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Brian.

Can you take picture of wiper motor and bell crank.. How they attached motor to block.?.

Thanks.

OK I'll try to get a pic tomorrow. The motor and gearbox are one unit and are purpose built to drive wipers. I'll try to show how it's attached to the actuating mechanism. It looks like it would be easy to fabricate something like this to replace the vacuum mechanism. Most of these Preslite units come with a 2 speed motor (for two wiper speeds) and will generally run on 12-36V. No, I don't know why.

Cheers B

I'm humbled to have provided the inspiration! I had never seen paint brought back to life like that and I simply wanted to share with others the possibilities in hope that my work would renew another Packard owners drive and hope to do similar

Your 56 looks great! I wish mine started off anywhere close to the condition yours did as the ceiling of what is achievable for mine without a repaint (which I prefer not to do) much lower.

Keep up the good work and if you have any questions on detailing feel free to message me!

Riki here's some pics which show how the electric wiper setup is mounted to the bulkhead on my RHD Clipper. This could be a good conversion for a left hand drive car to replace vacuum operation. Maybe drive unit mounted on the left side, using an electric wiper motor you can source in the US. It would definitely be worth getting one designed for wipers. They usually have two speeds and a self parking function.

Trying to attach pics! Cheers Brian

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Hello Jason. It's true that I was inspired by what you achieved with your car. The paintwork on mine is quite a bit worse than it looks in the pics. I hunted around for someone to do a reasonably-priced tidy up and drew a blank. All the experts said it would cost more than the car is worth. So Plan B was to try your approach, which has produced quite reasonable results. I drove the Clipper about 200 miles early this morning with no problems. It attracts quite a bit of attention (so long as you don't stand too close)! Keep up the good work. Cars like yours have often ended up being scrapped or cannibalised for parts, which is a great shame and a real loss. Of course, it helps that the patina on some of the original cars is increasingly appreciated. Cheers Brian

Thanks brain.

Yes..have something in the back pocket.

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As Howard pointed out several posts back, Clipper for 1956 was a separate legal make of car and not a model of Packard so having these seemingly-trivial differences was likely felt worth the extra expense. My own 1956 Clipper is titled as such just as it should be and that's how they were all likely titled originally but by now I'm sure that most have become Packard.

Yes interesting how the brand changed in 1956. It didn't really stick here. My car was imported and registered as a Packard Clipper Deluxe - still is. It has the small Packard script on the rear trunk lid, and was imported/sold by the Packard dealers in Melbourne. Hard to shake off history!

I took mine for a longish drive early on Saturday - see pic. Everything was fine until I noticed the lifters clattering at about 60mph. Checked the oil level when I got home and found it right on minimum, so added some. Looked back in this forum and found the correspondence about V8 oil pumps etc. Also looked at the service history, and found the oil pump was replaced when the engine was overhauled, the lifters were "resurfaced" and the valve seals replaced. This was about 35 years ago but car has not done many miles since then so I am guessing the pump etc is ok. Wondering now whether the oil return channels from the top end are clogged? Oil pressure seems fine - although hard to tell because it's only a warning light. Is it possible to clean out the oil return passages by simply removing the valve covers and attacking them with something like a rifle cleaning brush?

I'm guessing that the "fix" with the Olds pump had not appeared by then, but presumably the Packard pump was worn enough to need replacing at that time. The vacuum function of the Packard pump has not been required since the car seems to have been delivered with electrically operated wipers. I have not looked closely to see if there are any signs of vacuum piping remaining on the car.

Cheers

Brian

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The Packard pump is very prone to drawing in air along the input shaft. This aerated oil will make the lifters clatter, and as it is a poor lubricant will cause premature deterioration of the main bearings. The very best cure is to rebush the shaft or go to the Olds pump. The work around cure which all of the old guys resorted to when these were just used cars was to run the oil a quart over full. This keeps the end of the oil pump shaft submerged but is not so high that the crank whips the oil.

The Olds pump mod was not developed until about 10 years ago. Packards International Club developed their pump "fix" back in the 70s which was fairly heavily promoted in the US. PI had a rather large international following at the time so their pump could have been the go to cure in Australia too.

The PI mod consisted of a reworked stock pump that had the vacuum pump section removed and replaced with a thick machined steel bottom plate. Theory was the original pot metal bottom plate separating the two pumps was swelling and allowing air from the vacuum pump to enter the oil path. The heavy steel plate was promoted as providing a better support for the oil pump gears and being thick, the plate couldn't swell plus no vacuum pump meant no air.

As far as I know, the possibility of the shaft being an issue was never in consideration at PI and other than the plate adding more support for the gears I don't believe any direct work was done on that end. I have read there was one fellow that might have addressed the shaft by adding a bushing but his reworked pumps didn't have any of publicity PI's did. I don't recall them ever being mentioned at any meets I attended. As a result, probably not installed in very many cars. Conversely, the PI mod was a topic at tech discussions for years and many cars had them installed -- including mine. If your car had a pump change 35 years ago it could well be in your car too.

Not all who installed the PI pump went to the trouble of completely removing and plugging the old vacuum setup, some wanting to keep a stock look. With your electric wiper I expect the balance valve and intake manifold source is gone but for grins you could check on the right side of the engine block between the oil pan and head for a 1/4" steel tube. There is a port about midway on the engine where the tube connects to an elbow and goes inside the crankcase. A check valve in the tube a few inches rear of the port remained so if the port was not blocked off internally and the manifold vacuum source was still connected the check valve was all there was to provide a means so vacuum didn't leak. If you still have the original pump setup and the pump is working there would be vacuum at the tube when the engine is running.