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Thanks for the response. I will work idle down after completing vacuum lines and all adjustments. Never got direct drive engaged as I will need tires for that. Mine are so bad they make squeegeeing noise upon any movement. I only drove a couple houses then backed home to avoid turning stress. Boy Coker prices have shot up, looking elsewhere. Maybe DB?

Tank purge share. Looked in tank, lots of goo., no rust. 41 year old goo, before alcohol. I blew air back towards tank, plugged. I added length to fuel line to get well above tank and dumped gum out in. Everyday adding more. Eventually could blow air through. Put 2 gal gas in tank let it sit overnight. Blew from tank and captured , yellow, think beer. Next day blew some more, now darker, think stout. Kept on and getting lighter and started car. Hopefully avoiding dropping the tank, at least for now, maybe.

John - beautiful Caribbean. I would love to have that car as a project.

Take a look at DiamondBack tires. Not cheap (nothing is) but they do have the correct profile tires in the Auburn Deluxe Radials. They did just have a flash sale yesterday on a different style of tire that was 4 tires shipped for $950 total. They are the same tires I have on my Panama. I was tempted to get another set with the deal, whitewalls and everything, but I don't have anything to put them on right now.

The fuel tank likely has rust on the top of the tank (maybe). The varnish from the tank can cause real problems, so hopefully you got it all out. Radiator shops used to boil out tanks all the time, but none around me do it anymore. I would suggest dropping the tank and cleaning it better, but more to allow yourself access to the sender. You'll want to test it and be sure it works or replace it. And also consider cutting a hole in the trunk floor to allow access to the sender in the future without having to drop the tank. I wish I would've cut a hole in my trunk the first time I dropped the tank. Since then I've had to drop it at least 3 other times to try and fix problems with the sender. I finally cut a hole and now it's a breeze if I ever have to get to it again.

I'm throwing together a video on dropping the tank here in the next few days hopefully. Pretty self-explanatory but maybe helpful for those who haven't done it before.

-Kevin

Ok for the transmission let's just figure it out when the car is safe to drive 50 mph 😃

For now I think your idle is just set too high. Set it to specifications per the manual (I forget the speed).

I run diamondback auburns on my 53 caribbean in the 8.20x15 size. I can certainly approve they are nice tires for a packard.

Are your DB’s of the classic variety or the premium.? Looks like premium are the ones with pie crust edge and classics are those that look like ‘60’s radials

The Auburn Deluxe are the ones with the pie crust edge. The Auburn Premium are the 60's style radials. I have the Premiums on my Panama because they did not have the Deluxe tires then; they came out later. I'm very happy with the way the Premiums ride and they do look nice. The Deluxe tires look better and I will probably go with them on my next set.

Mine are 225/75-15, which is probably too small for the Senior models.

Thanks for feedback. 4 Diamondback Auburns on order.

That is one good looking clipper.

As I meander through all the work required, I thought I would install the headlight bezels. So the top of the bezel has a clip to hold the top on and then the bottom has a screw. The clip is missing for both bezels. I think I can make the clip but any help like a pic would be appreciated. Also the bezel top has a hole on the back of the casting, did that accept a screw?

I'll can get you some better pictures, and I have a small video I need to finish putting together about repairing the bezels. But this picture shows the shape of the clip. This is one I made myself, then used JB Weld to attach it to the bezel. Worked great.

There is no screw on the top of the bezel. Only two rivets holding the clip in. The rivets are often broken.

Original clip



Homemade clip

Another option is to drill out the old rivets, and tap the holes to accept a couple of small machine screws.

I can tell you that's what I've seen on the 56 cars to rechrome the headlight lids.