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As a former editor for many years of PAC Northern California Packard's newsletter, The Pious Pelican of which I have many copies from the '70s through the earlier part of the '80s, I just randomly opened one from September 1978 and found this:

During the last month there have been several improvements to my '54 Patrician which include repair on the drag link, a new tail pipe, new brakes and a new oil pump. It still needs painting (desperately) and re-chroming.

Clearly I've owned this car for many years and often drove it to NorCal meets and tours and to PAC Board meetings in Berkeley when the club had its headquarters there.

I've been at my shop for over a week and have been working on two other Packards but nothing on the Patrician until today. I decided to rebuild the fuel pump but rather than pull the one from the car first, I went through a box of pumps to find one appropriate for the year and model, and found that I had several. Since this is purely a rebuild rather than a restoration, I picked the one with the best cosmetics and I got it mostly apart.

However, before putting it back together, I remember reading something about the little device on the outlet but can't recall whether it was found to be unneeded and replaced with a plug or if it was added! Can someone refresh my memory?

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If you're referring to the pulse dome, it is not needed and was eliminated at some point, the outlet to it just plugged.

Yes that's it! I couldn't recall what it was called and thank you for letting me know. The pump I happened to pull has it as does my running car and so does the parts car which is why I couldn't remember if it had been discontinued or added.

I've rebuilt countless fuel pumps of this type but this time I can't seem to get the main diaphragm out! I thought it simply unhooked by pressing it and angling it back from the arm but that doesn't seem to do anything. What am I missing?

Turns out that the kit I ordered to have waiting for me when I got to my shop is junk (and from the same company, the one for my Clipper was for the aftermarket AC pump and mine has the stock Carter). For the vacuum diaphragm, it has only the diaphragm without any of the metal parts and, as far as I know, the part is assembled in such a way that it cannot be disassembled to replace it. I have a few old kits in my stock and they have the complete diaphragm but only one has the right type, as seen at the right in the tiny photo below. Any source for this type of kit and what does one specify to get the proper diaphragm?

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That looks like the same photo Then and Now has on their site so if you bought the kit from them I am surprised it was the wrong item. Is there a stamped number on the side of the mounting flange you could send along with the pump brand or style and application so they could narrow the options.

Thank you Howard and it is the photo from Then and Now but no, I didn't buy it from them. They list only the rebuild service, not kits, but I did write to them earlier this morning to see if they could supply one. The kit I have I bought from a place in Arizona (it did list my model of pump) but the vacuum part was the diaphragm only without the steel parts so it's useless.

Unless they have changed they used to supply kits. I have bought a couple from them -- one for the 56 and another for the 47.

Not at all uncommon years back that kits for earlier pumps were supplied with a naked diaphragm which the rebuilder attached to the existing metal parts. Typically the metal post was secured to the diaphragm via a threaded fastener.