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It was a gorgeous afternoon here in North Central Florida yesterday after I got home from work so the wife and I decided to wake up the Clipper and drive the 13 or so miles over to a nearby restaurant for some all you can eat catfish. We finished up and headed back home and didn't get more than a mile down the road and right in front of us a late model 4 door Tahoe just plows into the back of a GMC Sonoma or Canyon that was dead stopped and turning left just 6 car lengths ahead of us. We were running about 55 or 60 miles an our and the driver of the Tahoe never hit the brakes. I slammed on brakes in the Clipper and nearly lost control of it trying to dodge the pickup truck that was flipping over and over from the rear impact. Out of the corner of my eye I see a body flying across the road and landing on the shoulder. There was debris everywhere but I managed to stop on the right shoulder of the road without hitting anything, jumped out of the car and was the first one over to the poor man that was thrown out of the back window of the pick-up. He was struggling to breath but other than some road rash on the side of his head appeared to be O.K. One guy was calling 911 while a few others walked up holding blankets and car pillows and all we could do was wait for the police and rescue after that. Once the police had all of my information and we were free to go, I hit the starter on the Packard and although she fired right up, she also made an ugly noise that sounded like the Bendix or ring gear broke a tooth off as it bounced around and then most likely fell down in the bottom of the bell housing. Anyway, we headed home and decided to stop and get some ice cream only to discover when we went to leave that the starter wouldn't spin the engine over. Sounds like it always has when the Bendix engages but it won't spin over at all like it's locked up and I can't turn the engine over by by hand either. I'm not sure what would have caused it with my having to slam on brakes but it has to be related somehow as it has never given me problems before.

Glad you and your car avoided the mishap!

Ultramatic or standard shift?

Something similar to that happened to me years ago in my 54 Pat w/Ultramatic but with one significant difference - you managed to start again and proceed to one more stop before the problem - I didn't. What happened to me was the instantaneous locking of the rear wheels didn't allow the Ultramatic to downshift from lock-up so the pressure never bled off the direct drive clutch. So engaging the starter was the same as engaging a starter on a standard shift car in 3rd gear with clutch engaged which can put a walloping strain on the starter drive. In my case the starter wouldn't even engage (neutral safety?); just sitting a few minutes to allow the pressure to bleed off was all I had to do.

You know it OD...first time in my life I was ever that close to an accident of that magnitude. Funny, after everyone was secure with the condition of the humans they all wanted to know if the Packard was injured...it's an Ultramatic OD...I didn't think about what it would do the next time I turned it off so when we got to the "Dairy Freeze", I naturally just turned it off and when we finished our ice cream and I went to crank up, all it did was urmph!...urmph!...urmph!...each time I hit the foot switch. Sounds almost like the battery is depleted however you can hear the Bendix engage the flywheel but won't spin the engine over. I tried grasping the fan and turning it over by hand but no dice...I can very VERY slightly move it back and forth but its locked...ended up calling the owner of one of the two local tow services we have who also owns a few classic cars and he lifted by the rear wheels, tied the steering wheel and we headed down the road...luckily I was only about two miles from the house at that point but ready to get there after all that had happened...the wrecker driver backed the old gal in the garage...I closed the door...and that's the end of the story for now. I just hope if a tooth broke off that it came off the Bendix gear and not the ring gear.

Boy Gator, you were truly lucky if the worst you have to deal with is a problem with the Bendix gear. If you ever wondered why manufacturers dropped drum brakes in favor of anti-lock disc brakes, this ought to be a example. You obviously are a good driver and maintained excellent control under extreme duress. One question: Are you running on bias ply or radial tires?

Craig

If you ever wondered why manufacturers dropped drum brakes in favor of anti-lock disc brakes, this ought to be a example

Not sure I entirely agree though clearly disc brakes are superior, more so if anti-lock. Biggest problem with drum brakes isn't brute stopping power, you can't stop any faster than when all 4 wheels are locked or nearly locked and in a sudden stop drums in proper condition do this without problem as both incidents demonstrate. Biggest problem with drum brakes is their heat dissipation abilities and hence propensity for fading after repeated long applications. Anti-lock brakes certainly help stopping in a straight line though drums also do so if they are maintained properly.

Glad you and your bride are safe. It is hair-raising when an accident like that happens. I always try to maintain a distance from the car in front of me when driving Best Other.
Will keep my fingers crossed for your mechanical problem(s).

Thanks all, it was an eye opener I didn't need but a good reminder of what can happen in the blink of an eye. I suspect that the Tahoe driver was either texting or looking somewhere other than the road to not have hit his brakes. Tailgating a car is NOT a safe practice but what saved the wife and I was the fact that I saw it all unfolding right before my eyes and almost like a recording can replay it over and over again But you just don't have a lot of time to react. The wife has praised my driving through and out of what could have been a disaster for us both but there was certainly a point when I thought the Clipper was going to roll over...I just remember letting off the brakes and counter steering as hard as I could and then hitting the brakes hard again. I don't recall a whole lot about steering through it but she said I was really fighting to maintain control but at the same time doing all I could to avoid hitting the crumpled pick-up or ending up in the woods or worse.

Craig, they are American Classic Radials that I maintain about 38 PSI in. I don't know if it would have made a difference had they been bias tires or not but considering how radials tend to flatten out more at the contact point with the road it does seem like they would have an advantage in "biting" force. I just can't say one way or the other. I'm going to call the hospital today and check on the man that was thrown from the truck...there were people injured in the other two cars too but theirs were not life threatening...I understand one person in the Tahoe had a broken ankle but haven't heard on the other.

Thanks Randy, hoping to check the car out this weekend and see what's got it locked up and of course also hoping it isn't anything too serious.

One time I was starting my 22 Model T Ford which uses a Bendix device on the starter. Just as it kicked over it backfired and jammed the bendix and ring gear so tight I couldn't hand crank the engine, or turn it by pushing the car backwards.

I finally unbolted the starter and released the jam with no visible damage to either the bendix or ring gear and it has been starting perfectly ever since which is going on about five years.

Keep your fingers crossed.

As the gear part of the Bendix travels forward to engage the ring gear I can see how a sudden stop could thrust it forward on the fast threads on the starter shaft. There is a little friction pin in the Bendix that is suposed to make it harder to slide around on its own which is certinally a little loose on my old model T.

Jim

Got around to removing the starter motor on the Clipper last night and found the problem. I believe that the centrifugal forward force created by my locking up the brakes with the direct clutch fully pressurized may have allowed the converter/ring gear assembly to move forward and hit the bendix gear with the engine still running at a fairly high RPM which damaged and possibly cracked it and then my first crank up basically finished it off which was the noise I heard when it flew apart and threw the missing tooth shown in the photo. Then of course the gear was binding itself in the housing and could not move or even attempt to engage. The starter ring gear looks fine and appears to be undamaged which was my main concern thank goodness.

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The closest call I ever had was in a 34 Su8. I was leaving the gas station late at night and stopped at the end of the driveway. Woosh! A Cadillac Eldorado sped by at around 60 mph with no lights on. If I had assumed the road was clear I would have been a dead duck. It was a 25 mph zone.

Packards are not very good in emergency maneuvers because they understeer like crazy. 55-60 is really pushing it on a road that has cross traffic. There are a few gangster flicks with Packards flying around corners and the front ends are plowing like crazy.

This past winter was rather severe and I saw lots of cars cracking up despite all the stupid anti-skid gagdets. I started taking back roads in severe weather to avoid all the lunatics who think "traction control" is a substitute for skill.