Do you mean these little grooves or is it something on the edges?

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When you say it needs to be replaced, I assume then it has been removed for inspection. If the backlash is wrong that will make noise as will incorrect pinion depth. A qualified person will do a contact pattern test as well.

If the new parts are not installed correctly, you will still get lots of noise.

That behavior seems all too commonplace these days - making something out of nothing. The sad part is that so many people take such seriously. I knew one guy who would claim he paid way more for a car than he actually did and then cry that he was selling at a loss. His background was in used cars. An excellent resume builder for today's political races.

The hammer and screwdriver method is a car thief thing. If the lock is not serviceable use cobalt coated drill bits to remove the tumblers. Hammers will serve only to damage the tank.

You don't want any drag. That's in the manual. If there is slight drag at room temperature you will have heavy drag at lower temperatures. I would pull the shoes and lay them in the drums to verify concentricity. Lack of will require shimming or thicker lining material.

As for braking in general there have been discussions about fade, but I refer to the Jay Leno article on junktube where he talks about his Caribbean losing brakes on Mulholland Drive.

I was thinking over this topic the other day and to answer the initial question of the service life of the Twin-Ultramatic; the original owner cars I dealt with years ago were in the 80,000 to 90,000 mile range with the original transmissions when they quit. However, those were cars that were still on the road.

The problem was a huge variance as to quality control. The old timer's summed the situation as follows: "There are good ones and bad ones."

You can't stay in business given a situation like that.

My Ultramatic driving method is much like that used with locomotives. As speed increases the throttle is "notched up" to avoid traction motor burnout.

Ross's point is well taken because with the increase in power the transmission wasn't changed that much so it was like putting a 120 trans behind the V-12. But the trans needs to be in good condition to use Drive. I was never a lead foot with those cars and I always accelerated moderately until the thing got into direct. Then I would gradually increase the throttle. It's a habit I never got rid of and still use it with my modern car.

I have seen some of those installations and they are not good. For one the belts need to be anchored into the chassis, or at the body mounts which is not available for the center point. Fortunately, Packard used the X-frame which makes that possible.

Next, the seat mountings need to be reinforced because in a serious crash they will fly forward. When that happens, you are experiencing a rear end type collision. As well, if the body mounts are in poor condition the whole thing might break loose.

The third consideration is you should consider a three point system to prevent being injured by the steering column. I knew someone who crashed his modern Lincoln Town Car and was wearing a three point belt. His chest was still crushed and his health went downhill afterward. He lived, but not very well afterward.

And finally consider that when those cars were built the average road speeds and traffic conditions were much different than today.

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This will fix it.

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Any vintage Chilton manual or look up the Packard employee training manuals on this site.

A demonstration is probably available somewhere on junktube.