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Howdy all,

My first post, so be gentle with me.

I'm currently looking at buying an early 50's Packard straight-8 3-speed manual car. There are a few to choose from and all are rough with weeds and/or briars grown up all 'round them.

Anyway, the question is this:

How do I tell whether one of these cars has the Borg-Warner overdrive option? I've been a mechanic in years past, so I know enough to climb under the car and check... only I'm not going to be able to do this because of undergrowth. I'm going to have to check a few cars from within the interior and discern whether they are O/D equipped.

If I have to, I would be willing to buy two cars if that's what it takes to get a decent body + an O/D unit.

In other words: Where was (is) the overdrive "button" located on an early 50's column-shift 3-speed car?

And while I'm being a bother, did these cars have a synchronized 1st gear? For several decades, it was fairly common (among cheaper cars) to leave the syncro off 1st gear to (ostensibly) save money. Since a Packard wasn't a "save money" type of car, I was wondering if perhaps it had a 1st gear synchro back in the early 50's.

If I can get the car, I reckon I'll find out soon enough!

Thanks,

Allargando DiFortissimo Jones (or simply, "jrc")

An OD car will have a lockout knob under dash usually on rt side of steering column. They will also have a silver relay with a fuse mounted on side under hood. Will be on firewall in area around voltage regulator almost in front of driver. I believe there was no synchro first but others will better answer that.

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G'day JRC,
to PackardInfo. I'll leave the O/D identification details to the much more knowledgeable. But, if you buy one or more of these Packards, could you please include them in the Owner Registry together with a pic, any known history and how you found and acquired them?

> An OD car will have a lockout knob under dash... <snip>

Thanks greatly. I figured it would be something low-key, instead of a huge fire-engine red knob with gold lettering proclaiming, "Packard OverDrive-O'Rama" or somesuch... as would be the case nowadays.

And in response to adding the car to the registry; I would be happy to comply. After all, if I have a serial#, that would mean I would also (now) have a Packard!

Fingers crossed,

jrc

Very much low key and unlabeled--no o'ramas. Packards name was Aero-drive or Econo-drive depending on year.

Typical of most 3-speed manual transmissions of the era, no synchro on first gear.

Another thing to do in case the handle is no longer there is to pop the hood and see if there's a switch on the accelerator pedal linkage on the firewall. My '53 Clipper didn't have the cable but had the switch. The lock out lever where the cable went down on the trans was wired up so the o/d wouldn't work.

Up until 1962 all American cars had non synchro first gear. This was not a big deal because the engines had so much torque you never needed to gear down that low.

Ford had the first all synchro 3 speed.

With a Packard straight eight you can skip first gear entirely most of the time. A lot of lazy drivers used to start off in second, short shift to 3d and leave it there for the rest of the day. A Packard in good condition will pull away in 3d from a slow walk all the way up to 90 - 100 MPH without a sound.

Didn't Packard have a model with a big red clutch pedal called "Electro Motive Drive?"

big red clutch pedal called "Electro Motive Drive?"

Electromatic Clutch was the name of the device.

Actualy, uncle likes to show off a straight's power by puting the car in third at a dead stop, folding his right foot under, and drop'n the clutch. and just let'n the ol girl take off and cruise on her own. it's impressive!

Electromatic clutch: see also vaccume/mechanical nightmare p.i.a. to work on!