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

1941 180 with dual side mounts.

Having seen some posts here about later year Packards having an access panel in the floor to get to the master cylinder, I am wondering if there is one on mine. Since I have Dunlap Disease (my stomach dun lapped over my belt) I find it hard to get around the high hood line and in place side mounts to reach that far down. I'll be the first to admit that I haven't put a lot of effort into examining under the hood and the underside of my car to find the answer to this question and I don't see any mention in the owner's manual.

I believe the manual master will be bolted to the inside of the left frame rail a few inches ahead of the pedal and a few inches behind the steering box. A clutch linkage bracket may also share a bolt with the master or be mounted adjacent to it. The frame rail ahead of the firewall was a typical Packard location and like most manual masters in models made before 55, it does take a long lean over the fender or in some cases, accessing from below.

With your all too common malady of which many of us share, if you are not an absolute purist an option might be to buy and install a remote reservoir fill kit. Packard had that option in the 50s so it was something available and a dealer could have installed one on an earlier model. Finding the original glass bottle jar type today would be difficult. There was a gentleman selling a modern kit several have bought who may still be handling them. Some of the brake companies also sell remote kits but finding the proper size master cylinder cap for the old masters from them might be the issue. There is an older remote fill kit thread on the forum with links to RV places that seem to have caps that work.