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

HH56, Peter, Owen, James/Kanter and the others give you the best advice extant, inc. to make sure your battery disconnect switch rated for more amps than your gear-reduction starter draws. I use a brass, marine grade Cole Hersee switch available from any NAPA store in my '47 Super Clipper.

But enough with this boat anchor 56lb. 3EH battery overkill. Probably falling on deaf ears given some of you have long wheelbase models, tubs already 200 lbs. heavier than previous Clippers, lwb adding another crushing 850-900 lbs. to that, their tires overloaded from new, but a Red Top 6-volt battery weighing but 18 lbs. puts out 800 cold cranking amps and has never failed to start my 356 pronto.

I got nearly a decade from my last one, looks like the same from my current one, know of a Cad V-16 in AZ that's happy with a single Optima and of a '41 Cad that went 14 years on the same one.

Weight
is
the
enemy. Of cars and people.

Real Packards were first "road cars," luxe or not. What do you think sold Bentley Continentals and Railtons, even the lwb versions of the latter?

Interesting read, and my sincere best wishes in getting your car sorted out.


I did some extensive reading on breaking in engines over the last couple of years. I bought a new Harley in 2020 and ordered the engine Stage IV upgrade which includes new barrels, pistons and rings. The upgrade kit was back ordered (kind of like everything else in 2020), so I took delivery of the bike, broke it in, took it back to the shop when the kit came in, and had to break it in again after the kit was installed. Joy - not!!! So I got some practice. On to what I did based on my research.


Apparently, the biggest trick in breaking in an engine is getting the rings to seat properly. Everything you read says to avoid one continuous speed, full throttle acceleration, and high RPMs. But this one article said that, for best seating, vary the pressure and direction on the rings systematically. This is different on a bike, of course, but it should equate to a low-rev flathead inline by accelerating from, say 1400 RPM or so to maybe no more than 2500 RPM and then decellerating in the same gear back to the 1400 and doing it again. The point is to vary pressure on the rings directionally to help them seat. I'm currently doing this with the '47 Deluxe I bought last winter, but I can't speak for the first 250 miles on it since the seller put those on it. I'm almost done the 500 miles and it should be ready for its oil change and the road after that.


Anyway, I used this method on the bike for its 500 mile break-in cycle before it went back to the shop for its dyno-tune. Using my method, the chief wrench got comparable horsepower and better torque readings with the big kit, and mine is a little one. Plus, the factory rating for the kit called for a redline of 6200 RPM and he only dyno'ed mine to 5000. I chuckled all the way home. I don't think I've ever had that bike much past half throttle - there's just no need. Oh, it doesn't use oil between changes, either.


Please file this in the For What It's Worth category.

Somewhere around here I have the Sealed Power paper on seating rings. If your engine isn't tight and the bearings are broken in they recommended ten or so full throttle bursts in high gear from 40 to 55 or so miles per hour.

This is consistent with diesel trucks which greatly benefit from a weekend of towing a heavy trailer.

I bought a former leased vehicle once. Once - never again. Apparently, some of those folks do the GTA3 thing with them and drive them like they stole them right off the lot. Apparently, the rings never seated and whereas it didn't smoke, the quart every 1000 miles had to be going somewhere, and it wasn't going on the ground. Sad thing is, this was a Honda. I had expectations, you know?


:(

Just got new rear brake shoes from Kanter. I put them on and put the right front new shoes on. I adjusted the brake shoes and the brake pedal is where it should be. I ran out of time so I'll have to put on the left front new brake shoes next week. The brake shoes I pulled off were in good shape, they weren't adjusted at all! I shouldn't have to replace the brake shoes for years, but I'll have a good spare set!
Now the spare tire well is rusted, what caused the leak? The rear window or the rubber around the trunk?
Where do I get a spare tire well to fix or replace the rusted one. Or can a good body shop fix it?

For a Packard specific tire well you are mostly limited to someone with a parts car having a good trunk floor. There are some universal aftermarket tire well replacements and some made for Fords or Chevys that might work mounted sideways -- although doubt they will look exactly the same. Several vendors are selling their offerings on ebay and if you do an ebay search for "spare tire well" it shows quite a few options.

As to where the water is coming from it could be the window or the weatherstrip or both. If the window rubber has dried or split water could be getting between the glass and rubber and running onto the package shelf and down into the trunk. Another known spot is the weatherstrip across the top and sides of of the lid. If the rubber has dried and shrunk or cracked water can seep between the strip and lid. Even dry tail light housing gaskets have been known to allow water to run in.

If rust is in the tire well I would also carefully examine the rear of the trunk floor just in front of the vertical panel below the trunk lid.

Thanks Howard. I will check the trunk floor.
With the brakes done, I checked the brake lights and they didn't work. I jumpered the brake wires and the left comes on but not the right side. We checked the wiring, changed the light bulb and that didn't fix it. We wiggled the light socket and the light works as long as you hold it.
Any suggestions?
I did go to NAPA to buy a 2 prong brake light switch.

With it working when holding the socket it is probably an issue in the trunk.

A possibility with water damage elsewhere in the trunk is the sockets also got wet. Remove the bulb and check inside the sockets to make sure the fiber plate that holds the contacts is flat and water did not weaken it and allow the spring and opposing bulb pressure against the plate to make it concave and a possible poor connection. Also make sure there is no corrosion on the contacts or in any inline connectors on the wires.

Failed grounds in the various tail and parking light housings are a big issue on Packards. The pot metal housings corrode and poor contact with the body sheet metal is the result. Try removing the bolts or studs holding the tail light housings to the sheet metal and clean any rust or corrosion from the sheetmetal where the bolts or nuts make contact. Also clean the socket shells and the area of the housings where the sockets push in. If that is marginal or unsuccessful you may need to remove the tail light housing completely and clean the threaded holes and sheetmetal. On some years even that was not enough and added ground wires have had to be connected between the sockets or housings and sheetmetal.

If your car has turn signals, 48 should still have the older turn signal system with separate rear turn signal bulbs and only 3 wires going to the steering column and turn signal switch. If that is your car, those systems use the two filament bulb for the tail and brake lights only so brake light wiring does not go thru the turn signal switch. On those cars the problem should be limited to socket, ground, or a bad inline connector but if you have 6 wires going to the column and switch that is a different matter and in addition to the suggestions above, the switch itself needs to be considered.

I cleaned up the tail light housing and plugged the fixture back in. The lights are nice and bright, that includes the tail lights, brake lights and turn signals. I just had a corroded tail light housing that was messing up the ground.
I bought new tires, put on the hubcaps, vacuumed the interior, washed windows and got ready to go for a drive. I sprayed carburetor cleaner in the carburetor and it started just fine. When the carburetor cleaner was used up, the fuel filter was empty and the car shut off. I tried to restart it and the battery died!
I used the battery from a different car that hasn't been used in 4 years and the car started right up. Yea!
Now to fix some other things I haven't noticed are: dashboard lights are not working, the brakes squeal when applied, and the clutch is making a noise when engine is running with the transmission in nuetral and clutch out.
I got to drive it a little and even went to fill the tank. It rides nice, it is hot here in Phoenix. It was down to 107F at 8pm when I was driving it.

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Was looking for the fender skirts and found them in my shed! I must have put them there a few years ago and forgot!
While driving the Packard the speedometer quit working. I unplugged the cable, lifted the rear wheels and started the car and then put it in gear. The cable was making a noise and I couldn't see anything sticking out of the cable. How do I pull the speedometer out? It's either the cable or the speedometer, because the cable is spinning when in gear.

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