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Worked on the car some more today. Got it to fire, but still couldn't get it to run. The tank has a lot of varnish, and since the car is still on the trailer, so I didn't want to work on draining it. I put a rubber line and in-line filter from the fuel pump inlet side into a gas can.

It fired, but wouldn't stay running. I discovered that the carb isn't factory (Rochester off of a GM) so I'll be looking for one of those. The carb is leaking all over. It started and ran a month ago, but I haven't been able to get it going since then. I think the new gas (10% ethanol) ate all the rubber out of the carb. Rather than rebuild an incorrect carb, I think I'll be looking for the right carb and working on other things in the meantime. So it goes...

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After talking to my dad, I think I may have solved the mystery on why the car would fire intially, and then do nothing when I have good spark and compression. I think the float on the carb might be sticking- the car ran a month ago, and hasn't since. Well, new gas on old can stir up a big mess. I'll try tapping the carb tomorrow, and if that doesn't get it going, I'll pull the top of the carb for a quick inspect. I still want to get the right carb (in the long term), but if I can get it running off this carb, it will be a start- another antique Packard on the road again.

Well, no work on the car, but a big step has been made! Should have some time to work on it the weekend.

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Had a little bit of time today. Performed a carb clean and inspect. No major issues, although the needle and seat seemed a little sticky.

I did find what looked like a loose fitting with a bolt going through it on the passenger side of the intake manifold, directly under the carb. Didn't have the camera today, so I'll post some pictures this weekend.

Next step is to charge up the new battery and go through the ignition. I'll probably check the points out before I start replacing any parts, since it was running six weeks ago.

Well, this weekend I started looking at electrical parts. The cap and rotor looked okay, but the points were pretty rocky and the plug wires were in really bad shape. Headed down to my local napa, and they actually listed the cap, rotor, points, condenser, and starter solenoid for my car! Napa must've bought out the Delco-Remy molds for the rotor, because the two parts looked identical.

I also drained the oil, and it smelled strongly of gasoline. In addition to the burnt points and plug wires with loose and broken ends, I think my oil was so thinned out with gas that the engine was probably building less than optimal compression.

The terminal on my ground cable was cracked, so I built a new 1-0 cable with soldered terminals instead of the bolt on type. The cable on the battery was 4 gage. I held off on the negative cable until I get the starter mounted solenoid installed. The cable from the battery to the aftermarket solenoid looks to be the original, but I'm not sure if it was cut when the solenoid was moved to the firewall.

Also pull the starter apart to see if it needed a rebuild. The brushes and commutator looked good to me, so I'll probably take some of the carbon off the commutator, put it all back together, and paint it up. I do need to get new lock washer for the bolts holding the starter together and to the motor. There were only two of the four present, and they were both the wrong size! Easy fix.

The plug wires come in tomorrow, and the solenoid on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I might have a newly refurbished ignition and starting system by next weekend! Then we should be getting somewhere. Once it runs, it'll be on to the rest of the safety items- going through everything, one piece at a time.

Also found a painter- I'm hoping to have time to get the engine and transmission repainted this summer. I don't have a compressor, and Napa doesn't stock Packard green in a rattle can, so I'll have to have someone else spray it on!

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Sounds like you're making good progress, keep it up.

Echlin (later purchased by NAPA), Standard Ignition, and the other secondary makers of the ignition parts all had their own molds and tooling. Echlin (NAPA) almost certainly did not purchase Delco tooling as Delco continued to make and sell their own parts for many years, concurrent with Echlin, Standard, and others.

Hmm, that makes sense. Also, it would make sense that all the rotors have about the same shape!

Since my last post I've gotten a little work done. I put the starter back together with a solenoid closer to stock, new plug wires, and a little paint sprayed.

I learned something interesting about the starters in these cars. In '37, the 120 had an Autolite starter, and the 115 had a Delco-Remy unit. The solenoid on the Autolite had a copper bus bar attaching to the body but the Delco-Remy unit bolts straight through.

The plug wires weren't a custom fit set; I eyeballed the lengths in the parts book because it was the only way I could get the right plug ends. I ended up shortening five wires, but I think it turned out ok.

Also looked at the old wires when they came out, and they said "Packard 440" on the wire. They were black rubber- any idea what era they're from?

I also pulled the oil pan off this week. Cleaned out the expected sludge, but I had one surprise. The oil plug threads appear to be installed with JB Weld. I'll leave it for now, but it might be a welding job sometime in the future. The oil pan gasket arrives via UPS on Friday, and hopefully this old car will fire up on Saturday.

The pictures:

- Sludge in the oil pan
- Oil pan plug
- Repainted starter
- Two shots of the hood. I seem to be missing some hood hardware. I don't think it should be able to be removed without unbolting anything, right???
- The updated look in the engine bay. A little bit of progress.
- Old wires with "Packard 440" on them

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Ken

The Packard brothers had a light bulb business and a cable/electrical hardware business , both of which predated the auto business. The brothers stayed in Warren to run these when the PMCC was sold and moved to Detroit.

The light bulb business was sold to General Electric, Packard Cable to General Motors. Packard Cable became part of Delphi. Delphi was a major employer in Warren until its recent troubles. Its Warren location is now closed


Regards


John Harley

The oil pan is back on, and I put the new ground cable in. Had a brief moment of panic when I wasn't getting any spark, and then I realized the key wasn't on. Tried to get it running and it still wouldn't go. So, I primed the carb, and it fired right up. A month ago the fuel pump was pumping strongly, but today it wasn't pushing any fuel through the flex hose between the pump and the carb. I'm suspecting that the new gas ate through the rubber diaphragm and a fuel pump rebuild is in my future!

One other question- the starter sometimes spins out. About 15% of the circumference of the ring gear is really chewed up- an 1/8" of the corner on each tooth in that area is chewed off.

My question is this: is the starter spinning out because the ring gear is chewed up, or is the ring gear chewed up because the starter bendix is weak? How does one inspect the bendix gear? Everything looked okay on the bench- no crack or deformation in the spring, no abnormal wear on the starter gear. If it is spinning out because of the ring gear wear, has anyone ever flipped a ring gear on these cars? Should be possible, right?

Also, for what it's worth, I ran a compression test and saw:

#1- 95 psi
#2- 90 psi
#3- 90 psi
#4- 90 psi
#5- 85 psi
#6 -85 psi

I suspect the declining trend was due to a decrease in battery voltage. The battery is new, but it has seen a lot more cranking than charging recently!

Thanks, as always, for reading.