Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Again I'm looking for help. For the first time since I've owned my 56 Caribbean h/t I don't have a stain under the car from leaking transmission fluid. I drove the car into my garage, working fine except for the leak. I had always thought the pan gasket was the problem, tried replacing it with no success. Finally noticed it was the shift rod seal causing the problem, running down and following around the pan gasket. Drained the trans and lowered it, removed the pan and the electric shift unit, removed the shift shaft, replaced the seal and put everything back together. No leak. However, now the car will not come out of low gear in either drive or high. First thought it was a problem with the electric unit not properly adjusted, but after a week of trying to adjust it with no results, I'm at a loss to figure what happened. Quite often over the years it would not shift out of low with the drive button pushed, but would never do this with the high button pushed. Don't understand why this would happen when it was ok when I drove it in. Is there anything that I could have put together wrong on reinstalling the shaft? I also notice that with key on and any button pushed on the unit that I can loosen the electric units 2 securing bolts, and I can move the unit up or down quite a bit. Is this normal, or could the unit itself have something worn inside to cause this problem? The manual says this could be caused by sticking governor valves, or sticking low-high shift valves. Any cure for this if it is my problem without tearing things apart? I am a dummy when it comes to automatic transmissions, and have no way of checking pressures. Also, I live in an area with no trans shops, and no one who has ever heard of an ultramatic transmission. The first question is always "who built this, is it a Ford transmission?" Any help or ideas to try would be appreciated. Thanks, Clifford

I can't help with the problem but to answer your last question, Packard itself built the Ultramatic.

My first thought.

The motor is out of adjustment.

The video below explains the problem I'm almost certain you are having. Drop the pan and tighten that setscrew then the jam nut. Then loosen your shift motor linkage, command the motor to Neutral (hit the N button), then manually set the transmission to Netural by rotating the selector shaft. Tighten the motor linkage then check for proper operation.

If you rotate the selector shaft so that the shifter arm is all the way towards the inside of the body, that's Park. Just rotate it over center all you can before the first "click", that is Neutral.

There is a slight chance that the shifter arm will be stripped out or whatnot. Replacements are easily available.

If that solves your problem, then the fix is to drill thru the shifter arm and install a roll pin so that it doesn't wiggle around any more.

Also, check that the holes in your pan are not distorted from overtorqueing. They are easily hammered back flat. See this post.

The drawings below show the shifter arm as it is located on the selector shaft.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8VWbsWP6gmA

Attach file:

---

  Screenshot_20240927_144223.jpg (352.48 KB)


  Screenshot_20240927-144241_Drive.jpg (457.97 KB)

Here is a clear photo of the lever to go along with HPH's video.