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My 1937 Packard Six stopped running while I was driving it to a nearby car show. We were going a steady 55 mph when the engine stopped running. There was no noise, vibration, spewing of liquids, nor any other indication that something was wrong. The engine was at its normal operating temperature, 180 degrees, and the oil pressure was at its normal level, 45 lbs. The ambient temperature was about 90 degrees. The car has been running without any problems. Until Sunday, it started and ran normally, ran smoothly, and had good power. A quick check revealed that there is spark to the spark plugs, and gasoline to the carburetor. I also removed all the spark plugs and they look good; none were wet or fowled. I removed the distributor cap, and all looks good there. It would only backfire through the carburetor when I tried to restart it. My guess at this time is it is a jumped timing chain. I have not gotten into the problem too deeply before soliciting some advice. Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks.

Sounds logical. Would think an easy confirm without tearing anything apart is to put #1 at TDC and then see which plug or how far away the rotor is from #1 spark.

You can check how much slop is in chain by rotating the engine bacwards with the distributor cap off.That timing chain is pretty tough,but possible for it or the sprockets to give up..Check for a broken pin at the bottom distributor if all other checks are ok.
An old mechanic told me how to remember the four strokes-
Suck ,squeeze,bang,blow.If it don't run-your missing one.
Don't worry about valves hitting the pistons with the flathead.
RT

A possibility that I have seen few times on different cars is the pin on the distributor shaft can shear and the shaft will move or twist to where its the wrong position thus changing the timing causing a backfire. Easier to pull distributor and check pin rather than look at timing chain as I was told long ago check the simple things first. The good thing is that old cars are simple and usually easy to find problems than the new computer cars or maybe its just we simple people who find this to be true.My favorite car phrase KISS Keep It Simple Stupid no longer used in car manufacturing

Thanks to HH56, Guscha, 1938 Club Coupe, and acolds for your suggestions. I was looking for something simple, but not obvious to me. The KISS and back to basics are helpful. I will not be able get into this problem until next week due to other projects. If it is the timing chain, can it be replaced without removing the front fenders and grill? I'll keep the membership informed of problem and fix.

I am looking for advice on rear gear lube for a 1936 Super 8. If anyone knows of more than one brand, that would be helpful.
Thanks... David36

I found the problem with the '37 Packard Six. It is in the distributor. I removed the distributor cap and found that I could rotate the rotor. The rotor was not the problem. The shaft with the six lobes on which the rotor fits came loose from the the plate that connects to the automatic advance weights. The lobes shaft and plate are splined and pressed together then swedged to secure the joining. The joint came loose allowing the lobes shaft with the rotor to rotate freely of the distributor drive shaft. The distributor would still generate spark to the plugs, but not to the right ones at the right time. This is the first time I have encountered a distributor failure of this type. The car started and ran fine, but there was some surging just before it stopped running. I mention all of this as information to others should they have a like problem. Here are some photos showing the above mentioned parts. Special thanks to flackmaster who quickly came to my aid and is sending a replacement distributor via USPS Priority Mail. Thanks David, and to all who offered suggestions.

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A friend experienced exactly the same problem on a 1941 180, it backfired so bad it blew the seam on the air filter. On a second occasion it blew some of the exhaust system off the car.

Problem was so simple, the shank of the plastic distributor rotor had cracked and the rotor was able to move independently of the distributor shaft. And it was a new NAPA (Echlin) rotor!

EDIT: But now seeing what happened to your distributor, I'd say that is indeed an extremely rare failure mode; I've rebuilt dozens and dozens, perhaps hundreds of distributors and never seen that!

Geez, and after only 70 years too. Somebody's quality control must have really been slipping the day that one was built.

Glad you found the problem. Sounds much easier than changing a timing chain.

Hello All, just to wrap-up this topic, the car is running again. flackmaster sent me a DR 647F distributor ('37 Olds 6-cyl.), post haste, and it arrived in Saturday's mail. I used the good "lobe shaft" from this distributor in my DR 647E distributor. Cleaned-up everything, re-assembled, and re-installed it on the car. The car started-up right away and then set the ignition timing. It drives better than ever. During all of this down time I affixed a pointer to one of the timing cover cap screws and marked the vibration damper with lines at 10 deg. BTC, TDC, and 10 deg. ATC to ease setting the ignition timing. Looking at the timing marks through the port under the starter is not the most convenient way to do this job. Thanks to all.