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Thursday 24th June 2010

Quick update, yesterday on the way home in the '41 in a rainstorm heavy handed Mal broke the wiper knob. It's a repro knob with a plastic tongue across its middle that snapped when I turned it hard the wrong way. Because the forecast has showers and rain as possible over the next four days wanted working wipers at the turn of a knob, and not with a pair of pliers. So a fix was to hacksaw a slot across the body of the knob and then use a small piece of hacksaw blade as a metal tonque, and it works! Also tidied up the left front MBM parking light gasket which was hanging loose. Cleaned the exterior and the carpet, with the rest being done early tomorrow morning before departure time because we're off to see the granddaughters now.

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Tuesday 29th June 2010

Arrived back from our weekend Packard Rally to Tamworth yesterday afternoon. The '41 went pretty well but the carbie flat spot contributed to a real struggle up the long Murrurundi Hill on the way north. Now over 1000 miles on the rebuilt engine after the 600 plus on the Rally. Mileage slowly improved over the course of the Rally, with the final leg of the trip home giving about 10 mpg(US) or 12.2mpg(Imp). Booked her in with Tim at Carburettor Service Company for Tuesday of next week to find and fix the problem. Apart from that the only other drama was the right side window winding handle fell off. Almost had a heart attack when my wife said she was getting extra air in on her side and looked over to see the handle and escutcheon missing, but fortunately they were on the floor.

And for identifying some taillight bezels as '56 Chevy I'm now their "proud" owner
Know anybody who would want these before I put them on eBay?

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Monday 5th July 2010,

A day late submitting this, not like me at all! After the PACA Run to Tamworth Wade and Gina continued on to visit Gina's 93yo Mum in Gilgandra so last week was a workshop free week for me. Wait! I did duck in on Saturday to do some drilling on the "brag board" I'd fabricated but hadn't finished before leaving for Tamworth. And speaking of Tamworth here's a story which was "all my fault".

Noel has had a few dramas with his '39, beginning at last year's Port Macquarie run where he lost the overdrive and had to be trailered back to Sydney. Then after Peter Packard rebuilt the overdrive on returning from Canberra, there was a short in the wiring harness. The resultant fire in the '39 was only saved by the fact that Peter had fitted a fire extinguisher to the car literally just before Noel left to return to Sydney. Wade was able to install a new wiring harness for Noel as well as fix a few other essential things, like almost inoperative brakes, replace all the wheel bearings and rebuild the distributor! After that the '39 was running well and Noel was more than pleased with the way it was performing. It's at this point my "mea culpa" comes into play, because Noel said he intended taking the Roller to Tamworth, but I said "take the '39, look how well it's going now". So Noel was convinced to take the '39 and to this end he picked it up from workshop on the Wednesday before the run, leaving the Roller there in its place. After pre-run preparation on Thursday, Noel then drove across Sydney to stay the night in a motel so he wouldn't have to negotiate the peak period traffic in the '39 on the Friday morning. All was going well, with Noel enjoying his Packard for only about the third time in the last twelve months. But coming off the motorway there were terrible noises emanating from under the '39. So instead of proceeding to his motel, Noel changed course slightly and went to Wade's shed which fortunately was relatively close by. And he didn't have to tell John (one of the guys Wade shares the Shed with) what the problem was. John could hear the '39 coming and on it pulling up, said "diff" with his finely tuned mechanic's ear assisting with the diagnosis. John then helped Noel get the Roller out of the shed and the '39 in, in its place. And thats why it's "all my fault".

With that said, what's the first thing on the agenda back at the workshop? Noel's diff! Tried to push the '39 further into it's slot, but with handbrake off and in neutral it wouldn't budge. So diff centre jacked up and with rear wheels off the ground it was moved about six feet further forward into the working area. That done, and with jackstands now in place, Wade conducted some tests and inspections, turning each rear wheel individually(the right did, the left didn't) and the checking the pinion shaft and uni coupling for movement(a lot)! So drained the diff oil, and off with the wheels, backing plates, axle retainers and seals, axles removed and universal joint disconnected. The pumpkin was then removed, thankfully very easily on a trolley jack and hopefully it will slip back in just as easily. Inspection revealed damage in the form of chips out of the pinion gear teeth, gouges in the surface of the hemisphere and the pinion nut half off and easily turned by finger, let alone hand. Next was disassembly and cleanup to enable closer inspection, diagnosis and prognosis. Pushed and punched out the pinion gear bearings but couldn't remove the bearings either side of the hemisphere. The press and puller options available couldn't quite fit but never fear they will be removed. All this to access the bearing numbers which are always on a surface which can't be seen when they are in situ. Once bearing numbers are found Wade will set Dennis of ABC Bearings on the trail of locally available replacements. And DAF, I WILL include the details in the Packards Parts X-Ref. While all this was going on there were a number of phone calls between Wade and Noel putting things in place to source a new crown wheel and pinion. Now if this had happened a few months ago there was a pumpkin of Peter Packards in the workshop which contained a NOS crown wheel and pinion but Noel had returned that to Peter. So now it's coming back! Another thing, although the flange on the diff casting is stamped 4.54 the crown wheel and pinion are 4.36! So it looks like it's been replaced at some stage of it's life already.

That over, turned to putting Big Red back in the workshop. Wade's not happy with a number of things after the Tamworth/Gilgandra trip so it's receiving another makeover. And this morning, on the way to the Morris Minor Picnic Club run to the Royal Cricketers Arms pub, dropped the '41 into Carburettor Service Company for remedial treatment on the carb. Picked up by Wade and Gina from CSC and then on the way home we stopped at CSC to pick up the '41 only to find they hadn't worked on it. Left it there, and should be able to pick it up tomorrow, but this meant that Wade and Gina went well out of their way to take me home.
Wade and Gina.

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Wednesday 7th July 2010

Noel was already at the workshop when I arrived. He was dropping off the pumpkin that Peter Packard had freighted to him overnight. Noel also brought gifts of gold, frankinsence and myrrh......oops! Wrong story! Almost but not quite, actually it was a package from DAF containing not one but TWO snubbers along with a spare Carter carb I'd bought on eBay a while back for the '41. The snubbers are not used or NOS but are newly manufactured! DAF along with, I think, Bates Engineering have had these in development for some time and mine is the first off the assembly line, well that's my term and I'll stick with it. It'll be going in the '41 once the OD problems are sorted out. The other snubber is for Noel's '39, so it'll see service as soon as the diff is fixed. Noel then headed off north to Newcastle to pick up his Hunley Acuff re-rubbered '41 160 running boards and some other parts which had arrived via the pirate ship.

After Noel left to go North to Alaska.......oops, did it again meant north to Newcastle, dis-assembly of the pumpkin began. From what was said I was under the impression it had a pretty good crown wheel and pinion. But, inspection revealed it to be used with chips in the pinion gears like the one out of Noel's '39 but nowhere near as bad. Nevertheless they don't look good and consequently Wade is reluctant to use them. For one thing he wants to fix the diff once, and only once, and not have it come back because it's noisy or has other problems. Friend Peter Packard can't be responsible for condition of the diff as I believe it was sent to him in the condition it's now in, and he hadn't inspected it otherwise he would never have sent it. Now the hunt will be on for another crown wheel and pinion. Looked at the pumpkin sitting on the shelf, from the diff given to us at the beginning of last year but it's too rusty to contemplate using. Also had a look at the PACA club stock parts I'd helped compile a list of earlier this year but can't find any part numbers for crown wheels and pinions which match to those in the 35-41 parts list. Although there are some PACA club stock parts which are close to the #347802 4.36:1 set out of the '39, # 347804 4.54:1 - 1 set and # 347806 4.70:1 - 4 sets, and I think all are NOS. Wade, these look promising! Peter, start digging through the PACA parts. Noel, '39 should be regeared soon!

Putting the diff aside, dis-assembly of Big Red continued to the stage of it being almost ready for the engine to be pulled. It just takes time to drain oil and coolant, take out the front floor to access the bellhousing bolts, remove the radiator, take everything off that needs to come off or disconnect linkages, lines, hoses and cables, etc, etc, etc.

Then the call came from Tim at Carburettor Service Company, and Wade then drove me over. Tim explained the '41's problems were mainly in the aircleaner and the choke although he'd also adjusted the timing slightly. Tim had checked the carb over and found the accelerator pump was functioning well, I'd had a thought the flat spot could have had some association with it being faulty. He'd re-set the idle slightly but found the automatic choke was being fouled by exhaust gases coming up and into the choke through the tube from the exhaust manifold. Fixed that and went for a test drive but Tim experienced what I'd been experiencing. His fix on the run was to take the element out of the aircleaner! Now this element was something I'd been proud of when first installed, but not now! It is a lightly oiled foam rubber element which took the place of the original filter because the original element looked decidedly dodgy due to it's age. But no more! Have a paper element to take it's place tomorrow. In the meantime I drove the '41 home without an airfilter element and I concur with Tim that performance in this mode is excellent. Faster and harder acceleration, easier cruising and great low speed pulling. I though it was better after the rebuild, but this is another level.

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Thursday 8th July 2010

Only a quick hour or so at the workshop this morning. In that time managed to modify the paper air filter element for use in the '41. All you purists had better look away now because it's not "correct". Had been looking at the paper element option for a while but because of my pride didn't want to ditch the foam element I had made for the '41. All that changed in a hurry yesterday after discussing the carb problems with Tim of CSC after he'd worked on the carb. John at the workshop had found a paper element the right internal and external diameters but it was 6" tall instead of the 2" of the wire filled original element. At first it looked like I may get 3 elements for the price of one but closer inspection of the construction of the paper element showed it had an internal cylinder of metal mesh against which the paper rested and each end comprised a metal facing end plate. So instead of getting 3 elements I settled on making 2 only, each 3" high, out of the new paper element.

To do this I measured and marked around the centre of the paper element with the thought of hacksawing it into 2 equal pieces. However use of a hacksaw to cut the paper itself was obviously overkill and instead used a Stanley knife to cut through the ribbed paper down to the metal mesh cylinder. And that's when the hacksaw came into play, carefully cutting around the centre of the metal mesh cylinder. The only small difficulty were a few stiffening ribs between the two end plates but these were also relatively easily cut through. Filed the rough edges of the metal mesh as smooth as could be obtained and thoroughly cleaned and blew out the two paper elements. Then because of the extra length of the new filter the short threaded post in the middle of the bracket at the top of the air filter body which holds the domed metal top plate by a little wingnut needed to be lengthened. Cut off the threaded post, filed it back and drilled a hole to accommodate a bolt in lieu of the post. Need to find a longer bolt because the ones that Wade has are at least 1/2" too short, will source a longer one tomorrow.

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Great blog!!!!!!! I love it!

Friday 9th July 2010

On the way to the workshop detoured via Lee Bros to pick up a longer bolt for the carb air cleaner top. Now when I say detour, its actually in the opposite direction necessitating a 10 mile round trip, but necessary. Looking for a bolt(screw) about 1" longer than the original 1&1/2", but the longest they had was 2" so took what I could get. And on arrival at the workshop found it was just the right length, so it worked out real well in the end. Then had to duck up to the local hardware store to pick up some some rubber stripping with adhesive backing to make a sealing edge at the top and bottom of the new filter element. Arrived back at the workshop to see PeterL had just arrived, he was there mainly to obtain some computer diagnostics from John on what needed replacement in his Mazda daily driver's electronics which kept shifting the auto trans when the throttle was feathered, but the Packard presence was also a factor.

Because the computer diagnostic equipment wouldn't be at the workshop until midday Peter was standing around wondering aloud what he could do. So to help fill the void I suggested he could install the new DAF Snubber on Noel's '39. Noel's original snubber had succumbed to the ravages of time and fallen apart some time ago and most of it had been removed. Peter was most impressed that Wade's creeper has a head part that flipped up to a 45 degree angle for support. From what he said, his has square wheels and is made out of a sheet of corrugated iron, so he really appreciated the luxury of Wade's. Peter removed the remaining snubber ball from Noel's '39 and was then able to mount the new part. While under the '39 Peter observed, but mainly experienced, a lot of oil around the trans and OD which he traced to a missing small welch plug at the rear of the OD. This will be fixed once the diff is repaired and the '39 can be put up on a hoist for better access.

And speaking of Noel, the man himself arrived while Peter was finishing up the install of the new DAF snubber. Noel was dropping off his newly arrived Hunley Acuff re-rubbered '41 160 Coupe running boards. Noel's mate Tony will pick the boards up next week and is going to polish up all the trim pieces for the boards and re-install them. A lot more trim than on my 120 with full length strips mine doesn't have. And an excellent job too on the re-rubbering, leave my rhino'd boards in the shade. I suggest that if anyone needs their 38-42 and 48-51 2 dr Packard boards re-rubbered to contact Hunley now! After all, he's not getting any younger. Here's a link to his site. Only providing this as a service to others, I have no links or affiliation to Hunley Acuff at all, except for my mate Noel who has used his service twice. One thing that Noel's boards have, that mine doesn't have, is the fairly wide rubber lip along the top edge of the board where it meets the underside of the body next to the chassis. And I think Noel's tempting fate by leaving them in the workshop for a few days, who knows where they'll end up? Possibly on a certain '41 120 Club Coupe? No, I wouldn't do that to Noel, but the thought did cross my mind!

Quote:
TT, I enjoy writing it and try to relay a little of the enjoyment, frustration, work, pleasure, etc, etc of what goes on here. Others would say my ego is now out of control, and if that's so, then I just have to accept it, lie back and enjoy the experience.

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Monday 12th July 2010

Received a phone call from Noel this morning. Wanted to know if I'd like to visit Chrometech at Castle Hill the people doing the rechroming of some parts for his '41 160 coupe. Noel previously used Chrometech, for plating the very badly pitted headlight trim strips and wiper towers on his '39 and they still look great some 5 years later. Not a mark, blemish or pit on these muck metal pieces. Noel arranged to pick me up from the workshop at 1:00pm because I was getting there shortly before that time owing to a late morning doctors appointment. Arrived to find Wade putting the diff back together that had been received from Peter Packard last week because it wasn't being used to repair Noel's diff. And shortly afterwards Noel arrived, together with a very rusty and pitted crown wheel and three diverse pinions, none of which inspired confidence and all parts were consequently rejected by Wade. However there could be another source of a crown wheel and pinion, this time NOS, but until it's been sighted and passed quality control inspection, ie Wade's eagle eye, hopes won't be raised too high. Noel's friend Tony arrived a little later, Tony was there to pick up Noel's re-rubbered running boards along with the running board trim strips and clips to take them home and re-assemble them for Noel. Noel's short about half the clips, having been broken in dis-assembly, but Tony took one look at them and said Holden Torana(local GM product) looked the same. Helps that Tony is a retired panelbeater. If the Torana clips don't match, Wade has given Noel the details of the right clips from Restoration Specialties, so the bases are covered.

Once Tony was loaded up with running boards, trim strips and the clips Noel did have, and was on his way Noel and I departed for Chrometech. Rather than try and describe what and how Chrometech do what they do it's best if you visit their website and read it for yourself. If I tried to tell you I'd only mangle or misinterpret it in some way. Suffice to say, I think Chrometech can chrome just about anything. See this link for the pic's I took while we were there today. Walter is a real good bloke but a straight shooter, there are even some things he can't chrome, or which are in too poor condition even for his magic skills to make good, and if so he'll tell you so. The chromed grill surround in the pic's was resurrected from a bashed, belted, rusted through '34 Ford grill but in the end it turned out to be a business lesson in that the time and work taken to do the job far outweighed what anyone would be prepared to pay. Now it's just an extremely nice display piece. A very interesting time was had with Walter who needed to show Noel what he'd done so far with his '41 pieces and gain further instructions to ensure they were finished correctly. Walter also gave us the guided tour of the facility and was very generous in the giving of his time and knowledge in answering mainly my questions. This could come back to haunt him as Noel suggested Chrometech would be a perfect venue for a Morris Minor Picnic Club run. And Walter was agreeable saying the 57 Chebby and Honda Goldwing clubs had made visits and encouraged us to do so too. So I'll be contacting Ted of the MMPC to let him know he has a very interesting venue for a future run.

Back at the workshop took some more pic's for Hobbs of '34 parts of Wade's which are the same as those he's chasing for his '33 resto. Was also going to make some under running board rear mudflaps for the '41 from the one Noel had lent me last week. Only trouble was I couldn't find any rubber of the desired thickness, some thinner and some thicker, but for some strange reason there wasn't any on the shelf! Not to fear though, tomorrow morning Wade is going over to ABC Bearings and on my behalf will visit Grippy Rubber to purchase a piece of the desired thickness and necessary quality. Then when I arrive later in the day, another non-Packard activity again preventing my earlier attendance, MBM Industries will swing into gear and produce not one but two pairs of the mudflaps. And if you think the second pair is for Noel, you'd be wrong. Before Noel realised what was involved in replicating them he'd purchased a pair from $teele's and those are also with Tony for the running board re-assembly. The second pair is for a PackardInfo member who PM'd requesting the dimensions of Noel's old mudflap and forwarding those to him because all he had was the stumps of his old mudflaps. He'd looked at $teele's pricing of these very straightforward pieces which was pricey, so took the opportunity to contact me when I posted a pic of Noel's original mudflap last week, but I'm going to send him MBM originals. Spoke about quality control earlier, so it will be interesting to see if MBM mudflaps pass a strict US inspection. If not MBM, while embarrassed, would understand and the mudflaps can always be used as templates.

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Mal,
I have been driving way across Sydney for at least 30 years to get my electroplating done. I have no complaints with that company however now I learn of an electroplater literally "just down the road" from home, and he looks good!
Very interesting but after restoring 3 basket case Packards plus a few other distractions I am cured and won't need any more plating! If I keep saying it it might just work.
David

It's not unusual to chrome natural items.