Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

"It's a 1956 Four hundred with 56.000 miles"
Or you could just ship it to Wisconsin

I do not know if you want to go this route but this is what I did when I finally had it up to here with ultramatics. I had one rebuilt by a local shop in Philly, that one lasted all of 2 years. Then I had ultramatic dynamics rebuild one=the first one lasted months, to their credit they replaced that one with a second unit that lasted about 2 1/2 years. I then read about Bentsens transmissions conversions. bought the kit, bought the GM 700r transmission-and asked a person who owned a car with the kit what he thought about it-it was undoubtedly the right move. My car has more guts on the highway and GETS GREAT gas mileage-which it never did before. That said the guy at Bendtsens can be somewhat of a bear to deal with but his product speaks for itself. The total cost for the conversion was just shy of 4000 but I am sure I WILL NEVER have to deal with transmission issues again. As for the ultramatic the best one I ever had was the original one the car came with-it lasted 51 years until it self destructed on the Pa Turnpike west of Downingtown. Also I dont blame these transmission rebuilders-I think TU is simply a bad design. I once asked an old mechanic about the time my first TU was dying-Oh I remember those, they were a bitch to work on when they were new and you dont have enough money to pay me to look at one now!

That's odd. I had mine rebuilt in '92 and have put 35,000 miles on it since then. From Pgh I have driven to Detroit twice, Finger Lakes in NY, New Jersey, Va and Maryland and Ohio every year. The fellow who rebuilt mine was a gearhead who really knew what he was doing. His Dad was a member of Pac and had three 55-56 Packards. It still runs strong.

My results with my Twin Ultramatic are consistent with Randy's; I had it rebuilt by Ross Miller some years back and have accumulated many thousands of miles since and performance is absolute perfection.