Re: FrankenPackard: installing a 23 series ultramatic into a 22 series (setup for a manual??!!!)

Posted by JeromeSolberg On 2023/11/3 8:08:25

Reading your post, I am still not sure what you are starting out with and what you are finishing with. Maybe it would be good to start there with a clear delination of both, and what you think your options are.

If the original car still has it's manual transmission, especially if it has overdrive, I might consider starting with that, just bolt the new 327 into the old tranmission. Otherwise you have to change steering columns at the very minimum, not simple nor fun. Also in this case the original axle should have the correct ratios.

It's not clear to me why you'd want to switch axles in any case.

Ross Miller, for one, is very complimentary of the Packard 3-speed+overdrive setup. It has nice gearing for the highway and good acceleration, something that cannot be said as much for the Ultramatic.

If you really want the Ultramatic, you probably want to save the manual transmission, steering column, axle, those can be sold to someone who would want to switch from Ultramatic to manual.

If the engine is truly from a 1950, the engine mounts should be the same, so it should swap in nicely, I think.