Owen_Dyneto

I'm sure your problems are unrelated to the change in oil type. It should be really easy to determine if you're leaking it or burning it - a 70 miles per quart if you were burning it you'd have a blue could behind you for miles! Suggest you park the car with some clean paper or newsprint under the motor and leave it run for a hour so so. Any leak of that size should leave a huge puddle and should be very easy to track back.

Can anyone identify this instrument panel as to make and year(s)? The speedo is Stewart-Warner. Thanks.

Depending on how the coil mounted, you may have some issues to overcome with respect to brackets, ignition switch interlock (if so equipped) but you could go to NAPA and get a brand new universal 6-volt coil and it should perform just fine.

I elieve Packard called that body style a "Coupe for 5 passengers", not a coupe victoria (though generically that's an apt description).

Though it's a semi-precious metal and thus not inexpensive, plating with Rhodium has been touted as having the same color/reflective properties as silver and has the added advantage of of being resistant to tarnishing.

When converting to Silicone brake fluid, you really should replace ALL the rubber components, specifically including the flexible rubber brake lines, wheel cylinder and master cylinder cups. And everything should be thoroughly flushed with something like isopropyl alcohol and then blown dry with oil-free compressed air. Doing any less is begging for problems down the road.

Modern wheel bearing greases are designed for the higher temperature environments of disc brake cars and are far superior to the old-time wheel bearing greases. As to compatibility, they are probably completely compatible but you'd be better served to clean the old bearings (with kersone, NOT gasoline), and repack them. This would also give you the opportunity to inspect the bearings and races. I wouldn't be concerned about incompatibility with chassis greases, but would recommend that you use a recognizeable name-brand like Valvoline, Mobil, etc.

If I remember correctly, some left over 1931 Packards were refitted at the factory with 1932 radiator shells etc. to enhance their saleability as left-overs. I believe this is fairly well-documented.

If the coil from a 32 Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge will interchange, I have a friend with a NORS one.

I still have some of the old "heavy fibre wheel bearing grease" but the only place I use it today is in ball & trunnion universal joints. I think today's premium wheel bearing greases are probably far superior to the older products.

You can do an adequately accurate job of timing the ignition without a timing light, just as it was done in the years before timing lights became common. Rotate the engine in it's proper direction of rotation until piston #1 is coming up on the compression stroke (check with the plug out and your finger over the spark plug hole). Stop the rotation at the correct timing mark (if you overshoot, don't back up, go around again). Then just put a test light across the points and adjust the distributor rotation until the points are just breaking. You'll be within a degree or two.

If your transmission has any yellow metal parts, best to stay away from any of the EP gear oils. You can still buy SAE 140 gear oil (mineral oil + defoamer) as GL-1 gear oil. Readily available though you'll probably have to order it and it will probably only come in a 5 gallon pail.

As a 40+ year member of CCCA, I too wrote to Al Kroemer and the CCCA board though I dwelled more on my displeasure over the T&C ruling, and the method by which it was reached. I did receive a long and thoughtfully composed reply from Kroemer which I appreciated; the short replies from some other board members were far less complimentary. I debated with myself long and hard about whether to renew my membership which I untimately did with great reluctance. I doubt CCCA gained more members from the T&C ruling than they lost over it. Not that I don't appreciate their problem with dwindling membership and think Frank Wemple has hit the problem square on the head.

On the 35 senior, you need to disconnect the headlight switch at the bottom of the column, remove the throttle sector and gear linkage, loosen the packing gland on the gear box that retains the gear oil, and then slide all 3 tubes up in column until you can get at the back of the horn button retainer.

Tar

My 34 Packard has a fairly large battery box under the seat and I use NAPA's largest 6-volt commercial battery, #7212; these are about 1300 CCA and last about 8-10 years.

Regarding the clutch and brake cross-over linkage in RHD Packards, here's a good photo showing how it was done in 1934. Original photo courtesy of Wade's Garage, Australia.

It's best value may well be for a static display engine. There are some horror stories of folks using very old NOS filters only to find the paper element had deteriorated or weakened over time and the first surge of oil turned it into mush that filled and plugged some of the oil galleries, with the expected result.

Senior series Packards as late as 1936 (last year of the I-beam front axle) had leaf springs with metal gaiters and received lubrication, I assume deliberately, via run-off from the Bijur drip plugs at the shackles.

It was a good many years after the first introduction of 6-volt sealed beams that they got the "teats".

Have you tried Egge?

I assume the tank has an internal pick-up tube. If the problem isn't floating debris as suggested above, perhaps the lower end of it has rusted away for become perforated.

The good rebuilders will repair or replace warped or otherwise bad castings. Perhaps the best in the business is Ficken Wiper Service. Properly repaired and with adequate vacuum, vacuum wipers are more than competent.

The headliner on a Patrician was cotton. You can get generic headliner kits from many sources including Kanter Bros, Bill Hirsch, LeBaron-Bonney, etc. The orginal trans fluid was Type A which is pretty much NLA. The closest current fluid is Type F which probably finds the most extensive use in Ultramatics. Yet some owners who were using Type F and experienced direct drive clutch "groan" switched to Dexron III and claimed the problem went away. Likewise others who were using Dexron III and had clutch groan went to Type F and claimed it went away. Others seeem to like B&M's Trick-Shift.

Never head of a car refusing to idle because of a leaking vacuum advance diaphragm. Normally the symptom is balking on sudden acceleration. Perhaps you have yet another problem?