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Sunday 6th May, 2018

Four weeks and a day since breaking the wrist. Had surgery 3 weeks & 3 days ago, resulting in a plate and seven screws now being a permanent part of my physiology. The cast applied after the surgery was removed 6 days ago with the "Orthopod" pleased with how it looked although still swollen. Physiotherapy 2 days a week and a series of exercises 3 times every day at home.

With the wrist going welL, with movement improving every day and pain level good, decided it was time to get behind the wheel of the Packard again. This in preparation for a 60km drive to Berry Showground for a car show on Sunday 20th for National Motoring Heritage Day. The drive to and from Berry is quite "challenging" because much of the route is steep and winding as it is down and up the side of a mountain. Based on the evidence of todays run I think I'll be OK on the day but will temper enthusiasm with reason.
What! Doesn't sound like me, usually it's rip, tear and bust!

Anyway, that aside, on the way home today stopped and took a photo of the car in front of the boyhood home of The Boy from Bowral.

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Sunday 27th May, 2018

Back on the 14th May received a PM from Allan(70cuda) saying: "My brother is restoring a 1948 Packard Super 8 Victoria convertible and he has problems when it comes to the brake pedals. He does not have the brake pedals, but he could possibly make them out of similar brake parts from other cars, also he does not know what they are supposed to look like, or how they are supposed to be hooked up in the engine bay. We can't locate any info on this for the RHD cars anywhere... So, my question for you is do you have any pictures of the brake pedal setup in the engine bay that you could send me?"

Allan's brother is joborg2 and this is his '49 Super Eight Victoria Convertible Coupe in the Registry. Interesting history on the car. Allan also supplied some further background, being: "He got the car for free around 2010. The owner was gonna scrap it. The owner had taken over ownership of the car from a tenant that had left it in the basement of one of his rental houses and bailed. Tenant is sort of a shady character... The car had been taken completely apart at that time and was 80% complete for parts. The rest of the parts the tenant had stashed at some other house so my brother assumes that is all binned. He is still working on collecting missing parts and wants to make it as original as possible."

Looking in the engine compartment of my '50 you can't see the clutch linkage only the brake pedal and MC. And with my current condition I'm not getting under the car at the moment. So,put out some feelers to a couple of the blokes in our club, only trouble is one is 100 kms distant while the other is about 160 kms away. Anyway the opportunity arose today to visit the guy 100kms away following my youngest grandson's 4th birthday. Called in and lo and behold the rolling '48 chassis he had is no more.....it was cut up a month or so back. But....he saved all the parts off it. Consequently was able to pick up the clutch and brake pedals together with some linkage parts. And here's where RHD differs from LHD.....the clutch is cable operated! Fortunately the cable was there, these are a very scarce item. I was told by one guy he'd seen a clutch setup where a small chain had been substituted for the cable when it broke.

I also picked up the fuel pump and the front shocks to use on my '50 Sedan. I'll have the pump rebuilt, but because my '50 has electric wipers, would like to know: Is it worthwhile rebuilding the vacuum pump side seeing it won't be used? Also looking to send the shocks away to be rebuilt and then replace my leaking shocks. My question here is: Can the shocks on the car just be unbolted and the rebuilt shocks installed in their place? Or is realignment of the front suspension or other adjustments required? Also, the first photo below is of some parts supposed to be applicable to clutch and brake linksges. I don't know but two of the pieces look similar to the stanchions which braced the front fenders on my '41 120 Coupe, while the other looks like a trans snubber. Any help here would be appreciated. Checked the part numbers on the clutch and brake pedals, 379200 and 378457. and according to the 48-54 Partrs List in the Literature and Manuals Section they are correct for RHD 22nd & 23rd Series. What a great resource PackardInfo is.

PS - I now know one of the front shocks has fluid in it. Carried both of them home upside down in the boot(trunk) of the DD only for one to leak fluid. Luckily I'put down a piece of plastic on the boot floor.

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For my two cents I would have the pump rebuilt completely since if you buy the proper kit for the pump the vacuum parts should be part of the kit. You can also rest easier knowing a diaphragm is fresh and is less likely to fail and provide a possible path for an oil leak from the cam and crankcase.

Of the linkages photo, the two with rods and the brackets with long slots look to me like they might be the braces that are on the sides between the radiator cradle and frame. I think you are correct on the other one with brackets on both ends. It looks like it is the longitudinal snubber rod that goes between the bottom of trans or OD and the frame.

As to realignment after doing the shocks, I would plan on it because unless you get the old dimensions exact when tightening the upper bolt from the arms to spindle assy plus not having any slop in the holes when bolting the new shocks to the frame so as to get the identical angle, I would suspect there could be enough change in someting that it will be warranted.

On the RHD clutch and cable assy, is the bellhousing a mirror image so the throwout lever is on the right? I couldn't see that detail very well on the underside photos you first posted when you got your car.

Howard,
for the comments and advice.

Here are 3 pictures of my '49 transmission support, looks like the top piece you have posted. Hope this helps.

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Deskdriver,
for the pic's, certainly helps.

I would not think it would be to hard to have a clutch cable made up. McMaster Carr will make up cable with ends to your specs.
I have also made up cables very similar to this for mechanical brakes on 2nd series King Midget cars.

John

Monday 28th May, 2018

Today was like being back in the workshop except......there was none of the equipment to assist my return to parts cleaning. Oh what I'd give for a blasting cabinet, parts cleaner or parts washer. Instead had to make do with wire brushes, degreaser and brake cleaner. And, have you noticed, that cleaning parts essentially removes the dirt, grease, grime, rust, etc from the parts and transfers those to yourself or things in the immediate vicinity.

Anyway, cleaned up the outside of the fuel pump somewhat and removed the lower bowl. Discovered the bowl, at some time had had water in it. Consequently the lower part of the inside of the bowl is rusty and its retaining bolt has rust around the shaft for the 1/4" nearest the bolt head. Additionally, the diecast/aluminium section into which the bolt screws is broken, I hope this won't be a problem.

Next turned to the front shocks and wirebrushed the non leaking one. Only surface rust although there is one bolt which appears to have suffered a heavy rust attack, see pic.

The leaking shock was next, covered with grease and grime unlike the other, and externally appears to be OK.

Still more cleaning to do.

Also took the opportunity to take some pic's of the brake and clutch pedals. But not being able to see what you're taking a pic of, and holding the camera in one hand while leaning over a mudguard(fender), makes it difficult. Couple of really blind shots holding the camera under the car and pressing the button and hoping for the best turned out to be the worst. Aim to get the front of the Packard up in the air in the next few days and take some "proper" pics from below. Allan has advised his brother would like the brake and clutch pedals and parts. Have to find out shipping cost but expect it to be $$$$ because of the weight involved.

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Tuesday 29th May, 2018

Rang the guy I got the fuel pump from and he advised he had a number of pumps in various stages of disassembly and that I could swap parts from those to the one I'd picked up from him on Sunday. Although there were plenty of pump parts, none were better than the parts and pump now in my possession. However he offered to swap the pump out of his '37 120 Coupe for the one I presently had. But a pump off a '37 120 won't fit will it? It will if the engine is actually a '48 288! Apparently the previous owner had done this swap but it's now going to be put back to a '37 120 engine. O_D, I was going to supply the TPN and VN number for your records but because the VN is 1094-XXXX I won't worry doing so. This pump was pumping in the car up until a couple of years ago so it mightn't even need a rebuild, looks pretty clean.

Also picked up the clutch and brake pedal pads for the pedals obtained on Sunday along with a couple of springs for the clutch/brake linkages.

Allan has advised his brother wants the clutch and brake pedals, etc. My guy selling them has set a reasonable price on their heads and on Thursday I'll be getting a price from Australia Post on the cost to ship to Norway. That'll be the straw that could break this camel's back! Oh....and my guy has some photos of the chassis before he torched it. I've borrowd the photos showing the pedals as these may help Allan and his brother.

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Wednesday 30th May, 2018

I believe 22nd & 23rd Series Packards are sometimes referred to as "Whales". In that vein and from the process my Packard underwent today I have changed the Subject description of this post to "Thar she blows"!

Some time ago I mentioned that Peter Packard cleans out radiators and engine blocks using a home made system which results in a spectaclar event. Because of the hot running of the Packard I wanted to have Peter do this on mine but, because of a number of factors, this wasn't able to be done till today. Peter requested that I "document" this process for others and will do so in a further post. However, to do that properly, it will take some time to compose. In the meantime hopefully the few photos below will whet your appetite. Bugger! Currently having trouble getting photos to post, please bear with me until I can get them to stick.

EDIT - Looks like I can post phots again.

But before the photos a few words about yesterday.

To undertake the "process" drove the Packard approx 160 kms to Peter in Canberra. Packard ran well, temp gauge sitting about 2/3 most of the way, climbing a little to about 3/4 on long pulls up hills. Checked head temps with the infra-red thermometer on arrival at Peters with temps between high 180's to low 200's. Love that little "toy". On the return trip stopped about half way at Goulburn to drop off some Packard parts to RobS, including a rebuilt fuel pump, front bumper over-rider and some bumper bolts for his '36 120b Convertible Coupe. At Robs, checked head temps with similar readings to the Canberra results. Packard was running a little cooler on the return trip, sitting under 2/3 most of the way and along long flat streches at Lake George dropped to just over 1/2. Similary on long uphill pulls the temp rose and approached 3/4 on those occassions.

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