Overdrive adds so much to drive-ability on today's roads, even old roads. I cannot understand why anyone would want to do away with it. If the wiring needs to be cleaned up, then make it neat. Don't get in there with a pair of dikes and start chopping wires out. If the car is worth keeping, then keep it well.

I’m not sure what you said in the last sentence but it appears you’re making good progress!

Got the other fender striped. Welded up the same places that the other side needed. The damage on this fender is more extensive.

Also there is a lot more dings and other dents. This side for sure had a rougher life.

The fender has been pulled back into proper general shape and protected from further rust until I can do all the proper body work.

The Utica plant engine number prefix will tell you if a particular V8 engine was built with a flywheel or a flex-plate. There was no available Utica code for a 5688 (Caribbean) motor with a flywheel and I believe the same was true for 1955.

Thanks for going to the trouble but ours does have p/s and thus it is a different belt.

Quote:

No manual transmission Packards at all for 55-56 (not including Clippers). Though even from the start there have been ones rarely converted from time to time, so you can find them here and there. I think this is roughly the third 55-56 manual-converted Packard I have heard of in the last couple years.

P.S. The 56 Caribbeans were all push button transmissions from the factory (maybe aside from about 1% of production) and there have been conversions from those to stick-Ultramatic (also from other push button 56 cars).

Does anyone had a good original vacuum advance line for Autolite to sell or loan? Yes, I know I can make one but I have no pattern to make it as it was originally. I’ve checked with all the dealers and no one seems to have what I would think is a common part.

Quote:As you learned, the correct dual quad carbs are very different from the random single 4-bbl, but not 5X worse. You had junk carbs pouring raw fuel down the intake.

FWIW, I've used professionally rebuilt single 4-bbl carbs on a Caribbean intake and with a direct reading O2 meter seen them producing ideal air/fuel ratio at cruise.

Where the major difference is at idle and deceleration. The single 4-bbl has four idle passages. The correct dual 4-bbl carburetors plug the secondary idle passages, so the manifold sees only four, not eight idle passages. With all eight idle passages functioning, the air/fuel mixture will go dead rich on deceleration, wasting a lot of fuel.

Also, the procedure for adjusting idle is critical and there is a Rochester Technical Bulletin which shows step-by-step how to correctly adjust the idle.

As you probably know, the 1955 Caribbean carbs are quite different than the 1956 versions.

jack vines

This is on my 53 Cavalier, no power steering. Probably not very helpful..... Both my Cavalier and my 53 Patrician parts car have manual steering. Both Cdn cars and I guess power steering was too frivolous!





If your pulley was changed, as previously mentioned, and is smaller, that could make a "correct" size belt too long and cause slippage due to less traction on the smaller pulley. Somebody might have put a smaller pulley so the generator spun faster for puttering around town. Just guessing.

The wire wheels look quite different than others I’ve seen and even different than the set I have. Did they change the design from 1954 to 1955 or are the ones on this Caribbean aftermarket?