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you were that close! we have a couple chances left in the next week so here's hoping the rain stays away over here!

9-10-16

Had an interesting day today. Even though I did not know my actual speed, the family and I took a drive down to our local lighthouse on Lake Michigan. My wife took a very nice picture of the car with the lighthouse in the background.

We stayed for a few minutes when I had a panic attack about the car restarting. I tried to restart the car and it barely turned over but finally started. It has a habit of doing this for some reason.

With the relief that the car restarted, I thought I was out of the woods. Went to put it in gear and the gear selector would not move! Tried everything including moving the car forward while a post in the ground got dangerously close and still no reverse.

I don't know why but suddenly the gear selector moved into reverse. Backed up and got the heck out of there! By now it was late and the setting sun was blinding to the point I couldn't see! Finally made it home and was glad to park the car!

When I parked there I pulled the parking brake and left it in 1st when I shut it off. Maybe I need to keep it in neutral from now on?

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Being straight cut gears, sometimes you have to put the car into neutral, let out the clutch so that they spin a little, and then select reverse. Same holds for first.

You should be able to park the car in any gear you please if your handbrake works. That said, a good habit on an overdrive car is to always park it in reverse so the car will not roll. Overdrive cars will happily roll forward if you park them in a forward gear.

I am sure you know all about having good battery cables etc and have taken care of those details. Now remove the little copper strap between the solenoid and starter and clean that within an inch of its life. If you still get slow cranking, consider a new solenoid. I have seen many cars have a terrific improvement by changing that item.

These Packard(s) seem to have a lot of teething problems......
You could always swap in your Ultramatic and rear end from the 1951 car.

I have them if I ever feel like it but I like the speed and simplicity of the manual.

Thanks Ross, I was always told to park a manual in 1st. The overdrive is locked out right now. I have to go through the wiring and the lock out knob is stuck in the pulled out position. I will use reverse from now on and clean the copper tab on the starter!

I used polish on the rear chrome emblem and the gray streaks finally came out. Not as shiny as I would like but good enough!

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Be careful in trying to free the OD cable as too much force on the knob can cause the cable to separate from the end of the dash bracket. The pre 51 assy has a crimped section and the split that usually happens when the cable comes loose can be repaired by a shaft collar. Not sure if the later ones have enough of a crimped area to hold a collar.

The inner wire and outer housing are both steel so the wire can rust to the housing in one instance. The sliding clevis rod and outer sleeve at the OD end are also steel and can rust together. Some have had undercoating or road tar get on the rod and in the sleeve and cause issues.

I freed a couple of them by coiling the cables in a fairly tight circle which forces the outer core wire wrap to open slightly. Then sprayed with penetrating oil which could work inside the slightly opened coils. Coiled the other way to open that side and did it again. Hung it on the garage wall OD end up so as to periodically place a few drops of penetrating oil in the sleeve end and let it run down the inner wire. Took a while but freed up nicely.

If you have a large enough pan and enough liquid you could also coil and soak it in solvent or something like evapo rust.

Yikes! I didn't think the stuck overdrive might be that involved! Now I really need to build up the courage to tackle it!

Howards right, soak it real good. Enough pushing and pulling can separate the windings.
Wes

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9-17-16

Did a little tinkering today. When I bought the car the drivers side hood hinge was missing the spring. I took the spring off the hinge I saved from the '51. It was a pain to get on the car! I finally got it on using a heavy screwdriver through the eye of the spring and prying it on the hinge. The I used a hammer to help slide the spring down the screwdriver. Also used it to tap the end of the screwdriver to get it back out when the spring was close to being in place.

Next I removed the copper plate from the starter to clean up as Ross suggested. Used a large file on it, the nuts and the washers. I used steel wool to clean the lugs on the starter. After getting it all back together I started the car. Might be my imagination but it felt like it turned over even faster than before. I let the car idle for 15 minutes, turned it off, waited another 3 minutes and then restarted. Fired right up. The real proof will be after driving the car for a while. That's when the symptom really shows up.

Ever since I swapped my grills a couple of times, the hood latch would not catch. I tried adjusting the bottom plate but that did not help. Started loosening the spike on the hood and tried again. Now it latches! The sweet spot appears to loosen on side and keep the other side tight. I can live with that.

I noticed while I was under the hood that the overdrive cable and the wires for the overdrive are rubbing against the levers on the steering column. How is the cable supposed to be run through the engine compartment. Maybe it's missing a clamp somewhere.

One thing that drives me nuts is the woot woot noise coming from the vacuum side of the fuel pump. It is not hooked up to anything because the wiper motor system was disabled by a previous owner. I was thinking of running a hose to connect both sides to itself to eliminate the noise but I don't know if that would work or damage the fuel pump.

There should be no problem connecting the ports with a short hose or you could get a rubber or vinyl screw thread protector cap for a 1/4" screw at the hardware store and slide that over the suction port.