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Dell, How to locate the distributor drive gear is a good question, unfortunately I don't have a good answer. Mine did not have any markings so I set the engine on TDC number 1 cylinder firing stroke and then by trial and error found the position of the square drive shaft that had the rotor pointing at no. 1 HT post I hope someone else can give a better answer.

thanks; have been cleaning parts and getting ready to remove about 10 broken bolts in new old block. what you said about drive gear is what planned to do unless i find some factory info. thanks again david, have a great holiday. dell

Dell,

One method I've used to reassemble the block to crankcase is to:

Remove the bottom caps of all rods and place 2" lengths of rubber hose over the rod bolt threads.

Place each rod onto their respective crank-pin.

Install the distributor / oil pump drive gear. It's easier to have the oil pump already installed because you can rotate the camshaft as you lightly press down on the drive gear. When the square of the drive gear lines up with the square of the oil pump, the drive gear will drop down so the housing holding the drive gear is flush with the crankcase. It's easier to not have the timing chain installed at this point.

Place the block to crankcase gasket in place.
Next, slowly lower the block onto the crankcase making sure none of the small rod ends hang up on the block as you're lowering it.

Once the block is down tighten the bolts in a circular motion, starting from the center.

Now you can assemble the rings to pistons, keeping rings gaps 120? apart. With one person from below lifting the rod up you can place the piston assembly in the bore, slide the piston pin in, and insert the piston pin retaining rings. The ends of the retaining rings should be horizontal, not vertical.

With a ring compressor on the piston, the piston can now be pushed into the bore while the second person below makes sure the rod is properly aligned to the crank-pin. Once the rod is all the way down, attach the cap and nuts. Leave the nuts loose for now, you can torque then all at once.

This may take longer than assembling the rods and pistons to the block before it is placed on the crankcase, but I've found it is easier in the long run and there is less chance for something going wrong.

If you don't already have a copy you may want to pick up a reprint of the Packard Service Manual. I've attached one picture from a procedure in it.

Regards,

Dave

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dave; thanks for the help. on my 526 the big rod end fit right through the cylinder, i didn't have to take the piston off the rod- i hope to put it back together the same same way. all i had to do was turn the crank on cylinders 1,2,4 and 6 to clear the counter weights. the block is .060 over and i will have see if that is why the big end cleared the bore. thanks again dell

As regards distributor timing, on pre 10th series cars the slot should be parallel with the crankshaft. This is easily verified using the distributor which has numbers for each wire.

On dual coil and later cars (twelve included) there are timing marks on the camshaft and drive gear that need to be precisely set.

she far have been clean parts and plane to bore the new old block tomorrow. do any of you have experance removing the balancer off the front of the crank? dell