Re: Need info on 55 Clipper

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2007/5/4 23:11:47

John, I've got a '55 Patrician, acquired a little over two years ago, indirectly, from a museum. Car had, evidently, been sitting in storage for many years but was all there and did run. Most of what was wrong with it was from disuse and, from all that I can tell, being used as a parts car for another that probably required less work. At least they'd exchanged the canibalised parts with ones from whatever car they were finishing and it was all there and would start and run. Replaced the entire brake system, a good bit of the wiring, rebuilt the engine (main and rod bearings shot and one cylinder wall scored), replaced the partially remaining original air conditioning with a modern system from an outfit in Tampa, Florida and replaced every bushing and piece of rubber on it as well as the kingpins/inserts, etc. Surprisingly, with all of the slander and negative publicity that the Twin Ultramatic has been subjected to, my experience was the same as Turbopackman's. Many people had evidently worked on this car since it was last on the road in 1989 but, after adjusting all of the linkage, dropping the pan to see what may have been in the bottom, cleaning the filter and changing the fluid a couple of times, it works surprisingly well. My direct-drive clutch slippage went away within a week after putting B&M Trick Shift in the thing. Had been driving it, regularly, around town for about a year and a half and experienced occasional clunky lock-ups going into direct drive but, after (my first) four hundred mile road trip about two weeks ago in combination city/highway (75 to 80 mph) driving, all problems seem to have cleared up and you can't even tell when it shifts unless you're paying close attention. I can tell little difference in acceleration between, "mush," drive (torque converter) and, "shift," drive (planetary side) and it seems to like being driven in, "mush," better so that's where I usually leave it. When they're sorted out these cars seem to behave better when they're driven. I know one person who has done the Torqueflight conversion on his and he's unhappy with it and, from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of transmissions, were I going to replace the T/U would probably go with a 700 R. As long as the T/U works and/or I can get it fixed, I'll stick with it. It is uniquely Packard and perfectly adequate to its purpose when working properly. Must admit that I am intensely interested in Turbopackman's T/U overdrive research, however, and looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.