Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

Wondering if anyone has successfully installed a 1952-56 era GM Hydramatic in a 1947 Super Clipper?

Why are you asking? The senior 21st series Clippers did very well with the manual shift transmission, and even better if equipped with over drive, but questionable if they had the Electromatic clutch option.

(o{}o)

Johnny Depp --

No offense, but perhaps such a Packard isn't really for you. JW's right. I know, coincidentally, three (3) fellows who today own '47 senior Packards, one of them a limo, who all owned, at one time or another, a 1956-58 Bentley S-Type Continental with HydraMatic and each of them compare the older Detroit production car favorably with the newer, much pricier, limited-production Crewe product.

Why would you pervert a lovely auld luxe road car, bastardize it with a convenience feature that does nothing for performance? Why not buy a '47 Cadillac, if that's what you want? They're not bad cars, and have nearly the torque if not the horsepower of a Super Clipper.

Back in the '60s when the top fuel blown 1,000-hp 426 hemis literally blew apart Cad-LaSalle gearboxes, Don Garlits switched to Packard R-9 transmissions as in '47 senior Packards in his rail dragsters and the problem ended.

JW's right as rain. Get one with overdrive and skip the ElectroMatic. Or buy a Cadillac-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack.

Of course, i'm a sports car guy who decades ago, long, long ago fell under the spell of 1940-47 overdrive Packards,
the best road cars of the era from either side of the Atlantic, so the Herculean effort of shifting a silky column lever doesn't deter me.

I love the hydramatic. One of the greatest transmissions ever. It lasted 25 years in cars alone, powered light tanks, and in buses outperformed all the computer controlled crap that blows apart today. If it was possible then it would have happened to thousands of Packards already.

Whoa, steady. Was merely seconding JW's observation that the cars are fine as built, and my first line opened "No offense ." Most of us use off-the-cuff nom de plumes here, so "Johnny Depp" was a lighthearted if lame joke.

Reread my comments. They're a cordial sharing of information. And i'm serious. If you want an old luxe car with nearly the same torque and the same IFS that already has HydraMatic, why not consider a 1941-48 Cadillac?

Many of us are purists, essentially, mild tweaks, upgrades notwithstanding. But when you start swapping engines/transmissions, you lose the car's soul, hence the word "to pervert" which is leagues from calling someone, um, uh, a pervert.

Easy. Again, no offense meant. Beg pardon. Lo siento. Perhaps if you drove a well-sorted, essentially stock '47 senior you'd understand what i and the above posters are trying to say.

Dr. Cole's right. HydraMatic was and is a good automatic,
refined with wartime Federal tax dollars, produced by the same lovely corporation that sued the US government for Allied bombing damage to their German Opel plants.
Compare with East Grand's relatively classy behavior.

Tho' Consumers Reports in the day gave Packard's Ultramatic its Best Buy rating, HydraMatic would take more of a beating despite an Ultramatic lasting forever behind a straight eight if you drove like an adult, routinely changed fluid and filter. A friend racked up a whopping 137,000 miles on an Ultramatic behind his '53's 327 inline 8 with NOTHING but the preceding service and having the bands adjusted. Yes, really. Verdad. It is so.

When i was young and under the apple bough, i owned a 48,414-mile little old lady's '51 Packard with Ultramatic, and on the highway, wished it had another gear. Several friends owned/own '41 Cadillac dropheads, which i've driven. One of them has a '52 Dual-Range HydraMatic, which is not nearly as fine a driving experience as shifting yourself---and the Cad-LaSalle gearbox isn't as nice as the Packard R-9 transmission, which has nine bearings to the Cad's manual transmission's five, huskier, finer throughout. Toss in overdrive and you've really got it all.

But, as also mentioned, i'm a sports car guy who long ago got happily sidetracked by 1940-47 Packard overdrive 8s and Su8s on the shorter, standard wheelbases, so shifting yourself is part of the experience for some of us.


Automatic transmission is a convenience feature doing nothing for performance. It's a uniquely American construct, since even Rolls-Royce/Bentley didn't bother offering a slushbox (HydraMatic at that) until 1952.

Ol' su8overdrive's lotta things, but a "snob, effete" or otherwise, ain't among them, being downright catholic in my automotive taste.

Just saying.

Quote:C'mon guys; must be a slow day on the forum. The OP didn't ask for an opinion as to whether or not we thought it a good idea or a mortal sin; he asked if anyone had ever done the mod. If you haven't done it, don't answer, huh?

jack vines