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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#21
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HH56
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I would wonder how much play you have in the linkage. One common problem is with the pot metal manual valve lever. Very common to have the setscrew work loose and all of a sudden you have no gear or can move the shift lever an indication or two before feeling a detent. There is a stop plate which can rotate when the screw loosens and might bind things up.

Since you have a 55 would be a good idea to look at the external linkage. See if the lever was changed so your linkage is not in a straight line when in park. Sometimes the linkage was micky-moused instead of changing the lever. Since you couldn't get past neutral is the indicator needle reading properly? That was another problem with early 55s. The clamp holding it sometimes did not do the job well. It is just under the rubber cover on the column at the bottom edge of dash.

The lights are controlled by the switch on steering column located near the firewall in engine cmpt. Could be out of adjustment, faulty, wire disconnected or fuse blown. Since you may be having trouble with the linkage, that could be preventing the switch from getting to the extreme end position to turn the lights on.

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Posted on: 2012/3/19 18:12
Howard
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#22
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Let the ride decide
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Here are some more things to review,
ultramaticdynamics.com/improvements.html

Posted on: 2012/3/19 18:21
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#23
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Randy Berger
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HH56, there is a similar picture discussing the set screw and exactly how the "L" shaped stop that is held by that set screw should be positioned. I need to read that and D%^&Ned if I can find it. Just went thru all the 55-56 Service Counselors this evening. I thought it was in the shop manual.

Posted on: 2012/3/19 23:41
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#24
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HH56
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Randy, I can't find it either at the moment. Seem to recall it maybe was in conjunction with something else and believe it was captioned "the stop is positioned 90 degrees offset from the previous position" or something along those lines. Will look some more later.

EDIT: I think this is the one. From a Stude published bulletin. Believe that orientation is only the cast iron cases. On an aluminum case parts trans I have, the leg is behind the lever and it rests against the jog in the case. Yet the picture says the 55 is 90 degrees different from 56 instead of flipped 180. That 90 degree difference would also seem to be appropriate with that particular stop and may be correct. Guess that particular stop can work either way in a 56. Interesting.

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Posted on: 2012/3/20 10:52
Howard
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#25
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Tim Wile
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A cold and damp morning turned into a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon and what a better way to spend such an afternoon than working on a Packard. I spent some time working on the rear brakes on the 400 today and found one more unpleasant surprise.

I had originally thought that the noise and dragging on the passenger's rear wheel was caused by a hanging up parking brake. Wrong! When I pulled the brake drum, a shower of brake lining parts fell out of the wheel, along with the brake adjustment piston. It looked as if someone had taken a hammer to the front rear brake shoe and banged it all to h**l. The only thing left on the front rear brake shoe were the rivets. I'm surprised that the inside of the drum wasn't scored, but thankfully, it wasn't. I did check out the manual emergency brake and it was in its proper position. Wow!.

Fortunately, I had some spare brake parts from my rebuilding of the Patrician's brake system and replaced the destroyed brake shoe and the adjustment piston. After getting everything back together, I took the 400 out for a short spin to see if that solved the problem. Well, yes and no. The rear brake no longer hangs up and puts drag on the car. But now there is a loud scraping noise coming from the rear wheel. I think it is the rear passenger's wheel, but I cannot e sure. I'm going to have to have someone else stand by the car while it is driven forward in order to ascertain just which wheel is causing the noise. I strongly suspect the rear passenger's wheel, since that was the one I worked on and I didn't have that sound prior to pulling the drum.

Could it be that I tightened the rear drum retaining nut too much?

I'll have to post some photos of the banged up brake shoe when I get new batteries in my camera.

In the meantime, I'm ready to re-assembly the heater core assembly for the 400. I had dis-assembled it in order to get rid of the rust and give everything a nice new coat of paint. I also took apart the air duct door and replaced the deteriorated rubber seal with a newly fabricated one. Since the old seal was still present, albeit in poor condition, I used it as a pattern by laying it on the new piece of rubber and spraying a light coat of primer over the rubber. All I had to do then was to cut out the pattern and, viola! A new gasket/seal!

Tonight I'll be stapling the two sides of the air duct door together with the seal in the middle. Then I'll be ready to re-assemble the whole thing and install it on the 400. Hopefully, sometime this week I'll get to both the wheel issue and finish putting the heater core assembly back together. I just love the spring!

Posted on: 2012/3/25 18:31
PA Patrician (Tim Wile)

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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#26
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Tim Wile
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As a result of work and Boy Scout commitments, I haven't had much free time to spend working on either the Patrician or the Four Hundred. Over the past few weeks, however, I did managed to get some small scraps of time to do some incremental work.

The heater assembly is now completely re-assembled and ready to be installed on the car. I had completely dis-assembled it, sanded both the interior and exterior, and then primed and painted the metal pieces. The re-built flap piece works pretty nice and hopefully it shouldn't be too much of an effort to get the current one out and the new one in. I do have to procure new mounting bolts, however, as the prior owner put in the current heater assembly using only two of the four mounting bolts.

I also managed to pick up a new, unused Carter fuel filter assembly off of ebay and successfully (finally) installed it in the line from the fuel pump to the carburetor. Again, the prior owner had removed the fuel filter and replaced it with a simple rubber hose. It took some time to get everything firmed up so there were no fuel leaks with the engine running, but it is now working as it was designed.


Posted on: 2012/4/12 12:14
PA Patrician (Tim Wile)

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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#27
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Tim Wile
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Beautiful spring day brought a chance to take the Four Hundred for its first extended trip, to a friend who owns an automobile restoration shop! The total drive was about sixteen (16) miles and its purpose was to get some up close and personal advice on some mechanical questions I had about the Four Hundred's rough running engine.

After a few minutes playing with the carburator linkage, adjustment screws and vacuum lines, my friend recommended to me that I should have the original carburator rebuilt and complete replacement of all of the Four Hundred's vacuum lines. I had been hoping to avoid the first, but was well aware of the second. I've already replaced about 1/4 of the vacuum lines and now have some professional advice regarding the rest. As for the carb, he surmised that the slow idle jet was varnished up and that a cooking and rebuild were in order.

The truly heart-stopping moments came when the Four Hundred's brakes, which had been unusually hard, all of a sudden became spongy and much less effective. While I did not lose braking power altogether, I lost quite a bit of it; which made the ride home a white-knuckle one for most of the trip. Thank goodness for low traffic volume and side roads! It looks as if a brake bleeding operation is in the Four Hundred's immediate future!

Still, it was nice to see how the Dual Ultramatic performed on the road and to feel it shift at the appropriate points. I pushed the Four Hundred's speed up to 40 miles per hour, which is the fastest that I've had it thus far, and the car performed rather well. This, of course, was on the trip over to the shop when the brakes were hard, but still very effective. . .

I also spoke to him about the Patrician's broken left exhaust manifold and my hopes of getting it off and replaced without either pulling the engine or removing the left front fender. My friend simply smiled and really didn't have much to offer as far as advice. Hopefully, he'll think on that one.

I've attached two photos of the Four Hundred parked in front of the house after a short spin around the neighbourhood. All in all, however, it was a very satisfying afternoon.

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Posted on: 2012/4/25 17:19
PA Patrician (Tim Wile)

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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#28
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portlandon
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It will be interesting to see the outcome on what caused the brakes to lose pressure. The fluid level in the Treadle-Vac unit under the driver side floor pan should be checked.

There's nothing worse than a brake failure. Make sure your hand operated emergency brake is working and adjusted in case you have to use it. )Don't ask me how I know all this. It's a physically painful tale )

Posted on: 2012/4/25 17:33
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#29
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Randy Berger
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Carefully go over your brake lines and if any seem weak or rusted, then replace them with the new Cupro-nickel lines. These are easier to bend and flair than steel and will never rust.

Posted on: 2012/4/25 20:38
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
#30
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Ross
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Really recommend that you treat the brakes on any new purchase as if your worst enemy had just worked on them. Bleeding is not going to solve your problem, I guarantee it.

On my new 54 Clipper, the Thousanddollarwonder, I find that the shiny new master cylinder and lines are filled with=====automatic transmission fluid!!

Posted on: 2012/4/25 20:51
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