- Home
- About Us
- Join/Renew
- Member Benefits
- Member Pages
- Log In
- Help
- Museum Store
Great, glad to hear it. Enjoy!
This is the linkage for the hand throttle to fix an increased rpm without the foot pedal. It is operated from the RH lever on the steering wheel hub. I am familiar with the later model Pierce that used a push-pull wire in a flexible tube rather than this bell crank mechanism, but basically with the hand throttle lever in the disengaged position (down) the rod coming up from the bottom of the steering column should just slide up and down the ring of the bellcrank arm without engaging at all regardless of the foot pedal position. The clamp with set screw engages when the hand throttle is set. It’s position should be adjusted so it doesn’t quite engage the ring with the hand throttle lever on the steering wheel in the closed position and the throttle lever on the carburetor is sitting on the minimum idle stop (no choke fully warmed up).
The bellcrank arm is swinging with the foot pedal motion and is apparently scraping against the shiny bit that appears to be a clip (?) Holding the oil filler cap closed? Something is wrong with that, there should be no interference with the bellcrank motion as the foot accelerator pedal is operated.
I had L&l do mine a couple years ago. The owner took over his Dad’s business and it is a side gig with his tools and shop an hour away in another town. I think I managed to contact him through his Facebook page or the email listed. His price was very reasonable, the biggest expense was shipping which was hands down least expensive via USPS. It was many months without any communication after ordering and paying, when out of the blue they showed up one day in a 9 ft long PVC pipe.
Good luck!
I would recommend double checking the springs that are part of the front left spring hanger assembly located inside the frame. They are part of the system to reduce shimmy tendencies. On my 35 mine was broken due to corrosion and I replaced it.
That system gave some give to the otherwise fixed front spring hanger bearing position. Going over bumps with the earlier fixed hanger puts an input into the steering angle when the springs flex up and down because the axle moves in a very slight arc and that does not match the arc of the steering arm attached to it. Shimmy became a problem as the tires in the 20’s moved toward “balloon” lower pressure wider tires.
The “fix” as described in Packard lore was the observation that a particular 1928 car that was much less prone to shimmy on the proving grounds was found to have a loose shackle on the steering side. Packard studied the geometry and developed the spring loaded “kick” shackle that replaced the fixed hanger on the front springs rear hanger. Packard placed the fixed hangers on the rear and the swinging shackle on the front, opposite of Pierce. Mounting the hanger/kick shackle on the rear instead of the front gets a better match to the fore and aft movement of the axle with the steering arm as the axle moves up and down with bumps, but puts an input into the steering making the car want to turn when applying brakes. Packard compensated for this by making the left and right front brakes have different braking force and slightly different brake shoe lining widths. Jesse Vincent published an interesting (to me) SAE report on the development.
I have wondered whether Pierce adopting a kick shackle on the front instead of the back was to avoid the different braking force issue, or to avoid Packards patents.
Generally GL5 gear oil has been considered too aggressive with its EP additives for older synchromesh manual transmissions with yellow metal, and GL4 has been the recommendation. The GL5 extreme pressure additives adhere to the brass so strongly that it can tear microscopic bits of metal off leading to a kind of stress corrosion. Recently however some GL5’s have been modified and are now considered safe for yellow metal manual transmissions. Specifically Redline NS 85-140 is actually recommended for early synchromesh and I found it does improve the shifting. Except for that I would stick with GL4 140 weight.
140 weight GL4 should be hunky dory for hypoid rear ends.
Worm gear rear ends – I claim no knowledge! Changing gear oil always ends up being a messy smelly job! I get super cheap plastic oil transfer pump kits from Harbor Freight ($12?) and throw them away after because of the hopeless smelly slime all over them.
You can get super thick steering gear lube from Restoration Specialties.
Nice setup from a practical standpoint for a car that is driven!
I should clarify that I think the Packard filter I took apart was an L8 and the Pierce is an L4, if I remember right. I don’t know what the difference is, maybe someone on the forum knows. I probably just added to the confusion.
On my Pierce I kept the original bits so it could be returned to original in the future. My oil cooler core leaked so I bypassed it. I think the main purpose of it was to reduce the swings in viscosity with temperature to help the hydraulic tappets, so I assume multi vis oil solves that issue without it.
My Packard had the same leaking oil cooler core problem but I had found a later 1938 flat plate design that has been trouble free. I had put peak temperature templaques on the cooler inlet and outlet pipes and after a hot 90+ summer I-5 drive at 65 mph they showed no difference in peak temperature, meaning the cooler was not doing much. Caveat however is I had a very tall rear end gear slowing the engine rpm down which is a big driver on oil temp.
The original SAE report by the Harrison engineer on the cooler function calls it a temperature regulator, not a cooler, as it’s role was also to warm the oil up quicker in cold temperatures. The straight weight oils could get so thick in the cold that they wouldn’t flow into the oil pump. The P-38 had that problem at the frigid temperatures of high altitude early in the war, the oil temp regulator doors wouldn’t react fast enough to reduced power and the oil would congeal in the oil cooler leading to engine failure. How’s that for trivia going off topic?
Sorry for not seeing this earlier. I don’t think there is a bypass in the original filter, at least I didnt see one in my ’36 Packard original. I did the conversion to hide a PH8A filter on my Packard years ago but didnt on my Pierce because changing the filter with the conversion was such a messy, iffy deal to get everything aligned and sealed again. Because of that I didn’t change the filter as often as I should have. The original filter is a copper tube spiral wrapped with a filtering cloth with less surface area than the more compact pleated PH8A if I remember correctly, PH8A’s do have an internal bypass. It was so common that at one point my Packard, ’60’s Chryslers and little Alfa all used the same PH8A ( why I remember the number).
The oil pressure regulator is mounted on the oil pump.
On my 35 the freewheeling has the push pull handle, the “normal” position is all the way in and freewheeling, pulled out is what we would consider normal now, transmission always engaged. The freewheeling is kinda nice driving around town, less shifting, just have to remember to dump the clutch coming to a stop.
33-35 has the Stewart Warner power mechanical brake that Rolls also used. It is mounted on the back of the transmission activated by driveshaft torque via a wet clutch. 36-38 used a more conventional vacuum booster on the mechanical brakes to accommodate an overdrive.
Something to bear in mind is Pierce was still using babbitt connecting rod bearings which are prone to failure, particularly in later year rebuilds. Modification to more modern steel backed inserts generally a good idea if you are planning to do long distance driving.
I see crazy numbers for rebuilding any big prewar engine, 8 or twelve.
Randy, yes the fitting that screws into the oil gallery adjacent to the water pump driveshaft is the oil filter bypass regulator in case the oil filter is clogged.
Greg, great to see you back here!
The K-S sending unit has always given me mental fits, even back when my brain worked better. A seemingly simple fluid statics problem, At any rate, I drilled a 1/16 hole at the top of the filler neck and put a tiny downspout on the outside to divert any splashing down the gap between the fender and filler neck.
I think that blows that theory. Seems like it must be for some sort of pressure or flow regulator.
Curious, my first thought was perhaps a solid tappet plunger to replace the hydraulic, but don’t know why there is a brass piece in the middle and doesn’t look like the locks if it is for adjustment. How many are there, 16?. Measurements of the two diameters might provide clues. The smaller would be .499 if intended to drop into the cam follower body.
Great looking car Randy!
Thinking of your horn questions on previous thread. I think the horns on my ’35 are different notes but I had trouble getting them to sound, a very delicate adjustment, When I did get them both to work awhile back they sounded kinda “tinny” so not sure they are 100% and representative of what they should be.
Thanks Dave for tracking pencool status down and Robert’s NAPA Kool suggestion.
I had very good results with the Grain It technologies guy but of course he is not in LA. He sells kits for DIY but also will do jobs himself. I originally had all my woodgrain done by a guy in Missouri using the Grain It system but when I discovered years later I had two LH rears Cislak found a RH but meanwhile I discovered the guy in Missouri had closed up shop. I had Grain It do the RH. He did a great job matching to what the other guy had done with excellent quality.
I didn’t have any issues with damage in shipping in any of the first or second rounds. The first round shipping everything (dash, and all window mouldings, etc) I adapted a large Home Depot flat screen TV shipping box.
Some lead or Redline sodium additive is a good idea to prevent valve seat recession of your prewar low compression engine if it is driven at highway speeds for significant periods. Probably not needed for more relaxed driving. This was an ongoing debate in the 90’s with a lot of misunderstanding with many Pierce-o-philes claiming Pierces were immune. I did some in depth technical research and published articles in CCCA and Packard Cormorant in the ’90’s. After it appeared Eric Rosenau and a few others contacted me saying some Pierces had bad valve recession after long highway trips. My updated PASB article going into this can be viewed on this site as PASB 2016-3.
I used to get jerry cans of 145 octane purple after the Reno Air races or 100LL to use as an additive to get a minimum .1 gram per gallon in the tank. 100LL had 2 grams/gallon TEL, low jead relative to 145 purple that had 4.6 grams/gallon. When leaded regular was being phased out in the ’80’s it was limited to .1 gram/gallon, the minimum to prevent valve seat recession without hardened seats. Switched to Redline sodium when it became dicey getting avgas at the airport.
I would drop the pan and remove the oil pump before trying to turn by hand, my 35 Eight was stuck and fortunately didn’t romp on it too hard as the hangup was actually a small bit of rust particle jammed in the oil pump gearing.
I tried SMS fabrics for my Pierce a couple years ago, and we went through this conversation then. I guess they are fine if you can afford to send your money upfront into a black hole for a year or two and hope eventually something shows up sans communication on status or schedule. Worse than trying to talk to someone at the IRS. I had picked the material off an available material sample card with no indication it wasn’t in stock. It would have been one thing if they had been upfront about the material not being in inventory before taking my money and would require some unknown months or years before they get around to making it. The first call I was able to finally get through to someone about why I hadn’t seen a tracking number was an excuse that they take three weeks to process an order. Waited 4 weeks and finally after multiple voice mail and email messages they finally told me they had to manufacture the material and it would be an unknown number of months. Looking at the litany of BBB complaints it seems many customers wait for years.
Maybe they have gotten their act together since, but anyone considering using them should go in prepared.
And yes, I have a 36 Packard which has been enjoyed for 35 reliable years on many trips including the first date with my wife. I tried to buy the Pierce I now own before I found the Packard but the owner changed his mind and decided not to sell it. 10 years later after I restored the Packard he was ready to sell and I spent ten years restoring the Pierce. I wasnt going to wait for a few more years to get upholstery. I guess I should be banned from PAS.
I put mine back together a couple years ago and think I remember how I did it. What problems are you having? I reinstalled the control arms onto the louvers of each side first with the special shoulder rivets, making unwieldy assemblies of each side. Of course important to get the control arms attached to the correct louver in the correct position to attach the actuation arms. The outer louvers of course step down in length. I used electrical tape across bottom and top of the louvers to keep them manageable and the pins in approximate position. I don’t recall for sure but I think I just put one screw loose on each side connecting the arm of the piece that has the upper pin sockets and mechanism to the side plate (connected to the lower “beard”. This let’s the upper piece move and rotate up a bit to give some clearance to drop the upper pins into their sockets. I put the taped louvers into the bottom sockets first then worked the upper pins in, all one by one and of course there is a lot of back and forth as pins drop out while monkeying around getting another pin in next to it.
Yes, a note to look for links under in the P&S directory would help. Also, in these cases a line in the P&S directory under “electrical” could help.
