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I didn’t want to mess with other forums on this subject.

I came across this kit, made in the past.

How good was it?

Are there any running Packards that are still using this set up?

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The Gibson kit was well-received in its time, it was as trouble-free as the Torqueflite unit itself was.

Agree with O_D. In the 70s and 80s it was installed in several cars owned by PI members and the kit was a good quality item. I was at a PI meet where a chassis with the trans installed was on display. Harold Gibson conducted several well attended and well received training sessions on the conversion.

I do not know if he mfg'd the kit himself or had it done elsewhere but as I understand it, when Harold died the mfg was taken over by others. For whatever reason it did not continue being as popular. Perhaps because the specific big V8 version late 60 early 70s Torque Flite transmissions were harder to come by and the conversion to GM units which were easier to find were being done more or perhaps the kit was not as complete or as good. I do remember some complaints of balance and vibration problems with the later conversions. Those issues could be kit or install related so hard to say exactly why it fell out of favor. I don't believe the Torque Flite kit is being mfg'd anymore.

The last car I can remember being discussed on this forum with the conversion was a Caribbean owned by Mathew in Australia. Don't remember if he had the conversion done or if the car had it when he bought it but maybe he or someone familiar with the car could give an update as to how it performs.

Although Mat has since sold his Caribbean, I've notified him of this thread.

This is different to the kit i used. This is what I used to bolt a GM T700 up to it.

transmissionadapters.com/collections/pac ... 55-1956-packard-352-400-v8-to-700r4

Thanks for clarifying which trans is in the car. I obviously was in error about what you had. I know there was someone with a V8 asking about a vibration issue with one of the TorqueFlite conversions around the same time you were having repairs done due to the brake failure. Must have confused it with your car.

Howard, you did have the right person, I did try the torqueflite conversion kit and I had nothing but trouble. My adapter from the crank shaft to the gearbox was out of alignment by 30thou, (I think it was)and it kept throwing the stator. I had rebuilt the box twice before this as I had had other issues with it.
In the end I went with the kit I mentioned above. The GM box was a much stronger box.

Was the kit above different that the kit offered by Sierra Grove Packards for the 727 conversions?

I know people reported that those kits either worked great or were horrible depending on alignment, as the kit didn't use eccentrics for the mounting plate, and therefore couldn't be adjusted to maintain concentric alignment.

As someone fairly ignorant on the various pros and cons of the available transmissions to swap in, could someone explain the appeal of the Tourqueflite as a substitute for the Ultramatic, so much so that a kit was designed for it?

I believe back in the 70s when the kit was designed Harold Gibson felt the TorqueFlite was one of the stronger transmissions fully capable of taking the torque of the V8 engines and more closely mimicked the Ultramatic in shift points. As I recall his presentation during one of the seminars, he also felt it was one of the easier to adapt and install because of overall size and something to do with the bellhousing or converter.