Re: ANOTHER #%*!:( BTV failure

Posted by HH56 On 2010/10/9 9:21:35

Believe Mat in Australia used his emerg brake as did Rowdy when his BTV failed a few weeks ago. As Eric said, a manual conversion is very possible and some have done it.

The biggest problem for those wanting to keep it all Packard is finding the parts since there is none of the power setup usable except maybe a modified toe plate. 55-6 manual pedals complete are hard to come by because there weren't very many to start with. A fair number of those were clutch only with a spacer on the brake side because the cars had power brake so not all pieces needed are there.

51-4, aside from the extra work needed to make them function because of different master location, will inevitably be scarce before long. Easamatic was promoted from 52 on as the latest and greatest and at relatively low cost. Retrofit kits and instructions were available to convert 51s in the promotion so I imagine even in those years the proportion of power setup was fairly high. Another obstacle to earlier pedal is the looks. Manual brakes with Ultramatic in V8s had a different pedal. Wider and maybe a bit closer to floor bringing it more in line with the power pedal look than the conventional manual and clutch setup. To the purists, not having that look is almost as bad as the modern booster.

At least one poster bought aftermarket pedals and had them modified to work a power setup under the floor--believe with the Electro-boost. Have not seen any pictures or a report on how it works.