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Great, that's the exactly the kind of detail that I need! It appears that it simply opens the outside air while not closing the recirculating air. If I ever get a design worked out, it will have the knobs too but they will be for appearance.

Speaking of appearance, what did the knobs themselves look like and how and where were they attached?

They were identical to the wiper knob except the button in the center was not movable. It was probably the same wiper knob used on cars with no WS washer option. They just pushed onto the mechanism shaft and was held via a friction fit that compressed a longitudinal slit in the shaft. There is a kind of flat like area in the knob that also works with the slit so the knob does not rotate on the shaft.

Here is the wiper knob along with a photo that LTRD posted some years back showing the vent knobs and where they were positioned on the shelf. There appears to be a bezel under the knobs and that might be the same flat chromed nut used with the antenna or speaker switch options minus the curved adapter portion that was also needed when those switches were mounted on the dash. Note the outlet louvers on this 54. There is only the one louver part number in the parts manual but we know that the clear tubes appeared somewhere along in the production and I suspect it was in mid 54. IIRC, packards1 mentioned having several at one time that he wound up throwing away. I had a 54 Pacific that also had these flat louvers. I have never seen a bulletin as to when the tubes appeared but undoubtedly they were retrofitted to 53 and 54 models because I have photos showing them on earlier cars.

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  53-4 vent-rear shelf let ride decide.jpg (95.56 KB)

Those are great! When you said it was like the wiper knob in the earlier message, I thought you meant that they resembled it, not that it WAS it! Interesting and that must have been chosen doe to the shaft size although it seems an odd choice to use a pull-off type on something that one pulls to use.

The knobs for the vents do not pull -- they turn the shaft 360 degrees or so. The shaft inside the mechanism has a spur gear meshed with a gear rack that is attached to the cable. The gear and rack action pushes or pulls the cable.

Here is the wiper mechanism. The vent item is identical in looks except for the end of the cable. Straight with a capture washer on the wiper version, a loop for the vents.

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  wiper sw.jpg (19.41 KB)

I remember now as you showed me that before! I’ll add it to my project folder as a reminder..

I remember now as you showed me that before! I’ll add it to my project folder as a reminder and thank you.

Hi Don, I would be interested in where you bought the cap with the hole to fit the BTV oil chamber. please and thank you :)



(quote)I also bought a few caps with a hole to use as adapters for my pressure bleeder so that the system can be thoroughly flushed.[/quote]

I don't have a clue! However, they were posted here in another thread and that's where I found them. The hard part, though, was finding the seal but I was able to get some spares when I had the master for my 1951 Henney-Packard rebuilt by Apple Hydraulics.

Ok, thanks
Will do some searching

Here is an old post on the replacement master cylinder or BTV caps. You might contact them and see if they still carry the caps or can refer you to a reseller who does.https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=20018&post_id=206731#forumpost206731