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Another thought, if the ’32 had 15″ diameter drums instead of the 16″ on my ’35 you may be able to still get asbestos linings from Kanter.

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Several years back Bill Lyons chased down a supplier of brake linings with a lot of good info on what type of lining is a reasonable match for friction characteristics and softness. You should be able to find the thread on this site with a key word search. It is important do get an appropriate lining material as the standatd modern linings are too hard and can be dangerous, they alternate between grabbing and fading. I had mine relined by a local ship (Reno Brake) who had an appropriate material in stock, they do a fair number of vintage car brake relining including Pierce. They are all the way across the country from you though, so maybe not helpful.

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I assume the smaller one on the top of the picture is from the 836A which looks the same as my 845 and as Paul says mounts the smaller park light and horns. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of the larger one on the bottom. Perhaps from an earlier year?

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One of the problems may be getting much feedback since traffic seems to have dropped off so low. Frankly I have been perplexed by the complaints. Before there were lots of complaints about the limitations of the old sight. I am as curmudgeonly as most aging old car F!#*s and don’t like updates, but like all web site changes it takes some effort to learn the new quirks. I think the issues with the old sight have been addressed and the new sight has worked quite well. As I have said before the ability to search and download the PASB bullitens is huge. If you have more features to deal with the website gets more complicated. Just look at the Packard PAC sight. I am hoping any changes are minor navigation tweaks and not another wholesale revamp. Given the reluctance of so many to learn the last revamp it seems it might result in another big drop in traffic. Being the first one to comment on this post after it has been sitting there for two days illustrates the point.

I will be interested to see, if any one responds, just what is so difficult about this site compared to any other site’s navigation? Certainly there is probably room for minor improvement, but everyone should keep in mind that differant isn’t the always the same as better.

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Answered my own question, sort of. Looking for info on another subject in the PASB’s I ran across a 1934 memo from Pierce-Arrow stating that there had been some trouble with breaking the park light/horn castings due to excessive force on assembly. It recommended shims placed between the fender and frame pads, at the top two bolts to “drop” the fender if too tight or the bottom to raise the fender if there’s a gap in the casting attachment. It implies there wasnt intended to be any preload on those castings. Lucky I didn’t break them so far. I can probably relieve  some of the force by the shimming, I doubt all as it will throw other alignments off such as the holes through the fender for the bumper attach and likely the hood.

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If you replace the Optima with the NAPA  conventional  6V battery that fills the battery box it will cost you may be 1/2 as much, you will have nearly the same cold cranking amps with about 2x more total watt-hour energy (how long it will keep cranking or last leaving the lights on).

They are nominally a 4 year battery I think, but mine have consistently lasted 6 years being neglected and needing nearly a full charge at times.

I agree the NOCO charger is great!

My current ones are 6+ years old now, they still will start the engines but I will be replacing them soon as I think they have lost a lot of capacity and would be dicey to take on tour.

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It is McMaster Carr item number 112A811 push-on seals with bulb on side. They are 3/8″ high, 19/32″ overall width for gripping to a 1/6″ thick edge. I used them for the bulb seal that attach to the body to seal against the top flange of the doors

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I bought mine at McMaster Carr, it fit well. I have to do sa little digging to find the part number.

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Thanks George. It looks like I found the relay in my boxes of parts, I had mislabeled it in my spreadsheet not knowing what it was for. Some things become more clear as the boxes of parts slowly get emptied and mounted on the car.

I see where it was screwed to the front splash pan, it looks like it was facing up above the pan rather than below it. A bit worrisome getting to it to disconnect if it sticks on.

I just got the hoods installed. What a delicate operation that is to raise and lower without scratching things up.

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Its great he is still at it!

When I was doing research on chrome rings I ran across some interesting information from Perfect Circle. A coolant temperarure of 160 or less tended to “chill” the oil on the cylinder walls and leads to excessive coking, deposits and wear. Also the ’37 senior Packards  offered higher temp range thermosylphons. Since overheating is happening when the temp goes above 200 I figured it didn’t matter from an overheating standpoint, once the temp reaches 180 the shutters are fully open at that point, it just means it gets past 180 a little sooner.

The 180 sylphon has been  in my Packard for  15+ years. A side benefit is I have a heater and the higher water temp makes a big difference, except when going downhill and idling!

I set up the Packard for a lot of driving when I was younger with a lot more miles in front of me. I haven’t haven’t had the Pierce sylphon modified, although if I get one rebuilt I probably would.

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I had one rebuilt and modified to 180 degrees instead of 160 probably 15+ years ago by James Otto of Knoxville TN.  I suspect he is no longer in the biz.

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Hirsch is selling them for 595!

I don’t know if the guy who was rebuilding them is still doing it.

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I guess I have answered my own question. I went ahead and gingerly tightened all the bolts and despite the big compression load on the castings so far they didn’t break, didn’t crack the new paint,  and the fenders and radiator shell lined up more or less like they must have originally. Fingers crossed.

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Just a thought to clarify, the turn signal lights do not come on at all as opposed to coming on but not blinking off?

I think the LEDS can draw so little current they might not heat the flasher enough to disconnect and blink.

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It looks like the 535 flasher is simple thermal relay and is used on a lot of positive ground 6 V. I don’t think the case is grounded, that can be double checked quickly with a continuity or ohmeter going from case to the 3 different leads. The x lead is power in, and I don’t think it cares whether it is + or minus. The X lead will be from battery whether + or -. The L load terminal is to the switch and then the lights. The P lead is “pilot” to the indicator light which may be a clue to the problem. The switch case is required to be grounded which might be the problem. I would try it with the P lead disconnected from the flasher.

Then I would check the flasher. Bypass the switch and connect a turn signal light with the bat connection to the X terminal and the light bulb wire directly to the L terminal. If that doesnt work you can try reversing the flasher terminal connections but I dont think it will make a difference. If that doesn’t work you might have a defective flasher.

Years ago I looked at these aftermarket turn signal kits and was “turned off” by how large clunky, and expensive they are. That big switch needs to be nothing nothing more than a simple double pole double throw toggle switch. I bent up a small aluminum can to cover it and strap it to the column. I added a little LED pea light sticking out of the case for an indicator. Much less obtrusive. You only need a two prong flasher unit.

 

 

 

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I believe it was gloss, even though it highlights every defect.

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What is the wiring going though the flasher? Is it just two wires going from the hot lead through the switch to the turn bulbs? Or does it have more wires and/or a grounded case?

If it is a simple magnetic coil switch polarity shouldn’t matter and perhaps the flasher Is defective. If it is solid state electronics then polarity could matter and it probably makes a difference whether the flasher is between the hot lead and the turn signal switch or if it is between the turn signal switch and the bulbs and has multiple leads.

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Thanks Paul, sounds like the same as mine so it must be original.

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Thanks George, I should bore with some caveats. I drafted an article about this a few years ago trying to have definitive claims and recommendations but as I reviewed the technical papers it becomes as confusing as the whipsaw of claims about diet and fat, carbs, salt, caffeine etc. There quickly become too many factors for simple answers.

The Harrison radiator engineer who designed and promoted the water cooled temperature regulator/cooler put on Pierce-Arrow’s from ’33 up with the hydraulic lifters has plots of how hot the oil gets when the RPM’s increased in the ’30’s. Senior Packards also had that unit and years ago I put some peak temperature indicators on the inlet and outlet of my Packard’s cooler. After a tour going down I5 at 65 mph in the summer heat the templaques showed the same temperature in and out, i.e. the cooler wasn’t cooling. However, the caveat of that is I have a very steep 3:58 rear end replacing the factory 4:69 keeping the engine RPM down to around 2600 instead of 3400. It may have been a different story with the original ratio. And as mentioned before, another paper indicates oil cooling isn’t that effective anyway by the time the oil reaches the con rod. On my Pierce I have the original rear end ratio and my oil cooler core leaks. I bypassed it internally, but with multi vis oil it shouldn’t be needed. I installed an oil temperature gauge to track the temps out of curiosity, although I probably won’t be cruising it at 65 much.

That Harrison paper was pointing out that various babbitts lose a lot of strength as temperatures go over 200 degrees.

However, Stanwood Sparrow, a Studebakar engineer, wrote two very comprehensive papers about improving engines to run at higher RPM. Much of his testing was done on dynomometers over 4000 RPM at wide open throttle. In this period the transition from poured babbitt con rod bearings to steel backed copper lead inserts was happening. Disputing the notion that high temperatures and high RPM were necessarily the cause of babbit con rod bearing failures he ran babbitt bearings without serious failure with oil inlet temperatures heated to 300 degrees. He pointed out a number of factors in bearing failures, one of the worrisome ones being a slight contamination of babbitt with copper.

Unequal clearance along the length of the bearings due to inaccuracies in bearing fit, deflection of the rod or crank, and too tight of clearances can be big problems.

Too many variables!

 

 

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KY jelly, who’d of thunk? Stifling the crude comments!

 

Thanks, Jim

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