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so I went to my storage to see what rear shocks I had. I had 3 of them, one looked to maybe have been clean and/or rebuilt, but all three are for 1936. 1936 has a different number...1748 vs the 1937 138 number of 1717. They also have different arms on them. the end of the arm is made differently to accept different style down links.

I tried to get the end caps off to just kinda see what was involved and how they worked, but that was a no go and so I just left them alone. I'm not even going to try with the ones I have as I'm sure they are almost unobtainium in the correct valving of 1FD0. it seems that was only for the 138CD.

I did refill them and they do seem to work, but I can tell you that pulling the arm down is SUPER hard and pushing it up is pretty easy. either that is how the valves are made or I have dirt clogging one side. Both shocks act the same, so I'm going to have to say valving is set that way on purpose.

the old 36 shocks seemed to act the same way as well. which is weird....I would have thought since they are double action there would be similar force needed in both directions. idk....funds are VERY low, so getting them rebuilt is not in the picture right now.

I put them both back on the car and bounced on both sides....WAY WAY WAY better!!!! no more noise and WAY less roll! I'm satisfied.

I do have some leakage out of the shaft seal, but reading my old motors manual....this is typical of refill and should stop after a bit. I will keep an eye on it over the next few road adventures.

here are some photos showing how I fixed the link arm bushing. the first few pics are the ones of the 36 link arms and shocks.

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In my experience it's not too likely that your shocks will self-heal themselves and stop leaking at the shaft seals. But to extend the refill interval and probably increase the resistance you might consider using a higher viscosity hydraulic oil. I use the Mobil DTE series of hydraulic oils and the are available in a range of viscosity.

thanks for the info, i just used some hydraulic jack oil i had on the shelf for a while now. just enough in the bottle to do both shocks.

they have both stopped leaking, but i'm sure when the car is moving they will leak again.

if anyone has any good way to get the dang end caps off of the shocks, please let me know. I know it says not to use a vise, but i had a spare junky looking shock and i tried and there was no way in hell that end cap was coming off. i'm sure due to the uneven pressure it was putting on the cap.

it would be nice to figure it out and clean it all up in inside and reseal. Apple is like 200 bucks a shock to rebuild and they have mixed reviews for them on the web.

also not a single word from either Concours....hope gone. it was probably the 12v and the alternator.

Probably there is a special tool so my method is admittedly crude but I had an old shock that was frozen and had nothing to lose.

Not sure how yours bolt to the car but the 47 type has holes for bolts into the frame. Anyway, bolted the shock to a 2x6 that was long enough to stand on. After a good dosing of penetrating fluid over a few days, put the board on the ground, stood on it and then used a pipe wrench on the end caps. If you don't weigh enough to keep the board flat and stationary you could also drive a tire onto it. The caps came off but one was under the arm so that was a bit more of a challenge. I think I turned the shock upside down and rebolted. It rocked a bit since there was no flat mounting area but was still able to access that cap under the arm. Unfortunately the innards were rusted solid so was a no go on a repair or a core.

damn i didn't think about pipe wrenches! i have a very nice set of those. and your idea is pure genius! i will report back with my results. i have 3 spare shocks to play with.

forgot to add that i wired up the lighting for the clock (forgot this bulb initially) and the triple gauge pod last night, along with the leads for the voltmeter gauge. i had some open spots on the fuse panel as i pulled the fuses to the wires i didn't want to use when i did the wiring harness. they all happened to be switched power, so i just put a spade terminal on a wire, plugged it into the one side of the empty fuse hole that gets switched power, and then ran it to the gauge. way easier then trying to unscrew something under the dash.

next up was finding which terminal on the headlight switch i would use to power the relays for the fog lights. none of the terminals on the switch stayed on in every position, except the one i used for the runing lights. positions 3 and 4 are seperate from each other, but i decided i'd like to have the option of running the fogs in any position i want. so i'm going to power the relays off the same terminal i used for the running lights. then i can use the switch for the fogs i put under the dash in any of the headlight switch positions.

There is a special wrench tool to remove the end caps, the ID is serrated like the OD of the cap. I think I have one somewhere, haven't seen it in 40 years.

The shock you show in one of the first photos painted in red primer is not a Packard shock for a 115/120/160/180 I believe. Packard rears of those models all had a tapered hole to accept a shock link.

You did a fine job on rebuilding your links, bravo.

On non-acceptance at concours. I've run car selection committees and attended and entered carsmn in most of the big league concours so I have some insight. When you enter you send photos, the committee cannot see the alternator or if it has radials. To be accepted most cars have to be luxury/sport models and satisfy the intent of a concours d'elegance which translates into contest of beauty. Rarity is not necessary as many Jaguar XKE's get accepted.
While your car is rare, rarity does no guarantee acceptance. A 51 Chevy Business coupe is very rare but not concours material. If I ruled the world all Packards would be accepted
....and that's what a PAC or PI meet is. Any 37 120/138 would win first place as my first car was 1092-18622.

Carry on

There has been a running thread over on the AACA forum about rebuilding these shocks and included is a picture of the end cap wrench and discussion about alternatives.

it would be nice if they at least told me I wasn't accepted to the Concours. South Bend has been on my mind this year. not sure how i'll pull that off, but I may try.

the shocks came from an abandoned 36 restoration that DAF and I scavenged the parts from.

thanks for the compliment on the rebuild.

I will try to look around the aaca forum, I have never joined that forum. I'm partial to Packardinfo I guess, maybe I should branch out.

got the carb back today....can't really comment right now, but its not going back on the car until I figure out what to do. KenP...I wish it was like yours.

Bummer to hear about your carb! Hope you are able to rectify the situation.

talked to the carb people today and they are sending me the pictures they took when the carb arrived so we can compare. they take pictures of all the carbs when they come in. I wish I had better pictures of it myself, but I don't. so far they are being civil about it.

can't really comment on what is wrong with it yet till I find out what will come of it, but I don't know that I'd send another antique carb to them. The issue is cosmetic related.

I went ahead and put the carb on the car, because its obvious I wont be sending it back in. it does operate fine, but I'm having some trouble with the choke setting and with it stumbling a bit when I give it sharp gas from idle. It did not used to do that.

it does put out some black smoke on cold start, so its running a bit rich on start up. its probably from pulling the T knob on the dash to get it to warm up. After warming up I don't have the burning eyes rich symptom anymore and I was able to get the idle down to 550 while maintaining correct timing, so that is good news. seems the vacuum leak has been corrected. It doesn't keep smoking when it warms up, just on cold start.

I had to heat treat the paint on the manifold again and the last part of that was driving it around. it drove fine. no stumbling and plenty of power.

I still have a lifter tick even after adjusting again. I'm beginning to think it may actually be from a lifter bore being a bit worn out. I never had them checked.

last but not least....not even a day after I lose hope of being accepted in the Concours de Elegance of Texas, did I get an email of acceptance!! looks like I got lots of cleaning to do for that show.

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