Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Dave,

Ask and you shall receive. This is from the Radiator & Cooling section of the 55-56 Service Manual.

Just a note for future reference, all of this evidence was found in the Articles content that is available here on the website.

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Now one thing I do find interesting is the 52-54 pictures show a flat-band clamp with a gap down the middle, but the 55-56 clamp does not have that gap.

The picture that PI has is small but shows this gap, so perhaps that is why it was thought to have been a double wire-band clamp, instead of a flat-band clamp.

Notice that lousy alignment between the cooler and the pump on the V8 picture Kev posted for me. Fortunately the alignment is a lot better in real life.

Kev, it is a flat-band clamp used on the V-8s. The clamp has serrations around both edges of the clamp much like going around a pie with a fork. The number "30" is also stamped on the flat-band clamp. This clamp is always used on the hose that slips over the water-pump casting, not the stamped steel of the tranny cooler.

Kev -

I found a pair of pliers similar to the ones shown above, in my dad's old tool box. They come in very handy because they can grip the ears of the wire clamp straight-on or at a 90-degree angle.

It really pays to know someone who was there and actually worked on theses cars when they were new - LOL!

Years ago, I sorted through the old coffe cans of used hardware (something every old mechanic seems to have accumulated), and found all sorts of "authentic" fasteners for my V8s. Mind you, it's not that he forgot to re-install anything on the cars he serviced, but you tend to save stuff from used parts just in case you need it somewhere down the road.

I also found an old cigar box full of good used hose clamps (Seems like people who lived through the Great Depression couldn't help but save anything that might be useful later.) All the types you mentioned, plus a few more, were in there - EXCEPT that one I needed for water pump manifold inlet, but read on.

Owen -

Sorry for the delay, but here are four views of the clamp that I found years ago from a vendor of parts salvaged from used S-P product - images I had previously posted a the AACA PAckard DF.

I believe these clamps meet the specifications outlined by Randy in a recent post. Also, in one of the photos, you can just make out the name "WITTEK".

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Kev -

In chiming in on this thread, know that I'm not just taking issue with one sale on eBay for clamps that the vendor incorrectly claims are correct for all years 1951-1956. I've also had to wince at more than one Packard vendor who tried to sell me a bag full of nothing but spring wire clamps for the radiator hoses.

The Corbin type is correct and works fine on all the radiator (and heater) hoses EXCEPT that one location. I can only guess that Packard engineers felt the rough surface of the casting needed more clamping force than could be had with a spring wire clamp.

Although trips to Fall Hershey further inspired me toward authenticity, I began to get turned off to AACA judging in the early 1980s, when I learned of a new standard mandating the use of one particular style of hose clamp for all cars of a given period, with NO regard to what was clearly shown in shop manuals and the like. I talked to more than one vehicle owner, at that time, who concluded that some vendor just found an old crate full of that particular clamp, and the old boys club mentatlity took it from there.

Of course, a general club can't be an expert on all cars, and I'm glad that PI finally took the bull by the horns and set out to publish this judging guide. As I believe they are open with regard to revising and updating their standards, you might want to review this thread with them.

Perhaps I went off half-cocked on this one.

I went back and looked at the PI Guide picture again and at first glance it looks like the double wire type. But if you look really close as it, and then compare it to the spring type clamp it the same picture, then it is actually a flat band clamp with the void in the middle (double-band strap style). I was going from memory from looking at the guide awhile back. Perhaps the e-bay vendor thought the same thing.

Upon re-reading the desciption, they describe it as a "Strap Clamp". So perhaps this was all my mistake based at a quick look at the picture and the fact the hose set I got prior from Kanters came with all double-wire clamps and I had never seen the double-band strap style clamp before.

So the PI guide is actually correct and if I had not seen the double-wire clamps that came with the hose set or had seen the double-band style before hand, then I would have read it more clearly and not assumed they were referencing the double-wire style.

So my fault.

But hopefully this has not been a complete waste of time as it was a good exercise and points out the correct ones and the fact that the water-pump inlet is a different clamp compared to the other hoses. It also shows that there was a different between the clamps used on the 54 and prior and the 55/56 models. The 55/56 models look to have a solid band strap clamp, and the 54 and prior models have a double-band (or split) strap clamp.

So now I go off and try to find that correct double-band clamp, and hopefully wont shoot myself in the foot!