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I'm with Mr PB on the touch panel. Change to the microswitches if some of the leaf contacts are acting up but otherwise keep the button assy as is. Not only is the mechanical portion rugged and also period correct but the styling is unique to Packard and something not seen too often anymore. That alone is a plus in my opinion.

If you do have your heart seat on some kind of touchpad then seeing if you could adapt something like the PCS unit or maybe a Moon unit if those are still available would be easier than trying to make something work from scratch. When you start trying to mix modern electronic touch pads and old school mechanical switches and relays together it opens up a huge can of gotcha's that have to be sorted out.

I like the pushbutton ... That's why it's in the car.

But..the touchpad would be interesting. And if the pushbutton was designed today you can pretty much take that it would be tried.

Just on tooling costs. A touchpad and micro switches would cost next to nothing .

And a full motherboard would control everything...which would be a pain in the azz.. To try and diagnose...

What they called electronic in the 50 s is hard wired... Mechanical...which is a lot easier to figure out. Model train circutboards today..pain in the axx.

My test area..truck of 56 patrician.


Ok...problem was...fingers were not making contact.

Bent them...works. .

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That's why I make all new fingers. I figure the owner only want to go though taking the actuator off the car once.

Have you looked at the thrust bearing in the worm gear portion of the actuator? Those corrode and the balls freeze in the race on some units, maybe because of climate.

John that's all good..I greased it back in the day and add more this time. Plus..drops of prolong. Oil additive..

Just got motor back on shaft..went easy.. Small jack on tailshaft....

Checked everything before that..works..at first..only had some shifts..

Then looked and forgot to join the pressure switch wires..

One more test..once I tighten motor to shaft..to see if it turns manual shaft..

C

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400 running. Melling oil pump seems to be doing its job.

Trans shifts smooth.. Ross.s mod. D .first shift about 17 mph..2nd. About 35 mph. When under power.

H. Felt good going from L to H. Haven't tried starting in H yet..

L..up shifts about 25 mph.

Geting hung up R to L....L to R ok..I just go into another position..for now..

Have drip at seal..but not that bad yet..I think..putting a hunk of thick. some type sealing rubber . between seal and converter out side would work. I put an 0 ring there just to see..

But next time..years from now. Going to see just how much gap there is between seal and and end of converter shaft.

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Out for a drive

Including freeway....up shifts are just over 30 mph..

So might lower that. Other wise shifts nice..even H.....

Need steering cyl rebuilt...geezz..

Edited.

The shift points work great for hills..

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Riki your car looks great.