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After getting my 1950 23rd Series Deluxe 8 through a long bare metal paint job I am now in the final stages of reassembly. I took both the wipers off to get them replated and the pully/cable assemblies fell into the car behind the dash. It was a very tough 2-man job just to find the dangling mechanisms and push them up through the holes in the cowl so they could be reattached. Naturally holding the wiper cables on the pullys during these contorsions was impossible but I got the wiper pully mechanisms bolted back on. The loose cables cannot simply be slipped back over the pullys as I had hoped.

Now what do I do? Is there a way to slacken the cables and pull them over the pulleys before retightening? Can this cable loosening/tightening be done from the engine compartment? If I have to slide under the dash I do not have access to do anything mechanical.

I hate the thought of pulling the wiring, heater controls and glove compartment to gain access to the cables.

The pulleys are under spring tension. Here's some instructions on how to work on or tension the cables for the 22-23 series.https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SC-VOL22NO10.pdf To relieve the spring tension and get the cables back on you loosen the screw as described but will have to manually push the pulleys back against a fairly heavy spring. Suggest using a rag over the pulleys when doing so as sometimes the pulley edges are fairly sharp. There is another good picture and some more info in the service manual, body section starting on page 27.

I had the same problem with my 49-it has been some time since I had that car but I remember loosening the pulley bracket from the cowl. Get the cables installed and then tighten the cowl bolts