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Hi, my name is Kevin and it has been 2 weeks since I last bought a Packard, so yeah, I think I'm on the road to recovery.



This car has been for sale for a while by one of our forum members, happy, and I've been casually looking at '56s for a while now. A year or two ago I mentioned to my wife that I was interested in this particular car and started dropping hints whenever the opportunity presented itself. It eventually became a running joke in the house, and anything of a brown color got labeled as Mojave Tan. The kids were all in on it too. Well, eventually my wife (being the awesome woman she is) was onboard with the Mojave Tan 400. So that started the ball rolling and after some saving and some planning we were able to acquire it and give it a new home. It was located in North Carolina and we are in Washington, so that was a complicating factor.

Based on recommendations from guys on this site, I went with Paige Johnson as the transportation broker and the process couldn't have been any easier. It helped that her estimate was $1,000 lower than the others I called. She handled everything and the car made it across the country one week after pickup. We were the last stop for the guy and he made it to our vicinity after 10:30pm. So we watched him unload in 12 degree weather and drove the car about 300 yards to the shop, where it promptly died.



The delivery guy mentioned that the car wasn't holding a charge, and that he had to charge the battery a few times to move the car while he unloaded others. The car (and lights) were struggling a bit to get it back to the shop, so I ended up turning everything off and limped it in. The battery showed 10.25 volts by the time it was home. Hooked it up to a charger overnight and got it back to full charge. I haven't had time to even look at the car until tonight after the kids went to bed. So here's what I noted so far.

The car is filthy from the transport across country. The trailer was enclosed, but with canvas sides so lots of dust and grime seemed to have gotten in. Once it warms up I can clean it up.



Up onto the lift to check underneath



Some mild wetness from oil and possibly some trans fluid. Far less than my Panama



Some potential leaks around the power steering



Possible leaks around the BTV unit and master cylinder. I can't tell if they are actual leaks or just spills from filling the reservoir. But it looks like the brake fluid has stripped the paint from the frame. This whole area of the frame is wet.



Torsion-Level is currently inoperable and the rear is nearly to the ground. I pulled the cover on the compensator box. Some of the connections are loose and one of the blue ones was not connected. I reconnected things and tried to ground out the terminals as it says in the service letters. No sound or movement. Battery fully charged and the dash switch was in the right position.



I checked out the wires to the TL solenoids. Fuses were good. Found the light green wire from the dash switch was separated. I used a jumper cable between the two ends to see if that would make a difference. It didn't.



Also noted that radiator was empty. There was nothing on the ground, and I know the guy I bought it from had put in antifreeze. So that was a little puzzling...



...until I found the passenger carpet completely soaked. There must be a major leak at the underseat heater. I'm assuming I will have to pull the carpet to let it dry completely.




So that's where I stand right now. The three main issues that need to get dealt with in order of importance:
1.) Find and correct leak in the underseat heater. Possibly bypass for now. Possibly pull carpet to dry it out.
2.) Check charging system to see if it is working properly.
3.) Fix inoperable Torsion Level system.

I'm open to any and all suggestions to the above issues!

Kevin,

Congratulations on acquiring "another" Packard.

Remember to include it in the Registry, I have already marked "happy's" '56 Four Hundred Hardtop Coupe entry as "sold".

Sorry to hear about the heater core leak. If you look at the Accessories section of the V8 manual, p. 15, you will find a helpful routing diagram. For the time being, you may want to pull up the front seat cushion and see where it is leaking from. Hopefully just a hose connection and not the core itself. FYI I have a spare one but have not tested it yet.

Hose 13643 is 5/8" ID, 1" OD heater hose.

For the motor try hooking it up to power. Remember it works like an antenna motor so attach only to one terminal at a time. I suspect that will work, and it will be only a matter of tracing connections to at least get it to work by jumping things. I have a bunch of cores of controllers and motors, so when you get it narrowed down a bit let me know, and I can check what I have; I haven't tested any of it yet.

On your Torsion-Level:

While it doesn't make an operational difference, the blue and orange limit switch wires are in the wrong connectors in the control assembly. At least the blue wire, down limit switch, was disconnected so it wouldn't go down any further.

When you connected the light green wire with a jumper, did you leave it connected long enough for the delay? You need to reconnect the light green wire.

Did you test the dash switch?

The next thing to check is the brake light switch. It should be a three prong switch which feeds the controller via the light green wire through the on-off switch. Applying the brakes should light the brake lights and disconnect the Torsion-Level controller and releasing the brakes should turn the power back on to the Torsion-Level controller.

When you grounded out the terminals, were you grounding the orange and blue wire terminals on the solenoids? Hopefully orange as that is Up.

Here are schematics











You will need to test the limit switches, yellow to blue (Down) and pink to orange (Up). With the car all the way down, it may have opened the Down limit switch.

When you have power to the controller, green wire, check to see if it is drawing current, it draws current when the car is NOT level. The delay circuit heats a bimetallic strip.
If the draw remains constant, either the delay circuit for that direction is bad or the relay for that direction is bad.
If the draw increases and there is no relay click, the relay is stuck.
If the relay engages, check to see that there is a ground to the limit switch, from the limit switch, and at the solenoid.
If your terminal ground test wasn't to the solenoids, ground test them, Orange first.


Or I could loan you a Torsion-Level Test Box and make the job easier.







You can disconnect the controller from the torsion bar or remove it from the car to test operation in both directions. If done in the car, pull the blue and orange solenoid wires.

Some controller delay and relay issues are fixable. Controllers are available NOS and rebuilt with electronic delay timers.

Great Score Kevin! When you get things sorted out, I will be curious to hear your report about how different that car is to the 54! -driveline and suspension and all....

Quote:
While the underseat heater is a good possibility don't rule out other parts of the heater since a very common hidden leak could also be at the thermostatic heater valve. The rubber stem seal can crack allowing coolant to flow down behind the visible part of the firewall pad then under the carpet on the inclined part of the floor to pool in the flat area near the underseat heater. Kev wrote a good how to article on sourcing and replacing that valve seal.

The leaking valve can be an issue on all 48-56 cars but the 22-23 series cars use a different type valve located high on the firewall slightly to the right of center so leaks there should be noticed in a different fashion and location. IIRC, the seal is larger and different on those valves and no idea if it can be sourced easily. 51-6 models all use a Ranco brand valve located in a different spot which is on the passenger side and much lower down on the firewall so the leaks show up on the passenger side with damp carpet or a strong coolant smell being the usual indicator. While it can be a pain to work on the valves at least those seals can be found and replaced.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

PGH - I'll check motor function tonight to see if it works. It should, because I know the previous owner was able to move the suspension up and down. I also need to check the leveling bars to make sure they didn't get bent or over the limit. Also, does the seat bottom even come out on hardtops? I though it was part of the seat frame like my '54.

56Clippers - Thanks, very helpful. I did not test the dash switch yet. I did leave the green wire connected for quite some time....20 minutes or so while I checked out other things. I grounded out both terminals inside the box with no change. I grounded out the orange terminal on the solenoids with no change either. I didn't get time to get eyes on the brake light switch. This weekend I will go through systematically and test all the connections for power as you outlined. I may take you up on borrowing the tester you built if I can't get it resolved here shortly.

Tobs - The Torsion Level suspension is one of the big reasons I wanted to get into a '55-'56. That and the V8. I've never seen or ridden in a 55/56 and I'm nobody around here has either. So it'll be interesting to experience the difference and share it with others.

HH56 - Good point, I'll check the heater valve on the firewall. I didn't check the carpet in that area. If that's the case I'll bypass the heater valve (with a valve to block flow) until I can properly repair it. I just need to get the car running to go through the other systems and check it all.

-Kevin

Yes removing the seat bottom is quite easy. The same as the back seat in your 54, but pull up only on the seat cushion, not the frame.

The TL is something else. You will be hitting the bump stops in no time...