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A friend of mine brought home a 34 packard that has a straight eight. The owner is a elder man that has dementia. This car has been sitting for about two years. My friend is trying to get it running and cleaned up. Once this happens he will sell it for the old man. I have volunteered to help my friend do this task.
It looks like the owner had been trying to work on it himself. Lot of electrical wires crossed. I have got these things back in place. Starting is my problem. I have fuel at the carburetor ,new plugs and they are firing. When trying to start all I get is a few backfires thru the carburetor. On the compression test only one cylinder is 30# lower than the others. To me it sounds like its retarded. Here is my question. How do you advance the timming? Do not see any slots on the hold down bolts.
I'm a old school mechanic. But not packard old. I am open to suggestions. I have no manuels to cover this car.
Thanks for reading
Cudajim

G'day Cudajim,
to PackardInfo.. but I'll leave it to the much more expert to respond to your questions.

If had been your '34 Packard I would have asked for it to be included in the Packard Owner's Registry. Maybe you can talk with your friend and, if he's agreeable, include it on his or the owners behalf?

I have never met the owner. He may have registered it already? What would be needed to check?

To adjust the timing by rotating the distributor, just loosen the 3 bolts that hold the distributor body to the aluminum stand-off support; the holes are slotted and you can rotate the distributor. Note that this adjusts timing for all 8 cylinders but since the unit has two independent 4 cylinder ignition systems, you may have to independently rotate one set of points within the distributor body to get them synchronized.

More than likely your backfire problem isn't timing but a couple of valves that are stuck open. Remove the valve lifter side covers and watch the action of the valves as the engine is turned over (with the ignition off).

I will check. I only showed 1 cyl down on compression (30lbs) I see where points may need to be synchronized also. I will need to research.

thanks abunch for info. I am learning

For info on synchronizing the points in the 33/34 Northeast distributor you could start with this article which I published many years ago.

34 8 cylinder engines also have timing marks for both sets of cylinders on the front vibration damper so you could also time and synchronise in the conventional manner with a timing light, just doing each set of 4 cylinders separately.




packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=864

Figured out the starting problem on the 34. The owner had the coil wires crossed on the cap. swapped them back and the old girl came to life.
If I was a good Packard mechanic I would of found it earlier.
Thanks for the help!! she sounds good

Don't be too hard on yourself, the dual ignition system on the '33 and '34 8-cylinder models befuddles a lot of owners who haven't taken the time to understand it. But it surely is elegant and produces a very intense spark - in good tune these cars start so fast you almost don't hear the starter motor engage before they are running.