Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

On the column shifter obviously the lever must be pulled back to get out of Park. However, it must also be lifted to enter Low, and further lifted to enter Reverse.

On my Deluxe I have to lift it to enter Low but the additional "bump" into Reverse is not noticeable.

I notice there is this "brush" (as in, a motor brush) that tracks along the detent pattern, and it is heavily worn. I wonder if this contributes to the issue. (Shown below.)

Another annoyance I have is that the needle seems to be only vaguely connected to the column. I just reattached it, so I know that it's tight. Something else is loose. And please note that my transmission is not even in the car yet... I can already see that the needle doesn't land on the same place when the selector is moving to the right vs. the left. This is fairly annoying as going into Drive (D') out of Low, the needle basically still points to Low. But going into D' from Park, the needle lands fine.

I would appreciate any insight that would help to tighten up this linkage before I drop the transmission in in a couple of weeks.

Sounds like something in the column is loose, out of adjustment, or severely worn. There should only be two places where you need to lift the handle -- going into park or into reverse. A protrusion near the end of the lever hits stops on the bottom of the fixed turn signal switch housing at top of column. The lever needs to be lifted to move the lever protrusion part of the stop down to clear the stops on the fixed housing so that collar like piece canrotate the tube and travels into either gear. Here is an actual photo of the column from the Stude service manual. Basic columns are the same but Stude used a different range indicator method so nothing is screwed to the rotating inner tube that the moves to shift ranges.




As to the indicator being sloppy, same issue. A sort of slot is on the rotating shift tube in which a tongue that is on a sliding portion of the indicator assy fits into. The needle is supported and clamped onto the sliding piece. I don't remember who posted these photos but the original post should be on the forum if you want to search for the various indicator issues. Note that the third photo has the original style clamp which was on early 55 cars and changed in later cars to that clamp with setscrews shown in the second photo. There is another series of posts from earlier this year where another poster had to change his top piece because I believe one of the stops no longer worked at all.