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Thanks Brian...

What Keegan is doing is exactly what I'm hoping to do, but probably not nearly as well! I'm not going to take the body off the frame or anything like that. He has a very good tutorial on his process so I will probably copy a lot of what he did. I have only welded once in my life with my wire feed arc welder and I have never fabricated anything out of metal. This could be a great learning experience or a total failure! My biggest problem is how much is actually missing. That makes it hard to fabricate new parts. We will see how far I get.

As for the trans, I might as well take the valve body out and clean it. I've had it out before, but I have never taken it apart. I would hate to put it back together and fill it with fluid, only to have it not work again and have to waste $$. I do have another valve body I could swap with it, but I don't know the condition of that one. It has been sitting for a long time in a garbage bag.

The good news is that I got some new metal for my floors! We have some industrial machines that are out of commission and the side panels appear to be about the right gauge.

Let's keep our fingers crossed on the transmission!

As a side note: Some people have suggested I get a different car. For grins I checked ebay and came across this one 1953 Cavalier. It looks like the floor was already fixed, but the rockers were bad. I was scheming a way to get it (my wife says I have too many cars already) so I was thinking of selling my 2001 Lexus ES300 that won't shift into overdrive anymore to make room. I guess it was not meant to be because I see it has been sold.

I have to keep the faith that I can get this one going! Let's all consider this a challenge!

Bigkev...If you read this...how are the body mount areas on your car? I know you have mentioned rusty floors before and you have new pans. Just curious how bad yours is too.

The under floor supports, mounts, and rockers are solid in my car. My floorpans rusted out from wet carpets, and not from road salt or anything external. The rust hole pattern on my floor exactly matches the pattern of the jute on the back of the carpet.

As far as your transmission line woes, I replaced all of the ones in mine. Now it appears with the Gear-Start tranny in '54 then decided to run the lines straight up the passenger side. As opposed to the cross over and back like they did on previous years. So that could be an option of you as trying to bend up new line to cross between the transmission case and the floor with the tranny in the car is going to be a bear.

Napa makes a coated steel line, and that is what I used to replace mine with. Check my blog, it should be documented in there somewhere.

8-17-10

Crawled under the car today and reached up behind the valve body (toward the rear of the trans). I could feel something loose moving around. Maybe that is the holding plate for the rear band (or it could be wishful thinking)? I was going to download the ultramatic manual to confirm that is where it is located, but my wife is tying up all of the bandwidth.

After that, I took out the bolts and removed the control valve body.

I was comparing it to the other valve body I have and I noticed that on one of the pumps, the center shaft was sticking up. I tried to push it down, but it wasn't moving easily and I didn't want to force it until I looked it up more. Maybe this is why H is not working? Below are some pics. The spare valve body is on the plastic bag. I also remember now why this is a spare. The shift selector valve does not go all the way into the cylinder. I think the body got warped somehow. Feel free to offer any ideas/advice!

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Been doing some studying at work (when I should be working LOL) on the Ultramatic service manual. It doesn't really explain how it works, but now my theory is that the piston that is sticking up is for activating the reverse band. I put the car in Reverse to remove the control valve assembly easier. Even though the fluid was drained, what is left in the body must have been enough to shoot the piston out. So I am guessing that it is normal.

My next step will be to disassemble the control valve and give it a good cleaning. Hopefully that will fix some of my issues.

Is there anything else I can take out of the transmission at this point for cleaning/inspection? Isn't there a governor somewhere?

If you want to make new cooler lines the coated steel fuel line from the auto parts store is fine. It is the same thing as the factory used and that lasted how long? 50 years? And that was with a lot harder use than you are going to give it.

The real uptown way to do it is to get a tubing bender and form a perfect replica of the original and flare the ends and put on new flare nuts. However it is a lot quicker to leave some of the original line on there where it is good, and splice in a new piece with compression fittings or a short length of rubber hose and hose clamps.

51Packard -

Cracking the books is a good first step, but I'm not sure what "Ultramatic service manual" you've downloaded.

Perhaps you are referring to Section VII - Ultramatic of the 1951-1954 Service Manual. Now, if you'd like to know more about how this automatic transmission works, you may want to review the original Ultramatic Service Training Manual. However, all that and much more is included in the massive, three-volume, Complete Ultramatic Service Information for all units produced from 1949-1956. Yet, because bulletin information can be a little difficult to sort through, I further recommend you review the Ultramatic section of the 1951-54 Service Index.

Eventually, you'll come to find that valve bodies have no pumps or pistons but use sliding-action spool valves to detect various mechanical and hydraulic inputs and respond by directing fluid pressure to specific passages in their bores to perform the desired actions. As such, valve bodies (control valves) are the "brains" of an automatic transmission.

While there ARE two rotary-action pumps used in the Ultramatic, they are mechanically separate from the valve bodies. The front pump is driven by the torque converter and the rear pump is driven by the transmission output shaft.

When disassembling a valve body, NEVER clean the spool valves or their bores with anything abrasive - NOT even with the finest wire brush. Any nick or scratch can cause problems. The valves and bores should only be cleaned with solvent and wiped dry with a clean rag.

When assembling the valve bodies, proper torque of all fasteners is necessary to prevent warping them, which would cause the valves to bind in their bores.

The governors are another important part of the transmission hydraulic control system that should be cleaned. I believe the governor assembly is accessible from outside of the transmission case on your edition of the Ultramatic. Follow the manuals for service, but also check for bulletins on that topic.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Brian. I had been checking out the Complete Ultramatic Service Information section of this website. Surprisingly, I found the pictures and descriptions better for the earlier transmission than the info for my year. Even more interesting was the parts list. Even though you have to look up the numbers to see what they are called, it shows how everything goes together.

I was thinking the two round parts at the top were pumps because of the slotted looking fitting in them, but now I realize that they are not. You say there are no pistons in the valve body, but aren't those round things pistons? That is what the parts book called them and I assume they push the levers to lock the bands? Am I wrong? If so, then there is no reason that one should be sticking out of the one in my car and I must have some serious problems. How do the bands get squeezed to lock them?

Can you recommend a good cleaner for the valve body? The manual says to use unleaded gasoline, but if there is something a little friendlier that I could use, I would prefer that.

I'm a little nervous about taking it apart. I know I need to find out why the trans is not working, but I also don't want to make things worse by taking apart something that isn't the problem and possibly wrecking it! From what people have told me it could be a sticking valve in there so I guess it is worth the risk.

Thank you all for your advice and wisdom. Please keep it coming! (wishing me a little luck won't hurt either!)

You are right, the two big round things are the housings for the pistons that operate the low and reverse bands. The one sticking up in your photo is the low piston.

To further complicate matters,49-54 Ultras had two-stage pistons: the inner or "fast acting" piston was to get the band's attention, so to speak, and then the main piston would rise up and actually clamp the thing so the car would move. These fast acting pistons were included so an owner could rock the car in sand or snow without a lot of banging--Packard attention to detail. Anyway, only your fast acting piston is sticking up (sounds like a personal problem) and should retract if you push down on it long enough to let the fluid ooze out. If it won't, remove the whole piston from its housing and press the center "button" on the opposite side of the piston. The the fast acting piston will retract. While you are in there, be certain that the lip seals are somewhat pliable.

I usually use brake cleaner for cleaning valve bodies. Get yourself a big old sheet cake pan to work in and the little bits won't go walkabouts. Be painfully careful about the order pieces come out of the bores of the valve body. There are pieces in there that are not shown in the shop manual.

That said, I still maintain that your lack of low was caused by improper assembly/adjustment of the band struts. Also, if your high clutch had burned up already, there would be a lot of debris in the pan.

Thanks Ross,

I'm glad I'm starting to understand this transmission more. I agree with you about the low band. I reached up before I removed the valve body and I believe I felt that little plate (you can see them on my valve body) that goes on the band was moving around. Since you say this fast action piston is supposed to get the bands attention, I'm guessing it stayed up once it hit the lever and there was no resistance.

Getting low and reverse would be great so I could at least move the car around. I checked the pan and I didn't really notice any debris in it, or the inlet filter screen. I'll check more carefully next time I'm out by the car.

I'll go with using brake fluid. That way I can clean with a little power from the aerosol too. Thanks for that.

Do you have any suggestions for holding the levers up when I put the valve body back? I do not have the special holding tools. Last time I did it, I remember just using brute force and quick reflexes with a little shifting. I don't think I have that in me anymore at my advanced age of 34. LOL. Right now I'm thinking of cleaning the outside of the trans really good and using duct tape. Any thoughts?

The manual mentioned not to clean the ball bearing in gasoline. Where is the ball bearing? I didn't see it in the parts list. Maybe I'm getting it confused with the earlier trans I was reading about...