petri
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Posts posted by petri
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The plane looks like a Beech 18 to me.
Congratulations on using your car for these long trips. I read the L-29 trip daily reports on the ACD website and loved them. This is what these cars are really good for, "motoring" along the back roads of America. By the way, what speed does the Auburn like to cruise at?
Howard Petri
1932 Packard 900 Coupe-Roadster.
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I just had this plate restored by Brian Mabry located in Tennessee. He did a perfect job as far as I can tell. Cost was $95. I'm very happy with it.
brian mabry [wbmabry@yahoo.com]
regards,
Howard Petri
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I bought a 1932 Packard that was last licensed in 1956 about 12 years ago. All I had was a 1956 MN registration. On the back of the registration was an area for signing over the ownership of the vehicle. It was signed by the last owner. I took this to my DMV, at that time Illinois, and they were of course "confused". They called Springfield and were told that MN didn't have titles before I think 1973 and that they could use the registration sign off I had. It worked and they issued me an IL title at that time. I have since moved to Indiana and transferred that title.
So I don't think there is any way you are going to find an original title for a pre 70's MN car. I imagine the procedures depicted by others here will work just fine.
Howard
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Furthermore the parts book numbers are almost the same but for the last digit. Perhaps the parts book has typos.
Howard
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Thanks Jeff, I sent you a pm to your Penn Dutch restore email address.
Howard
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Well it appears that even though there have been almost 100 hits on this question nobody seems to have any part number information on these side mount arms.
Attached are three pictures of one of the arms. Perhaps they can be identified better visually.
thanks,
Howard
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I have two 1932 Packard side mount arms I am trying to ID. They have part numbers:
194688
194689
From my Packard parts book the 903 and 904 side mount arms are:
194686
194687
They don't seem to be 901 or 902's or earlier and they are definitely not 900's. I own a 900.
Perhaps these arms are from a 905 or 906 Twin Six. The Twin Six is not listed in my parts book.
Does anyone have a Twin Six parts book that might help to definitely identify these parts?
There was also an Individual Custom Eight in 1932 that these might belong to.
Thanks for the help,
Howard
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Hi Landman,
You do live way up north, that would be a 24 hr drive from here in southern Indiana. You could vacation on Hudson bay if there were any roads to get you there.
I notice you have varnished your wood. That is what I did as well. Originally Packard painted the wood a dull light green but I just couldn't see doing that to the beautiful new ash on my '32. It's not visible anyway.
That ring gear has to be heated to expand it to get it off and back on the flywheel. It will take some pounding to do that. If it's much smaller than the original it may not go on easily. I guess the only thing to do is give it a try. You might make an accurate measurement of both diameters to compare them.
Too bad you have to go back to work to earn money to continue. I can't believe how expensive these restorations are even though we do most of the work ourselves.
I sure wish I had your welding skills. It's amazing how you were able to piece that body back together.
I would like to do a coupe like you are doing, something from the 35-40 era, more roadworthy and a non classic that wouldn't be so expensive to find parts for. I think the coupes have very nice lines. You're going to have a beautiful car .
I have caught up with your posts and can now read them in "real time".
Howard
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Hi Pat;
I've taken your advice and am starting to read your restoration blog as well as Bernie's.
I'm glad to hear someone else did their leaf springs the same way I did. I don't really have anybody to bounce ideas off of or to get solutions from. It seems like we're all located out in the boonies and far from the experts, wherever they may be. These restoration forums on the AACA site are fascinating, especially for someone that is doing this kind of work on an old car. I'm jotting down the other restorations you have mentioned and followed on this site and will read them as well.
I thought my '32 Packard was in terrible condition but your 34 Chevy is far worse. I really admire you taking up so challenging a restoration.
By the way, from license plates on the wall you seem to be located in Ontario. I visit London, Ont about once a year. Are you located anywhere near there?
regards,
Howard
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Hi Bernie;
Well that's very similar to what I did. I primed as you did but painted each leaf before assembly through color. I have since worried that I should have lubricated the leaves to avoid sqeaking but so far I don't think I have that problem.
My wire wheel was not agressive enough and it took a long time to do all of those leaves. I should have found a more agressive method as you did. I replaced all of the rubber in the suspension system, it was all very hard and brittle or broken. Thank goodness for Steele Rubber.
Howard
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Just one more pic. I don't wish to divert the main theme of this thread. The uniqueness of this model Packard is the grill. This car was called the Light Eight as well as the Shovelnose. This grill was used only on the Model 900 for the one year of production, 1932. You can see from this picture why it was called the Shovelnose.
Howard
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Thanks Ben. It's a 3 speed and it has synchro in 2nd and 3rd gear. In any case no double clutching is necessary.
Howard
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Hi Bernie et al;
I thought I would just go ahead and post a few before and after pics.
regards,
Howard
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Hi Bernie;
My name is Howard Petri and I just discovered this thread a week ago and have been happily reading all of the posts since the beginning and trying to catch up. I live in south western Indiana in Vincennes. Louisville, KY, is a two hour ride from here. I can't believe how much you have done in such a short time and how good your car now looks.
I have been restoring a 1932 Packard 900 Coupe-Roadster for the last 10 years now. It was in a sad state when I got it but mostly complete. When I look at your pictures I can see my car which looks similar in spite of the 9 year difference, ie, wood framing, springs, rear end, engine, mine is a straight 8 of course. I had to replace almost all of my wood, it wasn't even good for patterns.
The car is now back together and running and painted and it's at the upholsterer which will complete the restoration. I am not an upholsterer. I understand what it is like to work alone as that is how I work. I had the color coat put on by a professional paint shop, the chrome was done also by a professional and now the upholstery. The wood came from a man that does wood and had patterns for the 1001 which is the same. Otherwise I did everything else myself, engine disassembly and reassembly; it did go to a machine shop for new babbit and crank turning and boring. I have touched almost every nut and bolt as I can see you have.
One question, how did you clean up your leaf springs? I did mine on a wire wheel and it took a long time but I got them cleaned up well. I could have taken them to a stripper but I had done that with the body and it's expensive. So any way I can figure out how to do something myself I do. I painted them and reassembled them without any lubricant between the leaves. I was wondering if you used some sort of a lubricant on yours?
I can post a couple of pictues if there's any interest in a later Packard. Keep up the great work and soon you will be driving that Packard. I'll be following this thread daily now that I know it exists. Isn't the internet wonderful at bringing together people with similar interests but at disparate locations.
Howard
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Hi Jeff;
Thanks for the proper designation AGU 20. This makes it easy to find them elsewhere. I bought some of the fuses yesterday from NAPA and they fit perfectly. They are glass and the ones that came with the car, which was original and unrestored and sitting since 1956, were wrapped in paper and were probably cardboard with brass ends. I think they were made by Littlefuse. Of course those fuses may not have been original. I'm very happy to get this information and to now have the correct size fuses. There's a wealth of information on these forums.
Howard
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That's great. I'm off to buy some of those fuses today. The 900 needs 20 amp as I remember but I will check. Thanks for that very useful information.
Howard
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I have a similar fuse block on my '32 Packard 900 Light Eight which I have almost finished restoring. I studied this device, in fact I took it comletely apart to try and understand it. Rusty's operational description is the same conclusion I came to. It's meant to be a fall back "get home" operation. The car and lights continue to operate even if the fuses blow but the resistor limits the current in case of a short.
By the way, I found it difficult obtaining fuses of the same physical size to fit into that fuse block. They may be out there but I didn't work too hard at it. I used common glass fuses 3AG, etc and increased their diameter by cutting small annular rings from 1/4" copper tubing. The rings fit tightly over the metal caps on the ends of the glass fuses and then the fuses fit tightly into Packard's fuse block.
Howard Petri
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Thanks Owen-Dyneto for the prompt response. I have the Service Letters but hadn't thought of looking there for this information.
If I do the calculation at 50 mph and leave out the slippage correction, which was only a wild guess, I get 2443 rpm. That's getting pretty close.
I wonder if anybody out there has a tach on their car and has actually measured this? I know Art Wennerberg of Blue Island, IL had a tach on his 900 but I never thought of asking him this question and sadly he passed away last year.
In fact, the 19 vs 17 in tire is approximately a 12% change in circumference. Well, one would actually have to measure the actual different tire diameters but that's close I would think. This would make those Model 800 numbers come out in the 2450-2550 rpm range, very close to what I now get. I doubt a calculation is going to get any closer than that.
Howard
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I'm curious as to what the engine rpm is at a cruise speed of 55 mph is for my 1932 900 Light Eight. I would imagine all Packard straight eights from this era cruise at the same rpm.
I did a calculation using tire diameter, calculating tire circumference, rear end ratio of 4.36/1, high gear, 1/1, and a slippage/friction factor of 15%. I come up with something around 3,000 rpm at 55 mph.
I was a little surprised as I thought it would be a bit lower as these are long stroke, high torque, low rpm engines. Does anybody have an actual tachometer measurement of this parameter or know the answer to this question?
I know, but it's winter and inquiring minds want to know.
thanks,
Howard Petri
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Well here's the answer, take the two screws out of the escutcheon plate and the handle should pull out. Mine would not as it was stuck in the latch actuator. Neither Kroil nor tapping would free it from that part. I had to eventually cut it out of the latch and will now have to repair those cut parts. Even then in a vise It was very difficult to get the shaft out of the actuator piece. There didn't seem to be much rust in the hole (squarehole and square shaft) or on the shaft but apparently it was enough to make it very hard to remove. I cleaned it up on a wire wheel and did a little filing and it slides in and out of the actuator quite freely now.
Howard
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I am trying to remove the handle from my rumble seat lid on a 1932 Packard 900 Light Eight for rechroming. There are two screws that that can be removed from the front that attach the handle to the wood behind. But their removal does not free the handle. I have looked at the latch and the shaft and can find no other pins or keepers. There must be some trick but I don't see it. My door handles were very straight forward to remove; what's the problem wth the rumble seat? I imagine the same system was used on other Packards of that era.
Any help would be appreciated.
Howard
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I set the #1 cyl valves to a tight .004, probably .003 cold. Seems pretty tight to me.
Howard
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Thanks for the response Owen Dyneto.
I just rebuilt my engine and I was interested in these numbers because I tried to check the IO and ExC timing which is marked on the 32 Light Eight Damper. They were quite a bit off, 10 deg or more each. I gave this some thought and even measured and plotted a profile of the cam lift. Then I thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that very little cam wear goes a long way at the leading and trailing edge of the cam profile. In fact, I measured maybe .004" of wear on the lobe, not very much. But while .004" doesn't make much difference in max cam lift or time of occurence, .004" is at least 8-10 deg of angular rotation at the profile ends. The profile is rising so slowly in this region that it takes a lot of angular rotation to get any lift. And of course the cam is turning at half the crank speed.
I also found out that at least one cam regrinder who will put new lobes on your cam doesn't have the patterns for this cam. They will look at the profile, compare it to others that are similar, maybe a Ford or Chevy or Locomobile, whatever, and just reproduce that for you. I guess that gets a car up and running but it sure wouldn't get it back on the numbers.
In any case I understand my measurements and have concluded that a little wera is all that is necessary to quickly lose the valve overlap but it doesn't seem to effect the engine operation at all. I guess these old low rpm engines are pretty forgiving of these kinds of problems.
Howard
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Does anyone have any camshaft infiormation on this engine? I presume it's not much different than any other year this engine was used. I would like to know max cam lift and a cam lobe profile if one is available. This cam is supposed operate Inlet Open at 20 deg BTDC and Exhaust Closed at 20 deg ATDC. That's 40 deg of overlap. Has anyone measured this and or been able to set up their cam to these specs? Any experts know how wear effects these numbers?
thanks
Howard
driving 35 Auburn Speedster from MI to NM
in General Discussion
Posted
I too am very impressed with your "drive 'em don't hide 'em" attitude. That's what these cars are good for.
I would like think I can do the same thing with my '32 Packard but I just finished the restoration this year, after 10 years of effort, and I need to get some confidence in it's reliability. So far it seems to be ok but I haven't had much of a chance to get away with it yet. I notice you are VMCCA members as am I. Perhaps we will meet on the Amana Iowa tour this July. I doubt I will even get 12 mpg with the big straight eight but I will soon find out.
Keep up the "motoring" and thanks for the reports.
regards,
Howard Petri
1932 Packard 900 Coupe-Roadster