Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Thanks, Don, where'd you get your springs? You can PM me if you like.

Here are a couple of pics with other little things I've discovered, which may be of help.

The first is my baby. The prop for the bar that crosses over the head to the rest of the accelerator linkage. It's only temporary-- unless it works. The piece of tapered rubber I put in there has one disadvantage, a hole in the middle of it. I filled the hole with the most handy object I had, a cap and cork from a (empty) bottle of Wild Turkey. One disadvantage is that the little metal bushing on the bar is not against the cap, so it can't turn like it should.

The second is a pretty good hint for those of you that have misfiring problems. The vacuum line from the distributor was routed UNDER the plug wires and touching them. I pulled the wires, pushed down the vacuum line down ( which looks like it was the correct, original placement) and routed the wires over it. One was still too close, so I wrapped electrical tap around the vacuum line at that spot just to make sure.

The third shows a lucky brake. I just happened to have the gas line insulation from my old Dodge pickup laying around. I thought, hm, and it fit the Packard line and ran all the way from the glass bowl to the place where the line (unfortunatel) runs over the heater hose. I had put duct tape around the heater hos for insulation, but was still getting vapor lock in the line, and probably percolation in the carb bowl We'll see. I'm carrying a spray bottle of water along just in case.

Attach file:

---

  (114.57 KB)


  (132.81 KB)


  (148.24 KB)

Thanks for the photos. I have been trying to puzzle out a funny thing on my 51 Model 200. It came to me with the fuel line which is copper tubing wrapped twice around the fan blower motor , then it goes to the carb. I wonder if this was done to stop vapor lock. I haven't changed it yet. I can see that the route over the manifold will be a hot one. If I can figure out how to do it, I will post a photo of it.

Here is a photo from the parts manual showing the 51-4 route. The factory steel tube is a fair distance away from the manifold and catches a considerable amount of airflow which should keep it relatively cool. It is also somewhat pressurized. I believe several have offered evidence that wrapping and rerouting that particular section does not really solve the problem and the vapor lock is more likely to be occurring in the low pressure side before the fuel pump. Once the fuel starts to gas and a "bubble" reaches the fuel pump, if it is large enough the pump loses suction and then the problem.

Attach file:

---

  (59.68 KB)

Home away from home, I am wondering if you ever got your oil pressure low reading figured out. I have been reading through the messages about it, and have something to add. When I was young about 40'years ago. I rebuilt a Dodge flat head six from a PU truck. After the full rebuild I still had low oil pressure at idle when warmed up. A friend of mine removed the spring and oil pressure regulator check ball from the side if the engine. As I remember we just pulled the spring apart with players to make it longer which raised the oil pressure in the engine. The idea was that the regulator spring have collapsed somewhat over the years and the higher spring pressure raised the oil pressure.. This was an external mounted part on the engine block in the oil gallery. I don't know if Packards are built the same way, but it worked great on the Dodge. With my old British sports cars we just lived with the oil light at idle.

Mr. Forum Ambassitor, thanks for the routing information on the fuel line. That looks much better than how it is in the engine compartment currently. It will give it a try soon. I am thinking of joining the Northern California Packard club and making some of their meeting/car runs. It would be helpful to me to see someone else's car that if correct in layout.

Quote:

If you're referring to my oil pressure light coming on, that's completely figured out. The old pressure sending unit was leaking a bit, so got a new one from NAPA. Right after that, I had trouble with the light coming on at speed. It would go out after starting and while idling. (??) Put the old one back in and, whoopee, it worked fine. All I can figure out is the new sending unit had the wrong pressure setting, but why it came on and stayed on at higher rpms, and went out at lower ones is a mystery.

I plan to put a nice coat of #2 Permatex on the body of the old sender, which seeps oil. I bet that'll fix it. (It's not leaking from the threads.)

Thanks for the fuel line routing pic and vapor lock/percolation info HH.

I have added a spray bottle with water in it to my insta-kit on the floor behind the drivers seat, along with my fire extinguisher. Hosing down the line and float bowl doesn't hurt. I will also now try spraying the filter/pump/and low pressure line. If that doesn't cut it, pulling the air cleaner and dribbling a bit of gas in the air horn will often get it running long enough to pass the bubble.
NOTE: If you add gas ALWAYS have the extinguisher ready. If you don't have an extinguisher, don't mess with the gas. (That's my advice, anyway.) Usually, it's best to just use the water and wait. Patience pays.

Now a couple of things:

1. Still no reading on fuel and temp gauges. I have located and PB Blastered the temp sending unit. I figure this is the easiest to remove and test to verify if the gauges themselves, or power to the gauges (see above postings) are the culprit or if its the sending unit(s). The temp is the easiest sending unit to get at.

Now, the $64,000 question: Has anyone removed this sending unit and replaced it? How tough is it to get out of the head? (For anyone wondering where it is, you can see it in my pic of the accelerator linkage above. On the right side of the head back near the firewall.)

2. Off-idle hesitation and bogging! This was a problem before, then kind of went away, now is worse again. Have tried bumping up the idle, running the idle jets richer, etc. It is less bothersome with the O.D. on. In fact, the car in general shifts better and drives smoother with the O.D. on, even in town. But I hesitate to leave it on in town due to the extra wear and heat build-up on the brakes.

I remember the old "dash pots" used on carbureted cars that eased the accelerator back instead of just slamming the carb closed when shifting. I can kind of do this with my foot, but I doubt Packard designed their cars to have this sort of drivability problem!

Any thoughts on either of these topics much appreciated.

Re your $64000.00 question I just removed the temp sender from my '54 359, but it sure wasn't easy. It had to be removed due to stripped threads in #8 spark plug hole, necessitating a visit to the machine shop. I just couldn't generate enough torque to break it free with the head on the block. On my car the convertible top pump is directly beside it and it's hard to fit a socket wrench or anything other than an open or closed end wrench on it. I pulled the head with the sender still attached. With the head on the floor and a pipe extension on the socket wrench it finally came loose and was removed intact. Even though it's a brass sender in an aluminum head I'm putting anti-seize on those threads when it goes back together.

I'm intrigued by your off-idle hesitation and bogging. My car was hard to restart when warm. I found the high-tension terminal in the coil badly rusted so I replaced the coil. Could not duplicate the hard start after this, but just then the performance deteriorated noticeably, it barely made it up even slight inclines. Checking further I found #4 plug wire arcing to the air filter resonance chamber; it's a shame they couldn't flatten the bottom of the chamber so it's not sitting directly on top of #4 and 5 plug wires. So I replaced all the plug wires and the condenser. The points and point gap are fine. It ran much better, no problem with inclines, but I felt the idle could be just a little smoother and your off-idle hesitation and bogging is present, like when accelerating lightly to get off the street and into the garage. If I had a lead foot I wouldn't even be aware of it. I was pulling the spark plugs to check them when the problem developed with #8 plug threads. All the plugs are fine and will be going back in when the head is back from the machine shop. I hope this posting will give you some things to check over on your car.

Please keep us posted on what you find with the off-idle hesitation/bogging. I'll be following this thread intently. Thanks.

Thanks for your reply, Don. You got me to thinking. Hesitation can be an electrical thing, too. As I recall, insufficient spark advance can be the culprit. Now, if I can get my mechanic to dig out his timing light... I'm old school, doing it by ear. Your rough idle may have been the result of too much advance.

So often, we get fixated on one or the other: spark or gas. The same symptoms can often be caused by problems in either one, or both.

I'm going to set the idle jets between the specs at 1-1/4 turn. (Specs say 1 to 1-1/2.) If that doesn't work, I'm check the timing. If that doesn't work, go after the carb again.

NOTE: The thing starts like it has electronic ignition, so I hope it's not an electrical thing. It acts exactly like the hesitation you get with an old EGR valve equipped car when the exhaust gas valve opened too fast.

Anyone know how to test a Temp sending unit without taking it off? It looks pretty gnarly.

I'm going to wiggle some more wires under the instrument panel, too, especially the voltage regulator for the Temp and Fuel gauges. Both of them being out at the same time and wired on the same circuit is mighty suspicious.