Leeedy wrote:
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Andrew M wrote:
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Leeedy wrote:
Sorry, but no pictures of the arms handy. But whoever robbed me in 2002 got a box full of the 1956 arms.

Somewhere I have old paper photos I took back in the 1970s of the two arms laying side-by-side. But where those photos are right now? Who knows? I have bins full of paper photos... from 60 years + and mostly unsorted.

But surely someone else out there knows this stuff and can show you a 1956 Ultramatic shifter arm made for a senior Packard that was originally equipped from the factory with manual selector lever?

Here are two I found on ebay. Do either of these look correct?

1956 Packard Automatic Trans Outer Lever for Manual Control Valve, NOS, #6480732

1956 Packard Ultramatic Outer Manual Valve Lever 6480732 NOS

Nope. The parts numbers may be somewhere from 1956–perhaps when they printed lists. But these are the 1955 style. Dead straight.

The ones I used and remember vividly were curved, not straight–no matter what the parts books or part numbers might say. And I had a Packard engineer back in the 1970s tell me why they changed the design.

HH56 wrote:
The lever in the photo resembles the revised 55 lever as shown in the illustration accompanying the report of the rod issue in Service Counselor Vol 30 #1. The lever in the parts book plate 33 identifies the trans as a 56 and typical of 55. It shows a slight curve to the lever. Being there is a different part number for 56 Leeedy is correct -- there is a difference in levers and for that I apologize for not paying more attention to the differences and catching that.

The question would be did the entire column and linkage get transferred from a 56 parts car to make the conversion or was it pieced together. If you have a 56 column then everything might have been transferred intact except for the lever which might be sitting on on of the other transmissions if an extra came with the car. If parts are intermixed then I would agree with Leeedy that it can be a problem to adjust things. With the change in angle between the revised 55 and the 56 levers appearing to be fairly small there might be enough adjustment to firmly get in all gear positions. Does the lever move in equal steps with a distinct detent felt at each gear position N,H,D,L,R when going from neutral to reverse and back again?

Once you verify the trans is going into each selection completely you might be able to adjust the indicator to read properly by moving the clamp for the pointer which is under the rubber cover on the column. If you cannot get it to read properly then most likely an adjustment is at an extreme probably because of a mismatch in linkage.

Leeedy wrote:
Sorry, but no pictures of the arms handy. But whoever robbed me in 2002 got a box full of the 1956 arms.

Somewhere I have old paper photos I took back in the 1970s of the two arms laying side-by-side. But where those photos are right now? Who knows? I have bins full of paper photos... from 60 years + and mostly unsorted.

But surely someone else out there knows this stuff and can show you a 1956 Ultramatic shifter arm made for a senior Packard that was originally equipped from the factory with manual selector lever?

Leeedy wrote:
Nahh. I'm sorry but that looks like a 1955 lever arm to me. These drop-forged parts (at least the ones I had and the ones I got from Packard Dealer Frost & French years ago) were not dead straight. The the 1956 arms I had were almost always painted bronze with a curve in them. The 1956 senior selector lever arms are not plentiful.

And who knows what else was mixed in when this car was changed away from Pushbuttons? 1955 and 1956 Packards (and don't forget to add in 1955 and 1956 Clippers) may look similar but there are so many changes and it can be deadly not to know these changes intimately. This may seem like a simple swap, but it just SEEMS like a simple swap.

My feeling is that It's always better to repair what you've got because usually when people start doing mix 'n match, there is wayyyy more to go wrong. AND then three times as much work to either figure out what is wrong, why and then how to fix it. OR... how to put it back. Many of these cars are "swapped over" and then put up for sale. So nobody knows the level of the swap-over until it is either a pleasant surprise or nasty surprise.

Few out there can do these kinds of swap-overs successfully with no tears. And pity the poor subsequent owners–even the ones who have notes of what the guy before thinks he did. One of the scariest phrases ever heard can be "re-built Ultramatic changed over from Pushbutton Shift to "reliable manual lever!" Uh-ohh...

HH56 wrote:
Look at the gear select linkage on the drivers side when in park. In park the old lever and rod setup will have the end of the lever on the side of the transmission almost flat or at most 5 degrees or so up from horizontal. With a bad adjustment or if slop developed the lever end could fall down or even go below horizontal so the linkage was trying to push in a straight line.

The new lever has the setscrew in a different position so when in park the lever end is around 15 or 20 degrees up from horizontal. The long rod connecting to the bellcrank was also changed in length to accommodate the new lever position. While it might be difficult to connect and even more so to adjust, it could be possible there is a mismatch of parts. If that were the case even though the dash sector label might indicate one gear the transmission might be in another.

One other issue that has developed is the lever on the inside of the case the outer lever and shaft connects with is held by a setscrew. The inside lever is pot metal and threads for the setscrew can strip allowing slop to develop. The inside lever moves the manual valve in the valve body and any slop could also result in the driver indicator reading one gear while the trans is in another or even halfway between gears. Slop can usually be determined if you can wiggle the operator lever more than a very few degrees before it seems to drop into a detent. If you can then disconnect the long rod at the trans lever and try to move the lever manually. In any position other than park more than an eighth of an inch or so movement at the rod end would indicate excessive play inside.

Leeedy wrote:
Okay. Two things to consider, especially in light of all the modifications and swaps:

1.) I'm going to presume there is no pushbutton shift on this particular Four Hundred. Right? Or wrong? Was it originally the way it is now? Or was this changed since new?

2.) Most people don't seem to know that there were two different shift arms on V-8 Twin Ultramatics. One arm was used in 1955... the other on 1956 Ultramatics WITH selector lever and without Pushbutton shifters. I have seen numerous occasions where a Pushbutton trans was converted to selector lever using a 1955 arm. BAD idea since this conflicts with all the rest of the linkage design and adjustment for 1956. You can adjust the linkage until the cows come home and never get it right.

ONE of the big reasons for the change was to avoid the linkage dropping into the "straight-arm position" and thus allowing what appeared to be the transmission supposedly locked in Park position (it was the linkage that was locked–not the transmission).

Furthermore with a kittywhampus linkage arrangement, the transmission is certainly going to shift oddly. Something to consider and an area you will certainly want to inspect so see what you have going on there.

HH56 wrote:
Make sure the fluid level was checked in park or neutral with engine running or immediately after it was stopped as mentioned above.

How about the end where rod connects to the lever on the passenger side of the transmission. Make sure the rod is attached to the lever and clamp at bottom attaching to the shaft is tight. Is the lever pointing up as this photo shows?

HH56 wrote:
Make sure the fluid level was checked in park or neutral with engine running or immediately after it was stopped as mentioned above.

How about the end where rod connects to the lever on the passenger side of the transmission. Make sure the rod is attached to the lever and clamp at bottom attaching to the shaft is tight. Is the lever pointing up as this photo shows?