Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

You pry the engine and trans over to get the actuator on the shaft as you described. With the actuator and its motor fairly horizontal, then being sure both trans and actuator are in reverse tighten the shaft to sector screw in the opening on bottom of actuator along with temporarily tightening the bolt on trans case that goes in the slot on the strap between actuator and case. Once that is done then push a button to select another gear that is in the middle of the range, for example D. Loosen the bolt on the trans case holding the strap between the actuator and trans case again and push up or down on the end of the actuator motor to rotate the entire assy a slight amount until you feel the resistance provided by the detents on each side. Once detents are felt place the actuator in the middle of that play and tighten both the case and actuator end strap bolts tightly to hold everything in position. It only takes one person to do this..

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Just submitted pictures taken from underneath car looking up into rear section of transmission. Do I have everything on the shift shaft together correctly before I put the pan back on. Thanks,
Clifford

Slide that collar with the set screw over to all but eliminate end play on the shift shaft.

Don't think you will be happy with that cotter pin on the shift link--too much play, and it will jam in the case then you try to shift into Park. Get a small headed pin secured with a small cotter pin.

Strongly suggest pinning the die-cast shift arm to the shift shaft with a roll pin. 1/8 dia by 1" long will do. Those set screws absolutely love to work loose.

Here we go again- my problem persists. I don't think it's a trans. problem as I replaced the actuator with the small shifter arm used on non push button cars, placed the trans manually into drive, and it was fine. I replaced the big cotter pin that was holding the shifter arm to the plunger, and slid the lock ring against the trans. case as suggested [I figured this was my problem because it was allowing the shaft to move]. Put everything back together, but things are still the same. If I loosen the bolts a move the actuator motor down until it comes against the trans. case, then move it slowly upward until there is an obvious click where it drops into a detent, the car wants to move forward instead of reverse. At this point, the motor is approx. parallel to the case [or ground], and there is approx. 1" between the end of the motor and the case. If I slowly move the motor downward, it comes to some resistance, but no detent click. Locking it at this point gives me reverse, but still no high gear. Approx. 1/2" now between end of motor and trans. case, and motor is downward from parallel. Please look at the pictures I sent previously to see if you can see anything that I could have installed wrong when I reinstalled the shaft after replacing the seal. Car shifted ok before I removed the shaft. so I'm convinced that I created the problem, but don't know how. Thanks.

Uhh is your linkage arm, on the outside of the case, on backwards?

It will change the characteristics of where the arm goes for each shift point, if so.

I installed the shifter arm [on the outside of case] only to be able to place the trans. manually into the different gears. When in high position with shifter arm, the car was in high as it should be. However, with the electric actuator installed, that is where I'm having problems. I've tried a second actuator same problem persists.

Can you post a photo?

Did you make the adjustment on the shifter motor to align the stops with the detents? If so, which gears work and which don't?

If you scroll back on this topic you will see 2 pictures of the shaft [taken from underneath, car on hoist, pan removed]. I believe that I must have installed something wrong when reinstalling the shaft after having it out to replace the seal. As I said, if I pull the shift motor down until it hits the trans. case, then move it up slowly until there is an obvious click when it drops into a detent [should be in reverse], car wants to move forward. Moving the motor back downward, there is resistance part way down, but no click into a detent. At this point the car goes into reverse, but in "high" it is in low gear. No matter how I adjust the actuator, pushing the "high" button always gives me low gear. When I removed the actuator and installed the shifter arm from a non push button car, setting it in high manually, car was in high.