Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I rebuilt my own TU, no idea what the end result will be. car isn't done. but i did get the gauges so i can at least take readings if i have trouble.]

i did it on my own just for the experience and knowledge, lets hope it works out in the end though.

I rebuilt my own TU, no idea what the end result will be. car isn't done

I hope it turns out well for you. I have a good friend, no mechanical genius but one who very studiously read every related Service Counselor, TSB, and the shop manual and spoke at length with Ross Miller and others about all the little nuances of the job. He then did two Twin Ultras, one for his 56 Carib and one for his 56 Executive. Both turned out well, he drives his cars extensively, often to mid-America and back from the Northeast, and I suppose he has ten or more thousand miles on each with nary a hiccup. I hope yours turns out as well and with proper attention to detail it certainly should.

no big deal, od, was it the hydra matic that was a fluid coupling? i think it bolted right on the 55-56, and gave little problems. that,s was why some people put them in, pre--727 ..

pumps, it would be interesting to see just how much force it takes to hold the dd, and hrc,, i know what the pressures are.

edit, on the wackey,, you have to think outside to solve things, if you stick to a book, your spinnig your wheels,

numbers, mean nothing,,,i proved that in high school..

you don't hear much the the 54 and back ultras,, 55-56 the hp went up and they down sized the trans,, when they should of been over building things....

to me a centrifugal force dd would of been better, when your dealing with rotation, force goes out,, to your advantage,

Yes, the reason the Hydramatic needed multiple forward gears was the absence of a torque converter.

And while we're thinking "out of the box" and not spinning wheels, let's not forget that a young, ex-Chrysler engineer, was the co-chief in charge of developing the Gear Start and later Twin-Ultramatic transmissions. His name was John Z. DeLorean. His out of the box thinking went on to some of the irreverent development of the Pontiac GTO, some of Chevrolet's biggest selling years, and ultimately, a car from Northern Ireland bearing his own name.

Several beautiful wives later, his train ran off the track with a few of his final episodes of thinking out of the box. I still wonder if a strange white powder might have been behind some of the things my 58 year old Ultramatic does today. I also wonder how John Z was welcomed by the older and esteemed Packard Master Engineers when he arrived as a young man from Chrysler, filled with new ideas? Then he moved from a bankrupt Packard to a very different climate at GM at the top of their game. What a ride he had through the auto industry! Perhaps a story not to share with the grandkids.

Quote:

In the early sixties some drag racers combined automatic transmissions with clutches and flywheels. This required removing the pump, so they fed the trans from a power steering pump.

I suppose you could do this if you wanted to move the pump out of the trans, but why? What good would it do?