Your problem child is the one on the passenger side of the car. That one does the throttle pressure. The one on the other side is the gear selector and should hang down.

I am using page numbers from the regular shop manual issued in 51.

Welcome--and you are not alone here. I am also a fifties Stude sedan fan with a 56 President Classic, and a 58 Champion. They have their charms.

Hey guy, I just spotted one of your problems: The throttle lever on the side of the tranny, the one that goes up to the throttle linkage is on upside down!! It should point up and not down. See fig 79, p 24 in the shop manual. With that on upside down, the throttle pressures will always be wrong: there is no chance of kickdown, and the trans will actually decrease it holding power when you give the car more gas. Bad Bad.

Just had this on a car that came in for a visit after the national. Owner was thrilled with his new performance.

Here's the deal for quick and dirty Ultra-happiness: Put the throttle linkage in roughly the right orientation, but leave the clamp screw loose on that little arm. Poke your choke open with your finger and let the throttle linkage snap back to a slow idle position (no need to run the engine) Set the length of your throttle pull rod so that the end is close to 2 3/4 inches above the surface of the head (fig 89, p 26) A piece of square cardboard with a pencil mark on the edge works just fine. Now get under the car and lightly turn the shaft that little lever is on CCW til it stops. Bring it CW just a tiny skosh, a couple of degrees, and then tighten the clamp bolt. Done. A right angle screwdriver is a really big help for this.

Sorry. I wasn't paying attention! Yes the bushing should be there as it pilots the reactor shaft and also keeps the direct clutch pressure from just running into the convertor rather than being directed on its convoluted path to the piston. Packard probably did not service it separately, but every Kanter kit comes with one as it is rather important for successful direct engagement.

Don't know why you have the extra o-rings. The only o-rings in the unit are on the jumper tubes back by the rear pump. Maybe its the same reason that every Best Gasket straight eight set has a thin cork ring (not the front seal) included. I have never seen a place for it on an engine.

The overdrive completes its shift when the torque in the driveline reverses for an instant and the engine is pushed by the car. This happens when you take your foot off the gas for a normal overdrive upshift, or if you are not a little aggressive when making the 2-3 shift. If the car coasts down a hair while you are still in second, the overdrive will engage.

The tricky point of torsion level, or any interconnected suspension is this: get the car to translate vertically when hitting a bump rather than rotate about its center of gravity.

With interconnection the car is effectively suspended at its CG --Schwerpunkt. Thus an individual bump encountered by either the front or rear wheel will cause the car to rise vertically rather than rotate about its CG first to the rear then to the front as the front then rear wheel rides over it. The moment of inertia of the car in vertical translation is much greater than its moment of inertia in rotation so the effect of the bump is much less.

You can see that in the picture Craig just posted. The TL car actually rotates about its CG (usually known as "pitch") much less than the older car. There is actually a really good explanation of all this in the Packard Film "The Safe Road Ahead".

54 and earlier trunks were flocked. The mat was a sort of vinyl pad that was also flocked. You can buy flock from Donjer Products. It should be sort of a brown/grey mixture of relatively coarse flock--there are probably a few odd corners of your trunk with the stuff still adhered. It was and is a very delicate covering.

I don't recommend the flocking gun they sell. When I did a few trunks I had much better luck brushing on the glue in a moderate area, then applying the flock by throwing handfuls of it at the back of a small table fan. When the flock hits the fan.....

The owner has a lifelong aversion to Rottenchesters so we put on some new Holleys (or were they Edelbrocks--geez, I can't even remember now) which worked fantastic right out of the box. I was relieved as I am not a multi-carb pro.

The car has manual brakes, and that is the normal pedal shank you can see.

Mr. Hatch had said the gears were from a Willys, and they were 4.88 IIRC. There was no need to mess with them as everything in the punkin was hunky dory.

Two things are striking in driving the car. One, excellent traction on launch coupled with a rise of the whole car. second, this is the only torsion-level car where I've had the opportunity to replace every last rubber bushing, including the body mounts. The ride and over the road smoothness is fantastic.

Before we get too congratulatory on the wonders of Torsion Level, please note that Citroen used an interconnected suspension on their 2CV from '48 til '90. Although greatly different in detail, it operated on the same principle, that is playing the front and rear wheels against each other so the car was effectively suspended at its center of gravity. If you ever get to drive one of these delightful critters you will find the ride motion strangely familiar when you cross a dip or railroad track.

England's BMC was also greatly enamored of interconnected suspension and used a fluid-filled version up into the seventies, if I recall.

Packard was the only manufacturer to interconnect the wheels by means of torsion bars. Mr. Allison was hampered by the necessity of using the existing front suspension and no clean sheet changes to the frame. This lead to compromises like the complicated front load arms and the mentioned ride harshness at the rear.

You are right, the two big round things are the housings for the pistons that operate the low and reverse bands. The one sticking up in your photo is the low piston.

To further complicate matters,49-54 Ultras had two-stage pistons: the inner or "fast acting" piston was to get the band's attention, so to speak, and then the main piston would rise up and actually clamp the thing so the car would move. These fast acting pistons were included so an owner could rock the car in sand or snow without a lot of banging--Packard attention to detail. Anyway, only your fast acting piston is sticking up (sounds like a personal problem) and should retract if you push down on it long enough to let the fluid ooze out. If it won't, remove the whole piston from its housing and press the center "button" on the opposite side of the piston. The the fast acting piston will retract. While you are in there, be certain that the lip seals are somewhat pliable.

I usually use brake cleaner for cleaning valve bodies. Get yourself a big old sheet cake pan to work in and the little bits won't go walkabouts. Be painfully careful about the order pieces come out of the bores of the valve body. There are pieces in there that are not shown in the shop manual.

That said, I still maintain that your lack of low was caused by improper assembly/adjustment of the band struts. Also, if your high clutch had burned up already, there would be a lot of debris in the pan.