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Thanks Howard and Don. Yes, I did see those knobs and correctly assumed they were for retention of the ducts. They more or less work. I'm having a hard time getting the driver's side fully seated....not a lot of room to work there.

I'll go ahead and get some bolts to install in the center radiator support holes. I certainly don't want to leave it without sufficient support. I don't need another leak.

Might need to replace the battery. It's not taking a charge now. Could be my charger, but the battery has always been a little weak. So, I might pick up a new one tomorrow and give it a go to see what happens. I'm foolishly hoping that the leaking transmission will improve once the car runs again....like maybe the seals will expand again. Same with my dripping power steering. I really just need to pull the engine and trans this winter and reseal everything the right way.

-Kevin

Ne sure to follow the bolting pattern as detailed in the article on radiator core mounting in the service counselor.

Too rigid a mount was the cause of some early core failures. To allow for some flex they went to the solid center only bolt connection with rubber and spacers to keep the rubber from being too tightly compressed on the upper and lower bolts. I know some have used rubber toilet tank washers in place of the factory piece and those seem to work as well as Steele's repros.

Thanks Howard for the link. That was helpful!

Got it started back up for the year on Saturday. Found out my battery charger was dead, so picked up a new one and topped the battery off. Finished hooking up the radiator and filled the system with coolant. Engine oil level still within range, and will be changed soon.

Jacked the front up and took a look underneath. It looks like the leak on the transmission is coming from the input shaft seal, as before, or maybe even out the breather at the top. I haven't pulled the carpet to check. I think all the fluid that was in the torque converter drained back into the rest of the trans when I pushed the car in neutral. Then it filled up enough to drain out the leaking input shaft seal. Once I got the car running and the torque converter refilled the leaking pretty much stopped.

I noticed a big wet spot on the driver's side brake line where the hard line meets the rubber. Somehow the nut had backed out several turns. Weird. I really tightened it well, and because I was now freaked out I checked the others. All good. Refilled the brake fluid reservoir from the leaked amount. I readjusted the brake drums on the front since they were no longer "wiffling", as Ross describes it. Everything else checked out fine.

Two tries with the ignition and she fired right up. A little rough at first but it smoothed right out. A pretty good amount of smoke for the first 10 minutes while I let it warm up. After that, nothing. 3 separate test drives totaling about 30 miles confirmed that everything was working as it should. Trans shifts normally, car seems to stay cooler so far, and with the new fresh air ducting the cab is much quieter, and I haven't smelled any engine fumes in the cab like I used to.

Kids enjoyed a nice ride, and I took my wife out for a leisurely ride after church today. I can't but smile every time I drive the Panama. So relaxing.

-Kevin

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Looks great, Kevin. While I was still commuting to work, I chose to drive the Packard every Friday. Of course I drove it weekend, too, and to Packard meetings. This was good for the car.

I also dressed up on Fridays instead of dressing down down like everyone else. (It's a principle of advertising, if you advertise when everyone else is cutting back and the noise level is low, you get a lot more impact for your ad dollar.) Over a few years, it got to be a 'thing.' People remembered me as the guy in a bow-tie who drove an old car, like I drove it every day.

And now in semi-retirement, I do drive it every day, except if it's laid up like today because the brake shoes in front are too thin for safe driving. My new systems come today, hopefully.

But it's great to see your baby looking so good.

It seems I have an issue with my charging system now. While driving it last night to a local car club meeting the battery/generator light came on full and stayed on despite speed. So I flipped the car around and parked it in the garage because I didn't want to risk not being able to start it, or have no headlights in the dark.

I read through the Motors manual quickly last night, and have a few things I would like to test/try. My suspect the generator is the problem, since I had it out and disassembled it. However, the charging circuit was working fine for the last 30 miles or so of driving.

Any thoughts on where to start?

-Kevin

Do a quick check and make sure one of the brushes or holders did not get hung up on something or a spring popped out of place so a brush isn't making good contact with the commutator and also make sure the brush connections are tight.

Did you polarize the generator after re-installing it?

Howard - I couldn't see much with the generator installed, except to confirm that the brushes were still seated.

Don - I polarized the generator when I bench-tested it, according to Ross's instructions.

I finally had a chance to remove the generator and inspect it. As I suspected, there was a wire that had come off, from the field pole to the magnets. This wire had previously snapped off while I was cleaning the layers of grime off the generator during the rebuild. I had tried to solder it back on, but obviously wasn't successful.

I cleaned it up again and did a better solder job. We'll see if it holds. It functioned fine during a test run today. When testing from the battery terminals at a little above idle, it's putting out ~7.3-7.5 volts. At idle it's about 6.5 volts.

-Kevin

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Is the 7.3-7.5 volts with it connected to the voltage regulator, or with the Field terminal shorted to ground?

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That's with everything hooked up as normal in the vehicle, voltage regulator and everything. I'm going by what I read on another site about testing the output of 6 volt generators....have the car running above idle and test the voltage at the battery terminals. Is this the right way to do it?

-Kevin