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This shock "vent filter" was advertised on ebay. My 740 has these on all four shocks. I had wondered what their purpose was, and now I apparently have a name.

The thing looks like a vented reservoir with a passageway drilled through an ear that connects with a passage drilled through a bolt laterally that in turn connects with a passage drilled lengthwise. I guess the bolt would take the place of a plain bolt where one would have refilled the shock with fluid. By adjusting the drilled bolt one could open, reduce or cut off the connection with the shock.

My guess is that these were to be filled with fluid to somehow automatically "top off" the shock absorber reservoir, but the term "vent filter" is a bit puzzling, so I remain unsure.

Anyone know more about these things?

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That's a curious piece, quite interesting. No maker's name & city, patent numbers or anything else marked on it?

They are not on my 740 or 633 and I have never seen such a device before. I cannot find any reference to them in the Owners Handbook, the Parts book, the Technical letters or the Approved Accessories book so they were probably not supplied by Packard. but what do they do? "vent filter" is strange, the shock absorbers are not vented. They are filled through a small screwed plug and sealed.
Can you post a photo of one fitted to your car?
It would be easy to dismiss the description in the ebay add as incorrect but you have then on your car - intriguing .
I hope someone can enlighten us.

David, Here is a photo of the mystery part on one of my shock absorbers.

Dave, No maker name or part numbers that I can see with the piece installed.

For what it's worth, the ebay ad said the part was "rare."

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This is a photo of the one of the shock absorbers (dampers more correctly) on my 740. It looks like that device is simply an oil reservoir connected to the filler plug. But why? The shocks are sealed and don't require regular topping up. If they start leaking they need to be fixed, topping up with extra oil is not the solution.
Obviously the makers of that device thought otherwise, it would not have been cheap so there is more to be learnt.
I believe these shocks were made by Houdaille, maybe this device was its product but a search on the net did not reveal anything.
I can't see it having any function as a vent. Fascinating.

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I have them on my 640 and was told by Apple Hydraulics, who rebuilt them that they were just reservoirs. No filtering material that I have seen. My reservoirs are round. I believe that they were only on the shocks for the larger wheelbase cars.

Thanks for the confirmation Jim. Did Apple Hydraulics say why/how these reservoirs were needed/used on the Big 8s?

No they didn't say why they were needed or if they were even needed. I got the impression from them that the fluid level in them was not that important.

Good Morning...Shocks from this company were used on Lincolns in the 1920's and when Henry Ford was designing/building the Model 'A' for 1928, he did not like how the springs functioned on the test cars so he had shocks from this company attached at all four corners...They do make a difference on the Model A...and they seem to work well on our 1949 Deluxe...Ernie in Arizona

If they were intended as reservoir's, perhaps the manufacturer was attempting to keep fluid temps down, especially on the longer, heavier cars?

It seems like the flow would not be sufficient to acheive much cooling, but that's the only reason I can think of for the reservoir. Odd that none of the Packard literature mentions it.