Re: Miight grab a 3 speed OD

Posted by Tim Cole On 2020/5/10 7:32:33

At 60 mph Ultramatic is spinning around 2510 rpm which is a high wear index. Given the final drive in the differential, conversion to manual will reduce that to around 1810 rpm versus 2098 rpm for factory stick O/D. This will result in a wear index closer to modern cars. Even when pulling the Caribbean sled the conversion results in very good performance. However, you will need the steering column, brake and clutch pedal assemblies, linkages, mounts, cables, relays, kickdown, etc, etc. Or in other words - a complete parts car.

Another drawback is that I'm not a big fan of Packard column shift transmissions. The engineering wasn't very good and they did nothing to improve the situation.

So there is the option of those aftermarket floor shift transmissions which require a hole in the floor which isn't very nice either.

Personally, given the car has no safety features, in fact my old high school safety text featured a 50's Packard as an example of decapitation by the steering wheel, I would hesitate to change the car given today's higher speeds and stick to secondary roads to avoid high speed accidents.

As well, the health care situation in this country is a shambles with rural hospitals disappearing so if you do get in a crash in a rural area you may die at the scene. My modern car has a rotten final drive (2550 at 60 mph) and I don't care if people are running me off the road at 65-70 mph in the slow lanes because air bags aren't effective over 65 mph anyway. That's why you read about celebrity millionaires dying in car wrecks.