It's a dull day in Packardville when you don't learn something new -- I was completely unaware of shop manuals for these earlier years, here I've done with just the service letters for my 34 Eight all these years. How about some more info on it, like who has reprints, or who might scan and put up on this site?

Seems I'm been right about 50% of the time lately; at the risk of dropping below that, let me comment that I've diassembled/assembled lots of babbitt bearing Packard eights and never seen a bearing shim, and w/o looking to confirm I don't believe they are noted in the parts books. Seen them often in GM cars though, like Buicks.

Piston looks to me like an Egge, though they have been trash-mouthed from time to time, my own experience with them has been quite satisfactory.

Especially if the has not seen regular use recently, the first two things I'd do is check fuel filter for sediment, and then remove the fuel line at the carb and crank the engine to see if you have gas supply. If that's OK, clean up any gas which might have spilled and pull the coil wire at the cap, hold 1/4 inch from ground and again crank the engine and check for spark. Its almost certain to be one or the other. Let us know your findings.

Just to note there is no such thing as a shop manual for this and earlier years. If you could afford a Packard, you took it to the dealer. There are however and available as reprints the Service Letters to dealers which no owner should be without.

I don't recall ever seeing a Packard specification for crankshaft end play for that particular engine, but I concur with PackardV8 that what you have seems reasonable. For example, the specification for the big 356 engine starting in 1940 is 0.003" - 0.008".

Assuming the rod isn't bent, the small end will center on the wrist pin when the big end is centered on the journal. This is a babbitt engine and the babbitt on the side faces of the rod control the end play and centering of the big end on the journal. Are you sure all the rods are installed the correct way, and if i remember right, even and odd numbered rods are different -- make a very close examination of them, and check your parts book to confirm that 2 different rods are used. And all the stamped rod #s should be on the same side of the engine.

Seniors all came with resonators, not sure about the juniors and/or single exhaust models. Many folks omit the resonators, perhaps for cost as they are expensive. Despite my usual passion for originality, I replaced the resonators with glasspacks. The car is generally very quiet but when I get on it, it barks nicely.

I also wouldn't let the presence of an Electromatic Clutch sway me one way or the other. At a minimum it's a conversation piece and easily disabled by just pulling the fuse and pushing a cork into the vacuum feed line. But I will say that when they work right, they're pretty neat.

I sorry I don't understand where these occasional spasms of vitriol are coming from. The gentleman's original question was


Are there production figures for 1955-1956 Packards with manual transmissions?

I didn't see anyone answering that question so I did, sorry I didn't see that as something I shouldn't have done.

Hey guys, let's cut the pokes and jibes at the clubs which many of us on this forum belong to and get considerable enjoyment and benefit from, and try to answer the guy's question. No, there are no factory statistics that have ever surfaced to my knowledge about the number of Packards with standard vs automatic transmissions. Given the public's red-hot passion in that era to give up gear shifting, I'd say standard shift equipment was quite low, perhaps 10-20% at most, but that's a pure guess. In the V8 era you can tell from the Utica engine plant number if the engine was built with a standard shift flywheel or automatic flex plate by the letter prefix. For example a Utica plant# of A-XXXX (Clipper) would be equipped with a flex plate, a AA-XXXX with a standard shift flywheel. Ditto for the B and D series engines. There is no CC indicating that no Caribbean engines were built for standard shift.

I agree with Clipper47, but I think that similar mechanical simplicity can be found in the prewar 110s and 120s, and all the postwar Packards, junior and senior, thru 1954. If I had limited resources and was not particularly mechanically inclined, I'd probably recommend you limit your choices to postwar (simplier front suspension) and standard shift.