Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Great tip! I have seen index cards used on more modern wheels but this looks much faster.

This is maybe the 4th time I have encountered this in my life, but it might save someone a lot of trouble:

Symptom was lack of power, really dreadful performance at anything above say 1/3 throttle. This was in a car with all fresh components and carefully tuned. Idle and low throttle performance was excellent.

Culprit was: the felt pad on the inside lid of the air filter. It was collapsing down around the air passage through the body of the filter and greatly restricting airflow. I glued it back into place, a quick and easy fix for an annoying problem.

These felt pads were used for noise reduction on the filters with the oiled mesh. Good idea to give yours a look--it will save a lot of gas.

A simple tip here and probably well enough known. Needed to refinish the spark plug wire "antlers" on a 55 as the rubber was falling to bits.

Wire wheeled the old rubber off and then primed and painted the antlers. Three dips in black Plastidip about an hour apart yielded a very satisfactory result that looks just like factory. This also works terrific to refinish those tubing and wire clamps that are common on the later cars.

Second photo is of a polish I just tried out on a very tired dash and then on highly oxidized metallic paint. This stuff worked fantastic getting the oxidation off in a hurry and left the surface with a nice gloss. That does not always happen when using aggressive compounds on nasty paint. I went straight to wax after hand rubbing with this stuff and was rewarded with a nice finish.

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Had in a 53 Bermuda Triangle with the all too common sagging tail syndrome: door gaps too wide up near the door handles, and convertible top pulling away at the rear tack strip. This problem is caused by the continental kit hanging waaaay out beyond the rear wheels which with time and shaking causes the frame to droop at the axle kickup.

I had already reshimmed the body to the frame on this car some years ago but had done nothing to forestall a recurrance. Even though the car is rust-free and not used offroad it sagged further.

This time I installed 2" x 1/4" reinforcing steel on the top and bottom of the kickup reaching from the end of the frame's X member to the mounting pad of the rear shackle. I bent the reinforcements to fit a spare frame and then MIG welded them onto the patient. The next-to-last body mounts had to be removed during this process and the holes redrilled afterwards. During the welding I had a support under the continental kit mounting bracket so I could force the frame and body back up into position. The reinforcements are stitch welded on both edges--pretty tricky with the body on the frame.

Results are quite pleasing as the door gaps are parallel now and there is no body shake passing over normal bumps.

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Hi Ross

That looks like a great fix! I've seen Caribbeans and other convertibles with continental kits that have noticeably widened door gaps, surmised the additional cantilever weight was more than the frame was designed to accommodate. Thanks for showing us this good repair for a common problem.

Steve

Was fiddling with a 53 that was mediocre at starting at best and all but refused when hot.
The engine would make a series of half turns: rrr------rrrr-----rrrr. Sound familiar?

Cables and solenoid were all but new. Took the (Delco) starter apart only to look at nice brushes and commutator and clean connections. Then noticed that the armature had rub marks around it.

On other websites I have heard of the windings "growing" as a result of heat cycles. This is a little too hard for me to believe. The cure stated is usually to turn down the OD of the armature a little.

Instead I measured the commutator end bushing and discovered it had worn oval by .014". So I blew all of $3 and replaced it. I have seen these same bushings on Fleabay for $25--they must be of hysterically good quality. Oddly, the other two bushings in the starter were ok and just got a drop of oil.

Results were VERY pleasing and this starter now turns the engine over briskly with no difference between hot and cold.

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I saw your post on the rear sagging problem, but I have an issue that is more basic: My continental kit is incomplete. There is no way to hold the kit upright without something else to be added or modified. I have the hinge and the connected mounting plate to bolt the wheel to, but without something to hold the kit upright, the whole thing would flop forward and backward when accelerating or braking. I'll try to send you a picture of what has been mounted years ago.

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Had in a 54 Clipper for a minor Ultramatic problem which was soon rectified by some minor linkage fiddling. Far more annoying was the irregular idle and the way the car would actually loose a cylinder or two under various loads and throttle openings. Eight shiny new plugs were already present. A quick check and tidy of the distributor (does ANYONE ever refill the grease cup on the inline eight distributors?) brought no particular joy. Replacing the greatly deteriorated resistor type rotor made little difference. Then I noticed that the rather new-looking plug wires were proudly labeled "supressor". Took them off and tossed them into the rubbish with extreme prejudice. Made up a set of nice solid core wires with the aid of Napa raw components. Was rewarded by instant starts and no missing under any load.

Hyperbole aside, 6v cars do not appreciate resistor type wires, especially when the Delco distributors already have a resistor type rotor. Resistor plugs are then insult to injury. It is already harder for the spark to jump the gap on the plug when the engine is under load. With all that extra resistance, the spark just doesn't get there.

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We'll put this under the category of "this didn't work well".

Have in a 55 400 that had a cooler breach some time ago. It seems that the PO did not change the fluid after this misshap, or perhaps did not change both convertor and trans.

Complaint from the new owner was that direct drive had gone on vacation and that the trans would sometime not engage. Pretty well certain the latter problem was a slipping reactor clutch in the convertor--a not uncommon problem in 55s. When that slips the trans feel all but in neutral when you give gas.

Was shocked to find a tremendous amount of mung in the pan and scored bushings in a trans I did, oh a dozen years ago or so. Taking apart the high range clutch I found that the facings were no longer adhered to the backings and were just floating around in the clutch pack. NEVER seen that before. A new failure mode. That is when I asked and learned the history of the cooler breach and that the fluid had been contaminated with coolant.

These coolers seldom breach, so no need to panic, but if yours does, please be thorough about servicing the transmission. Otherwise, it is very expensive.

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Ross.

What is the trans cooler part made of. I know the case is steel