Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

This thing gave me fits, finally found a NOS compensator and replaced and was able to get the car to rise and lower front and back but it would porpoise every few hundred feet, front all the way up then all then way down, was like my own roller coaster.

So got creative and fabricated some limit switches into a bracket and used the post off the drivers torsion rod to actuate them. Worked but had too much range.

So took another look at the suspension and found the bushing/rod/ whatever its called missing from the rear bracket. Its only 3/4 thick so about 3/8 inch difference. I said no way thats going to make a difference but had little to lose by finding a replacement and installing it.
Voila, made a huge difference. Havent had a lot of time on it but initial ride was much better. Working on adding a 10lb residual on the brake lines then can get back on this.

Your links are giving a server attack warning!

All of your pictures are giving not found errors, so this is based on the text.

I assume that your pictures include the compensator you installed and the compensator control/delay switch. I hope you can get them to load so we can see.

What is the time of the porpoise cycle? Is there a delay between cycles or is it constant? The compensator control/delay switch is supposed to provide about a seven second delay to allow for changing conditions.

The 56 compensator gear box has limit switches in it and if it is going all the way up and down, they would seem to be working. The 55 compensator has external limit switches.

How did you wire your limit switches?

Does the car have the manual level switch under the dash?

What happens when the car is parked, does it sit with the front down/rear up, does it level, or does it porpoise?

It sounds like it is not able to identify level. That is a function of the compensator control/delay switch.

Pictures and more information will help.

Yes, 404 not found errors but if you look in the browser’s status bar, it shows server attack errors so the 404 is bogus. Rather, it is a created page rather than one generated by the server and the error is somehow pulling it up by redirecting to a page that doen’t exist.