Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

My 56 400 has been converted from a push button to column shift. The transmission leaks like a sieve out of the torque converter from what I can tell when it is on the lift. Wondering if it is a seal or I have also read in another thread about bolts getting loose and causing it to leak.

Link to thread I'm referring to: Torque Converter Leak

Also when I shift the car the linkage seems to have something loose or wrong with it. When I go from park to reverse, it works fine, but if I go from reverse to a forward gear and back to reverse, it will not work. When I go from reverse gear to a forward gear, it goes up a lot on the dash indicator before it reaches a gear. I don't really know how to describe it, but something seems loose. Wondering if anyone has any ideas to these problems.

The front seal is far more likely leaking than the pump shaft gasket but since the transmission and converter need to be removed to change the seal it would be a good idea to check for anything that looks loose or for any streaking coming from the area where the pump shaft bolts to the converter like in KevinAz's photo.

The other issue sounds very much like the manual valve lever is loose on the shaft. Detents depend on the lever being tight and able to move the manual valve which is where the detents are located without having any slop. Stripped threads or a loose setscrew letting the lever move on the shaft is a well known issue on the Twin Ultramatics. Check out this post and the following reply for where to look and what to do. Note that the photo is of a 55 TU. 56 has the exact same manual lever and setscrew setup but the case and rear edge was changed so the lever travel stop is posiioned differently.