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I managed to get the rear stabilizer bar out but one of the links is so badly bent right at the nut that I’ll probably have to use the impact wrench and hope that nothing gets damaged. I don’t think that I can get anything into the area to cut it off.

For the broken gas tank support which on Henney-Packards is at the front, I am now sure that it was put in before the body was installed because it is impossible to remove it. I don’t like patching things but I may have to run a die nut to extend the few remaining threads, then patch on an extension somehow. In the photo, it’s up against the floor and the other photo shows a slot that is not even as long as one side of the T!

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For repairing the broken gas tank support bolt, my brother made a couple suggestions. One was to bend it out, then put in the new the same way, straightening after it's in! Not sure how that can be done but an interesting idea.

The other thought was to cut it off farther up, then weld on a piece of the proper length below it. Once the weld has been ground flush it will look as good as new!

Don;

With the ‘Tee’ bolt rotated 90° . . . I would suspect there’s an angle that the ‘tee’ will just slide through the slot on the frame. If it doesn’t then I bet the new one you’re about to make will.

dp

That's what I thought too but unless the laws of physics have changed, it is impossible. It can't be tilted enough even with the stabilizer removed and even if it could, the slot simply isn't long enough no matter how far it's tilted! Since the chassis was supplied to Henney already assembled with running gear, the tank was there already and the body built over it with no regard was made for things like that ever needing to be replaced.

Picked up the newly mounted tires this morning and was surprised to see that they used a metal stem. At first I didn’t like it but then I realized that it would probably seal better than anything else and it perfectly clears the notch in the beauty rings too. It was mainly the stems’ brass and silver color that I didn’t like but they grew on me as the day went by.

I was sure that I had checked the u-bolt nuts and had found them easy to turn since the rear end was switched years ago and they were (I thought) never fully tightened. However, so far I can’t get even one of them loose! I’ll try again tomorrow.

This is the closest in most of the time that I’ve owned it that it’s had to a matched set of wheels and tires! These have a larger diameter too than the 7.00 X 16s that the front had as I had to lift it higher to get the new ones on and I may have to take the rear ones back off the axel to get it under the car when I had planned on rolling it under.

I also removed the rear stabilizer linkage to see what can be done to repair but no happy ending there as the end snapped off. In fact, it took considerable impact wrenching to even do that! For a 9/16” head hex nut, it was really stuck.

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One thing I forgot to mention is that two of the tires were marked as RR and LR which I have never seen on new tires. I understand that they had a little trouble balancing them with my wish to have all the weights put on the inside. They ended up with quite a few all together on the front and rear but the rear had more.

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Way back here, I mentioned that the rear end being used is from a 1954 which has a different part number and I just realized the difference! For the 1954 Henney-Packard side loading hearses, LevelDraulic (side to side leveling) was no longer offered so the heavy steel attachment pieces are not welded to the housing! Prior to 1954, they all had it whether Nu-3-Way funeral coaches with or without the option or not. The mechanism was huge and heavy, mounting above the real axle and having a cross shaft with linkages down the the brackets. I believe it replaced the rear stabilizer as I can’t imagine both being needed.

EDIT: Please disregard the above as the 1954 Henney-Packard axle does indeed have the brackets. When I looked at it the other day, they must have been facing away from me so I thought they weren't there.

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Hi Don...Those stems actually look pretty good! Ernie in Arizona

Thank you, Ernie! As you may have heard (read) me say, something so nice and shiny on a car to dingy and rusty is like lipstick on a pig, I even hesitated cleaning the beauty ring other than to wipe off the dust but decided in the end to do so. That said, I like them too now that I'm over the surprise, especially as they make me a little more confident that the tubeless tires will hold air on these old non-tubeless 16" rims.

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Don, what do you think about using diesel fuel as a solvent to flush the transmissions?