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Lock knobs finished and installed. The knobs are pretty flexible and come with a small diameter hole predrilled for screwing down over a threaded shaft which is found on most cars. Since Packard decided to be wacky in 54 and use a flat barbed connecting shaft, I had to drill the hole out to 5/32, and then it pushed down over the barbed shaft with moderate pressure. Once on, it will not come off. Just like the original ones.

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I'm still interested in knowing more about the Ultramatic.

If and when you rebuild it I will be following closely. I'm following closely anyway.

bigmoparjeff says "how bad it looked inside". Did you have it apart? I didn't find this yet on this long thread. Is it posted somewhere else?

You said things were "funky" on the highway on the way to Palm Springs. What exactly did you notice? Slippage? Sounds? Sensation of heat? Burned fluid?

There was this "goop" in the transmission and the filter was completely plugged. There are pics in my blog somewhere on it.

It was for sure heating up and the color of the transmission fluid has darkened since the freeway run. Also when the transmission was "hot" it harshly engage when when going from park to drive. Similar to the same hard clunk when shifting into reverse.

But when the transmission is cold, she runs great. I have even felt the DD clutch lockup a few times. So when cold, i think the pressures are staying high enough to do the work they are supposed to. When hot, the pressures are dropping off and the hydraulics are getting confused and things are slipping. As Ross told me once, the ultramatic is nothing more than a hydraulic computer.

The heat is from the DD clutch failing to engage when warm/hot, and then of course it just gets hotter and hotter running on the straight convertor.

Pressure diagnosis points to worn bushings.

Kev,

Congratulations on a spiffy interior!

So far, my door lock knobs have been good, but the window crank handle knobs, not so hot. The driver's door crank handle knobb is loose and floppy, the passenger knob came off. I don't really know how they were held on in the first place. Looks like a press fit. Any hints would be appreciated.

I know this is YOUR resto blog and hope you won't mind a query or two. I hope to be able to return the favor if I find anything on my '54 that has a tricky fix that I can figure out. I do have an idea on the window crank handles, but wanted to pick your brain first.

Thanks.

Here's to Bikini Blue '54 Clippers!

The handles are pinned on, there should be a small hole in the stub of the shaft sticking out of the door panel. When you push back the plastic cover you should see the pin, it can be easily punched out and reinstalled.

Sorry for any confusion. It's not the window crank handle that came off, it's the knob on the end of the handle.

Quote:There is a pin with a shaped head going thru the handle end and pressed into the plastic which holds the knob assy to the handle. If the hole in the pot metal handle or the pin itself is worn, the knob can loosen and wobble.

Yesterdays Radio has repro knobs for your year but if the pin or hole is the problem a new knob might not help. The only repro pins mentioned are for earlier knobs so you might have to improvise or find better handles.

Condenser, bracket from Ross (thanks Ross!) and compressor came in.

Started looking at the Novi unit, the three connection on the bottom are drains. Two for the drip pan and one for the dryer.

You can see the A/C connections on top, they are wrapped in red tape.

One of the blowers wasnt working, as it looked like it got hit by something on one side causing the squirrel cage blower to hit the housing. A little rebending fixed that issue.

Also the Novi unit does have a thermostat in it, I guess it just cuts off the freon through the evaporator.

Also the A/C dash switches came in and I started working on a control panel for them. Will post pics of that later.

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I don't see a thermostat unless it's in a different view. All I see is the expansion valve. Believe when new that unit did not have a thermostat as we know them and are needing now to work the clutch.

Back then on these higher end type units clutch was basically an on/off affair and only active to engage the clutch when the entire unit was turned on/off. Temp was usually regulated by a fixed temp modulator valve on some or the knob or lever on the control panel pulling a bowden cable to adjust a modulator or gas bypass valve on some or suction throttle valve on others.

Some of the cheapo units did have a thermostat and cycling clutch temp control but these higher end kept the compressor active all the time to keep the evaporator temp essentially constant. The various type valves controlled the amount of refrigerant from a trickle to a lot by short circuiting the flow with the bypass or modulator types or strangling the flow on the throttling type -- but there was still some flow. That way these evaporators didn't warm up when the compressor stopped and introduce the warm air and humidity like units do today.

Here is a diagram of the original refrig. flow from the Stude setup. I believe except for the label, your unit was identical. It would be nice if your unit still had the valve (working) for that function but parts are NLA and depending on type, repair of old ones expensive and hit or miss.

My 56 had a fixed temp modulator valve which was toast and NLA so I wound up doing the thermostat and cycling clutch on that one. Your new install will need to be the same. Since you have no modulator or gas bypass valve you will have the suction side of evaporator go directly to the suction side of compressor with #10 line and the condenser will have just one outlet which goes straight to the drier with #6. Typically #8 is used between the comp out and condenser in.

If you haven't already got it, Vintage Air has a downloadable little pamphlet "AC, The Basics" in their installation instructions section. Not a bad little primer. They have another more elaborate book but I think that one is a purchase.

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Howard you are correct, it is just the expansion valve.