Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Ok - so like a dummy I used park in my almost level driveway - I never use park, always neutral and PB. Anyway, now the push button trans won’t shift out of park. There is no sound at all when Push D or R, but a “click” when I push “P”. First order of business is to get it out of park so I can roll it into the garage - how do I do that? Second, I followed the manual to troubleshoot the electrical; some seems fine, while I discovered that a previous owner did some strange stuff to the wiring. Any help on basic troubleshooting methodology would be appreciated.

Tom,

Can you post some pictures of the wiring of interest? Is the driveway flat enough where you can rock the car back and forth a bit by hand? If so, what happens if you push the car uphill slightly to relieve any pressure on the pawl then put it in neutral? Remember to use some chocks if you try this.

I'm wondering if the motor is not strong enough, or there is an electrical problem.

First question is how much grade is an "almost level driveway"? If the driveway has a decided slant it could be the incline has put a lot of load on the park gear and the motor does not have the power to pull the pawl out of mesh with the park gear. This happens more than you want to think about. Another all too common issue is running the front tire into a curb so a lot of pressure is on the tire. That pressure pushes back and again puts strain on the park gear. Funny story is that not coming out of park when the car was new is the reason my car became a used car very early in its life.

If too much grade is the reason, only cure is to somehow get the pressure off the park gear. Blocking one rear wheel and raising the other wheel will do it or using another car or maybe a few helpers to push opposite the grade is another. Once pressure is off put the trans in neutral and use the emergency brake.

If grade is not the issue, electrically, there could be several things. The easiest to check is to make sure the plastic plug under the dash is well seated and that none of the terminals have pushed out of either side of the plug resulting in a bad connection.

Second thing is if the auto park relay is still in the car make sure the relay has not failed and trans is electrically being commanded to stay in park. You can quickly remove the auto park function by disconnecting the green wire running between the circuit breaker and end terminal on auto park relay. It is an always hot wire so disconnect the battery or be very careful disconnecting and handling it. If you can shift into another gear with it disconnected then you will know something is wrong in the autopark circuit. Disconnecting only the green wire is a quick and dirty trick so without more work, the park button will not be usable again until the cause is found and fixed.

If the auto park relay has been bypassed or removed from the car then it is sounding like a more serious issue. If none of those suggestions work to get the car able to move I am afraid you will need to do some serious troubleshooting, some of which might involve getting under the car and possibly removing the actuator assy which is not an easy or fun job. If the actuator over travelled and a finger lost contact with the contact segment and segment cannot be manually driven back electrically, there is no access to be able to fix that problem with the actuator still attached to the transmission .

Here is the Autolite drawing showing the complete stock wiring circuit minus the control relay. Hard to guess what might have been changed on your car but the control relay was discontinued fairly early in production. It is shown as being present in all the factory wiring diagrams. There was a bulletin suggesting dealers remove it but still might be on some cars.

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  PB autopark 2.jpg (171.71 KB)

It's a good practice with any car to keep the parking brake in good working order and apply it FIRMLY, first thing, when you are parking the car.

Setting the parking brake before putting the transmission in Park will relieve the transmission park mechanism of any torque load, which will prevent any issues with getting stuck in Park.

With the parking brake already set, the transmission park function will serve as a backup for the parking brake.

Procedure:

(1) stop the car

(2) Keeping your foot on the service brake, set parking brake FIRMLY.

(3) put the transmission in Park

To start from Park, place your foot firmly on service brake to hold the car and put the transmission out of Park and in N, or the appropriate gear, keeping your foot on the service brake.

Release the parking brake, move foot to accellerator, and drive away.


Always apply parking brake FIRMLY so that car cannot be moved without releasing the parking brake!

Making a habit of following this procedure will prevent getting stuck in Park, which can happen with any vehicle. It is also the safest procedure.

On the push button unit a frequent failure mode is that the motor coasts too far after it has been told to stop and consequently the contacts have gone past each other so the shifter no longer knows where it is, so to speak. You have to fool the control relay to make the motor go in the correct direction til it finds itself. You wish the motor to move away from park.

Turn the key on but do not start the car. Punch D or H. Now take a little jumper wire and jump from the + terminal of the battery to the Pink wire on the shifter relay--the one with the 6 connections. Do this only briefly about 1/2 second. That will start the shift motor in the direction of D and once the contacts find each other you will hear the unit complete the shift. Then put the car in N and go about your normal business.

Definitely a good trick to remember but if you still have the auto park relay, just in case there is a problem with the auto park function and relay is not energizing when key is turned on, to prevent an issue I would disconnect the green wire off the end terminal of the relay before doing this step. If the auto park circuit is trying to keep it in park and you manually force it to try and go the other direction there will be a conflict. Best case motor will buzz or vibrate before breaker can open, worst case damage could happen.

Once you do this procedure and if actuator starts moving properly it might be a good idea to follow the procedure in the Twin Ultramatic supplement section of the manual to check or adjust the actuator anti hunt screw.