Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Thanks Dave... I KNEW you'd have harder information than my probably-poorly-educated guess! Happy New Year to you and yours. Chris.

Hello Rob, I have a 32 Phaeton. You questioned the two chrome knobs on the dash, the left-hand one is the choke, the right hand is the cigar lighter. The ride control is a large knob down parallel to the steering column. I have the red knob on the steering wheel, for the vacuum clutch arrangement. The distributor has the centrifugal weights, with no automatic or cockpit adjustable advance for starting. Just the spring loaded detent to rotate the whole distributor. This helps quite a bit when starting, but I’m trying to figure out why it’s so hard to start it when it’s hot, in the normal forward run Detent position, Steve

I have two knobs on my 32 901 steering wheel, the right one is the throttle but the left one is dead and not connected to anything. I believe this was for the spark advance and a carry over from the 31. I too have the distributor detent but mine is in the left position all the time. Can someone explain why it has two positions ? I also had a hard starting hot issue but now resolved with a new larger cable between the solenoid and the starter ( key start ) on my car in place of the floor button. Car always starts cold or hot and never use the choke. I also have one of the new Packard Carbs which works beautifully.

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The 32 901 left knob on the steering wheel is for the running lights, headlights low & high. There is a control rod running from the left knob to an electrical switch housing at the bottom end of the steering column. The car wiring harness enters the metal housing and is connected to multiple switched connections inside the housing.

The two positions on the distributor housing allow you to easily retard the timing by pulling the pin out and then rotating the distributor to the other de-tent position.

Retarding the timing means the plug fires later in the compression stroke (closer to TDC). Retarding the timing can help reduce detonation.

Depending on what de-tent position you initially set the timing in you could also pull the pin, rotate the distributor for more advance.

Advancing the ignition timing means the plug fires earlier in the compression stroke (before TDC). Advancing ignition timing typically helps raise the high-end power while reducing the low end. It also helps get the spark past the ignition delay and run at peak power.