Re: 1940 Manual shift

Posted by Mike On 2010/11/26 17:42:07

This isn't a packard issue, this is a side linkage tranny issue. Muncies, NP440s, saginaws, whatever.

If you A) don't have a quality shifter (the summit universal 4 speed one sucks but can get by with but a hurst is awesome) and B) don't have perfectly adjusted and no-slop linkage then you WILL experience lockup at some point...I do believe that our Packards are more forgiving on the linkage issue than the later 60's muscle car transmissions.

One common fix is to use threaded rod with female heims joints on the ends of bent-to-match threaded rods as our shift linkages and then bolt the heims joint head-ball tight to the tranny and shifter "fingers" to eliminate all shifter linkage slop.

With my pontiac 4 speed and the summit kit, i always locked up, even doing a perfect H and trying other tricks. Now with the hurst and sloppy linkage i can "cut corners" shifting ok and lock up once in awhile from 2 to 3. I'm thinking that fixing my extra sloppy linkage will eliminate even that once in awhile problem.