Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I have had two situations arrive this year where I have desired access to my Super 8 transmission from above. I thought it might be useful to some owners if I posted a couple of pix of the access plate to illustrate its exact location and what things look like once opened. My recent thread detailing troubleshooting of my R-11 overdrive led me to remove it last night to see if I can get to the governor; unfortunately, it remains tucked up underneath the lower left corner of the opening, so I still have some cutting to do to get to it!

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Does the 24th Series AKA 1951 have an access panel like this for the Ultramatic? I'm not looking forward to crawling under the car each time I want to check the transmission fluid level.
Sorry about butting in on this.

Out of luck after 23rd series.

"Out of luck" expresses it better than anything I can come up with; but thanks for the answer.

You still have to crawl under to check but they did provide a small access plate over breather 51-4 so you can pour fluid in from top--after you move the seat back and the carpet away. Guess a second plate for dipstick would have been overkill because of the location.

I saw in the "Operator's Manual" I think, a picture of a technician standing under a car filling the transmission with a "U" shaped fitting on the end of a hose.
Fortunately at the end of the parking slab behind the house there is a couple of foot drop off. If I build out a ramp and make sure that it's level, I should be able to crawl under without too many contortions.
I guess Packard wanted to make sure owners came back to the dealer every 1,000 miles.
Thanks for the info about the access plate up top though. I'll come in handy for fluid changes.

Newer Fords are pretty much the same way with their transmissions, I know the Lincoln LS for one has no dipstick and you fill the trans from under the car. They take a special drain/fill plug that we had to stock 20 at a time at somewhere around $50 each at the Ford dealership that I worked at because the "technicians" couldn't figure out how to check the level with it and always stripped them out.

It's crap like that that makes me hate engineers.

Well, that explains why I couldn't find the transmission dipstick on my neighbor's '03 Town Car.....