Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Greetings,
Curious as to what this unit with the wires attached to it is mounted on the side of this 1955 Packard manual transmission.
A solenoid to activate the overdrive system? And how does it work.
We’re working on a 1956 Caribbean that seems to be a converted automatic and the transmission is similar to the stock picture.
Thanks

The transmission in your picture appears to be a Packard top loader for a straight 8 car. Your 56 should use a Borg Warner T85 side loader.

Other than that, that is the solenoid used to engage the over drive.

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There appears to be 4 wires that connect to the solenoid. If that is the case and the solenoid has 4 terminals with a wire on each of the terminals that is an R9 overdrive used from 40-48 and is 6v. It is a more complex overdrive than the R11 both mechanically and electrically and needs a relay box and solenoid specific to the R9. Neither item is reproduced or available in 12v and because of scarcity parts can be expensive if you need to replace anything. The R9 overdrive can also be somewhat troublesome under certain conditions.

Packard switched to the R11 overdrive in mid 48 and you need the overdrive specific to a V8 transmission which was a bit different electrically than the R11s used from 48-54. The R11 solenoids and relay boxes are repro'd in both 6 and 12v but the R11 solenoid or relay box will not work in the R9.

He said that the photo was for reference and that it’s for a V8 Packard so, while excellent information that may be very useful to others, it’s really moot to the OP’s purposes.

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I just saw too many wires and the solenoid on the wrong side for an R11 and missed the stock photo reference bit so yes, the info is moot but I will leave the post up anyway in case others can benefit. People on this forum are very creative and it would not surprise me at all to read that someone had managed to install an old OD on a V8.