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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#11
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BH
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Brian (BDeB) -

I was trying to think of these in terms of chassis, but it feels odd to be cutting coverage, and so much, within some of the given years rather than between years. This was a great period of transition, and Series designations seem almost useless when looking at chassis. Unfortunately, there are some key parts books that we don't have in our collection, and our Service letter coverage starts to fall off, again, prior to 1938, which might help complete the picture.

So, I turned again to the Buyer's Guide.

Langworth notes that the Twelves were completely redesigned for 1937. Further reading in the chapter on Senior Eights showed that the Super Eights were as well that year, but except for the 120, the rest of the Eights ended with 1936. Then, the Super Eight was redesigned, again, for 1939, but Langworth goes on to state that they may have been too close to the Juniors. All that seems to explain why the Super Eights are covered Twelves, starting in 1937, but then covered with the 1935-41 Juniors, starting in 1939, and 1942 non-Clippers.

Yet, just as I began to think that this was gonna bring us back to following the parts books, I had an idea. As compelling as it is to cover all Twelves as a single group,
what if we treated 1932-36 Eights (except for the 120) and 1932-36 Twelves as "1932-36 Seniors" and all 1937-39 Twelves and 1937-38 Super Eights as "1937-39 Seniors"?

Meanwhile, though designated as Ninth Series, Langworth indicates that the Light Eight (900) was wrought from 6th-8th Series Eights. So perhaps the Light Eight can be covered with Eights, as Owen_Dyneto previously suggested, but with the earlier Eights,

Taking all that into account, together with your support for separate coverage of the 1939-42 Super Eights and JW's suggestion for separate coverage of the 1935-37 Juniors, consider the graphic, attached below.

Thoughts? Anyone?

Attach file:



jpg  (44.59 KB)
103_4dd9943dbc31e.jpg 945X400 px

Posted on: 2011/5/22 17:55
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#12
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Owen_Dyneto
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Seems a reasonable way to organize it. But as long as we started with the 1st series Eights, I suppose we should make a provision for the corresponding Sixes? I don't really see why you couldn't include the Single Sixes along with the Single Eights. Then you'd have everything back to the end of the Twin Six era.

Posted on: 2011/5/22 19:17
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#13
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Ozstatman
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Quote:
BH wrote:......Unfortunately, there are some key parts books that we don't have in our collection, and our Service letter coverage starts to fall off, again, prior to 1938, which might help complete the picture......
Brian,

Delivered this morning to my front door is a purchase off Aussie eBay of Packard Service Letters 14th - 20th Series. It's first page states "This book contains important mechanical information previously published in Service Letters. It is arranged in alphabetical groups for quick reference." Might help to fill in some of the missing links you noted above. My record in the past hasn't been good when it comes to scanned content because I've yet to forward to BigKev the previous Packard book I scanned. Have to get tech support, aka #1 son, over to ensure this and the previous scan are forwarded without much further delay.

Attach file:



jpg  (22.14 KB)
226_4dda14c9ddebe.jpg 384X512 px

jpg  (20.53 KB)
226_4dda14dac90a3.jpg 384X512 px

Posted on: 2011/5/23 3:04
Mal
/o[]o\
====

Bowral, Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia
"Out of chaos comes order" - Nietzsche.

1938 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD

1941 One-Twenty Club Coupe - SOLD

1948 Super Eight Limo, chassis RHD - SOLD

1950 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD

What's this?
Put your Packard in the Packard Vehicle Registry!
Here's how!
Any questions - PM or email me at ozstatman@gmail.com
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#14
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Owen_Dyneto
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Hi Mal, if that 14th-20th series service volume is done in the same manner as the same source's 7th-12th series version, I found it a very disappointing publication. It isn't a reprint of the original service letters at all, but rather material cut and snipped from them and then jumbled into categories where you can loose context and often can not easily determine what series and model the material was pertaining to. It was a laudable idea to try to organize material over several years into a single volume, but to my view it would have been much better to just reprint the service letters as they were. Still, it's a source of information.

Posted on: 2011/5/23 8:36
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#15
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BH
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Owen -

Thanks for the feedback and additional input.

WRT coverage back to the 1st Series, initially, I had only been looking back to 1930 and merely included the 1930-32 Eights per the parts book.

Meanwhile, Kev had proposed that anything prior to 1928 be treated as a single group - perhaps because the Service Letters series had only been launched in 1927. Also, while single-topic Technical Letters predate and overlap publication of that newsletter, we don't have a significant collection of those to examine.

However, when I found that Langworth connected the Light Eight to the 6th-8th Series Eights (1929-31), I decided to extended that one grouping back to 1924, mirroring his Buyer's Guide coverage.

Of course, nothing is etched in stone at this point . Heck, I'm still waffling about whether to have both 1935-1937 Juniors (120->115C) and another for 1938-1942 Juniors (16th->20th) or just one 1935-1942 Juniors (120/115C->20th). With no Service Letters for 1935 (yet), we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

So, I can certainly fold the "corresponding Sixes" in, though they date back a few years earlier, and call it "1920-1931 Six/Eight (1st->8th) and 1932 Light Eight (900)". Though that title is a bit long, we can revisit the wording later

In time, perhaps we can make room for additional groupings for earlier years as the picture becomes more clear. However, that's contingent upon receipt of material for that period - including Technical Latters.

Posted on: 2011/5/23 9:52
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#16
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BH
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Mal -

Thanks for thinking of us.

The inside page of that book reveals this to be Packard's Reference Book of Mechnical Information, I've found mentioned in some of the Service Letters of the period.

It seems that, rather than publishing a mere topical index, Packard decided to cut-n-paste articles from the Service Letter series into a categorical layout - setn oput in loose-leaf format to be inserted in a three-ring binder. I suspect that program was initiated at a time when a full-boided shop manual had yet to be developed.

I don't know whether Packard reprinted the Reference Book in a soft-cover format, but I wonder if what you have is a mor modern reprint - like so many shop manuals and parts book. If you take a look at the PACKARD LITERATURE REPRINTS page from Kanter's website, you'll find a section with:

FACTORY SERVICE LETTERS

Compilations of Important Packard Service Letters

1930-1935 $37

1936-1942 $53

As such, I'm not sure that Kev would want to scan and post someone else's work, which is still available for sale - even though it is merely a derivative reprint.

Posted on: 2011/5/23 10:20
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#17
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Owen_Dyneto
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BH, if indeed you do go back to 1924, you could include the 1st Series Single Six with the later Single Sixes as the most significant change between the two was the adoption of 4-wheel brakes in the 2nd Series.

In this era before shop manuals and the like became common, much of the mechanical maintenance information was included in the owner's manual - for the benefit of the chauffeur no doubt. In some cases they have very detailed information on servicing. Dealer's mechanics were often trained in Packard-run schools (as were chauffeurs) and supplemented by "hands on" training in the shop, hence the manuals weren't considered all that necessary. If you could afford a Packard and the chauffeur couldn't do it, you took it to a dealer or factory branch - God forbid the owner should ever think of getting dirt under his fingernails.

Posted on: 2011/5/23 10:35
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#18
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BH
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Owen -

I believe the intent of our online Service Index project is to go back as far in time as the available resources permit. With the addition of sufficient Technical Letters, we could go back all the way to 1920 for the 1st Series Six in that one category.

To digress for a moment, the 1920s clearly provide the best example of the notion that Packard's Series classification was independent of calendar/model year. The first 1st Series SIX was produced in 1920, but the first 1st Series EIGHT didn't come along until 1924. However, the significance of Series designations began to fall by the wayside after WWII.

As a postwar (and primarily V8) guy, perhaps I take the scope of the factory shop manuals of that period for granted. Thanks for the explanataion of Packard's evolution of the shop manual; it affirms the picture that was beginning to coalesce in my mind. I'll watch out for that as I add Recommended Literature links to the prewar Model Info pages.

BTW, in your previous reply to Mal, WRT to that Reference Book, you wrote:

Quote:
...you can loose context and often can not easily determine what series and model the material was pertaining to

Heck, I find that to be the case even WITHIN the context of some of the original Service Letters/Counselors - LOL! One objective of our online Service Index is to help clear that up. Alas, while I've been able to backtrack cited part numbers, that's becoming more difficult as we are still missing some editions of the parts books from the immediate prewar period.

Posted on: 2011/5/23 11:24
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#19
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Ozstatman
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Quote:
Owen_Dyneto wrote: Hi Mal, if that 14th-20th series service volume is done in the same manner as the same source's 7th-12th series version, I found it a very disappointing publication. It isn't a reprint of the original service letters at all, but rather material cut and snipped from them and then jumbled into categories where you can loose context and often can not easily determine what series and model the material was pertaining to. It was a laudable idea to try to organize material over several years into a single volume, but to my view it would have been much better to just reprint the service letters as they were. Still, it's a source of information.


Quote:
BH wrote:.....The inside page of that book reveals this to be Packard's Reference Book of Mechanical Information, I've found mentioned in some of the Service Letters of the period.

It seems that, rather than publishing a mere topical index, Packard decided to cut-n-paste articles from the Service Letter series into a categorical layout - set out in loose-leaf format to be inserted in a three-ring binder. I suspect that program was initiated at a time when a full-bodied shop manual had yet to be developed.

I don't know whether Packard reprinted the Reference Book in a soft-cover format, but I wonder if what you have is a more modern reprint - like so many shop manuals and parts book. If you take a look at the PACKARD LITERATURE REPRINTS page from Kanter's website, you'll find a section with:

FACTORY SERVICE LETTERS
Compilations of Important Packard Service Letters
1930-1935 $37
1936-1942 $53

As such, I'm not sure that Kev would want to scan and post someone else's work, which is still available for sale - even though it is merely a derivative reprint.


I've lightly perused the Service Letters, a wealth of information there. It is loose-leaf with 3 brass, split-pin type, fasteners and over 360 pages. I don't think it's a reprint as there are no markings to indicate such. Has a booksellers sticker on the inside of the front cover which has a 7 digit, excluding the area code, telephone number. Seven digit telephone numbers were converted to eight digits in the mid 90's here in Oz. Were Kanters re-printing these before that? If so, were they still using a 3 post binding or used a more modern glued binding? Fred, over to you! Don't want to be accused of stealing copyrighted material. But, by the same token, I'm also very interested to know whether Kanters and others need/have to gain permission before they re-print the plethora of Packard manuals and such now available. Or do they re-print them because they are in the public domain?

Irrespective, my son is coming this evening to coach me through the scanning process, again!

Attach file:



jpg  (25.88 KB)
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jpg  (19.46 KB)
226_4ddb5063a2e88.jpg 640X480 px

Posted on: 2011/5/24 1:30
Mal
/o[]o\
====

Bowral, Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia
"Out of chaos comes order" - Nietzsche.

1938 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD

1941 One-Twenty Club Coupe - SOLD

1948 Super Eight Limo, chassis RHD - SOLD

1950 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD

What's this?
Put your Packard in the Packard Vehicle Registry!
Here's how!
Any questions - PM or email me at ozstatman@gmail.com
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Re: Pre War Service Index Groupings
#20
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BDeB
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Mal,
Have a look at the back of the last page in your copy (page 6 of wheels and tires) if it says printed by Small World Press it is a reprint.
Packard did publish this originally but on fairly heavy paper that has a light tan color as opposed to the white of the reprint.

Posted on: 2011/5/24 1:57
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