More Things to Make Your Life Easier

More Things to M= ake Your Life Easier

By George Hamlin=

Those little crimp connectors, they certainly simplify things; just strip the wire, squeeze the connector onto it, and you're done. Well, life ain't that easy, Sparky. To begin wi= th, these connectors will almost certainly attract authenticity deductions. And if you don't care about that= , we suggest outlawing their use on your car anyway - we have, some time back. The vibration attendi= ng automobile use will, over a few years, shak= e some of these wires loose from that type of connector and result in short= s, erratic operation, maybe even a nice bonfire. The only way we'll use these things in an automobile= is to go ahead and crimp them on, then solder the final assembly. And that goes for ordinary splices, too; don't just wrap t= hem tight, solder them. Ooh, and while we're on this topic, heat-shrink tubing is ever so much better and more reliable for insulating automobile splices than electrical tape. That stuff cracks when i= t's cold, emits goo when it's hot, = and can come right off over time.

You don't have to put up with grossly inaccurate speedometers/odometers. = Sometimes changing teeth on the pinion just won't get it and more drastic action is required if you've, say, changed = the differential ratio. You can get inline ratio adapters from several sources; we've used APT in Minnesota<= span style=3D'letter-spacing:-.15pt'> (952 881 7095) and corrected misreadings a= s far off as 20%. Theirs costs $125 at this wr= iting. You just need to decide if it's= worth that money to avoid seeing 50 w= hen you're going 60, or having to do high math to discover how far you've really gone. You'll need to decide what correction ratio you want, and whether the speedometer reading or the odometer reading is the one you want to have perfect (often, you can't have both; some speedometers are just that way). Warning:= the design of some transmissions is such t= hat a ratio adapter can be installed onto the speedo-cable output, then the cable end is affixed to the adapter. Packar= d transmissions don't have that design (that = would be too easy). The shop will need= you to send them your cable so they= can cut it and put the adapter mid-cable.

You can designate any point along the cab= le to minimize the visibility of it but = if that's an important inhibitor in your = case, these things might not work out = for you. This topic has been in Packard service literature, but it's wor= th repeating because some folks haven't heard it.

Above left: pre-war (1942 = only) cap with heavy, protruding
upper edge li= p. Above right: post-war cap (1946 thru 1954) with
creased & angled upper edge

Above Left: recessed inne= r ring - Jr. 15” & Senior 16” (Limos &
Hearse / Ambulance). Above Right: inner ring is raised and
flush with the outer ring, Senior 15” only.

If you're using the big hub shell covers that Packard employed 1942-1950, know that they are of two designs internally= . Take the cover off and sight across the two circles (one outside, one inside). If you have a senior wheel, tho= se two circles need to be at the same level. In the junior-style wheel shell cover, the inner circle is sunken in a= bit. Using a senior cover on a junior wheel will result in a cover that <= span style=3D'letter-spacing:-.05pt'>sticks so far out that you can get your fin= gers behind it, though no harm will = result; use of a junior cover on a senior wheel will not permit the clips on the whe= el to seat fully, and your valuable co= ver can pop right off. Incidentally, the Henne= ys of this era use the junior-style cove= r on their 16- inch wheels (1948 through1954), isn't that odd.

We won't debate the pros and cons of radial tir= es on your Packard, but one thing is undeniably tr= ue: they do cause more wheel flex. Sometimes this causes the wheel cover to start walking around the rim, and it bends the rubber valve stem right o= ver; eventually the valve stem will= fail. Various folks have advised tape, cement, and even Velcro on the wheel, as well as bending out the wheel-co= ver tangs for a better grip and sharpening the nub retainers on the rim (one ei= ther side of the valve stem hole). The only = thing we've found that works every time is a metal valve stem. No walking wheel <= /span>cover can bend one of those suckers over, an= d the cover stops walking right there. You'll probably need an extender, because metal stems are short.

One of the queerest pieces of advice we've seen lately is a fad that has started turning up in hobby magazines: run the headlights for a minute before starting the car. It's supposed to warm the battery up. Good gookamooka, this one defies logic. What it WILL certainly do is drain your battery of some amp-hours that you're going to need when you crank the engine. And if a current draw really will warm the battery up, seems to us that cranking the engine should accomplish that nicely without wearing out the headlights.

If you've put a modern rad= io in your Packard - or any other car - you may be unpleasantly surprised to discover that disconnecting the battery even fo= r a moment, like to replace it, will cancel the= clock setting and all your station

presets. One way around this is being offered at several specialty houses: a th= ingy that plugs into your cigarette lighter and keeps voltage on everything while the battery is being changed= . Naturally you need an uncorroded lighter soc= ket for this to work, so that gives you something to work on. Incidentally, these modern radios have a par= asitic drain (in the milliamp range) on your battery all the time, day and night, just to keep the presets; so if y= ou don't use the car for months yo= u may wake up one day to a dead battery. You can avoid that by using the c= ar more frequently, or keeping a battery-= tender (low-amp trickle) charger on it.

The new silicone gasket ce= ments are one of the miracles of the age, but one place you definitely should not use the stuff is on gaskets that come into contact = with gasoline. The absolute worst place would thu= s be the gasket on the hole in the fuel tank where the sender assembly goes. Silicone sealer used here, e= ven in minute amounts, has a really good chance of turning up in the carbur= etor later on.

If your Packard star= ts hard when hot, it may be cue to fuel boili= ng in the carburetor. In such a case, consider the heat riser valve. This little device, in the exhaust system, was designed to promote faster warm-u= p by running the poor fuel of the day past a hot pipe. Particularly in the winter, this compensated for poor volatility. The valve opened once the car wa= rmed up and had no further function. But a valve in an environment of hot exhaust gases is in an unfriendly environment and will begin to corrode, bi= nd, and stick after a time. If you have ju= st the one Packard, we suppose that you could stay on top of the situation and keep it open by periodic penetrating-lube treatments and gentle tapping on the counterweight (much easier on you t= o do all this on a cold manifold). But the more cars you have, the easier it is to fall behind the problem. We have found= it easier just to let the thing stick OPEN or even, in the case of V8s, install a faulty valve with no flapper, and put up with longer warm-up times. End of maintenance (we're big on solutions that eliminate maintenance). Incidentally, there's a quick test on a V8 with dual exhausts: if steam etc. comes out of only one pipe when you first start, the valve is closed, as it should be then. If the gases are coming out of both= pipes after, say, 15 minutes, the thing is operating just fine. Otherwise, it's stuck in the wrong position. Conversely, if gases come out o= f both pipes all the time, the heat riser valve is stuck open; we'd opt for just leaving it that way and making sure= you drive far enough (30 minutes) to warm the engine properly.