Re: new guy questions

Posted by HH56 On 2008/8/16 22:19:51

Properly driven and maintained, Ultramatics were fairly reliable.

I think the biggest issue was the higher horsepower engine along with some early teething problems with the redesign of the original Ultra into the Twin Ultra. The original unit being designed around a lower horsepower and torque engine caused the issues with reliability with bigger engines--especially when drivers tried to take advantage of a big V8. They are also different enough that the average mechanic, familiar with other brands might not be aware of all the subtle things that needed maintenance and adjustment. Unfortunately the Packard mechanic wasn't around very long either. At any rate, they were and are not a drag strip transmission.

The original Ultra was a 2 speed transmission with direct drive converter lockout. In normal driving, there is no actual shift -- it started & stayed in high, and at approx 20 mph the torque converter locked out. Low range was just that -- low with converter lockout. Acceleration was very leisurely because thats what the average Packard driver would want, so drivers wanting more acceleration would manually shift from low to high which cause much grief to clutches and bands not designed for such fast action.

In late 54, Packard automated the change so it went low to high to direct drive and also left the option for the high range only original type operation. They named it Gear start Ultra, and in 55 changed name to Twin Ultra. There were continual changes throughout its short life but by 56 most of early problems including the oil belching had been addressed and lots of them have gone many miles.

So to make a long story short, Twin means you can select it to start in high range as original, or you can select it to go low to high to direct.