Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Going to look at my 1st packard Saturday. 53 patrician. Planning to use tow dolly and go slow. Could back on and tie steering wheel or head on and drop drive shaft. Opinions? Is dropping the driveshaft a big deal? Tow vehicle cant handle extra weight of full trailer.

John

This is an interesting question. V8s with PS are not recommended to be towed on the front wheels because the weight on the front suspension with the nose down changes geometry and the stress of side to side movement can result in the pitman arm becoming damaged. If the 53 has PS, it uses very similar components to the 55-6 senior PS so this may hold true with 53-4 too. If there is PS, without the fluid pressure in the control valve there is side to side slop which may let the wheels wander a bit.

Drive shaft is the typical 4 bolt or retaining clip U joint in the rear so not that hard to disconnect and tie the shaft out of the way providing you can raise the car and get to it. You would need to make sure the parts of the U joint were kept together and couldn't come apart during the move. To remove the entire shaft, if the car has an Ultramatic it would be another 4 bolts at a flange on the end of trans.

Page 1 of section XVII (17) of the 51-54 manual gives detailed instructions on removal of the drive shaft on Ultramatic equipped vehicles. You need to remove snap-ring retainers and remove the bearings to disengage the cross from the rear yoke.

Drive shaft removal is only necessary when automatic trans has NO REAR pump.

How FAR do u have to tow the car??? If less than 20 miles then nothing to worry about.

I'd read the owner's manual to see what Packard's recommendation was for towing. A significant plus for the Ultramatic is that it has a rear pump and thus towing with the driveshaft connected will result in the rear pump providing lubrication to the transmission. At what speeds and for what distances that lubrication is adequate is the question I believe you'll find answered in the owner's manual.

The one time I had to tow a 1953 Patrician, it was done from the rear but with the engine running. Otherwise without the power steering pump working, there was too much slop in the front wheels! Fortunately the car ran, it was not a highway trip and was at low speed! I towed it behind a 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special.

G'day John,

"Going to look at my 1st packard Saturday. 53 patrician..."

I know I asked previously in Post #9, but that was back in 2011, so this reminder is just to jog the memory!

Thanks for the advice. I have to go 390 miles. I dismissed driving it. The current owner has only driven 100 miles at a time max, but several years ago once.
Thinking tow dolly at 45 mph with driveshaft out. Could rent a truck and trailer too. But would need to figure out how to get there. Cleveland to philly.

John

If i buy i will add it to the registry.

Using our '56 Patrician we towed a '56 Caribbean convertible 50 miles without incident using a tow bar. The next day we retrieved a '56 Patrician that came along with the deal with a tow bar. Neither drive shaft was disconnected and it went fine. We paid $400 for both, the only thing that worked on the Carib was the horn.
solid, complete and it had 2 Offenhauser ribbed aluminum valve covers bolted on top of top of top of the hood scoops, but it did have a brand new factory engine

Total price $400, year:1963 We still have the Caribbean, we parted out the Patrician and just threw out the 4 doors we had saved. Later in college I dated Janet Offenhauser who worked on her 54 Renault, she was definately a keeper but that was not to be.