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9-05-10 still continued...

Primer was dry so I went to put a coat of the silver metallic paint I got at Walmart. After 3 sprays, the paint started pooling at the top of the can and splattering all over the ground, my hands, and a little on the trans pan I painted earlier. What a mess! I looked like I had the Tin Man's hands after that. Really pissed me off! I have no idea why it happened. I hope it was just a bad can.

After cleaning up, I went back under the car. While doing the flywheel cover, I noticed a wire hanging down. Turns out, it was the horn button wire. I thought I might as well see if I could fix it and replace the crappy hillbilly auxiliary horn button that some idiot attached to the emergency brake handle (that idiot was me...LOL).

Pushed down and twisted about an 8th of a turn and took off the center plastic button. Then I removed the 3 screws that hold the horn ring to the wheel. This exposed the spring which I removed. Last part was the contact button. Pulled it out and saw how terrible the wire looked.

Ran a new wire from under the car at the end of the steering wheel column. Went up to the steering wheel really easy.

Back inside the car, I cut the wire for the contact button and cleaned the green colored bare wire with sandpaper until it was copper color again. Connected it to the new wire with a crimp connector. Pushed the contact button back into the wheel and reassembled everything. Under the hood I connected the wire to the junction block on the inner fender.

Gave it a try and it works! Kind of...The horn ring won't honk it, but if I press the center plastic button, it works. Must be some adjustment that needs to be made. Not worried about that now though. Bigger fish to fry...

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Interesting there was no fluid in the converter. At the least it should have been half full if there was any fluid in the trans last time you had it started. It can only drain in one of two ways -- completely empty via the drain plugs or half empty until it reaches the lower level of pump shaft.

Ross should be along about the detent. I just don't remember if there is a separate one but do know the 5/16 is important and all is also done in conjunction with the adjustments on the rod length and reverse stop as mentioned in the service bulletin 340 Kev linked to a few days ago.

Thanks HH56...I don't know what to make about the torque converter then. I'm hoping this trans is going to turn out to be OK in the end.

The Selector Control linkage adjustment is also what I need help on. I'm just not sure if my car is right or way off. I don't have another Packard to reference it. Here are some pics of what the linkage looks like in the gears. The first pic shows Park. I think this is OK because the pin on the lever goes into a hole on the plate. That seems like it is working as it should.

Second pic shows L. The pin is at a stopper at the end of the plate.

Third pic shows reverse. Hard to see, but the pin is actually riding up. You can also see on the linkage that the splines are showing between the plate and the arm. This does not look like it is right to me.

These positions are mirrored on the detent plate in the trans. The L is in a detent and reverse ride up a ramp beyond it.

Assuming this is all wrong, which adjustment do I do first?

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Stopped at Harbor Freight Tools today and picked up a benchtop media blaster cabinet, some aluminum oxide media, a welding spoon (not sure how it is used though), heat shrink for my wires and some butt connectors for welding panels together.

To help you find reverse, lets do this in reverse order! Unhook the shifter rod at the lever at the steering column. Now rotate that shifter lever on the trans as far forward as it conveniently wants to go. The should put you in Park, which you can check by trying to rotate the driveshaft by hand. Now rotate your shift lever backwards to the first notch:N, second notch H third notch L and fourth notch R. If you look up in the trans, you should see that little plunger seated in its notch and not up on a ramp or flat spot. Set your 5/16. Then move the shift lever on the trans two notches forward, that is, H, and adjust the length of the shifter rod at the column so that when it is all hooked back up your pointer by the steering wheel is centered on the H. That will probably do you, but be sure you can feel N H L, and R as you shift. P does not have a detent, but relies on the steering column mechanism to hold it.

Its not real surprising you can't get fluid out of your TC. Those passages are cross drilled and often pack solid with sediment. You can't probe them clean as they have a right angle bend, and you shouldn't blow air into them to free them as it will push a load of mung into the convertor. So either live with mystery of what is inside, or start the engine with the plugs removed. When you rev the engine they will let loose! Icky mess. By the way, the convertor should be bolted tight to the flywheel.

"Mung"???

Thanks Ross, I'll give that a try. I can't believe how jacked up this car is! Reverse has never been in an detent since I owned the car, even with the original trans still in it. Amazing...

I haven't decided if I should run the torque converter without the plugs or leave it alone. This thing was supposed to have been rebuilt so I assume the torque converter would be clean since I only have 300 miles, if that, on it after all these years.

You don't think the fluid from the torque converter could have sprayed out when the trans cooler line broke? I know on more modern cars people would disconnect the trans line and run the car to do a "trans flush" when they didn't have the equipment to do it properly. I don't know if it would be the same for a Packard though.

If I do run the engine, should I run it now, or wait until the pan is back on with oil in it? I don't want to mess anything else up!

9-07-10

By the time I got to the car today it was already turning dark. All I wanted to do was set up the selector per Ross's instructions.

Pic 1 shows where I decided to disconnect the selector lever linkage.

Rotated the trans selector rod down to Reverse (pic 2).

Crawled under car and confirmed the trans selection lever was in the last detent (pic 3).

Set the piston distance to 5/16" (pic 4).

Rotated the trans selector linkage until it was in H (pic 5).

Pic 6 shows the rod that I need to rotate to adjust so it lines up with the other linkage when I put the pointer on the column in H.

Tried to turn the rod, but it wasn't moving and it was pretty dark so I shot some PB Blaster on it and will hopefully try again tomorrow. If anyone sees me doing something wrong, please let me know! Thanks!

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9-10-10

Took the shift linkage rod off today. Cleaned it up and a couple more shots of PB Blaster and I was able to loosen the lock nut so I could adjust the rod. Put the car gear selector in the middle of H and adjusted the rod so it fit between the linkage again. Took a little trial and error.

Cleaned the rod again and put a coat of silver paint on it and the washers.

Also took the throttle lever off the transmission (the one that was pointing down instead of up) to put some paint on. To my surprise, it had remnants of blue paint on it. I don't know why it did, but I had some blue paint in the garage of a similar shade so I painted it blue.

Got my trans pan gasket today from Ultramatic Dynamics. Now I can button that part up.

I'll have to look at the throttle linkage adjustment instructions again. They show the use of a screwdriver, but I can't readily see where it would be used. The shaft on the trans does not have a slot to put the screwdriver in. There are no screws on the lever itself. Not sure...

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No idea on the blue unless someone did a repaint, Believe those transmissions were gray or green. Not sure which instructions you were looking at but I didn't see a screwdriver mentioned on the throttle other than a picture showing one adjusting a carb. at the start of adjustment to get the idle set properly.

There was a very early change in the lever/shaft mount removing a woodruff key and just using the bolt to clamp the lever on shaft but still don't think they ever used anything but a rod thru the holes in those original Ultras.