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I had meant to take the Packard for a 1,000-mile test drive to Hershey, but the day before I left, I was underneath the car trying to figure out why the transmission was leaking so much oil. After tightening almost every bolt about a half turn, and wiping off the oil, I found that the solonoid was leaking badly.

Upon removal of said solonoid, the seal was replaced and two new gaskets were made for both sides of the collar. Buttoned up at 11pm and with a good test drive down the freeway, everything worked properly. A check underneath, and no leaking.

4am the next morning, I headed out. Overdrive worked fine going down the street, but after the first stop light, I noticed it wasn't. I turned around, jacked it up, checked for loose or disconnected wires, and found nothing.

Road trip canceled. Fuse to relay is still good. Will do a couple of tests tonight to see what we can find.

Correct orientation on the solenoid spacer??

It's impossible to bolt it flat with the o.d. unit without the correct orientation. As I said, it worked fine the night before, and worked the morning of... for a couple of miles.

Put aside some time last night to conduct a few tests: As I thought would happen, in the back of my mind, it worked perfectly during the drive over to a friend, and worked perfectly the rest of the night.

My next step is to remove the relay and clean the points. We did this last when making the o.d. operational in the first place. It helped then, and with all the sparking going on while re-installing the solonoid, I suspect it's a good idea to do it again.

My brother-in-law, a fairly good photographer, shot this while I was in Canton last fall.

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Hi everybody, I'm brand new here. I got infected with the Packard "virus" a while ago, and been looking for a nice prewar Packard.( I love the 1507 coupe, but my bank account don't ) I'm looking at a 1808 (a limo according to the seller), but I'm trying to figure out how to tell the difference between a 1808 touring sedan and a limousine. It's all original except they re-upholstered the seats and it has been repainted 40 yrs ago. Any suggestions on areas I need to keep a close tab on before I commit to purchase?

G'day BDC,
to PackardInfo.

Can't answer your questions but I'm sure there'll be those coming along soon who can and will. In the meantime this link to 1940 Model Info here on the Site under "Packard Model Info" may be helpful.

Also, if you do purchase the 1808, I invite you to include it in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo!

Lastly I invite BigKev, our Webmaster, to move your post and my reply together with any others to the Pre-War Forum to a separate thread under a title of say "1808 Limo or Sedan?" instead of being a part of West's Project Blog.

I believe the difference, in the long wheel base Packards (and others), between a limousine and a touring is that the former has a division window separating the front and rear seating areas. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

It has the privacy window, and jump seats!

If I get it bought I defenitly register it!

My winter projects include replacing the trunk lid, repairing and painting the luggage rack, and straightening poor 40-year-old body work on the rear fenders.

I damaged my original trunk lid by closing the overhead garage door while the trunk lid was up. The trunk lid got bent because the car just barely fits in the garage. While it was probably repairable, I bought a good replacement from David Mitchell and it is almost ready for paint. I will post some updated photos shortly.

Also, I figured that since I would need to paint the trunk lid, it was a good time to remove the rear fenders once again and do them right. Same for the luggage rack. The fenders are currently in Springfield, Ohio getting stripped.

While at Hershey, I met a friend in the flea market. He told me about two cars he wanted to sell to me. A 1942 parts car and a 1940 long-wheelbase touring sedan, just like the one I have. The 1940 was in mid-restoration some 10-15 years ago, then work stopped. It was supposedly a super nice original car when work began. Unfortunately, it has sort of been used as a parts car ever since. Most parts that were removed were replaced with a lesser quality item. The big-ticket item that was not replaced was its engine. However, the 1942 parts car has a complete running gear.

I bought the two cars sight unseen, so I do not know if the 1940 will continue to be a parts car, or if there's a possibility of putting it back together. Logical financial decision says to continue parting it out. But, again, I haven't seen either car yet, and won't be able to until January.

I stripped the trunk lid myself, using sand paper and a wire brush. It turned out to be pretty nice, with only a few issues. While it was costly to buy, it was much easier to repair than the bent original. Plus, in my opinion, the repaired original would probably not have been as sturdy.
A friend is doing the body work on it for me. Here it is, almost ready for primer.

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