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

The 90 amp universal PowerGENhttp://www.summitracing.com/parts/pwm-82096 is less than half of that amount but the issue is still the pulley for those engines using wide belts. If the wide pulley su8overdrive mentioned from AAB is sold separately and would fit the PowerGEN -- or if the alternator AAB sells is the PowerGen -- that might be a decent almost period correct looking option.

I talked to Mr. Allen today. He makes the Gener-Nator. This looks like it meets my desires completely. It looks authentic, even down to the wiring and terminals. It operates like an alternator, supplying 20 amps at idle. This is what I need for the 10 amp cooling fan motor plus a radio or whatever else. My need is to find a core generator to send him so I don't have to buy a good one and pay the full price.

Does anyone have an Autolite GDZ-4801T or GDZ-4801V core generator at a reasonable price? All it needs is a decent looking case and end plates. The coils and brushes are not used in the conversion. My car is a 1950 Deluxe 8.

The cost for the generator conversion and full restoration is about $1000. I do not consider that a too expensive for what you get. These units are show quality. The most imporatant item is supplying enough current to operate the car reliably and not modernizing the looks. He will even restore the stock regulator but modify the internals so the terminal and wires are in the correct places for shows.

Fred, I probably have one from my spare 50 engine. But you might want to check with a local generator/starter shop, as these units aren't very exotic. The local shop here has some on the shelf.

Sounds like you are prepared to spend into the four figures to mount a fan and alternator. What are you going to do next if this does not work? It would seem that these amount of dollars would buy a more conventional and workable fix.

(o{}o)

Have to agree with JW above. Four figures to mask a problem
sounds like a waste. In 1975, i bought a couple parts for
the '40 120 i was rejuventating from a 3M engineer in Texas,
who told me about 282-ci Packard One-Twenty engines in recent years working 24/7 irrigation pumps in the Lone Star state.
They were set with a governor at 1,800 rpm and ran and ran,
unattended, week in, week out, without incident.

A friend running a shop catering to Packards often has to
have "the talk" with customers who treat rebuilt Packards
like new Camrys, Accords, Tauruses in today's traffic, having read all this bluster in buff books, insisting on flogging them in today's go and whoa traffic, on idling in half hour conga lines while driving onto the field at the local show and shine, then
act surprised when something goes wrong.

Simply, when our cars were new, domestic population was
a third to at very most 40% of today's nearly 1/3rd billion.
People walked or took ubiquitous streetcars, trolleys, interburbans. City planners today use a mere 600 feet--two football fields end-to-end sans end zones-- as the distance at which Americans automatically reach for their car keys. Obesity was an extreme rarity, not the norm.

When our cars were new, people on a trip pulled over for a cup of coffee or bought some fruit at a roadside stand, stretched.

Automobiles were driven more judiciously over less frenetic, m u c h less crowded roads, and at lower speeds.

There's too much emphasis today on how fast Packards were in the day, too much cowboy mentality. A friend with a '63 Ferrari Lusso reminds me that a decade-old Honda Civic will outperform his prancing horse, an Austin-Healey 3000,
and other once rip-snorting cars.

Because our Packards were, and are, capable of brisk
acceleration, high speed by the standards of the '30s, '40s,
early '50s, doesn't mean they're well served by being
driven like that today, regardless how thoroughly rebuilt,
balanced.

Because a car was wonderful, refined, well-engineered 70 years ago, doesn't make it compatible with today's two-pedal go and whoa concrete conveyor belt.

You'd be amazed at the downright bucolic driving conditions in your own San Diego County when your car was new nearly 64 years ago, Fred.

JW's right. Spend some time, not four figures, to find out
what's really wrong with your car, i f there's anything wrong with your car.

Again, skip the antifreeze.

I installed a Scott's electric cooling fan as described
in my above post merely as protection should i ever get caught in our horrendous 21st Century traffic during a heat wave, but have never used it. The six-volt, positive-ground alternator, which puts out 55, not 20, amps at
idle, was installed simply as i like the idea of brighter
head and tail lights, faster battery recovery and because
i like paring weight from these refined auld road cars.
I don't "need" it, nobody "needs" it.

An electric cooling fan, then alternator, as daily Band Aids, are lost motion. JW's right as rain.

I appreciate all the advice from su8overdrive. However it sounds like you did exactly what I want to do for the same reasons, so why give me advice? My Packard does NOT have a cooling problem in general because I had all the stuff done to it to prevent that. The car was never designed to idle in a parade of old cars for an hour on a hot day, and amazingly enough it won't do it without running hot. Also if you want modern lights for safety reasons you need more amps. The old 35 amp generator worked just fine in stock conditions back in the day, but we were not dealing with modern freeways back in the day. I know because I lived in San Diego before they built the first freeway.

I am willing to spend what it takes to get the best of both worlds. I like the look of the old car with its old technology and I want to show it off at car shows. However I do not want a trailer queen. The car is a joy to drive, but I do not like boiling over, having the battery dead when I want to start it, or having it die on the freeway with vapor lock. I am a mechnical engineer with a great deal of automotive design experience and I enjoy tweaking the technology to improve the driving experience without changing the basic look or feel of the car. It's part of the hobby for me.

All this stuff I am doing is because I want a more reliable, safe and pleasent old car. When I want new car convenience and performance I jump into one of my 21st century machines and blast off.

As to the apparent high cost, the Gener-Nator cost is quite high when compared to a stock 35 amp generator. I could probably get a correct restored Auto-lite generator and regulator for $500 or so (about a $500 savings). That is true but I already have nearly $50,000 in my Packard, and the issues I am trying to correct are ruining the entire experience with the car. I bought the car and spent the time and money to have fun with it. It's what I want, not what I need.

Good Morning all...

I have a 49 Packard 288 and have had cooling problems with the old girl. However, in reading old Packard service information, I learned that if one is running in hot weather and using antifreeze, Packard recommended a thermostat at 147 degrees. The closest I could find was out of the truck or marine catalogue at NAPA. They had a 142 degree thermostat that looks just like the original thermostat that was in our Packard when we purchased it.
The part number is 18-3551- Line SME.

I also advanced the timing from 6 degrees before top dead center by rotating the distributor, after marking the 6 degree location, until it was in the middle point between running rough by too much advance and not enough advance. It helped quite a bit. I also took of the strange after market muffler and put a 30" Glas Pak muffler with a 2 1/2 inch tail pipe.

I live in Phoenix area and the car is much happier now.

Ernie

Ernie, good advice. But i thought our stock mufflers, at
least the ones on the '40 120 i had long ago, and my current
'47 Super, were essentially "straight through" mufflers.
John Kepich admitted the mufflers he sold for 120s
were basically Dodge truck mufflers, and the authentic
replacement i bought from him for my '47 is no more restriction than that from East Grand Avenue, has that "mellow bellow" as the rodders use to call it.


So i'm wondering if glasspacks really gain us much, but
i bow to your and others' insight as i'm not an exhaust maven.

Meanwhile, one mo' once, as Count Basie intoned near the
end of April in Paris, if you don't need antifreeze, don't use it. It breaks down over time and leaves a heat-transfer-inhibiting film on cooling passages, as explained by a Chrysler engineer member of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Club in the A-C-D Newsletter. Any car'll run cooler without it, and antifreeze is an environmental headache.

For more, see: www.no-rosion.com.

If you run straight water as coolant, don't forget to add a rust inhibitor, which also acts as water pump lubricant.

Such compounds are a component of any good anti-freeze.