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

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Sounds very promising Ted. And good to know you have the Registry in your thoughts.

PS sure makes day-to-day parking and heavy traffic so much easier... Eric, will be very interested to hear how that 48 comes out, since if we get a 46/47 and put Ultra on it, probably up for PS conversion. Be worth the effort if it makes it possible to drive an old car farther into the future, heck, I just may give up on these modern new fangled electronic boxes on wheels and drive vintage every day.

That's my philosophy anyway, an old car that you can work on is worth 100 new cars that you can't.


"If you can tune a car with a screwdriver you're a mechanic, if it takes a $6000 computer you're a technician"

It's not necessary to have power steering in order to drive any Packard or other old car. They were perfectly easy to steer when new and they could be again if it were not for rusty joints that have not been lubed in years, worn out parts, shock absorbers dry of oil, bent tie rods,half flat tires and wheels way out of alignment.

Go ahead and service your front suspension to factory specs, replace worn parts, fill the shocks with oil, and get a front end alignment. You will find it steers as easy as power steering unless at a dead stop, then your shoulders get a slight workout. Old ladies and grannies drove them back when they were new so they couldn't be that bad. Do not let a worn out, neglected, badly out of alignment car fool you.

Friends of mine have taken this advice and once their suspension was restored to factory specs and properly lined up they had no desire for power steering.

Another thing you can do to make the steering even easier and more accurate is to have the front end aligned with little or no caster. But if you do this you have to add a hydraulic steering damper to damp out shimmy. Steering dampers are made by all the big shock absorber companies, they are a common accessory on 4 wheel drive trucks.

Thank you one and all again for the great info. you have given me. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but I was in the backyard digging up my cans of money to make my offer and man is this Arizona ground hard in the summertime.

Eric, best of luck to you switching over the ultramatic to your 48,wow! now to me that's one hell of a job to undertake.

Jim,great to have your response to my adventure and please say Hello to Debbie. You 2 are a great couple and thanks to you I learned a lot on the day we met. Your convert. looks great and you and Debbie are doing a fine job on the restore from when I seen it the 2nd day you had it.

Again Thank You for the great responses and as soon as I hear something I will let you all know.

I know the car being discussed already has the power steering installed, but I have to agree with Rusty about it not being necessary. I have been amazed at how easy it is for my car to turn the wheels, even with the car standing still and almost flat tires! My car has old parts that haven't been lubricated, as long as I have owned it anyways. I can't even imagine how much nicer it will be when new parts are added.

I had a '73 Pontiac Lemans without power steering and an after market wheel that was smaller than OEM. I wouldn't even attempt to parallel park that car!

Hey there 51,,its funny when you look back trying to get a drivers license back in the 60's and have the policeman telling you to parallel park the big boat in a spot no bigger then a VW to fit in. Clutch in,clutch out ,clutch in,etc; you were afraid you'd hit the other cars or if not hit a fire hydrant. Good times !!

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Like I said in my previous post, the fun of the manual trans and the complexity of converting to an Ultramatic makes me not want to even contemplate it.