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OK so I tried to pump oil into the oil sender hole and got 10-15 squirts in before oil started to stream out of the hole. I put my T fitting on the sender and screwed it into the engine block. Then I put a few more oil squirts in the T until oil came out. Last I added the old oil line to the aftermarket oil pressure gauge.

Fired the car up and the oil light is still on, but the gauge is reading 40! That was great to see! I guess I will need a new oil pressure sending unit. I don't want to stare at an oil light while driving the car even though I know I have pressure.

For now the aftermarket gauge cluster (just oil pressure and AMPS which is useless for my application) is laying in the hole the kick panel would be just to keep it out of the way until I decide where to mount it.

Thanks for everyone's help on this!

Is there an oil sender on the old straight 8 from the '51?
John

Pleased to hear about the good oil pressure.

You can run both a warning light and a pressure gauge. Use a "T" fitting with the warning light unit on one side and the pressure gauge unit on the other.

Are you using an electric or mechanical pressure gauge? It makes no difference, either can be done. I did this years ago in order to have both warning light and pressure gauge. I used a mechanical pressure gauge.

The warning light sending units come with various pressure ratings. I always like to use the highest rating available in order to provide earlier warning of low pressure. JWL

Thanks JW, I already have the T fitting in place. I am using the manual gauge that came with the car, but I had removed previously because I didn't like the look of it in the car. I'll have to find a new idiot light sender unit to replace my faulty one.

ptv That's a good point. I have one on my spare engine. I'll have to price them out. If cheap I'll buy a new one otherwise I will remove it from the '51.

10-8-17

Had a wonderful ride in the car yesterday with my wife. The car was running great and the oil pressure is still fine (haven't investigated the oil sender for the idoit light yet). We were cruising around 35mph and I noticed the speedometer needle wasn't a little bouncy like it usually is. I turn to my wife and say "hey, look, the speedometer is reading smooth now!". I was on cloud nine..for about 20 seconds. Glanced down at the speedo again and...the needle was at 0! I haven't dug into it yet but apparently I broke another speedo cable. I chalked the first one up to possibly old age, but with a second one out, I guess there is something wrong with my speedo. Another project on the list. Probably won't get to it until next season though. I have too many other non-Packard projects to work on right now. Oh well!

Before you put the car away I would crawl under the dash and put a few drops of oil in the hole to saturate the wick and also try to get a bit in the bushing between the bronze input shaft with the square hole and the threaded portion of the pot metal case. Let it sit over the winter and if the bushing is dry maybe things will free up by spring.

Check that there are no sharp bends in the cable route. Wasn't your car the one where there was a question of maybe short cable length and proper routing when you installed the new cable? You could also try and estimate how much of the the inner cable was in the square hole when you unscrew the outer housing. Possibly it was a tad short and has worked its way down in the sheath and no longer connected.

Thanks Howard, I hope it is something simple, but I have a feeling it won't be. The cable was a little different than my original, but the way I routed it made it work. No kinks and I used almost a whole bottle of graphite along the inner cable before I installed it hoping to prevent another broken cable. Still haven't had a chance to investigate yet.

7/30/18

Where has the time gone? Absolutely no progress on the car over the Spring and Summer. I had a major repair to do on my truck that took all the enthusiasm to wrench right out of me. Also I bought a boat so I have been off playing with that on weekends.

I have been starting the car every few weeks. It's running rough again. I haven't driven it except to move it around to get it out of the way. The last two drives resulted in it leaking coolant and I'm not sure why or where.

Today I felt a little inspiration so I decided to try some stuff on the car. First off, my temp gauge never worked. I took my temp sensor off my spare engine and put that in making sure the threads were bright and it had a clean electrical connection. Refilled the radiator with 1-1/2 gallons of mostly water with a little antifreeze.

Started the car and it was running rough. Shaking/vibration and would not kick down into low idle easily. If I revved up the engine, it would stay in fast idle no matter how many times I goosed the gas. I'm guessing the carb is gumming up from sitting, plus the gas is not exactly fresh anymore.

The replacement sensor did make the temp needle move. That was a nice change, but even after idling for 20-25 minutes with sometimes high idle and revving the engine, the temp only got between the T and E on the gauge and the needle moved very slowing. I'm wondering if the previous owner removed the thermostat. Still the temp gauge should go higher.


Even with all that idle time, the radiator didn't show signs of leaking and no coolant spilled out. It's almost like it will only happen after a drive? I did hear a little hiss noise coming from the radiator cap. Perhaps I need a new one of those.

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Maybe you got one of those cool running Packards, we never hear about on here?

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Ha! I wish! It was puking out antifreeze for some reason after those two drives I did. Hopefully it will be something simple and not a hole in the radiator.