Quote:
packardbill wrote:
Many moons ago, in the 80's, I think, there was an article in (if memory serves) Old Cars Weekly, about a '56 Patrician with manual transmission. After investigation it was found to have been a special order from the factory. So, they may be out there. There was also a '56 400 for sale a few months ago that claimed to be a "factory" manual transmission car.
Ok, I found the details here. In STB 56T-20, it gives the current engine number in use at that time (each number starting at 1001). Double letters indicate manual transmission cars. There is no double letter for a Caribbean engine, and the Packard manual is 1001. Since they are listing the number for effective changes, they must not have built one yet at that time. This service letter went out after about 76½% of production was already completed.
So while it's virtually certain that all Caribbeans were Ultramatic equipped, theoretically some Packard could have been shipped with a manual, but it's questionable. I could believe if there was one or two made, as long as they had some paperwork on it, but it's pretty much a fact that whatever manual 56 Packards (and 55) that come up from time to time would have been some later conversion. I believe someone even mentioned dealers might have converted some back in the day, and if this is the case, then that would look very factory aside from possibly the closest inspection to look for re-used parts or mounting holes that would not have been there on a factory manual car (example: two holes for the N-R switch self-tappers on the column).
As a side note, on the engine only the flywheel and the rear engine mount are different between manual and Ultramatic for either V8 year. Obviously there are differences other places too such as rear axle ratio, and the transmission column, but off the top of my head I can't think of something that would prevent you from doing a clean swap from Ultramatic to manual assuming you have the correct parts.
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/STB/56T-20.pdfhttps://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=15190&forum=3This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=268649