Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Hi All,

Needing some advice!!!!

Unfortunately, my girl requires a rebuild, she currently sounds like an overlocker sewing machine and was having issues changing out of 1st. I've spoken to my mechanic and he can not source any parts in Australia, which I knew would be an issue, but he also suggested that I put in a small block chev and gearbox as a replacement, as apparently it will be a better product and will be overall easier. I would like to keep her as original as possible, but ....... would it be better to do the swap, time and $$$ wise or is there someone who knows someone who can help me out

What fluid are running? People had had issues with more modern gear oils.

I know Ross reported at one time draining the fluid, and refilling with GL1 90 (Mineral Oil) fixed a transmission that he was sure needed a rebuild.

Some where here is his post where he describes also slowly moving through the gears to "wipe" the old fluid off the bits.

Also, since you are saying gear box, I'm assuming you are referring to a manual transmission.

Jazz,

First of all, you CAN get parts in Australia. It's just that your mechanic does not know the Packard vendors.

It was my understanding that that car was in good mechanical condition. So what symptoms developed? There's 2 things here, engine and transmission.

These engines tend to be very reliable once they run well. I suspect you are running it either on too low of an octane, or the oil pump is giving you problems. Too low octane will cause pinging, and poor oil pressure or quality will cause noisy tappets which is more the sound you are describing. If this is the case, installing the Oldsmobile oil pump conversion is all that is required.

On your trans, you have the push button transmission. So I need to know how you are going into gear. Were you hitting D and the transmission did not want to upshift? It possible the motor linkage is a bit out of adjustment and you actually went into Low. Did you try driving in H?

First thing to fix is the engine issues. Make sure you are running it on high octane fuel. Then, if you have noisy tappets, you need to just replace the oil pump with that conversion.

What is somewhat alarming to me is that your mechanic is suggesting rebuilds/swaps without even properly troubleshooting your issues. I would suggest finding a different mechanic that can tell you what is ACTUALLY wrong with your engine, and we can help you from there. Once the engine is good, we can figure out the transmission.

I would call up shops specializing in classic cars saying along the lines of:
"Hi, I have a 56 Packard. The engine is making a noise that sounds like...

"I can source whatever parts are needed for it, I just need it diagnosed properly, then I can get you what's needed for the repair and I have a service manual you can use."

You could even direct them here if you want... the V8 engines are obscure to most people but very common in Packard-land.

Eventually you will find one that can work on it. The engines especially are very typical of the time. The Ultramatics not so, so it's best if we get the engine happy, then we can troubleshoot the transmission problem.

P.S. Have you joined the Packard club and the Australia chapter? That's who would know what shops to use. Not sure there's any Ultramatic specialists over there but surely there's more V8 engine cars that have needed work in the past.

P.P.S. Kev gave good advice, for a MANUAL transmission. (Since you called it a gearbox in the title of your post, that implies it's a manual.) Anyway, please do NOT flush it with gear oil... that's all... FYI your Ultramatic needs Type F fluid. But the fluid in it is likely still good.

Good advice thus far. Finding another mechanic is easier said than done, but since your current man has no interest in actually diagnosing the problem, say goodbye.

Since installing the Oldsmobile oil pump usually solves the problem of ticking lifters at idle and it's necessary to remove the oil pan for this, begin the diagnosis there.

With the oil pan removed, remove the center main bearing cap. If the lower bearing half still has good babbit, the rest of the engine is usually still good also. If the babbit is mostly gone and copper showing through, then a more thorough inspection is necessary to determine if a rebuild is necessary.

And yes, the membership here can assist your next mechanic in finding any and all parts, should a rebuild be found necessary.

jack vines

Hi all,

Thanks for that advice, i have been running the 91 as that what I was told to run here as it is the equivalent to the US. I have joined the Australian chapter, I found that there was no thermostat and that was why I was not getting a temperature reading. I had assumed that the engine was fine, the oil pressure gauge is telling me it is ok. I am going to see another mechanic, one I know personally, and hopefully get some sort of answer off them. Gearbox is actually the twin ultramatic auto, and yes I was in D and it would not shift into 2nd, I did try the H and still nothing, she ended up destroying my pinion gear in the starter, which could have been the issue as to not changing into gear as the pinion was still engaged for what ever reason.

You can't run that engine on 91 typically, as your country advertises gas by Research Octane # not Motor Octane #, and 91 ROI is not good enough for a 10.0 compression engine. Simply put, your 91 is like our 87. You should always be running that at the best grade available: 95 or 98 Octane.

It's good that your oil pressure is OK but you still could have problems with the oil quality. But I'm more worried about the gas.

I would drain the gas tank and refill it with 98 Octane. I'm not really sure what you mean by the "sewing machine" sound but it could be pinging. Again with that mechanic... he should have instantly been able to recognize either engine pinging or noisy tappets. Point is, before doing anything else I would replace the gas with fresh high octane gas. Then see what happens.

It can be drained into a Jerry can with a siphon pump through the filler neck. There is a drain plug on the tank but they all are rusted by now.

For the starter pinion gear, were you not able to drive above, say, 15MPH? If you were driving at normal speed, I don't see how those could be related. Well, maybe, if you literally had the throttle all the way down just to drive at 40MPH due to that issue. Regardless, your new mechanic should be able to check if your starter has issues or is damaged.

Hello Jazz, Sorry to hear about your engine and gearbox woes. Your 385 Patrician engine is a very reliable unit but it needs the Olds oil pump conversion big time. I have a 56 Patrician, which has been converted to RHD ( using Ford Fairlane Parts with some adaptation). I did not have any lifter noise ( My vehicle has 52,000 miles from original), but the Olds pump conversion lifted the oil pressure when hot but I ended up with a slight oil leak from the rear main. I converted my Generator to a 4WD alternator with vacuum pump to run the Packard vacuum wipers and used a fraction of the vacuum to pick up the rear main leakage into a catch can in the engine bay. The Twin Ultramatic is a good unit but relied on tight rotating component bush clearances rather than seals to maintain system pressure. The gearbox and can be quite fragile when shifted from Low to High and vice versa at high revs or high load conditions. Packard Ultramatic repair kits were last available in Australia until around 1978 (Vatco in Victoria). I bought half a dozen kits so the last fifty or so that they had probably went into the bin. I am the Technical Officer for the Packard Automobile Club of Australia. You should give me a call on 0408697105 we can have a chat. I would not recommend any Transmission shops to do your Twin Ultramatic as they are fine on the box but generally don't appreciate that the converter has a number of balanced entities within (apart from the converter as a whole ). The converter has to be carefully marked on disassembly and reassembled as such. I would recommend that you import a reconditioned box and converter from the US. It will not be cheap but you shall be more satisfied than fitting a SBC etc. Peter Toet

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I want to add to Peter's excellent comment that for the time being I have no reason to suspect that your transmission is having major problems. The push button unit linkage is known to loosen up over time and cause problems of which gear you enter. So even though the unit was rebuilt by Mr. Pushbutton a number of years ago, and still should work well, it was installed by a local mechanic and may not be 100% perfect without some simple adjustments at this later date.

The other possibility is that your high range clutches are burnt up. When you drive the car around, did the engine rev up between the low to high shift? In other words, as you go faster the engine slowly increases in RPM, then when the shift happens, the RPM's will get pulled down to match with high gear. Do the RPM's "flare up" right before the high gear engagement?

Thanks for that, i will be in touch shortly!!!