Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Thanks to everyone who provided thoughts on drive shaft grease!

To provide some context on my car, I am literally down to the final details of having a drivable chassis on the family 1929 Packard that has not seen pavement since 1956. I have addressed everything I could think of (steering gears, valve train, compression, crankshaft polish, etc.) and assumed that since the wheels turned when I shifted it into gear while it was up on the lift, that the clutch was correctly adjusted. I just discovered that the same wheels don't power the car forward when it is sitting on the ground. I had a new clutch plate made, and just bolted the whole contraption onto the flywheel...again, assuming that it was correctly adjusted. Clearly that is not the case.

Does anyone have the experience and patience to walk someone through correctly adjusting one of those two pressure plate clutches that Packard was putting in pre-war cars? I do not completely understand the concept an purpose of the throw-out bearing. I know it is held away form the pressure plate by six little fingers that reach out from the pressure plate. When I depress the clutch, that throw-out bearing moves forward in the transmission toward the back pressure plate, but based on how tightly I have those "fingers" tightened down, it does not make contact with the pressure plate. I can see that loosening those adjustment screws would free up the throw-out bearing travel distance, but I have no idea if I should do that, or what effect it would have. Can someone explain this to me like I was a little kid...because I may as well be, when it comes to how this stuff all works. Thanks!

P.S. - I have discovered the whole steering gear adjustment process (how the bronze bushing has to be aligned), if anyone is curious. Once you see how it works you realize that the engineering on these cars was impressive.