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Howard, thanks for the tip. It looks like a good solution, and at $12 plus change is certainly affordable. I ordered one and we will see what happens if I can go from 6V+ 12V-.

JWL

Here's a good video showing overdrive demonstration.

youtube.com/watch?v=hVFiRkkvask

Wes

Anybody have experience with front end alignment other that the factory specs? Since I have radials, negative camber if I can get any dialed in would be nice, but any less toe in than specified, or negative caster as opposed to 0 or positive caster as specified?

I usually run 0 degrees camber if I can get it, and perhaps a half degree positive camber on the driver's side if the car tends to wander toward the gutter because of the crown of the road. Toe in, usually 1/16 inch just because of accumulated slop in the mechanisms. People seem to get their shorts all in a wad because of the negative caster. That was done on purpose for lighter steering as the engineers knew that the king pin inclination would provide more than enough self centering action. Both positive caster and kingpin inclination work by causing the car to rise slightly as the wheels are turned. Thus it is possible to use negative caster to mitigate the effects of the necessary kingpin inclination. I say necessary as design limitations of spindle, brake drums and wheels make a fair amount of kingpin inclination necessary to get the pivot axis somewhere near the center of the tire contact patch.

If I recall, that was one of the reasons the Citroen DS models had inboard front brakes--so they could locate the pivot axis of the front wheels where they wished without putting a huge dish in the front wheels.

Thanks Ross,
A few follow up questions:
1)When you say 0 camber if you can get it...Is that because the front end tends towards positive camber, and you can't adjust out the positive camber enough towards 0? I remember this problem last time I aligned the front end. I wound up running +0.5 on the passenger side and +1.4 on the driver side...I'll see if I can get closer to your suggested 0 and 0.5deg.
2)Regarding the 1/16 inch toe in. Is that dimension measured at the tire tread or the rim?

Regarding the caster, I was also surprised because most other cars want as much positive caster as you can get, but then again, we are dealing with kingpins here, so I'll trust packard here.
Thanks!

I measure toe in out at the tread. With good rubber bushings and nothing bent you should have no trouble getting the camber where you want it.

Just checked through my mid fifties Motors manual and see that most manufacturers were running negative castor in this period. The only notable exception was the solid axle Fords which ran up to 5 positive.

Thanks for setting me straight (little pun there hahaha) When I said "most other cars want positive caster" I was thinking about more modern things with power steering and McPherson struts (spelling?) That does not apply here.
-Hope I can get her aligned tomorrow, and will also get to try out my new tachometer.

Strike 2 on getting my alignment done this morning. At least I got the car on the alignment bed, but again we couldn't get the mirror thing attached. Dave, you may be right on the truck shop idea. I asked in the local classic car club for an alignment shop that could do it. Lets see what I can find.
The tach works nice. Idle is at 550 rpm, and driving around town relaxed, I only got up to about 2000 rpm. Most of the time is 500 to 1500rpm. Easy cruising

Went for a short drive in the packard today to buy a 5 pound (2Kilo) fire extinguisher. I noticed that the 2 front hubcaps had rotated/crept a little bit on the valve stems. I removed them for the drive home and will bend the tabs for tighter fit.
Before, I was able to punch them on with a fist, so I guess they should be tight enough that a rubber mallet is needed.

I decided to complete the interior before doing anything else, since that is important for the inspection. Removed the dash again and some interior panels this weekend. Now I can install the windlace and headliner, and get the inside looking complete. Also found some material to cover the back window ledge and front kickpanels to cover the speakers I have there.

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