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I have a 53 Cavalier with an Ultramatic. The Ultramatic generally works fine, I have been keeping an eye on the rear seal and may replace that eventually. On the few times I have been on the freeway for a sustained length of time it always felt to me that the engine was spinning a little fast at typical highway speeds of 65-70 mph. I always thought it might be nice to have the 3-speed plus O.D., at least for the increased reliability - Does it drop the revs down on the highway in comparison to the Ultramatic? What kind of costs are involved in a conversion? If I understand it, the front universal joint for these cars, the one near the transmission, is rather special and not really available anymore. Is that true? Does the situation improve with the 3-speed plus OD? Not that I would be able to do it anytime soon, but it might be a project I'd consider in the future.

At 60 mph Ultramatic is spinning around 2510 rpm which is a high wear index. Given the final drive in the differential, conversion to manual will reduce that to around 1810 rpm versus 2098 rpm for factory stick O/D. This will result in a wear index closer to modern cars. Even when pulling the Caribbean sled the conversion results in very good performance. However, you will need the steering column, brake and clutch pedal assemblies, linkages, mounts, cables, relays, kickdown, etc, etc. Or in other words - a complete parts car.

Another drawback is that I'm not a big fan of Packard column shift transmissions. The engineering wasn't very good and they did nothing to improve the situation.

So there is the option of those aftermarket floor shift transmissions which require a hole in the floor which isn't very nice either.

Personally, given the car has no safety features, in fact my old high school safety text featured a 50's Packard as an example of decapitation by the steering wheel, I would hesitate to change the car given today's higher speeds and stick to secondary roads to avoid high speed accidents.

As well, the health care situation in this country is a shambles with rural hospitals disappearing so if you do get in a crash in a rural area you may die at the scene. My modern car has a rotten final drive (2550 at 60 mph) and I don't care if people are running me off the road at 65-70 mph in the slow lanes because air bags aren't effective over 65 mph anyway. That's why you read about celebrity millionaires dying in car wrecks.

Ross wrote:

"When the Packard crowd was younger, that is, in their sixties, I used to do a fair number of OD conversions. That was 25 years ago. I still have at least 3 left. No one asks anymore."

While the Ultramatic in my '53 Clipper Deluxe works fine, it feels like its limiting the overall performance and keeps the engine rather busy at even 55 mph.

So, the question for Ross is:
"what is the cost to convert a car to manual shift with overdrive with the components you have when the customer supplies the car?

Steve

Oh, about 2600-3000. Needless to say, it is rather time consuming. I don't have any gripes with the 51-54 column shift.

I agree Ross. The 51 chassis was more robust. They also improved the linkage. On the earlier cars the detent spring inside the column was poor quality and causes problems. I knew people who bought those cars new and they said the need to manually detent the 1-2 shift wasn't necessary when the cars were new.

However, one trip around the block in a Cadillac with column shift revealed a lot of deficiencies in the Packard system, the first gear rattle in the Cadillac notwithstanding.