Re: Ken's 1953 Packard Clipper Deluxe Touring Sedan

Posted by kens53clip On 2009/8/6 9:06:14

This last weekend I had two Packard maintenance tasks, one was an oil change, the second was to add fluid to the Ultramatic transmission.

Starting first with the oil change. Packard recommended an oil change every 2,000 miles under normal conditions, more frequently if conditions are dusty, weather is cold, or hard driving is present. No time interval for oil change is given.

Since I do not think I will be doing that much driving I think it would be better to change oil by a time interval rather than by mileage. Since the manufacturer of my contemporary daily driver recommends oil be changed between every three months and every year depending on the severity of use, I have decided to take the middle ground and try to change motor oil in the Packard every 6 months. The reason oil should be changed according to a time interval when there is not much mileage is because the additives to the engine oil providing engine protection wear out over a period of time and obviously you want to maintain that protection for your engine. I use 30W HD motor oil. Understand that there may be a problem using detergent oils in engines that have been using non-detergent oils as the detergent oils have loosened oil deposits that might cause engine damage but have not personally had a problem with that with either of my Packards. But if you think you might have the problem, you can either use non-detergent oil or disassemble the engine and clean out any oil deposits there before using detergent oil.

An oil filter assembly was an extra cost available option for the 1953 Packard Clipper and Packard Clipper Deluxe. Fortunately my car has an oil filter assembly. I have used the NAPA oil filter FIL 1080. Believe Fram and Purolator also have an oil filter that will fit. If I did not have an oil filter assembly I would try to get one. If I did not have an oil filter assembly and was unable to get one I probably would change oil more often. Packard recommends the oil filter be changed every 8,000 miles so I read that as changing the filter every fourth oil change.

I will assume the reader knows the basics of an oil change.

I will only cover one thing that I do during the oil change that some may not. When you drain the old oil out of your engine, it does not drain the oil out of the oil filter assembly. Because I want to remove as much old oil as reasonably possible, I also drain the oil out of the oil filter assembly. The way I drain the oil out of the oil filter assembly is use a turkey baster to suck the old oil out. I would not recommend that you use the same turkey baster you use to baste your turkey. Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray would not approve. Your turkey should not taste like used motor oil. Rather, go to the store and get a cheap plastic turkey baster and use it exclusively for oil changes. To get out all the oil out of the oil filter assembly you will need to remove (temporarily) the oil filter, messy but necessary. Many oil filters have a metal tab at the top by which you can lift out the oil filter to minimize messiness to your hand at least. You can put the oil filter temporarily in the container with the oil you have already removed until your oil removal task is done.

Next is adding fluid to the Ultramatic transmission. There are two places you can add fluid to the Ultramatic transmission. First, you can add it at the place where the transmission fluid dipstick is. Unlike current cars, where the dipstick is available under the hood, to check the fluid level in the Ultramatic transmission (assuming you do not have a mechanical lift) you need to crawl under the car. The transmission dipstick is on the driver's side of the transmission. Since the fluid would have to go up before it goes down into the dipstick tube, you will probably have to get a small pump. I have seen small pumps suitable for the purpose for sale in the auto parts stores for between 10 and 20 dollars. Believe this to be true for 1951-1954 Packards based on the reference on page 28 of the Ultramatic section of the 1951-1954 Packard Service Manual. Based on my experience I would expect that this would be the easiest place to put in a lot of transmission fluid, for example, a transmission fluid change.

The second place you can add fluid to the Ultramatic transmission is inside the passenger compartment in the front seat area. At the bottom of transmission hump next to the front seat, pull up the rubber mat or carpeting (whichever you have) and you should see an oval black metal plate with a raised oval area in the black metal plate. Remove the black metal plate by removing the screws that hold it down and you should see a round metal covering for the filler hole. Remove the round metal covering and you should see steel wool placed in the filler hole. Remove the steel wool from the filler hole and you should see a wire mesh through which you can pour transmission fluid. This filler hole has been present in both Packard Clipper Deluxes I have owned and is believed to be present in most if not all Packards 1951-1954 equipped with an Ultramatic transmission based on the reference on page 28 of the Ultramatic section in the 1951-1954 Packard Service Manual. In my experience pouring into this filler hole must go very slowly and if your adding of fluid is not at the proper slowness you may lose some of your fluid through overflow. On this particular occasion a fair amount of my transmission fluid poured into the filler hole did not make it into the transmission but overflowed onto the side of the transmission and onto the garage floor. So for that reason I would think large amounts of fluid would be more easily added through the dipstick tube.

Understand that Type F is most like the Type A originally recommended for the Ultramatic transmission that has not been overhauled with modern materials so that is what I used and will use. BH recently posted a message under Packard & Website FAQs entitled "Ultramatic-What Fluid To Use" so I would refer you there for a more complete discussion of the matter.

These are my experiences and my suggestions. Others may have different experiences and different suggestions, and if so, I encourage them to post theirs.
kens53clip
Ken Dunning