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Monday 19th October 2009

Last Friday Wade picked up Big Red's wheels from Wheel & Tyre Co now fitted with the new WWW's. While over the weekend he displayed another talent in replacing the buttons that had popped off the back section of Big Red's rear seat. The rest of the seats need this treatment too, but more materials are required to finish them off. Then while Wade bolted the seat back back in Big Red I started on John's '39.

The right front shock is shot while the left front appears to have been leaking so both needed to be removed for rebuilding. But how to remove them with the front up on jack stands and without releasing the tension stored in the front coils? Why use something to take the place of the shock when it's removed and keep the lower arms in tension. Wade had given this some thought and had come up with a solution - use an old broken leaf spring sitting next to his spare '34 chassis. How? The spring-eye centre to centre measurement was almost exactly the same as the lower front sway bar mounts! So stepping through the procedure, it's:
1) Remove lower mounting nuts for the front sway bar
2) Swing sway bar out of way
3) Place leaf spring across front of chassis
4) Measure and cut threaded rod to length
5) Tighten 2 nuts together so they lock at the bottom of each rod
6) Push rod through sway bar mount up through spring eye and screw a nut on each rod
7) Tighten each of the top nuts so that the bump stop for each shock is clear
8) Undo the upper outer pins/bolts
9) Slide out the pins/bolts
10) Support the upper bushing by wiring it to the chassis
11) Undo and remove the four bolts holding each shock to the chassis
12) Remove the shocks noting the number and position of the shims under the inside bolts
There you have it!

Next, while Wade was working on removing the gear change linkages and other things, I cleaned up the intake and exhaust manifolds which had been split apart because there was an exhaust leak at the hot box join between the two. Also cleaned up the shocks to remove the years of crud accumulated. Then we bolted the cleaned manifold sections together and remounted the assembly on the block. This, to check for fit only. Looks like the manifold assembly will be sent out for a light skim to ensure the block mounting faces are level.

The other thing that Wade did was remove the ring-gear off the flywheel being used because the teeth were chewed up. Then he heated up the new ring gear, and after a couple of attempts(not hot enough, so it didn't yet fit!) dropped it onto the flange around the outside of the flywheel helped along with some light taps to ensure it was properly on. After the assembly had cooled and ensuring the engine was at TDC for #1 the flywheel was re-united with the crankshaft which also had a new pilot bearing installed. Wade had also had Ivan turn up a new pin for the clutch pivot on the bellhousing because the original one was quite worn and this too was installed.

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Tuesday 20th October 2009

Couple of hours at the workshop this morning. Continued on from yesterday at the back of John's engine by installing the clutch fork arm, the pressure and clutch plates, the clutch throw-out bearing, the transmission, reconnecting the spring to the throw-out bearing, the bottom bell-housing cover and topped off with a new boot for the clutch fork.

Then turned to the front of the engine and "added" a timing mark pointer for the front pulley/balancer. The '39 110 doesn't come equipped with this feature instead relying on the mechanic to view the timing marks on the front of the flywheel through the hole below the starter motor! Must have been some kind of masochist who designed that feature and some sort of contortionist to use it! Wade used one off a 120 which fitted perfectly and then using the timing marks on the flywheel, marks were inscribed on the pulley for #1 TDC and 7 degrees before and after #1 TDC. Wade's final touch was to paint the marks and also the pointer tip white for ease in using a timing light later. And for a bloke, whose hands at times shake like he's got some sort of palsy, he had a deft touch with the paintbrush for the markings required!

Lastly the intake/exhaust manifold assembly was removed from the engine. Yesterday a new hot box gasket was installed between the intake and exhaust manifolds, tightened up and left overnight. There was another check tightening on the three bolts holding it together this morning followed by a discussion with John(the mechanic in the workshop, not the car owner) about whether to have the engine manifold surfaces skimmed. Although it looks pretty good, and checking with a straight edge shows it to be about dead level, Wade after his experiences recently with Old Blue didn't want to take the risk. So we walked the manifold to the machine shop up the road and Perry said it should be ready this afternoon.

The only other thing is that I remembered to ask Wade about removing the '34's radiator. This question came from Terry(PackardInfo member, Traumjaegercat) in the Chatroom last night. Terry, you can remove the grill shell, shutters and radiator as a unit from the chassis or you can remove the grill shell then the shutters(6 bolts hold the assembly on as well as removing the rods for the shutterstat), then 2 bolts hold the bottom of the radiator frame to the front cross-member. There are some pic's here from today which may help.

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Hi Mal and Wade, I would urge that you etch or carefully strike the marks onto the harmonic balancer as the paint has a habit of removing itself after a while. best regards and keep up the good work. Peter T

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Peter,

When I said inscribed I really should have said scribed. The white paint was used to fill the scribed lines for visibility purposes.

Sorry Mal, My misunderstanding. Peter

Wednesday 21st October 2009

After spending a delightful morning with the granddaughters, arrived at the workshop to find Peter L from the Central Coast there. Peter was going through Wade's old 120 rods to find some better than the ones he has for the 120 engine he's building. He's also in the middle of trying to track down a water leak in the engine presently in his '38, but without luck so far.

Wade also showed me the intake/exhaust manifold back from surfacing which he'd painted with black manifold paint yesterday afternoon(car is a driver). Then while Wade was helping Peter I was put to work finish cleaning, then stringing up a load of mostly engine parts for the 110 for painting. After Peter left I got stuck into the painting while Wade was making gaskets for the window winders for the '34 and then re-assembling the winders. Wade had had new gears cut for the winders because the originals were missing, sometimes missing many, teeth.

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Peter,

No need to be sorry, I should be clearer with my explanation in the first place.

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Hi Mal! Like always I enjoy your write up. The technical pictorial records you provide is also of immeasureable value. Someday someone is going to need to see how a ring gear is shrinked onto the flywheel.
How is the terrible fires in Sydney? Hope you guys are well. We are also heading for a dry El Nino season here in SA.

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Barrie,

Fires are not a problem for Sydney....yet! Current problem fires are in north Queensland, probably 1,500/2,000 miles away. We're well, with frustrations for Wade the main drama as different things crop up. Talking of El Nino, it was 35C in Sydney yesterday and it's still a month and a half away from the "official" start of summer!

Thursday 22nd October 2009

Late start at the workshop this morning, because Wade was dropping Gina at the airport first, or so I thought. Wade was also taking the opportunity to drop off the front shocks from the 110 to Tony "Shocks", who lives out that way, so he can rebuild them. Only trouble was, there was little to no traffic on the way to the airport so, arrived early to be greeted by Tony in his pyjamas! Wade also picked up the windscreen and other glass for the '34 on his way back having had a call from Ralph yesterday to say they were all ready. They would have been ready sooner but the quarter window glass had been cut incorrectly first time round.

Because I didn't think Wade would be in until mid-morning that's when I arrived. Wade was already in residence and after taking down all the wired up parts painted yesterday we started on putting some of the pieces back on the 110's engine. Including intake/exhaust manifolds, fuel pump, generator mounting and tensioning brackets(loosely for now), distributor bracket(also loosely) and rebuilt water pump. Wade also put the freshly painted plate and linkage lever on the new shutter stat for the 110. Then realised he could also have dropped off the 110's radiator this morning at JJ Smith's which is also out the airport way!

Before we started on all that John, the 110's owner, called in to see what progress was being made, get filled in on what was happening and what unforeseen things now needed attention or rebuilding. Later on Harvey also called in to pick up something from Wade and I was able to pass on to Harvey some Willys info I'd printed out from the internet that he rang me about last night. If anyone out there has a good '41 Willys trans, or NOS, or NORS parts for one please let me know because Harvey is after one/some. Harvey is also after an accelerator pedal for the '39 120 he's working on for his boss because the ball mountings on it's reverse are all broken. Another Packard visitor was Kevin, former owner of the '35 Wade was working on, looking for John(the mechanic at the workshop) about the progress, or lack of it, being made on his V12 Daimler.

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Friday 23rd October 2009

Most of the day was spent entertaining the granddaughters, what a pleasureable way to while away the time. But I did have time to drop the running boards back to Peter, who's going to respray them after filling the holes as per Keegans advice below, also gave Peter an edited version of Keegans advice. Pic is of the boards with masking tape covering the holes not required to be filled with the masking tape only indicative to Peter where not to spray. Should get them back next week.

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