Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Any PACKARD Lit. that tells u what the had in mind for the WICK that is inside the DIST that rubs agents the Cam. Im doing a rebuild on my Dist - pulled it out yrs back and wondering if i should put it back. Ive been running grease on the Cam which works. Thinking P was think u oil the WICK but haven't found anything in Lit. to tell me.

Any petroleum-based oil or grease in close proximity to the points is potentially a problem as spatter or mist will greatly shorten the life of the points. Best lubricant for such places is a dielectric silicone grease or oil.

I'm curious to see a picture of the wick, I've been thru many 34 Eight and Super Eight distributors and never seen a wick that contacts the cam. There is of course the wick under the rotor that lubricates the slip joint between the drive and the cam - a few drops of light motor oil there is appropriate.

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Page 94-95 PARTS BOOK -
5033472 - Cam Lub Bkt
5033466 - Felt-Cam Lub
Comes with 2 Point Shields i don't c called out
Shown on Assy 5033462 page 95

Have 3 Dist from '34s and all came with them. Guessing the plan was to oil the WICK but I've never seen anything called out or shown other than in the Parts Book

Thanks, I'd like to see it. Can you take a picture of one of your distributors with the bracket & wick mounted?

Didn't some distributors have a felt or wick on the point arm to keep the grease or oil smeared evenly on the cam instead of it being scraped off and held by the fiber plate.

There is a wall lube chart mentioned in a service letter and introduced somewhere around the 10th series. It says if the dist is for an 8 it has a grease cup but if for a 12 there are two oilers and to use light oil. Is that wick considered one of the oilers?

Didn't some distributors have a felt or wick on the point arm to keep the grease or oil smeared evenly on the cam...

That was a feature of Blue Streak's aftermarket premium points which also had the ventilated tungsten contacts.

Yes and came with a small capsul of lubricating gel

The picture shown is a modified distributor. The original had a movable point set and a second fixed set with a stud acting as the ground post for the breaker point. As well the condensors were mounted vertically in the breaker plate.
I remember those parts being on the late Paul Lamb's car. Although I don't specifically remember the wick, it is shown in the parts book. I remember the distributor very well because I set the timing on one of his cars. All his cars were original.

Those parts are impossible to find. They were used up by the late fifties and many of the cars sat idle until the modifications became available thanks to modern car changes.
You just don't know how hard it was to keep those cars running in the old days. I knew someone who used to use the Caravan to prospect for parts. He'd stop at every little auto store and buy out their ignition stock. At one little place he found 80 sets of Packard 12 points.

The earlier cars were a lot easier because they used the same points as a Chevy. Thus, the Caravan was always loaded with 29-32 Packards because they were so dependable.

Tim, yes the condensers in my 34 Eight distributor are modern condensers mounted horizontally, but both the fixed and moveable points are correctly-mounted original NE points. You're right, they've been in tight supply for a long time but never really impossible to find, I just picked up 4 sets off eBay within the last year. What has become difficult to find are NOS caps. Though I finally had to replace the pair of ignition coils I must say that through about 45,000 miles of driving this car since the 60s reliability of the NE ignition system has been superb.

OD- Get u a photo in a few wks. Computers at the BEST BUY getting worked . Im working of my MacBook Air which I'm not that up on, AND heading to PEBBLE tomorrow. They say it comes in 3s.