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John,

Think what David is referring to is the holder/retainer for the thermostat itself. David?

Monday 5th December 2011

An aborted morning at the Blood Bank, although they think my blood's worth bottling, they couldn't tap into it! Left arm, needle in the vein and.....nothing! Not a drop! Wiggled it, probed, changed fittings still no result then bandaged up the arm. Right arm, needle in, plenty of blood but it was collecting under the skin! Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Result - two bandaged arms without the satisfaction of being able to do anything for my fellow man.


Then, at the workshop early in the afternoon, learned that I'd just missed Junior's Mum and Dad, Annet and John, who'd dropped in with some parts for their baby. There were also two deliveries of parts from Max on the bench. Still waiting on a further shipment, including new valves. Once all the parts have arrived Wade will discuss with Graham Wilkins about whether he can do anything before Christmas, unlikely, or whether things will happen in the New Year. With the influx of parts Wade was looking for somewhere to store them till required. I suggested we clear the shelves of my accumulation of parts, which we did, resulting in the bulk of the parts returning home with me today while others took their places on the "magic" shelves. Only stayed about an hour because Wade didn't have enough to keep me occupied, but will return on Friday for an update.

Other Packard happenings of late were yesterday's Packard Club Christmas at Vicary's Winery on the south western outskirts of Sydney at Luddenham and news of a '39 Twelve heading to Oz! The lunch was very nice and enjoyed by all with 9 Packards in attendance and 30 Packardians. See a few pic's of the day here.

However the Twelve is what I really want to talk about. A week or so ago Noel had sent me an email, saying "....I was looking through carsales.com.au and noticed a 1937 Packard 120 for sale in Queensland. I'm sure it is Wade's "Old Blue". Could you please confirm, I think it's easy to tell from the pictures. The question is: Why would he want to sell so soon after buying it?...." To which I replied "....You're right. It is Old Blue. Current owner is DaveE from Elanora in QLD...." I then rang Dave and left a message for him to give me a call. Dave returned the call late last week and I learned he'd bought a '39 Twelve. Reason for selling is garage space or lack of it to which I can attest. There's only room for one Packard! Dave also sent me an email together with pic's. I've reproduced part of the email here and some of the pic's after clearing it with Dave. The email says in part "....The vehicle is....a V12 Touring Limo.....This is virtually a rust free, undamaged, original, unmolested full Classic that is as solid as the day it was assembled. I have had very very valuable assistance in this purchase from Barry Smith and through his US connections have had the car appraised by 2 Packard experts who report a rare find. The US connections required no recompense for their time or considerable travel expenses and as a bursary to the valuable and treasured assistance from Barry I have donated a sum toward the Packard Proving Ground reconstruction....and will be in attendance at the opening in June 2013 where the Barry Smith window of the bedroom of two of Charlie Vincent's daughters will be dedicated. Meanwhile I await delivery...."

Also said "....1939 Packard limousine model 1708 body style # 1235 has only 35,659 actual miles.....recently rebuilt (around 1,000 miles) V12 engine...."

I believe the plan is to drive the Twelve home, from it's shipping destination of Newcastle(about 100 miles north of Sydney), a trip of about 420 miles. But before setting out on this extended journey a shorter trip of about 40 miles will be undertaken to evaluate and ensure the Twelve is up for it.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Twelve when I'm next in Queensland, expected to be March next year, and catching up with Dave and Shelley. And just remembered, I haven't yet asked Dave to add the Twelve to the Packard Owner's Registry, must make sure I do that! I also second Dave's lauding of Barry as he has helped many Packard owners over the years including myself.
Barry!

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Sunday 11th December 2011

After a brief Sunday morning run in the Coupe to pick up some fresh bread rolls from the bakery time to update the Blog.

Tuesday, Wade and Gina went on a Morris Minor Picnic Club run in Big Red to The Printing Museum at Penrith(Sorry, no pic's - I couldn't make it because of a Doctor's appointment) followed by Christmas lunch. From all accounts a very interesting venue. Wouldn't think so, would you?

Wednesday and Friday Wade was in the workshop and among other things has repainted the STARTIX unit and applied a replacement tag, looks real good now. Is also preparing the toe board for installation in The Fossil. Also has assembled a flywheel, clutch and pressure plate unit for Junior ready for transportation to Burt Bros, the clutch rebuilder on Monday. The last of the parts for Juniors engine rebuild have arrived but Graham, the rebuilder, is flat out before Christmas so the block, crank, other parts and the replacement parts wont be going to him until about mid January, after he returns from his break.

Also on Friday, before I dropped into the workshop for a 10 minute pitstop to see Wade, I helped 86yo PACA club member JohnM by driving his '39 TJ Richards bodied Six sedan back from Col's, the guy who fixed the scrapes and paint issues on the '39. Like most things associated with a 70+yo car the more Col did the more he found. Such as removing old paint and finding shoddy repair work, and replacing the right front door hinge pins. The extra (spare)time to fix these found things resulting in what should have been a part time repair job over about a week stretching out to over a month and a half! But the wait was worth it, the '39 looks a whole lot better now following it's beauty treatment.

Meanwhile I have been doing my part for the festive season in my job as a shopping mall Santa 4 days a week. I also volunteered, or maybe it was my daughter volunteering me, to be Santa at a Christmas party for her daughters Pre-school kindergarten group. Only trouble with that was the party was shortly after I finished my Santa shift for the day and the logistics of getting from the mall to the party venue and re-dressing as Santa looked somewhat daunting. But, a little thought accompanied by some gentle arm twisting and Wade agreed to chauffeur me to the event. Meant I could change out of the Santa gear after a 5 hour shift, drive home(cooling down all the way), re-dress as Santa and arrive at the party as relaxed and ready as you can be for about 16 excited five year olds together with some younger and older siblings. And the best thing about this? Santa was chauffeur driven to the event in Big Red. Very successful, with a succession of kids sitting on Santa's knee, detailing their demands Christmas wishes. Only thing that spoiled it was Santa suffering a coughing fit brought about by a hair from Santas beard detaching and irritating his throat! Santa had to take a quick break with his son-in-law providing a glass of water, but in order to be able to drink it Santa had pull up his beard! Luckily none of the kids saw this little trick, wouldn't want to shatter their dreams!

Also learnt on the trip to the party house that earlier in the afternoon Wade had been working on Noel's radio. Had fixed it, so he thought, but then found another problem - the capacitor had given up the ghost. With spare capacitors are rare as hens teeth Wade did the only thing he could and made another one! Carefully counted the coils in the copper wire in the old one, he thinks there were 125 but wasn't sure because it was broken and starting to unravel. Then with Gina's assistance, turning an old hand drill, Wade feed the wire and counted the turns. Worked out perfectly with the radio now working well. Noel, better check the bill to ensure Wade doesn't overcharge for the apprentices part in the fix!

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Mal, you must be having a lot of fun playing Santa Claus. Making children happy, no better job. I have a question: What is a STARTIX? I have seen them on other prewar cars, but never understood their function. Perhaps others here a wondering about it too, or maybe I am the only one. Thanks.

(o[]o)

John,

It is fun seeing the children's faces light up when they see Santa and when talking with them. Of course there are also a lot of the younger ones who have reservations in meeting the old gent, some I've been able to win over but more often not!

As to the STARTIX unit, it's a re-starter! From what I understand, when set, it will automatically re-start the car should the engine stall/stop. I'd never heard of it before I saw Wade's. Maybe it's the original black box? Had a look in the '34 Owners Manual here on PackardInfo but couldn't find a reference to it. Maybe someone, O_D comes to mind, might be able to give some greater insights?

Until O_D or someone has real Packard material, here is something from the Eleventh edition of Motors Auto Repair Manual

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Mal and Howard, thanks for the explanation and the manual instruction and illustration. Interesting device. It seems that once adjusted it would be trouble free. Is this the case, or were they disconnected or removed because of problems. Thanks again.

(o[]o)

Tuesday 13th December 2011

Started this post last night and ran out of puff about quarter way through the first paragraph. This morning finished that paragraph as well as the next three then it was off to the blood bank and this time was able to make a Plasma donation without running dry or leaking. Mid afternoon dropped into the workshop to catch up with Wade who was working on the cable pull problem with the A pillar. More about that, in fact a lot more about that, below. Wade had also finished routing the cable from the B pillar to the rear of the car. Besides that had been working on the waterpump again and pushed out the Hyatt bearing from its snout, more too of the waterpump later. The final piece Wade had worked on was the throttle linkage for Junior. It had arrived with a broken spring but on disassembly Wade found far more wrong with it. The main cross shaft is badly worn where it rubs on the linkage bracket, one end has had an additional hole drilled in it for another pin to secure a linkage arm and the holes in the linkage bracket are worn oval.

That was todays workshop pitstop while yesterday, when I arrived at the workshop, I found Barry Smith, BKSmith, there. Barry was returning Wade's spare trans and also dropping off a 426 waterpump for a rebuild from a mate of his in Tamworth. Mate has a couple of 20's 6 cyl Packards and is having an engine rebuilt for one of them with the guy who rebuilt Barry's Twelve engine doing it. Speaking of whom, there was a thread recently by foxhole, since deleted, chasing information about rebuilding a Twelve. Barry advised that his engine guy has been in contact with foxhole to pass on his experience in rebuilding Barry's Twelve. Barry also showed us a NOS right door lock mechanism he purchased from Joel(Packards1) for his '51 Convertible, very pleased with it. Also said when he asked how much shipping would be to Australia that Joel advised about $15 and if it was less he'd refund the difference. Barry said he's now advised Joel to forget the refund, see pic below. And the reason Barry returned Wade's spare trans was that he had it on hand while the previously rebuilt trans for the Twelve was being worked on because the synchros weren't working. Turned out the new equivalent front bearing used in the rebuild had the circlip retaining groove 1mm from the position on the original bearing. Barry was able to obtain a spacing washer at his local bearing supplier to fix the problem. So with the high speed rear end gears now in and the trans problem overcome the Twelve is back on the road and running beautifully. Barry, in returning home to Tamworth, about 250 miles north of Sydney, is also making a stop to see Max Hood. Max is a Packard elder statesman in the truest sense having owned and restored many Packards over the years, including The Fossil at one stage.

After Barry's departure it was off to Burt Bros with Juniors flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. In his initial examination of the pressure plate the guy at Burt Bros thinks it looks good but it will be gone over nevertheless. The flywheel will be resurfaced while the clutch plate will probably be replaced. Will be done by the end of the week but will be picked up next Monday because Wade and Gina are off to Gil-bloody-gandra late this week. On the way back to the workshop stopped off at Jaycar and Wade picked up some cable, a radio antennae cable, a switch and an in-line fuse holder for The Fossil.

Back at the workshop turned to The Fossil, in which Wade had installed the windscreen moulding last week. Today he was looking to pull through new wiring and the radio antennae cable. The cable for the rear compartment, part way up the B pillar then running through the wooden roof bows was easy. The antennae cable and wiring cable up the right side A pillar was another matter altogether. Previously Wade had fed a pull cable down from the roof end of the pillar, with some difficulty but it was in place for the pull through. To this cable the antennae cable and another cable were affixed with electricians tape covering and smoothing the join. But it would only go so far, in fact not far at all. Wade, in a position normal for him, on his back under the dash, determined that the pull cable wasn't coming through the pillar straight enough because it took a kink type turn part way down. This necessitated cutting off the join, then re-threading part of the pull cable using part of a bent wire coathanger with a small hook at one end to accomplish this task. Straight cable pull path accomplished wire ends were again stripped of insulation, tied together and rebound with electricians tape. Better result, in that the pull extended almost to the top of the pillar then stopped. Withdrew the cables and determined there were chafe marks on the electricians tape so an application of grease to the tape was tried but with no better result obtained. Pulled the cables back, cut off the join and re-affixed the antennae cable only to the pull cable but with the same result. Went almost all the way to the top then stopped. During all this I had been pulling the cable through with Wade feeding the pulled cable/s from below. At this point Wade tried the top end with long nose pliers to obtain a better grip on the pull cable, with no better result, then just brute force. Except at that point the join between the pull cable and the pulled cable gave way. Cut off the join again and looked at other options. There's a rubber bumper block at the top of the door frame and that was taken out, but it's in a metal pocket with no access to the inside of the pillar so a dead end. Then careful examination of the pillar revealed another possible path slightly forward of that tried previously. The pull cable was fed down this path, the antennae cable re-affixed and taped up and another pull commenced. Similar result this time around, went so far then stopped. More under dash on back work by Wade revealed another kink in the pull route. Another join cut, another re-routing, another cable re-join and another pull resulted in another dead run! With things not going at all to plan and with options exhausted the cable join was again cut resulting in further examination of the situation. Outcome of that was to leave this task and think about it some more because there wasn't anything obviously apparent that could be tried. Moving on, the speedo cable had been previously fitted to the trans but the other end hadn't been connected to the speedo, so that was done now.

Between the easy cable pull through and the pull cable debacle DavidM arrived. Seems he and Veronique have completed their filming obligations in the re-make of The Great Gatsby and David being close by today called in. David had been to see Richard, the rivet man and open car top bow maker who lives locally. Reason for the rivets being a rebuild of the first gear band for his '12 Maxwell. David had the Maxwell running a couple of week-ends ago, taken his neighbour for a run, and decided before putting it to bed afterwards to start the engine up again. Being a '12 it's a crank start, but when started it lurched forward but fortunately stalled so no damage was done to David at least. Not so the Maxwell! What had happened was that a nut in the first gear planetary system had come loose, jammed the gears resulting in the car engaging first gear when started. That wasn't so bad, but what was bad was that the errant nut had broken one tooth off a gear and broken a piece out of the planetary housing. Had also caused 3 of the wooden blocks, inside the external contracting band which engages first gear, to dislodge from the band. The wooden blocks are riveted to the band hence the need for the rivets from Richard. David had the first/reverse planetary system and the contracting band in the boot of his car so we were able to see the damage up close. Fortunately David, although having originally pursued having parts made locally to replace those broken, has parts coming from the US so will be able to rebuild the planetary unit and will be using castellated nuts with split pins this time. The previous owner, or maybe it was like this from the factory, not appreciating this feature!

After The Fossil then turned to the 426 waterpump. Being an earlier pump it's a bit different to the ones recently worked on, but like all the pumps needs new bearing as well as a new seal. The replacement seal will be a modern ceramic one, the rear bronze bush is likely to be replaced with a modern sealed bearing while the front Hyatt bearing will probably also be replaced with a modern double row sealed bearing. Hardest parts of the disassembly process were removing the three screws which secure, for want of a better term, the cage over the impeller and loosening the gland packing nut. David had seen the waterpump on the bench and passed a comment that the hot spanner would most likely be needed to loosen the cage retaining screws. Turned out the hot spanner was used, but not for that, instead it was pressed into service to release the gland nut. A bit of heat, broke the seal with a big crescent wrench and it came off relatively easily after that. Then pressed off the impeller, pressed the shaft out of the housing and pressed the bush out of the housing.

And on Sunday had a call from LeeH, Larry51, concerning if he could track the history of his '51 Club Sedan somehow. Complicating this is that the car is missing it's ID plate as well as it's Briggs Body Tag. Larry tells me he became quite excited when he found a tag in a box of parts he got when he bought the car. But it turned out to be from a 2562, so it obviously wasn't from his car. I suggested PACA member SamI who has Ira Berk, Sydney Packard dealer, records. However Lee has already been down that path without reward. I then suggested Mat, packard34, who as I understood things has Kellow Faulkner, Melbourne Packard dealer, records. When mentioning this to Wade yesterday he also advised that Peter, Peter Packard, also has dealer records. So Lee, that could be another avenue for you to pursue.

PS - To all the gents mentioned here, if you have anything to add or correct my lax reporting, feel free to jump in and comment!

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JW and MAL, I posted some extensive information on Startix, but put it in a separate thread, thinking that might make it easier for folks to find in the future. It's from the Standard Auto-Electrician's Manual of 1934, a great resource volume on vintage auto-electric equipment.

O_D, you sure did! Great documentation! Your indepth knowledge, great skill, and long-time experience came to the rescue, once again. This will be invaluable to those who have the STARTIX fitted to their Packards.

(o[]o)