Re: Help with purcase 1954 PACKARD PATRICIAN

Posted by BigKev On 2008/3/29 19:47:33

The Gearstart was used across the entire line in the last few weeks of production in '1954. It was really a in-field test platform for the Twin Ultramatic for 1955. If you called the standard Ultramatic version 1, and the Twin version 2. The gearstart was really version 1.5. As it was very similar in look to the standard gearstart, but worked like the Twin on the inside.

Also the oil lines for the GearStart run up the passenger side of the engine. While the Standard ultramatic lines run up the drivers side of the engine, and then cross over to the cooler.

The end of the '54 was line is kind sketchy, as I belive they started to use some '55 parts to finish the '54 production run. I am convinced my '54 has '55 Junior drums, spindles, and brakes on it. I have heard from other people reporting that their end of production line '54 Clipper's also were set up with '55 junior bolts pattern rims, drums, etc.

Not sure if this use of '55 parts was also done on the Seniors also.