About those broken pitman arms: this can happen on any power steering equipped 53-56 when towed backwards without the engine running. Culprit is the steering valve on the end of the pitman arm. With no pressure from the pump there is a good deal of play in the valve. When towed backwards the front wheels can start a back and forth shimmy like a caster on a bad shopping cart, but with enough force that on a long fast tow it will fatigue the pitman arm clean off. TL cars are more prone because the front suspension will settle to its stops when the back is raised which gives more toe-out in the backwards direction, increasing the chance of shimmy. You don't notice any of this in the tow truck until the front of the Patrician comes around and passes you. Use a rollback.

You will likely find that the little sheetmetal stop on the shift lever inside the tranny turned or bent out of the way and the shifter went "too far" into reverse. This has caused the selector valve to come out past the detents. It will not go back into the detents unless you push the little detent plungers back into their bores while inserting the selector valve.
Pinning the selector lever to the shaft with a roll pin is a good idea. I also drill the set screw hole clean through the shaft and tap it 5/16 fine thread clean through. I then install a bolt with a star washer to keep the stop from migrating.

Just in passing, push button owners who don't always get the gear you have selected--chances are this same lever is loose in your tranny and should be pinned in place.

Factory built cars with stick and Easamatic had a low clutch pedal with the pedal turned sideways so it nearly matched the brake pedal in height and in orientation. I have this in my overdrive 55 Clipper Deluxe, and have seen it in a 54 Clipper Super and some '53 I can't recall this moment. The low pedal was achieved with a rubber stop under the toeboard and possibly some change in geometry as the action was quite nice in spite of the short throw. Factory cars with manual brakes got of course a high clutch with a vertical pedal. Oddly enough, I have never been able to find part numbers for any of the "low clutch" pieces, not even the sideways pedal. I'll try to get a photo posted tomorrow if I can master the technology.

15 x 6 with a five on 5" bolt circle. Any 51-56 "senior" wheel will do. You can readily tell these as they do not have the raised nibs pressed into the steel to capture the dog dish hubcaps.

If it has no lockout switch it is a 49-50. Those still used the lockout switch on the cable under the dash. Also, yours will have the slip joint in the driveshaft as there is no slipjoint at the rear of the tranny as on 51-54.

Just to note, when I changed my 51 from the mesh type to the oil bath type I picked up 1 mpg, from 16 to 17 in mixed rural/interstate driving. and yes my mesh was clean and oiled. I usually call those things bird strainers because that's about all they will keep out and are the reason so many straight eights show early upper cylinder wear.

I would guess that your conversion somehow changed the tread dimension of the front suspension and put the contact patch of the tire more directly under the projected axis of the kingpins.

For general discussion, there is nothing wrong with negative caster as long as it is combined with kinpin inclination. Inclining the kingpins toward the center of the car was done to minimize side thrust on the kingpin bearings while allowing the axis of the pins to intersect near the center of the tire contact patch, and still allow space for the brakes.

This inclination automatically gives a self centering action as any deviation from straight ahead causes the front of the car to rise as the knuckle rotates either left or right around the kingpins. Negative caster was often specified to help reduce the self centering action for easier steering

Quick and easy, just find a head from a 53 or 54. Give it a light cut to clean it up and then polish up the chambers a bit with a roloc wheel. That will give you a hair over 8:1 so you can still run regular no sweat with Packard's latest and best effort at combustion chamber design. Try to get a 53 or 54 327 distributor to use with it as they give more advance. (The 359 distributor only works with the aluminum head.)

If you are taking the engine all apart, by all means get a cheap die grinder and clean up all the bumps and stalagtites in the ports. Round off the edges of the angled pockets that the valves sit in--no need to cut a channel all the way over to the cylinder in my opinion. But be sure to stay away from the area the head gasket touches! I do this on all my rebuilds and the owners are thrilled with the change it makes for an hour's labor.

Keep in mind that almost all Packards with high mileage are in need of rings and this will do far more for a tired engine than any cylinder head. Very often the top rings are broken.

Consumer Reports described a 53 Clipper with 327 and overdrive as "excessively powered" Yes Please.

After the merger of Stude and Packard there was not too much sharing of technology at first tho much more was planned. But Stude got to use the 56 Clipper engine, and Packard latched onto Studebaker's steering column as it was more modern looking than the 48-54 version. Most of the pieces are identical or darn close to pieces from a Stude column 53-60. These work quite well and I have many hundred-thousand miles behind such columns in the Studes. After all, this is not a GM product we are talking about.

A bit of looking in a Stude parts book and a call to SASCO might bring you joy--they might even have the original part by Packard number.

As to being stuck in first: bring the tranny to neutral by pulling up on the upper lever at the base of the steering column (as countless thousands of 39-54 Handishift owners have also done). There is an excellent chance that you must adjust your 1-R shift rod a little shorter so that the tranny comes all the way out of 1 before the column shifter crosses over to operate the 2-3 lever. When you operate the shifter in the car, you should just feel the tranny come clear of first gear before the shift lever is even able to drop back to the 2-3 plane. In neutral the lever should move between the 1-R and 2-3 planes without binding.

Better look for all the right stuff: 288 has smaller ID intake runners and can't mate properly to the 356 block which was designed for the flanged gaskets--although the ports will line up center to center. Ditto exhaust manifold, which should also have a four bolt pipe flange. Bell housing will not contain a 356 flywheel and clutch. Distributor does not have the correct advance curve to match the 356 combustion chambers, although this is probably almost unnoticable. 288 Starter probably won't crank the big boy, etc etc. You'll end up happier and with a more valuable car if you do some more parts chasing.

ross