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Hello fellow Packard lovers. I am new here and like what I have seen so far. My wife and I have a 49 Packard that was originally owned by her Grandparents who purchased it new in 1949. My wife rode in it several times as a child and remembers it well. After her Grandparents were gone her Mother
bought it from the family estate auction for $650.00. Fortunately or who knows where it might have ended up. When my wife's Mother passed away she left it to my wife. Her Mother lived in South Dakota and the Packard was kept in an old garage that looked like it could fall over at any minute. We were glad to get it out of there before a big snow storm hit and finished the garage off. The old Packard has 68,000 actual miles on it. When we got it here we had it repainted the original two tone color. All the interior needed was the seat redone and carpet. It runs good but the shift linkage has quit working properly. It shifts in second and high OK but hangs up when shifted into first. It won't go into reverse. In can be shifted from under the hood into all gears with no problem. It is a standard shift with overdrive.
Hopefully I can get some advice from an experienced Packard
mechanic.

Regards
Bob and Joyce

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Bob and Joyce, Welcome to the forum. That is a beautiful Packard that you have. SPackard shifter linkages are pretty much the same from 1939-1950 and shifter problems are common on these cars. Usually the problem is easily fixed with some adjustment or small repair. Search and download the forum manuals and service letters available for your 1949 model and you will find the best way to rectify the problem and many others.

Welcome Bob & Joyce!

I've seen this car in person since I'm in the same town. It is indeed a beauty.

Craig

Welcome!

Beautiful Packard.

I love hearing stories of cars that stay within a family since new.

If there is ever a place to find help on your shifting problem, it's here at Packardinfo.

I'm a V8 guy, but the club sedan has the nicest lines of all the 22-23rd Series body styles, IMHO.

Though I have little hands-on experience with these cars, I've been compiling content for this site's Service Index feature, as a directory to material that supplements the shop manuals and parts books archived here.

It seems like most of the teething pains with the column shifter were overcome before your car was made, but some of the lessons learned along the way may still apply. An article published in SC Vol. 20, No. 5 and titled "That Gearshift Still Sticks" was written with earlier models (18th-21st) in mind, but identifies some important areas that you may want to check. Although your car should have been built with all of the updates cited, like steel rather than rubber bushings, some of those parts may simply be suffering from wear-n-tear.

Perhaps other members with similar models and equipment will chime in with their experience regarding this issue.

Great looking Packard. Is that Aztec Brown over Egyptian Sand? I am also having a shift problem with my '49, when shifted into 1st, it won't go back to neutral (or any other gear) without messing under the hood. I just finished getting the brakes renewed. Getting the shifting problem fixed will be one of my Winter projects. If I get mine done before you do, I'll let you know what I did and how it turned out.

Hello Bob:

Welcome to Packards and welcome to the site.

Take a little time to read this thread:
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6106&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Take a look at these two posts: (1) Page 3, post #25 from Owen-Dyneto and (2) Page 4, post #31 from BH.

BH lists the link to the service letters describing the problem. Linkage needs to adjusted to take out ALL the slop and the shifter forks on the steering column cannot be worn out or have a clearance of more than 0.025" between the forks. See November 1, 1940 Service Letter:
https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SL-VOL14NO21.pdf

Owen-Dyneto reminds you that you cannot shift your car as if it were a modern automobile - you cannot "firewall it" (the shifter that is) from first to second. As you go through the shift pattern you need to make a deliberate "H" pattern as you go through the neutral position. This take finesse not muscle.

As was suggested above, use the search key to find what you need.

Hope this helps you out.

--Roger--

G'day Bob and Joyce,
Like to add my to those already made.

Concerning the shifting problem, have had some experience with the Pre-War cars with this setup. Wear in the various components is a major contributor to this problem and there have been a number of threads on the site about it. One area that could be addressed is the steering column shaft levers. For your car I think they are P/Nos 360417 & 360419, see pic's of a listing from the 48 - 54 Parts List which is available for download from the Literature and Manuals section of this Site. Also pic's of Group 3.328 & 3.329 from the 35- 41 Parts List and a couple of pic's from the '39 Owners Manual, all these are for illustration purposes but should apply to your Packard. Regarding P/Nos 360417 & 360419, there are NOS 360417 and a 360419 available on Ebay at this moment from Packards1 who is a member of this Site.

A final word on this, my '41 120 Coupe suffers from hanging up but, until it's addressed directly, for the meantime I don't shift into 1st from 2nd only into 1st from 3rd. Find that by doing this it doesn't hang up, if I forget it does!

Lastly I invite you to include your '49 Packard in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo.

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THe checkered flag decor mite indicate that he has other special interest cars too. Maybe he can fill us in on them too.

welcome to the fun of owning a Packard. I have experienced the problem of the shift linkage hang-up on three different 48-50 Packards. All three cars were cured by lubricating the shift linkage. There is a lubrication port on the linkage shaft tube in the engine compartment about mid point down the tube. It is just a small hole about the size of a pencil lead. I had success using WD-40 and a lot of it often. After the linkage was working I then lubed it with white lithium grease in the spray can. It may be worth a try. Good luck.