Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

OK, a somewhat weird thing happened to me today with my 55 Pat.

I'm at Walmart (could be anywhere) and I'm waiting for my significant other to come out from shopping. She does and then I open the trunk and then after loading every bought item into the trunk, I go to close it. That's when the problem occurs.

The trunk lid comes down crooked and won't close. Upon quick inspection it turns out the the left (D-side) hinge upper pin has broken! I asked my significant other to go back into Walmart and buy some bungee cords, which she did. So, I closed the trunk and held it down with the newly purchased bungee cords which got us home without further problem.

My question is: what the heck happened and how do you fix it? I'm sure I can fix anything mechanical, but I thought if one of you guys had run into this problem before, you could help me out.

Craig

That's a new one to me, I'll be interested in your post-mortem as to just how the pin failed.

I believe all the pins are basically rivet like pieces with a head and a narrowed end which is pressed into a hole in some 10 or 12ga stamped metal. It looks like the end is formed over the hole in a stamping process. Probably one of the narrowed ends broke or maybe the pin was loose and finally wore thru the sheet metal.

You might have to weld it back but lt looks like there should be enough room for a bolt with a locknut to replace the pin without needing to remove the hinge. Whether there would be a problem with the slight amount of bolt movement in the hole compared to the rigidity of a firmly attached pin is unknown. On a couple of the pin locations as an addition to the locknut you could make a threaded plate to fit inside the hinge channel so the bolt couldn't wobble.

Broken hinge pin is now fixed.

1) Remove the trunk lid and put it somewhere safe (2 person job).
2) Unbolt the four body screws holding the hinge assembly to the vertical upright.
3) Lift out the hinge assembly.

Here's the broken pin and associated parts:





Here's the simple fix:

1) Grind out the elongated, distored hole a little bit.
2) Insert a 7/16in short bolt into the short arm and hole.
3) Apply Blue Loctite & flat washer and fasten with the nut. Do NOT tighten.




4) Reinstall the trunk lid (3 person job) and realign.
5) Go get a six-pack of beer to compensate helper.

Craig

Owen_Dyneto Quote:

Failure mode pictured and as HH56 guessed: splayed end of the rivet-like hinge pin partly broke off, the pin backed out and that was that.

Obviously a rare failure, but easily repaired.

Craig

"Go get a six-pack of beer to compensate helper"
A very necessary component of any Packard repair or restoration!

craig, some have brazed it, others bolt,

oops ,,need to look, I would add a cotter pin

Quote:

Good idea! But, I will be long dead before this fix fails.

Craig

same thing happened to me a few years back-only one thing to do-replace it. Luckily I saw a pair of trunk hinges on ebay for 40 bucks and I bought them and saved them for a rainy day.