Loyd, after hearing your experience with the Twin Ultramatic, I've decided to recommend B&M Trick Shift to everyone that asks about fluid for the Ultramatic. I'm glad to hear that you had success with it.

As for the AOD-T/U, it's being put on hold for a month or so, as the wife and I are moving to Wichita. I plan on having it done by this fall, though. I'll keep everyone posted, and I'm not giving up. All I need now is some machining done.

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.

Eric,

Is this what you are still looking for?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Packard-Grille-Mid-50s-No-Reserve_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ10076QQihZ015QQitemZ250111671722QQrdZ1

After down-loading the Auto-light manual I tried the two-light test. One stayed lite for all but the "D" button. the other just would not light at all.
Then I noticed a large pool of anti-freeze and a large pool of type F trany fluid under the car.
Perhaps I broke the trany lines when I was fighting the third radiator hose?
PLEASE anyone help

Well looking at this I realize I've had my Packard home about a month. Its still on the trailer but I did get it to run and go in gear. I rebuilt the carb and add new wires and a coil. The oil and trans fluid looked fresh and it had some new tune up parts on it. When it fired up I was pretty happy. Even it wife is digging it now but she keep asking went it can go get exhaust on it (there is none now). For me this is the best part of a new project. Now I need to clean out the shop so I can get inside. It needs brake work and little stuff but I hoping to have it road ready by the end of this summer. The info here is a big help. I took the numbers off the car and found out is a super panama. I think it must have the oddest colors. Teal and white paint with blue interior.

Howard, thanks for sending that write up. It is now posted as an article.

I agree, the filter at the pump is much easier. I had one of the hose inlines there for a while (not the Ford because I hadn't seen anything like that in plain view at the parts store and it is a good solution) but finally decided to play around with the ceramic when I had the carbs rebuilt and got a new pump hose.

For anyone that wants to see what I did, made another and have done a brief writeup. Will email to Kev to post as its a bit large for here. Am sure there will be differences of opinion, and hope others have some more ideas after seeing this attempt. The one ring piece that requires a bit of work makes it more than a 5 minute job and I'd like to eliminate it somehow but didn't feel comfortable doing so then --or now without feedback.

ADDENDUM: An easier ring has been looking at me for several hours, that being a thin 1/4" wide brass strip from a hobby shop. As long as the metal of element fits flush and tight against the outlet, the ring does not have to be a solid piece. All it is for is to center things and prevent element from getting cocked or sliding and letting gas bypass. It shouldn't be too hard to cut off a proper length and bend it into a decent circle. It could be soldered if wanted to make it solid.

I just don't see why people don't put an inline filter before the fuel pump, leave the bowl minus the element, and be done with it???

The suggestion of swap meets for a paper or original ceramic and even the Ford inline would be easier, but I don't frequent many meets and also wanted something almost original in appearance so that said, I have been using a Purolator paper filter removed from a modern plastic housing for about a year.

After seeing this thread a week or so ago, decided to document it but got sidetracked. Will send Kev some pictures and my procedure later today or tomorrow. It was not too hard, was readily available, fits pretty well, passable in looks, and using that as a starting point maybe others can suggest alternatives requiring less work or opinions as to whether the one piece I made that might be an issue for others is needed.

You see these items by the dozens in car show flea markets, should be easy to find one including the housing for about $10. There was also a smaller paper element made by AC which could replace the ceramic element, also common in flea markets.