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I recently removed the motors from a 1954 Patrician which was a real pain but I understand that it was made much easier for 1955 and 1956. In the photos I saw of the assembly, it appears that moveable anchors were used rather than having them welded directly to the floor but it may be necessary to remove a couple seat mounting bolts. I’m sure Howard or others will give a better answer.

Be sure that the ballscrews in the actuators are very clean and properly lubricated so that the ball bearings can freely flow through the return tubes on top of the nuts. This is from years of experience working during my apprenticeship at Ballscrews & Actuators which made devices exactly like those that Packard used. My 1965 Cadillac and 1965 Imperial also have ballscrews in their cruise control units.

If there is no sign of activity at the motor, before taking it out verify it is the motor at fault and not the switch. The seat circuit works the same as window motors and on the windows switch failures are usually the reason a motor doesn't even try to move. If the motor does run but seat doesn't move check the rubber coupling. It has some splines inside that can shear off.

If all that looks good, then probably the actuator is jammed or even damaged and seat will most likely need to come out to get actuator off or see what has happened. My front-back actuator end stop had worn and tube around worm was going too far and getting stuck in the housing. Would not move in either direction when stuck so had to add a limit switch to prevent that problem.

The 56 seat switch, being a 4 direction toggle type has a different switch configuration than shown in the wiring drawing but works the same. There is a 5 pin block that holds the terminals pushed onto the back of the switch to make contact with the switch terminal pins. There could also be a problem in the block.

You should be able to disconnect both wires going to the motor from the rest of the loom. Make sure the seat and motor has a good ground and use a decent size jumper wire to put voltage to the yellow or black wire going to the motor. Voltage on one wire should make it go one direction, voltage to the other wire reverses it.

If the motor still does not work then it should be able to be removed without disturbing anything else. As I recall it is held to the actuator gearbox by two nuts on the end of screws that go thru the motor. Don't remember how hard it is to access the nuts though.

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that you for that gentlemen. So I did verify that the switch was getting power to the motor but no action was happening.

I had to unbolt the seat in order to get to the motor bolts and removed the motor. I was not able to turn the motor by hand but I was able to rotate the actuator on the seat frame and it did appear to move freely. I didnt rotate it to the point of moving the seat though.

I tried to get the motor to move by putting power to the yellow wire and grounding the mounting stud. I was not seeing any motion from the motor. I disassembled it, cleaned it and got it back together but still wasnt able to get the motor to rotate. Can I get these motors somewhere?

Thank you

I believe you could have taken out only the seat cushion rather than having to unbolt the seat frame! Tricky to do but it does come out with some considerable effort of pushing it to the rear while lifting the front edge.

Try Packard Southwest or maybe Ross for the motors or even send a PM to Stewart Ballard who is doing the 55 400. He just bought a pair of motors but I think his originals were able to be fixed so he might have a spare to sell.

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thank you for that Howard. I will see where I can source one.

But before I ask for more parts, I noticed my horns do not work. I do know I am getting power to the horn relay, the horn switch in the column as be verified, and I am getting power to the horn's wire, but still no sound. I have tried grounding the horns and apply straight battery voltage to the horns and still no sound. I believe my horns are bad. Is there an adjustment that could be made to get them to work? or is it better just to get other ones?

Thank you

Dirty contacts inside the horn could be at fault or rust could have settled in and the diaphragm has frozen up so it cannot move. Contacts are fairly easy to clean. Getting rid of rust not so much. In at least one horn I know of some kind of 6 legged critter had set up housekeeping way up in the air chamber and completely blocked the diaphragm movement.

There is a bit on the horns on page 49 in the electrical section of SM. You might try cleaning the contacts first. They are the item in the photo directly adjacent and slightly below the two wrenches where the mechanic is shown adjusting the tone. If that does not work then try to find out what is blocking the diaphragm. Contacts must be closed when power is applied so diaphragm can move and open them. Once that action starts the continual on/off of contacts and vibration of diaphragm is what makes the noise.

FYI, a car battery is needed to test them. Most bench-top power supplies won't do as the horns pull some significant amps.

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Thank you for that information!! I opened them up and cleaned up the contacts. Initially it didnt work, and then it did. almost wet myself when they sounded at 8:45 at night lol neighbors probably werent happy, but tested and approved.

I tried seeing if I could get the overdrive to work last night as well. had the car up on jack stands and got the speedo up to about 30 mph. the car started to shake and figured it wasnt the best method to test the OD. Saw there is a trouble shooting section in the FSM for the OD so I will try diving into that in the next week or so.

Also verified the windshield wipers are working while attached to the carb. Still need to figure out what side of the fuel pump to connect them to as well.

When it comes to the OD I verified that the Relay, solenoid, kick down switch, and wiring are good. It appears the only way to test the governor with it in the car is to actually drive it and see if it goes into OD.

So that will be a test for another day!