubber bushing etc....they are all going to get replace with new ones anyways. the dipping service i am going to use is none caustic, but will still destroy the rubber.....non-acidic based, new patented process....go to www.metalrehab.com to check it out.

thanks,

Hank

Pos ground means positive goes to the car frame via the bare braided cable. The other wire to starter solenoid would be the hot, or in this case the negative from battery. This schematic is the best I have for a 55 but you can see that red wire with the 20amp fuse goes from starter solenoid (hot from battery) to solenoids, through solenoids to motor and then there is a little ground shown inside motor.

On the control switch, the relay contacts internally go to ground, through relay and out on A & B. All you have to do is connect the starter switch to ground and then to A or B, which will bypass the internal relays and you will go through limit switch to energize solenoids that way.

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