Re: relocating pushbutton actuator

Posted by Herb Phillips On 2007/8/10 19:49:56

Gentlemen: I am new here and new to Packards as far as maintenance. Dad always drove them long before his company, Studebaker, merged with them, and my first car ride home from the hospital was documented in a photo of dad holding me in front of his postwar Clipper. I digress, sorry. I specifically sought out a 56 Patrician with as many options as possible to enjoy, and now have 2, both with PB trans. I have only been under my latest car once and see the difficulty with the actuator access. Luckily mine works fine, but there will certainly come a time, right? I am wondering why the unit would need to be attached to the trans at all. Is there any real estate nearby on the floor pan or the frame that would conveniently accommodate the unit? If so, it may be possible to connect to the trans via a short teleflex (push-pull) cable. You may have seen these commonly used as steering cables on outboard boats, but they are used extensively in many aircraft I have maintained for critical controls such as engine power, etc. If of good quality, and as short as they would be, they would be very precise with no wasted motion . Actually you could mount the unit in the trunk with the right teleflex cable setup. Just brainstorming. No point in doing a lot of engineering for a modest improvement when you could make the r&r a 10 minute job with a bit of imagination.

I want to tell you all how glad I have been to find this group and how much I have learned already. The other forums were a bit stuffy or something, and I understand why this was created. Hope I can contribute as I discover my new Packard. Thanks!