Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I've never tried the cloths pin trick. I suppose that if the ENTIRE LENGTH of the line were covered with cloths pins then it would insulate the line from heat.

Sure simple enuf and cheap unuf to try. I mite try it next time i have waht appears to be vapour lock.

BIGKEV: I guess you just don't get it, this forum is for airing our dirty laundry!

PS. Foolish things even when believed by many are still foolish. Let's see, I wonder if chopsticks and rubberbands would work better or worse, how about rubber ducks.

PackardV8: OK , then explain how my '54 Jaguar ran with all the wires inside an cardboard original ignition wire tube. .

PS to everyone: I'm running a few experimemts over the next 30 days to test the veracity of some oft-made claims on this site. NO, I'm not running them in Roswell NM.

I would like to see tests/myth-busters run on the clothespins also. I don't see how it could really work, but we could be wrong. If it did magically work, it'd be interesting to see why. Maybe on rubber line pinching it does something?

I was under the impression that most people's hot start assumed vapor lock issues (lately) had ruled out line, pressure etc and had fuel in the carb, so that it could be seen squirting in when working the accelerator pumps?

If so, I wouldn't see how doing anything with the line would do much of anything in any way. The gas in the bowl should be enough to fire, i'd think we'd need to focus on the carb and forward in no-start condition. That's why i had kicked around the hot spot getting things TOO hot in the other thread.

Suggest you look in the other forum for my quotation from the FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL. I posted it and it got no comment. I'm puzzled as to why. Could it be that if a solution from the engineers on East Grand Boulevard is heeded, then everyone's "fun" is over??

If that's not it,then why?? Someone own stock in a clothes pin company?


Lost in Boonton

If the factory engineers were so perfect:

a) where are they now? Oh yes, out of business.

b) why were there service bulletins, like rerouting the vaccuum pump exit into the manifold because it caused rough idling with the wipers in use? Could it be a minor design issue could be improved here or there? Or other changes discovered AFTER they went out of business so we couldn't get the gospel from them on packard letterhead?

C) Why were there SO many running changes to the ultramatic?


Obviously, in any make, "from the factory" isn't perfect, expecially after so many years.

I DON'T THINK CLOTHES PINS WORK EXCEPT FOR BEING PIECE OF WOOD TO SEPARATE WIRES FOR ONE TEST I CONSIDERED USING IT FOR. GET OFF MY BACK.

However, so many people believe in it, it bears testing to see if it does have some grain of truth, and like bigkev said, if it does, find out why.

Quote:

Kev, I don't have any idea either why it seemed to work. I always thought that the wooden clothes pins helped to dissipate some of the heat. From what I remember about my Moms cad there were a lot of pins not just a few. Who knows?


I have to add that I did try the clothes pin thing on my Packard which does seem to vapor lock on hot days and it didn't help. Oh well.

Funny story, my dad (long time mechanic) and i were talking about this the other day and he told me about how his parents got their first fuel injected caddy (after he was well into being a mechanic) and it had some running issues, and he opened the hood to look at it and there was 100 clothespin on the lines, some not even fuel, that they had put on.

He tried to explain with the high pressure in a fuel injection system, even if clothes pins COULD help with vapor lock, that it wouldn't work on a FI system anyways and it was probably a fuel filter or injection issue, if fuel at all. Their response:

"You know him, can't tell him anything, he knows it all even though he wasn't around when the clothes pins fixed the (insert whatever car they had when my dad was born, likely an early 50's gm car)"

Once someone "knows" something, you can't get them off it.

To help set Fred straight the clothes pins were placed on the fuel line not the plug wires.

Someone asked:
"PackardV8: OK , then explain how my '54 Jaguar ran with all the wires inside an cardboard original ignition wire tube. ."

No doubt it was a 3.8 SIX CYLINDER engine????
Here, let me draw a picture. IT WAS A 6 CYLINDER!!! NOT EIGHT cylinders OR MORE!!!

The clothespin "fix" has been around forever it seems. Back in the late 60s when i was teaching in Puerto Rico a buddy bought a 57 chevy with a v-8 He had a constant problem with vapor lock, and ended up putting wooden pins on the fuel line near the carb. ALL I can say is that it worked. but then ive never had to use them on my packards. Lucky i guess. :0)

Can you even get wooden clothespins anymore?????????

john