Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

The repros i see on gaasers at car shows

Look ok.

I was surprised they were cheap. Around a 100 bucks

But they fit Edelbrock or holly. Larger air intake. There is an adapter.
You can get.

Edit, they use paper filter

I have 2 very nice original air filter assemblies as spares. FYI...

"Tanner", as my kids have named the 400 (in deference to the Mojave Tan paint), was in desperate need of tires. The existing tires were bias ply of unknown age. There is no date marking on them, so possibly could be from the 70's or 80's? They handled poorly and were very discolored from age.

Based on the info in this thread, I learned that 51-53 Clipper wheels would fit on the 56 senior cars. It just so happens that I had restored the wheels on my '53 clipper parts car, Rusty McRustface, late last year. That car came with all flat and rotten tires, so I had to put new ones on to be able to roll it and move it. While the tires were off, I restored the wheels and painted them a bold red, because why not? Then threw on some Hankook Tynergy tires is 235/75 because they were dirt cheap. And they had a thin whitewall.

So I found a few minutes between kids sports practices and games to swap the wheels/tires from one car to the other. The '53 wheels bolted right up. The tires were far too thick to fit in the rear. So I ended up disconnecting the lower shock mount bolt on one side, then letting the axle hang and drop on that side. The tire then easily fit, and I lifted the axle and booked the shock back in. Repeat for the other side.

I don't love the look, but I also don't hate it. I still think wide whitewalls would look best on this car, and Mojave Tan color matched wheels would look more elegant. But hey, if these wheels and tires work well then I may just roll with them for a while. I have so many other things I need to do for the car that are probably more important.

Nice touch of "racing red" there.

Radials>>>>>bias ply

Just went on a 20 mile drive and these radials have completely changed the car. It is so much easier and more enjoyable to drive now. No random wandering, no harsh pulling, no bumping and shaking the whole car. Nothing but confidence and smoothness.

Speeds up to 60, high winds, and high speed around some turns. So much easier to drive now. Beautiful scenes and no cars to bother me.









Car stopped charging at the beginning of the drive. Stopped and checked the brushes on the generator, they looked fine. Pulled back the spring arms and sat the brushes again, charged just fine after that.

Some harsh clunking at the driver's front. Still can't figure out what it is. Don't think it's bushings, as I would expect both sides to do it, she both sides are equally bad. Bushings are high on the list to address.

Maybe a high speed miss or hesitation? At 50+ it almost feels like the car is surging/stumbling a little. Can't hear it, but it feels like it in the seat of my pants. I need to pull the carb off and do so the adjustments again to make sure they are right.

If your not a purest.

Alternator... 1 wire, done, if you use auto zone, lifetime warranty.

Did you rebuild the generator or just clean up the brushes? You may need to clean out the commutator segments. You can disassemble, clean, and reassemble a generator in like an hour. Just be careful to not snag the wire going between the two field coils when reinstalling the long bolts.

For the shuddering there are a few things that come to mind:
-packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/STB/56T-10Corrected.pdf
- If you can hear the engine itself stumbling, it may be best to do a proper tune up at the shop, of course checking that the centrifugal advances are working properly, as if it's a timing issue except for vacuum advance, it will be the same during tune up.
- If it happens only at higher throttle, it could be a fuel delivery issue, some carb issue, or a vacuum advance problem.
- I would hope that the throttle pressure setting is doing OK, but I have seen similar complaints when that is out of whack. For the same reason, if you happen to be driving really close to a shift point (e.g. up a slight hill so the direct drive clutch wants to disengage from the higher throttle pressure), there may be a bit of an odd sensation before the transmission "decides" what to do.

Riki - I'm not opposed to doing something non-original, but I'd like to keep it original if possible. Particularly in the engine bay. I think it's interesting to see original tech still working and doing its job. If the generator gives me enough problems then an alternator may be in the future.

PGH - The generator was rebuilt during the previous owner's time. I pulled it apart and cleaned everything up. The brushes have tons of life left on them. I reseated them against the commutator previously. The commutator could probably benefit from being turned on a lathe, but the mica has already been undercut and I cleaned out all the grooves. It seemed like one of the brush springs may be sticking and not letting the brush fully seat all the time. I hesitate to do any sort of lube on them.

I couldn't hear anything on the engine at higher speeds, but the wind noise may have masked something. The throttle pressure settings feel pretty darn good right now. I'm leaning towards the carb being the problem but that's just a guess. Hopefully just going through and resetting all the adjustments will help. I also need to pull the plugs and verify condition and gap. I want to recheck point gap, idle speed, and timing as well. Lots of little things to mess with and dial in.

Quote:

You should attribute some of the improvement to new versus “ bias ply tires of an unknown age”.

Did you compare the offset of the 53 vesus the 56 wheels?

Quote:

I did not. Are they different?