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This week, I tackled fuel pump and muffler. Didn't find a replacement around here but I did find the same kind of pump for a different car. I paid $10 for it and took it home and swapped the internals. The car runs on it and there's no leaks and that's all that counts. Also, the title came in for the car and I've noticed that it says foreign or out of country as one of the title brands. I wonder where it was from. It also has "A" for antique but the "F" comes first so it was antiqued later.

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Still in progress is the muffler job, ran out of daylight and time. I did get the old one off and the add-on pieces that last owner used to fit a shorter muffler. Amazingly, the car is extremely clean and rot-free for it's age. Even the muffler clamps came off with no trouble and are reuseable. That's one for the purists. One of them I noticed is a different design than any I've ever seen before. Nothing special, just different.
Otherwise, charging system is still stuck on high-charge, starter cranks slow most of the time, and it still won't start without starting fluid. Those are all things for another day/week. It even moved about a foot and a half today before dying out.

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The muffler is finished and pipes lined up correctly. The car runs smoother and sounds much better that way. Next, the generator, regulator and starter come out for rebuilding. Then, as I can't put it off any longer, I have to do the first lawn mowing of the year.

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Looks good keep it up, Chuck!

Final efforts of the week:
1-Got the lawn mowed, started on first pull (good omen)
2-Removed the starter and some nest-like structure underneath it. Would've been nice if the factory had left some room to get at the top bolt without having to use 2 universals on the ratchet.
3-Removed generator and regulator. Only gripe on this one was bottom front bolt and nut required either contortionism or monkey-arms. I chose the former and laid on the fender and hung in sort of upside down. No tag or id visible on generator and regulator says Chrysler Corp. on top with "DELUX" paint-stamped on back.
4-Took 'em all to Stackhouse for thorough checkup, cleaning out and rebuild if needed. Got there within half hour of closing.

Some observations:
1- Two out of three auto part stores asked me "Who made it" when asked about some basic parts for the Packard. Heh, heh. This is even more fun than stumping them with the Edsel!
2-When I had the car running again after the muffler was installed, I noticed it ran with a miss only at higher engine speeds. Also, I disconnected the neg. battery cable while the engine was running (old charging system test trick) and the car shut off completely and wouldn't start again even with the charger. That was a key factor in taking off all those parts this week.

This week I installed new headlights and repaired the back-up lamp. Found 4 wasp nests behind busted driver side light and stripped screws and the screw mount for passenger side trim ring busted off. I cleaned out the bees and retapped holes to install correct type screws (sure beats the wood screws it had). The mount was straightened and mounted with screws in the holes from the original rivets. The headlights were found on ebay. None of the local part stores wanted to order them in. The back-up light parts were from 39super8. Thanks! Tomorrow I'll finish up some wiring issues in the rear of the car. Generator and starter are still not back yet, but I can tell they're working on it since they call me every day to ask questions.

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That's a good looking car Chuck! What kind of questions do the starter/generator guys ask?

Thanks. First, they called asking me what kind of time frame I had on this job because they were having trouble finding an armature for the generator. Then today they called asking the series number for the car and something about there being 2 different Autolite starters used on those models and were having trouble with finding a solenoid. I still haven't figured out if the Chrysler voltage regulator was correct for the car or a misguided replacement.
What type of oil should be used in the transmission, regular rear axle oil? Thoughts on synthetic oil for the engine? Has anybody used FalconGlobal for brake parts on their Packards? Their prices seem on the high end of fair but not too far.
By the way Carl, I've been using some pics from your current engine work as a reference point. Keep it up!

Hi Chuck

Congrats with the 48. It looks great. I especially like the overriders in front!

I have a 1950 standard 8, but I had to convert to 12v due to various reasons, so I am using an alternator now and negative ground. See my blog for all the work thus far.

Keep it up and enjoy your car! Great progress.

Barrie

Unexpectedly, my generator, regulator, and starter were finished today so I picked them up. The regulator is a slightly different design than the one I took out so I'll have to switch a couple wires around. I've installed them and after a few issues with the stock wiring, I think it'll start. It's on the charger now. Tried earlier and had slow crank, power to coil, spark at points but none at plugs.
The problems with the charging system were found to be an incorrect armature inside the generator, batt and arm wires in wrong positions, and possible short in field wire. To eliminate further shorting, I've ran 2 new wires for the arm and field terminals. The armature I had was too short on the commutator end and wore the brushes into the shape of an "L". Eventually, they connected by bearing area.
Hopefully, it'll start again after charging. The car beside it is my "daily driver/parts car edsel" which deserves credit for all the shuffling of parts to and from the Packard.
This added an hour later: It lives! I got it started and ran it a while, even moved it forward and back twice. Had to turn down the idle as it was way too high. Cooling system issues will be next since temp went up to H in the 10 to 15 minutes it ran. But no geysers or steam, probably just a thermostat. Then, I just have to remember driving a stick again. Hard to believe it's been 12 years since I had one...

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