Re: Push Buttons and Park

Posted by HH56 On 2014/5/27 11:03:38

All in all, the PB system works well and for the time, probably was advanced. I do remember one harrowing PB transmission experience though. It happened on the first Packard I bought back in 74 or so -- a 56 Patrician. The car had been primped up, new paint, rebuilt engine and trans etc. A mechanic friend and I had gone over to another friends house the next town over showing it off and seeing how things operated.

On the way back Dick was driving at highway speed and I was enjoying the scenery. All of a sudden the engine sped up, Dick let out a strong word or two and we started moving down the road. The accelerator had jammed so the pedal was almost to the metal. What to do. Neutral was locked out by the pressure switch so it was not functional and we both knew you couldn't turn the key off to kill the engine without the trans wanting to go into park. He got on the brakes and managed to slow down and I got down and finally managed to wiggle the accelerator away from the floor. Not really sure what exactly happened to mess things up but it was an exhilarating experience -- almost as much fun as when the car vapor locked going up to Yosemite. Narrow twisting roads with steep drop offs and we were rolling backwards without benefit of power brakes or the "self energizing" feature of Bendix brakes.