Moving Trip Odometer knob in a '35 Senior Car

[1935Packard]

This past winter I had a bunch of work done on my '35 Twelve, including getting the dash newly woodgrained. I gave the job of disassembling and reassembling the dash to the shop that was doing other work on the car.

When they reassembled the dash, however, the folks at the restoration shop did something weird: They erroneously placed the knobs for setting the trip odometer and the clock underneath the dash facing downward rather than at the bottom of the dash facing the driver. The row of dashes and knobs on the bottom of the dash, from left to right, is supposed to go 1) trip odometer; 2) starter button; 3) ignition key in the center; 4) cigar lighter; 4) clock adjuster. Instead, mine went empty hole; starter button; ignition key; cigar lighter; empty hole! I noticed that the knobs were missing when I went to pick up the car, but (for a bunch of reasons not of interest to you all) I didn't ask them to fix it then.

When I got home, I was able to easily unscrew the right knob of the clock adjuster from the housing and pull it out so I could move it to the correct place. So that's back in the right place. However, I can't seem to figure out how to remove the left knob, the trip odometer. A photo of the dash is attached below. The hole is where the knob should be, and the knob is below the dash to the right of the starter button.

So here's the question: How do I remove the knob and put it in the right place?

I called the shop owner to ask him this, but much to my disappointment he just tried to convince me that the knobs were supposed to be placed downward! (Indeed, he insisted that he had never seen knobs like that facing outward. When I responded that I had seen dozens of pictures of '35 interiors with the dashes facing out, including factory original photos, my original owners manual, Pebble Beach restorations, and the car I had brought it in to him, he just repeated that he had never seen that before and that he was pretty sure the knobs should face downward. Yeesh.)

Eventually the shop owner suggested that if I wanted to move the knob, there must be some sort of housing that unscrews, either at the knob or going into the odometer housing. But the cable connection to the odometer seems pretty fixed, and I haven't had any luck at the knob itself: It's easy to loosen the nut that affixes the knob to the whole, but there are nuts on both sides of the whole so you can't pull anything through to remove it. Any ideas?

Edited November 30, 2009 by 1935Packard (see edit history)

[K8096]

Ok, here is a photo of an all original 1937 Twelve dash. Allow me to point out a few things. First, the chrome knob on the far left right next to the steering column is wrong. Someone added the knob & cable to operate the radiator shutters manually (probably back in the 1940's or 50's). The items going across the bottom then are as follows: Headlights, starter, key, cig lighter, hand throttle. Notice that both the clock adjuster & the trip mileage adjuster are hanging under the dash. Now, your car being a 1935, I believe would have the headlights & throttle on the center of the steering wheel. Is that correct? However, I believe your clock & speedometer are the same as a 1937 & would have the adjustments hanging down under like mine.

Edited December 5, 2009 by K8096 (see edit history)

[1935Packard]

Thanks for the response, K8096. I have attached the relevant page from the 1935 Twelve Owner's Manual, which shows that the configuration was different in 1935. I have also attached a picture of a recently restored 1935 1207 that shows the same configuration as the owner's manual and the same configuration that has always been on my car.

I gather that they moved the headlights and throttle from the steering wheel in the 1935s to the dash in the 1937s, where the clock and speedometer had been, and then at the same time they moved the clock and speedometer to the position facing downwards. So those knobs would be outward facing in the 1935s but downward facing in the 1937s. (So I guess that explains why my shop did it that way; perhaps they had worked on a 1937 before, and they incorrectly assumed it was the same treatment in 1935.)

Assuming the knobs are the same, though, any idea how you would remove the odometer cable if you needed to do so? That's the part that has me stumped.

Edited December 5, 2009 by 1935Packard (see edit history)