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I noticed a knock that sounds like the engine but coming from the clutch. This is the first car I've ever driven regularly with a mechanical clutch.

It's squeaks and scrunches when you push it in but it's always done that. When it's out I can grab the pedal and pull it toward me with about an inch of free play. The pedal shakes. The new knocking sound was at first just over bumps and when the clutch shakes as the car taking off. Now the knock is there sometimes when I'm idling. Messing with the pedal when it's out doesn't help the noise unless you start to push it in.

Has anyone experienced the knocking before?

I also noticed when I went to buy a new clutch pedal pad that the pedal shape is different on this car than the other Packards. The normal textured pad wouldn't fit. This 300 has a horizontal pad with wide stripes. I thought maybe it's a commercial style but those seem to be like the standard 200 pedal.

You shouldn't have any squeak and scrunch at any time so I would wonder about the condition of the throwout bearing. Also if the spring which keeps the throwout bearing assy back and positioned in the fork and away from the pressure plate when the pedal is not depressed is intact.

As to the pedal shape I am wondering if someone has tried to convert from an Ultra and installed a V8 setup. The pedal covers sound more like that type than the earlier style. Do the pedals look anything like these? If so then I would wonder about the entire linkage arrangement and what exactly was done.

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Thanks Howard. Here are the pedals.

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There is no doubt more to your problem but the squeak or crunch on depressing the pedal is VERY common to high mileage 22/23rd series cars, and perhaps to the later series. The pedal pivot and shaft wear such that as the pedal is depressed it can move sideways a bit and it scrapes on the side of the metal floor board panel. Perhaps that's the answer to that part of your problem.

O_D has an excellent point. I hadn't thought of that wear and I even had the scraping noise. Looking at the parts book the arrangement is similar to the 21-23rd except the grease fitting is on the opposite end of the shaft on yours. If one side of your pedal arm is nice and shiny or paint is scraped off I'd bet that it is rubbing against the hole in floor plate and shaft wear was the reason. If you can grab the pedal and wiggle it side to side more than a tiny tiny bit it is a sure bet.

Logically with your grease arrangement the clutch pedal would get the grease instead of the brake pedal but if the fitting is hidden or never touched it could become as worn as the earlier models.

Here is a 21st shaft showing how the pedals get greased. On this one the fitting is on the brake pedal end and exits thru the two holes between bushings inside the pedal and then oozes onto the shaft. Here, as soon as grease started coming out the brake side I'm sure the operator stopped and the clutch pedal never saw much grease as evidenced by the extreme wear on the clutch side of the shaft as compared to the brake side.

Fortunately the bushings were still usable so to repair this one I was able to get a hardened shaft the proper diameter and cut it to length. Was unable to drill the exit holes and center feed in the hard shaft so added a grease fitting to each pedal instead.

I don't recognize your clutch pedal shape as being Packard.

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I see what you mean about the grease fitting, Howard. I will grease it good.

I'm not sure how it could have ended up with another pedal.

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There is just a single bolt holding the pedal to the arm so it could be something like an aftermarket dressup or maybe a former owner liked the horizontal look and tried to match the brake better with something from another car.

That particular mismatch is something I always wondered why Packard didn't address a bit more strongly. Power brakes with a fairly large horizontal pedal and the comparatively narrow vertical clutch sitting next to it seems a bit uncompleted.

that is a Studebaker clutch pedal. Possible that your car has some sort of cobbled up clutch linkage.

Although there is no documentation in the parts book, I know from three different cars that were not screwed around with that if you got Easamatic and stick, the clutch pedal was oriented horizontally. They were 53, 54, and 55 Clippers.

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That is good to hear. I guess I've never seen one of those original cars. All I've seen had the vertical pedal and maybe could have been conversions.

Here it is on a 54.

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