Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Car creeps in all gears. Engine at operating temperature. Idling at 350 rpm (very low) still creeps. Something is not right.

Happy

Automatics are designed to creep in all gears, so can you add some detail to what seems abnormal? For example, is it creeping forward in reverse?

Is the 350 idle speed measured in drive or neutral? Can you provide idle speeds for both drive and neutral, measured when warmed up?

The only car I've ever had that didn't do that is my 2007 Volkswagen EOS which seems to free-wheel at idle. It makes stopping on an uphill fun as it wants to coast backward when ready to go so I've got to be quick to the accelerator!

Thank you for your response. Yes, both forward and reverse. TH idle is in drive, it wants to move in neutral, but that mt be a linkage adjustment. I am not sure. Park works as it should I have the hand brake on when running the engine as a precaution.
Happy

If your linkage is sloppy or misadjusted then you could be in drive when you intend to be in neutral.

Can you drive the car normally in "neutral", including hard acceleration? If so then it's a linkage issue (i.e. you are in left drive). If it has excessive creep in neutral but slips or hangs when you stomp on it, then your high range clutch pack was put together too tight. Something that is a bit difficult to do by accident as you would have to insert a 7th steel.

You should hear the idle speed drop when shifting from N to 'D or at least somewhere between P and 'D. If it never changes then it's not a linkage question, it's in the clutch pack.

P.S. I don't know if you saw on my project blog, but I got your engine running again for the first time, a couple weeks ago. 🎉

Band is to tight.

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Good idea. It can also be caused by the band being shifted out of position.

One time I saw a transmission that upon inspection had the reverse circuit not working yet when the unit was still in the car, the car could move in reverse. It turned out that the reverse band was also shifted out of position causing it to rub constantly. (Completely unrelated from the circuit malfunction.) This was a transmission with not too many miles since the last rebuild... if you actually stacked miles on it then the lining would have rubbed completely through eventually causing a whining or scraping noise.

Yes! I do follow blogs, and very "happy" that you came down to NC and helped me clean out some of the Packard parts out of my Grage and contribute to Kevin getting "tanner". I have only driveway driven the 55. I think I should redo the carburetor, before road testing I have discovered fuel leaks. Idel speed drops when shifting out of park. One of my major challenges is being older, slower and less sure of what I think I know.
Happy

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The engine idle speed itself should be set at 450 RPM when you are in drive. I would expect 50 RPM higher (or more) when you are in neutral.

I would set the idle to this specification then see how much creep you have. If it actually wants to drive off at idle then check your band adjustments, 20 ft lb minus 1-3/4 turns. Draw a line on the end of the bolt to visualize the position. If that fixes the creeping issue then you will also need to readjust your idle.

It's also worth noting that even the flat part of your driveway I think has a reasonable slope to it, that would make a car seem to creep a lot more aggressively in reverse than it otherwise would.
Glad to hear you are following along and thanks again for the "spare parts".

Edit: after 4 years I realized that this emoticon I guess is banging a gavel? I always pictured it as a comically large mallet so a symbol of "working on stuff". Then again if you are arbitrating with a gavel, why the huge grin? You would think something more serious. Hmm...