Re: 51 transmission fluid

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2008/7/27 11:37:01

Interesting that you should bring that up, Owen. The Packard service garage was just a few blocks from my grandparent's home when I was eight to about twelve years old. It was located several blocks away from the showroom and new car lot. All of the new cars were delivered there for prep before going to the showroom and, of course, all service work was done there. Both management and mechanics seemed to tolerate me making a pest of myself because I stayed (mostly) out of the way and it must have been apparent to them that I was interested in and loved the cars. Several of them knowing my grandfather probably didn't hurt either.

I recall quite a lot of what I saw and heard there and owners' manually upshifting the Ultramatics from low into driving range was evidently pretty prevalent and the cause of much work for them. Recall, too, that the general consensus of opinion was that the Twin Ultramatics did not stand up well to heavy, extended towing, being prone to severely overheat under the increased load in their original configuration.

When maintaining or repairing my car today, I tend to go back there in my memory, first, and then come here to this forum to refresh my declining memory of those happy days when there were still new Packards and to take advantage of the considerable knowledge that has become available since. The guys that worked there were mostly old Packard hands, having worked almost exclusively for Packard dealerships for nearly all of their lives and, were any of them still around, I have no doubt that they'd appreciate ALL of our efforts to keep Packards on the road.