Re: 51Packard's....51 Packard

Posted by BH On 2010/8/12 9:26:23

51Packard -

I'll bet that the installer ran into a badly rusted cooler line on your car and simply patched things up with a hose just to get by. That's pretty common practice in places that just want to "git 'er done". It could also be that the installer made the mistake of using common fuel hose, which doesn't hold up well to ATF. Just idling, the converter will push a lot of fluid out of a breached cooler line in short order.

If nothing else seems out of sorts, visually, I'd suggest you put the pan back on, replace that hose (Gates makes ATF-compatible hose in a couple of diameters), fill the trans back up with ATF, and see what happens. If the trans works, THEN you can go back and fabricate new cooler lines WITHOUT hose.

If you want a cooler line that will last, look for copper-nickel coated steel tubing at your local parts stores; the part number is usually prefixed with "CNC". It should be widely available, now, in 3/16" and 1/4" diameters, which are commonly used with brake systems, but I've also found it in 5/16" and 3/8" - all sold in 25' coils. That stuff ain't exactly cheap, but it's well worth the extra money if you plan on keeping the car. Though I prefer to use a tubing bender for precision, several mechanics around here tell me that the copper-nickel coated tubing can be bent with nothing more than your bare hands. However, you'll still need a proper flaring tool to to finish the ends.

Meanwhile, looks like both the inner and outer rocker panels have rusted away on your car - including the ends of the braces that run across the underside of the floor pan to tie it all together. This is not an uncommon issue for the 51-56 bodies.

To get a better idea of what you may be in for, you might want to spend some time with the blog, Keegan's 55 Clipper Deluxe, where a many of his posts cover similar sheet metal repair.