I'm New and I Have Questions - Hoping You Can Help

[jerryacheson]

Hello. My name is Jerry Acheson. I usually hang out in the Buick forums. I personally own a 57 Chevy pickup, 59 Impala and 62 Electra ragtop. I have a neighbor that has shown interest in classic cars for a number of years and he just bought a 41 Packard Business Coupe 110 with 6 cylinder. It's nice. He just got it from California; maybe you know the car. It seems like a pretty good car to restore. He's going to enjoy it and upgrade as he does. He's new to these old classics so he's getting some help from friends. I don't mind. I'm happy to help bring someone new into the hobby. I don't know anything about Packards but I'd like to help. He's got some small manuals but they aren't very detailed when it comes to instructions.

Here's our current issue. We changed plugs, points, condensor and plug wires this weekend. I wanted to time it but I didn't know how to deal with the vacuum advance. The manual wasn't much help to me. Are there more detailed manuals available? If so, where can he get them? I'd like to see him get a dealer shop manual and a factory assembly manual (these sure help me on my projects.)

Our immediate need is for instructions on how to time the car. I don't know how to handle the vacuum advance during timing. I also can't find instructions on setting the vacuum advance. I can tell it's working because I can see the timing mark move when we accelerate with the timing light installed. Where can we get this help?

Thanks for you help.

Jerry

[Jack_Vines]

Hi, Jerry,

Are you sure you it is not the centrifugal advance causing the the timing mark move when you rev the engine? Vacuum advance is mostly a cruise mode function. To differentiate, if the vacuum advance is operative at idle, the timing will briefly retard when the throttle is opened and vacuum drops. If it is the centrifugal advance, timing will advance if the throttle is quickly opens and the engine revs up.

thnx, jv.

[jerryacheson]

Must be centrifugal. Do I need to do anything to either advance to time this car?

[Guest bkazmer]

the 41 factory "manuals" are particularly bad (there are 110-120 and 160-180 versions), really just expanded owner's manuals. I suggest getting a period manual from another year Packard or publisher as a complement to the factory item. Someone more familiar with the sixes can chime in here, but I don't think the design changed a lot in the 11 years it was used

[Guest JT]

To set the timing it is not necessary to disconnect the vacuum line nor will you see any effect from the auto advance as long as you are below 500 rpm.