Jack, you are right. They over-complicated the column linkage. Never try to speed shift a Packard column shift.
I would have gone to a floor shift but wanted to retain Packard's intentions. Guess it is a matter of what is important to the owner.

I did the conversion on my Panama about ten years ago. The switch is pretty straight forward. Just make sure you have all the parts and they are good. Pay attention to the shaft that goes up the steering column. The hole that the shift lever fits into gets enlarged through years of use and eventually wears so much that the shift lever won't move it. I repaired mine by welding a hardened washer into the hole. Linkage is very hard to come by. I used a donor car for my parts.

Ihad a 55, 400 several years ago that had the pcv valve. I remember that one end was fitted into the crankcase breather and the tube going under the car was removed.
It was a rubber stopper with a tube attached to it. I don't remember were the other end went. I seem to recall that it went into a hole drilled into the intake manifold. I had a problem with this car. When I drove at speeds over 30 miles an hour, oil would blow out of the oil filler tube and coat the engine with oil. I could race the idle in neutral and see the oil come out the breather. This was a head scratcher and drove me nuts. The final resolution was to remove the pcv and and block the hole in the intake. That resolved the problem.

Kind of sounds like the oil pump sucking air.

Here is what I have done in the past. Overfill the crankcase by 1/2 quart. Replace the lifters with Dodge truck lifters. Assuming oil presure is good. When I replace the lifters and the valve covers are off the car, I run the engine a look at the rocker arms ,etc to make sure oil is coming out and lubricating the rocker arms a shafts.
I am no expert but this has worked for me in the past. When ever I get a Packard, the swap to Dodge lifters is an automatic thing I do.

I'll take the car back to the guy that did the rebuild and have him pull the rear housing and check the govenores. Five years ago I would have done it myself. I will post what the problem is when I know for sure.
Thanks to all for the great info.

I took the car for a test drive today. I assume the problem to be torgue converter lock up due to the symptoms. The lock up starting in low happens at 5 mph. I think it is lock up since there is a noticable change in rpms. Starting in what I call drive 2, no low range, it also locks up at 5 mph. After I am at normal driving speed, I can hit the gas and drop out of lock out as normal but it immediately locks up after I remove my foot from the gas. This I assume is normal. When I complete a full stop the car shutters and dies. After it dies, evidently the lock out dissapears and I can start the car and idle in gear as normal. Also if I shift to neutral before stopping, I can shift into gear after the stop and the car appears normal until in motion and the early lock up appears.

I checked throttle pressure and it is ok. I am using dexron fluid and was wondering if that could be a problem.

Thanks for the info on the service bulletins.

I would like to add, the the lock up occurs almost immediately, about 15 mph in drive and around 5 mph in low.
Could throttle pressure adjustment cause this?

About two years ago I had my Ultramatic rebuilt locally.
It shifts beautifully now. But, the thing still moos when it locks up. I believe this is a torque converter problem.
It still leaks oil when not running. When it was rebuilt the seals on the selector shaft and throttle pressure rod were replaced as well as the seal on the bell housing. I am thinking this leak may come from the torque converter. Maybe there are some bushings on it or seals. It has also developed a problem when I come to a stop. The engine shutters and shuts down. I can overcome this by goosing the engine. I feel maybe the thing is staying locked up.
If I shift to neutral before stopping, the thing is ok.
Any ideas will be appreciated. I had a similar problem on an ultramatic I rebuilt myself many years ago that I corrected by adding a can of Slick 50 transmission additive to. Tried it this time with no luck.

The gener-ator uses the original housing, auto-lite or delco, and is available in either pos or neg ground according to the most recent copy of Hemmings. Iguess my concern is is it relatively easy to install and is it reliable?