While working at the Pleaasanton GoodGuys last weekend I took a moment Sunday to go see Steve Sellers in the swap meet area. I did a quick walk down the rows and spied something of interest. I thought it was a magneto for a 365-390 Cadillac. I have one and was pretty confident that I found another. Beat the guy up on $$$ as it was mid day Sunday. He took my offer and I was excited. Put it in my suitcase and fly home. I put it in the garage next to my Cadillac mag and realize I have a problem! Not Caddy, WTF is it then? I put up a side by side so you can see how similar they are. Start looking at all engines I can think of and nothing is matching up. Find a distributor picture on Ebay that is similar. Fire off a a few PMs on the HAMB(thanks RichFox and Turbopackman) and come to the conclusion that I probably have a Joe Hunt Magneto for a 1955-1956 Packard V8. Got to be a pretty rare piece as Packard only made V8s in 1955&56 as in 57 all Packards got Studebaker motors. It will probably go so I can recoupe my $$$, but it is kind of neat to have stumbled accross a rare piece of hot rodding or racing history.
Guys on the AACA Packard board might be interested in that, a couple of guys have been building just about all-out V8s, changing the oil pumps and so on so you can actually run one hard.
Yeah, if you poke around there long enough you might find my "How to put a Ford top loader behind a Packard V8" story
I'll take a look for that artical, although I should not read it. I've already been entertaining thoughts of looking for a 352 or 374 I have a pretty good stash of early Packard floorshift transmissions (5 complete, 3 lids, and a spare case) I could keep it all Packard. I already have one speed equipment fetish, what is another. I noticed in several forums there is a guy in Spokane that has several of these motors and does some performance upgrades. Hey Josh- This was all I bought. Wasn't really even looking. We were busy all three days of the show, never left the booth on Friday or Sat. Have you found an early Roto-Faze yet?
Not yet Brock.....but swapmeet season is coming up, and I'm saving my $$$ I've "heard" you've got a pretty good stash of goodies.
In 55-56 Packard used a manual transmission that was basically an upgraded BW the same as used in Ford cars - the two physically interchange, in fact, but the torque of the Packard will break the Ford trans pretty easy. Must have a different gear cluster in it or something.
I had a standard shift flywheel and bell housing from a '55 Packard a few years ago, and it looked like any Ford 3/4 speed with the narrow bolt pattern would bolt to it as is.
anyone wanna go pull a packard motor in Wisconsin? HEH HEH HEH not sure if its still there ill try and get up there soon.
Not quite. The Ford front bearing retainer is larger in dia. then the Packard. (May not be true of pre '64 Fords). The Ford input shaft on the top loader I used was shorter than the Packard and I had to make an adapter to fit the Ford pilot bushing and move it to the rear so that the input would reach it. I used the Ford throwout bearing (Packard are hard to find) and had to make a Ford type fulcrum to piviot it on. Also open up the access hole as the Ford throwout arm is larger than the Packard. The Packard throwout arm fulcrum extends through the mounting face of the bellhousing and will not alow mounting a top loader as it's in the way.
The Jalopy Journal
