Classic/Antique Car Repair: 1940 Packard 120, voltage swings, vacuum advance

Question
Electrical System Question: I suspect the voltage regulator is bad. When the car is idling the voltage across the battery is 8.8 volts no load. When you raise the engine RPM the voltage swings to over 9.5 volts. The voltage out of the generator seems to be the same as what is present at the battery. I think it is too high?
Mechanical Question: My Packard 120 has no vacuum advance connection from the intake manifold or the carburator. Is this corrrect for this model year or has someone installed the wrong distributor. Car never knocks and has good power even in 3rd gear. Thank You

Answer
Well it sure sounds like someone has converted this nice old car to an 8 volt system. A question for you. How many fill caps on the battery top? If there are three then the voltages that you have given me are way wrong. If there are four then you have an 8 volt battery and some one has converted the charging system. This was done to make the car easier to start. You know mask a problem with a band aid fix rather than fix the car right. Packard engineers decided in the 1940 model year and some 1946's that they would not use a vacuum spark advance/retard system on the cars. This was common practice on trucks but most cars used the vacuum advance to allow for increased timing under cruise no load conditions to improve fuel economy and the when the engine was under load and the engines vacuum dropped the timing would retard to prevent knock.
Brad