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This morning the caribbean took one daughter to school. Half of the second grade was waving to me as I drove off, which was fun. The brought my younger daughter to Kindergarten, then stopped by the Bank on my way to work.....After the stop at the Bank, she did not want to start. I could hear a light click, and see some voltage drop on my gauge. After a few minutes and some tapping on the solenoid and starter, she turned over! I guess like Kevin in his 54 Panama, I will do a partial starter rebuild. It would be nice to use a new solenoid, brushes and bushings to get the starter cleaned up and reliable. Winter projects are lining up.

Haha, yeah you and I both get to learn to rebuild starters. Mine is getting so much worse. At least 50% of the time I get the "click" and eventually it will kick itself over and start. But it's getting more frequent now where I have to remove the band over the brushes and spin the armature slightly. Then it starts fine.

I'll probably have to have it turned on a lathe to get it reliable again.

-Kevin

I am suspicious that my regulator is allowing voltage to get a little bit high at higher engine rpms, so I got this little voltage Display, taped it to a Magnet, and put it on the dash so I can Monitor the voltage while driving. I measured 6.3 volts at the battery with ignition off, and 5.9 v after the ignition switch with ign on and the engine not running. I'll go for a drive when the weather is good. I think the voltage regulator might need a little clean and adjust, but I want some before and after measurements!

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If you still have the stock Delco setup cutout relay in regulator or circuit breaker as Packard called it should kick in at the generator rpm listed for the 2631 chassis. The 6.3v measured should go up depending on rpm but not go over 7.4v. When engine slows, the cutout will open once generator rpm goes below the specified number and voltage will drop back to around battery level again. GEN light will flicker or go solid red when this happens.

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Thanks Howard, I went for a drive just now, and actually am happy with the numbers I measured. The first few minutes of driving at speed, I was getting 7.3 to 7.4, and after about 15-20 min of driving I was getting about 7.1 to 7.2. I have the gauge pulling a voltage from the back of the ignition switch, so there might be a 1/10 of a volt or so getting lost along the way.
I guess the best place to hook this gauge would be to a ground in the engine bay, and the bat terminal on the voltage regulator....That would give me the most accurate reading so I can really be sure if the 7.4 is being maintained. I may optimize the wiring and take some more measurements, but the voltage is in the right ball park.

The meter connected to the BAT terminal at regulator will be on all the time and I suppose that is OK as the constant drain is probably quite low -- certainly far less than most modern cars.

Connected to ign sw GA terminal is also fairly accurate because its power originates at the same BAT terminal on starter solenoid so has the same number of wire terminal connections. Route does have one splice plus the ign switch as possible additional places there could be loss.

Cleaning the wire terminal connections and allowing the 1/10v for any ign switch loss would probably work just as well. It would also allow you to monitor any heat related issues in switch as well as be able to turn everything off.

I've rented a parking spot in a building 2 miles from home to store one packard, and my plan is to rotate every month or so with one packard in our garage at home, and one packard off-site. After two years, my brother in-law and sister in-law decided they are not really classic car people. The green clipper I restored will be comming home to roost! The carib will stay in the big parking garage while I do an oil change and get the clipper ready to park for the winter. Then I'll bring the carib back for some winter projects.

I feel like the guy addicted to brake fluid, "I can stop anytime" haha.

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Is there another parking space there to put a third Packard? Just give in to the disease. There is no point in fighting it.

No work on the carib, but I did install an oxygen sensor in the down pipe of the clipper so I can fiddle with the carb if the weather allows it anytime....
Here is a pic of me and the carib when I had hair around 1992 or so. This is when the car belonged to my uncles Mickey and Danny. Geez, that was a long time ago!

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I had access to a rug and upholstery cleaner, so I took out the carpets from the car and cleaned a lot of brown yuk from them. They still look 70 years old, but are a little fresher smelling and more pleasant to be around.
The original noise and vibration matting is still in good condition, and I plan to leave that as it is, and treat the surface rust on the floor pans. Was there orignially this type of jute ? material between the tar paper and the carpet? I am debating if I put in a modern "aluminum foil and bubble wrap" type insulation in before putting the carpet back, or if I get some fresh jute type material to put under the carpet.
One thing is that the carpet does have some holes and is shrunk enough over the years that the edges do not cover the whole floor...Silver aluminum looks terrible peeking out from under there...
Here a pic of the floor before I treat it with "owatrol oil" and the original type insulation that I might replace.

Is this original stuff?

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