Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

I would wonder if the spring and dirt is the actual issue or if it is more the fact there is no window weight pushing down to help the motor coil the spring. The motors, IMO, are a bit underpowered for the minimal leverage assist the regulator geometry provides. Sedan mechanisms are short and fairly well balanced but the HT fronts are so so. The quarter windows are a serious load on the motors as evidenced by how much the motor strains when raising them. Relying only on the motor to tighten the spring I think is asking a lot.

Removing and replacing the springs are not that easy and dangerous too if something goes wild while you pry the spring back to release the loose end out of the tab on the regulator. Having said that, I have seen them replaced using something like a Tee handle made out of round stock approximately the diameter of the center pin that the spring slides into. A slot slightly larger than the thickness and about half the width of the spring is cut in the end of the tail part of the Tee.

The body and arms part of the regulator is fixed to a bench or support so nothing can move and the loose end of the spring is placed on its holding tab. The part in the middle of the spring slides into the groove in the round stock and tee handle is twisted so spring is coiled around until in a position where the exposed half of the spring not in the pipe groove can slide in the pin groove. How much to coil the spring kind of depends on what you start with. It seemed to help to have one person do the twisting and another there to help guide and line up and then drive the spring down off the pipe Tee and into the pin groove.

It amazes me that the #1 hardest part to locate in restoring this Packard has been the screws and bolts that hold it together.

#12 screws in the door assembly. My little town hardware & auto parts stores do not carry #12 anything. Had to order them online.

Try a '37 where every screw is a slotted vs Phillips. I've found that BoltDepot.com is great and you can order single pieces vs entire boxes.

Do you want to hear a funny story?
Remember those power seat motors that I had tested and that they said were “toast”?
The same day they gave me the diagnosis and I posted about it here, I also email Gerry and bought a second set of motors.
Last Friday, the tech guy called me again to remind me that the motors were still there. Here is how that conversation went with “Doyle”

Me - “I’ll pick them up in a couple of days (they are 40 minutes away) also you probably already know this but those two wires on those motors are not positive and negative”.
Doyle - Their not . . . what are they?
Me - (in my head) CRAP, Howard was right.
Me - (out load) They are clockwise and counterclockwise. The case is grounded to the car door.
Doyle - (silence)
Me-They move the power seats. The seats move forward and backward.
Doyle - Can call you back in a little bit.
Me- Sure.

3 minutes later.

Doyle - I hooked up the one motor and it works great, that thing has all kinds of torque. I’ll have to put the other one back together and test it. I am sorry about that Stewart, I should have caught that myself. You should be able to pick them up in a few days.

There was no charge today when I picked them up.
My first problem was that I took them to a shop in an industrial park that works primarily on 3 phase motors for the factories.

Now I have 2 sets of power seat motors.

Stewart

Thanks ok.

You never know what might go out.

2 back ups are good..

Still waiting for the drive shaft. It is so hot this week that the shop is probably closing early.

I did get the emergency brake lever and release installed today. Also still playing with the window regulators, I'll write about that later.

I can not locate my notes for the 700R4 transmission rebuild that I did in the summer of 2016. There are two electrical wires hanging from the plug on the side of it. I labeled them as "positive" & "negative". I recall that they are for the high-gear solenoid.

I did some research but all I am finding is for hotrod and racing folks that use all 4 wires. I believe the Packard only needs to 2 wires so that is how I wired it up. Does anyone have any notes that can finish this memory for me?

The negative wire is easy enough. I believe the positive wire needs power with the key on but you can insert a switch in there so you can control it manually. You can also install a small light to show when it is on. Does any of that make sense?

I dug around some more and found some notes I made in a 700R4, rebuild book. It wasn’t much but was enough to jar my memory, somewhat.

I did the trans rebuild in 2016. This included a new pressure switch & solinoid for the 4th gear lockup that is normally computerized. I had never done a trans rebuild and so I needed a step by step DVD for most of it. The lockup mod was pretty straight forward once you understand what is going on.

For those of you that that do not know, the 700r4 was designed to work with a computer (CPU) in mind. The CPU controlled the gear lockup. Of course we don’t have a CPU.

In 2016 there were only a couple pre-made kits for this mod and they were always sold out. Today, more companies have got involved and the kits are pretty easy to find. I will not be buying a kit since half the work was completed 7 years ago. It's not a big deal, all I want to do is manually provide power to the 4th gear lockup solenoid. This solenoid is only used at highway speeds when you want the over-drive.

In 2016 I was told that all that was needed was a power wire from the ignition ACC bolt to a manual on/off switch (on the dash) and a ground wire. Since that time it has been discovered that a wire run from the ignition provided more amps than needed for the job and sometimes caused the internal pressure switch to fail (I have no idea how common that was). So now it is popular to wire in a relay between the plug (on the trans) to the manual switch. The relay needs 3 wires, I found a wiring diagram below.

I have read that some guys like to place the manual switch somewhere on the floor to activate it when needed with a press of the foot. However, the most common location is on the dash. Truth be told there are many ways to wire this up. I am not sure how they all work but a Google search will lead you down all sorts of rabbit holes.

I have some new parts on the way now to complete this project we will see if I am as smart as I think I am.

It will not allow me to upload the diagram right now. I'll try again later

Trying the wiring diagram again.

Attach file:

---

  lockup1.png (299.16 KB)

Not sure the solenoid running direct from the ign sw and having too many amps was what was causing the burnout issue. The solenoid should determine the max it needs and take no more even if fed directly from the battery. If the voltage is low or the wire connecting the ign sw to the solenoid is not large enough or a connection is bad and unable to supply the required amps or voltage for solenoid to pull in then that would be an issue and could cause the solenoid to fail.

The relay in this drawing is only doing one thing and that is if the manual switch is on then it activates when the pressure switch closes and brings in the solenoid when the trans is in 4th gear and no other. It is providing the same power as if the solenoid were connected directly to the ign sw. Main difference is if solenoid was connected directly to ign sw, unless it had a manual switch it would be on anytime the ign sw was on and could bring in the solenoid at 1,2,3 and 4th gear.

I don't really know what is happening in the trans to limit when it is active -- maybe a governor or something like that -- but if solenoid was on all the time seems like the clutch would also be engaged all the time.