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Bill, the distributor faceplate on my 845 faces forward. I believe your ’33 has the same 662J distributor. Here is a picture of my cap with the wires. I did this by pulling the wires in the tube so you might double check that this matches the firing order.

On mine I didn’t realize that there seemed to be only one combination of the distributor/gear pump mesh that would allow the distributor to face forward and allow the wires to come out in the proper direction. The distributor drive key is slightly offset if I remember correctly so it isn’t just a matter of turning the distributor rotor 180. I ended up having to drop the pan and remove the oil pump and find by trial and error a mesh that would work between the cam and distributor/oil pump drive gears. There is probably a smarter way to do it.

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Looks great, a big milestone, congrats! A huge amount of work to get to this point. I am hoping to get there in a few months myself.

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I only have experience with the late ’35 version. Can Greg or somebody confirm the tappet is original? The shiny band at the bottom looks suspicious to me and the spring gauge gives me the impression that it might be  stiffer than the springs on my ’35 (mounted externally like ’36). Wondering if this may have been modified from original to try and fix a problem?

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Are you sure they are defective?

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Looks like the original ’33 to mid ’35 due to the spring being down in the follower rather than above. Not interchangeable with Cadillac.

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Bill, I work cheap but the number of manhours is a killer. I think others do it in a day, it took me four or five.

Dave, there is a long string on the message board a couple years back about the “correct” pattern that can be found doing a key word search. Apparently Eric Hartz did a special run that matched somebody’s sample and needs a call directly to Eric to obtain. I think others have done that and might respond here.

The whole discussion left me wondering whether there really was ever any one pattern used consistently. I have no intention of ever having my car judged, and my goal has never been to do a slavish recreation of the car when it left the factory. I lean a bit towards function over form (no it doesn’t have a 350 Chevy).

Looking at the pictures I took of Paul Johnson’s original ’35 (thanks Paul) it appeared the grain on his car is more subdued than the  usual cobra long grain I used on my Packard decades ago. Colonial grain is more subtle and looked like a better match so that is what I used. I bought it from Mac’s.

 

 

 

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David, this is a big help and answers the question, thanks!

Jim

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I put the valves in before the tappets and blocks, it is a pain compressing the valves and getting the keepers in, harder if the tappets are in the way. The cam can be rotated to a no lift position for all 4 valves of each block. The blocks with tappets can be removed with the engine assembled, but a bit tricky to keep the followers from dropping out as you do it. I am already forgetting, but I think when assembling the blocks I angled the blocks in so the cam would keep them from falling out, then the tappet plungers could be depressed enough to roll the blocks into position. You might have to pull them in and out again if the allowed tappet clearance isn’t within spec – it is a very wide allowance though since they are hydraulic.

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I don’t know if this helps for a door lock, this is from my trunk lock cylinder. The trick is to get the cylinder in the right position and insert a pin to depress the keeper key to pull out the cylinder. I fiddled with this for about an hour before I took it to a local  locksmith. He fiddled with it for about 5 minutes and charged me $5.

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I believe a gentleman had one installed on a huge ’36 Packard V12 7 passenger, but don’t know the detail.

My first worry is how absolutely fool proof and safe is the system. Can you realistically still steer and maintain control with any plausible system failure which includes simple override from electric failure to the more serious issue of a sudden uncommanded turn input.

This is similar to the scenario of the 737 Max pitchdown issue, and in aircraft world one of the most difficult problems to deal with.

I would want to understand the system better and see how this is addressed. Electronics have lots of gremlin potential. A friend of mine got rid of his modern car with steer by wire (all electric/electronic) steering because it gave him some brief uncommanded twitches on a 50 mph road.

Jim

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For what it is worth, I measured my 1935 845 original spring having a free length of 2.12″, OD .407″, wire .0615″ dia. I don’t know if it is the same for 1931, but you could check yours. The same spring was used 1933-’35 at least, part number 703795.

If it seems to be the same, I bought a pack of the closest facsimile  I could find and have extras if you need one.

Hopefully someone will chime in with info on the ’31. 

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Bill, PASB 84-1 says the squirt hole should be on the right side of the engine when viewed from behind.

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Bill, I don’t have any pictures that show mine – not that it is right anyway. If I recall the rod has a squirt hole for cylinder lubrication on each and it is symmetrical. If so it shouldn’t matter the orientation of the rod as long as the skirt slot is on the correct side, that should be noted in the PASB’s.

 

 

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A huge sight, shows several more seventies and eighties movies the Tom Sparks 845 was in that I haven’t seen.

 

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Looks like a very clean fender to work with, nice!

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Bill, I like to get inside bevel rings for the top compression instead of plain for better oil control. I had a hard time finding 3.5″ 1/8 with chrome face for mine, but finally found them at Grants. I was able to order them individually instead of a set. Taper face are easier to find, and are usually considered better oil control than plain. My Packard has chrome taper face with 30000 miles.

I have used the type 70 scrapers for 2 and 3 as per original and 3 segment chrome face oil control.

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I just have one side in pretty rough shape.

Jim

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My block didn’t have rust issues and to flush the galleries I bought a 12v high volume/high pressure fuel pump and filter and attached a long tube to pump kerosene. I had the oil pan underneath the block to catch and recycle the kerosene. I smelled pretty bad that day.

McMaster should have the LH tap and bolts.

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Good thing you checked! Does that mean they cut the crank down .040?

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There are small springs that control the two centrifugal flyweights under the plate that holds the points. Substituting weaker springs will provide more advance with rpm. If everything else is up to snuff the difference shouldn’t be too noticeable, a very slight increase in power and wouldn’t correct a miss, unless one of the springs is broken or missing.

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