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If it not leaking oil, you make be low on oil! :)

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Haha, thankfully no. Still a pint over from the last oil change, at a shop where apparently adding the right amount of oil was too difficult. In line with the other services I received... so now I do much more myself 😅

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Can you elaborate on what you mean? Mine have virtually no pedal travel and hard feel but stop on a dime so maybe I misunderstood what you were describing.

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And if you disconnect a brake line they will have a similar feel to correctly working modern power brakes.

The other day I heard back from Andy at Tiger Treadle Vac. Apparently someone in the past used adhesive to do "something" on the reservoir, and the vacuum cylinder has a strange rust pattern. It's hard to believe the rust would have happened recently, so presumably the previous guy just ignored it. The unit was most recently rebuilt a decade or so ago by a "Florida specialist". Wonder who that was...

Anyway I'm pulling the one from my parts car to see if anything in there will be useable. Though it almost seems like a waste of time. Actually I've never had a problem with the vacuum assist, so maybe that rust mark wouldn't be too bad to use as-is, but I don't think I'll do that.

In other news, I replaced the flasher but my turn signals still don't work. Time to start checking circuits...

Note to self: Howard's diagram:packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... 8333&post_id=272514#forumpost272514

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That doesn’t look good! The one I removed and rebuilt from my 1954 Patrician parts car had a master that was probably usable and cleaned up well but was quite pitted inside so I opted to replace the casting with one of the reproductions. That one is now in my driving Patrician but the one I removed had been rebuilt since I owned it so it is a good core for the text time.

Are the Teadle Vac vacuum cylinders the same for 51-56? If so I may have an empty core you can have to rebuild yours. It came out of my Panama when the previous owner swapped to dual master manual brakes. I can't use it because most of the other parts are missing (master cylinder, some bud for the inside). But if you can use the main cylinder to get yours rebuilt, you are welcome to have it.

Kevin

In addition to the goo in the bottom of your reservoir, I see that the return port has been plugged. The rust in the vacuum can is not a big problem as the power piston seldom goes down that far and the leather seal is quite forgiving.

Thanks everyone. I did check the records I have to see when that rebuild was done, but don't have anything.

You all may find this interesting, the car does have a motor record book which gives 44962 mi on 9/29/67, thru 59125 mi on 8/9/70.

7/3/69 to 6/9/70 gives 1753 miles at a stunning 9.6 MPG. Gas price: 32¢ ($2.60 today). 10/29/67 to 2/5/68 gives 1496 miles at 8.5 MPG, somehow even worse. Also, records around the 50k range indicate it was losing a quart of oil every 1k miles or so. Apparently this engine burnt a rod around the 70k mile mark. Wonder why...

During this time the recorded repairs were a generator armature ($12.45 plus $4 labor), a "starter pin" ($5), a second armature some 8 months after the first, and a "broken speedometer" (though apparently not odometer).

In recent years, the carb was rebuilt in 2007 (then again by me this year), and the trans I think was done in 2011 though it was patched up also in 2007. The trans parts were seemingly purchased from Ultramatic Dynamics though the rebuild was said to have been done by someone local. I also think if Fitch did it, it wouldn't have the couple issues it does. Oh, and the brake lines were replaced around the same time.

I will be getting the BTV back from Tiger soon. I have the other brake parts but have been away enough that I haven't done anything with them yet.

Yesterday evening I decided to take a look at the Ranco heater valve. My 400 was missing its valve but my parts car and Clipper have theirs. So I am going to repair both. My 400 heater is "on" all the time, though my Clipper I won't put the heater core back in yet.

Yeah, I would say a rebuild was needed on this one...

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I got my BTV back from Tiger today. It has the vacuum cylinder from my parts car and a refurbished master cylinder on it. Looks good overall. I have the rest of the parts to refurbish my brake system also... just need to find the time to do it.

I have been all over the place the past 2 weeks for work and I also have plans taking up all the next two weekends. So we'll find out.

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