Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

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Good question, Pat. I'd like to know too. Maybe Fred can enlighten us?

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Here's the link for 56T-1 Technical Bulletin. Hope it gets people to look at more of the amazing information Brian has posted on the Packard Service Index:


packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/STB/56T-1.pdf

For those who must have the quick answer (as I usually must) here's a synopsis that might tell you what you need:

According to how I read the bulletin, these "heavy duty" torsion bars were very limited edition retrofits, and not installed as original equipment on any new Packard. The bars apparently were thought to be needed to raise the riding height to stock specs on heavier cars such as Caribbeans with A/C and undercoating, but they also were retrofitted to some Patricians and 400's, typically with A/C.

Note that if you crawl under a car (probably a Caribbean or one equipped with factory A/C--either '55 or '56), the heavy duty torsion bars would be stamped with numbers ending in "153" on LEFT side and "154" on RIGHT side. The full number is stamped on the REAR of each bar.

So if you got 'em, you've really got something rare. And now you can go check.

I too await Fred's comments as he's far more knowledgeable in this area than I am.

But if you look at parts books for luxury cars as far back as the introduction of hydraulic shocks, you'll find that they mostly all tuned spring rates and shock valving to specific chassis, wheelbases, and body styles (weights) to optimize the ride properties for that particular combination. For example if you look at 1934, you'll see that almost each chassis/body style had it's own leaf spring specification and at least 4 different shocks were used, each with it's own adjustable valving (3 positions). You'll find much the same situation for Cadillac, Pierce-Arrow, and many other quality manufacturers.

So, it was important to the car makers, but not a practical situation for aftermarket suppliers who adopted the "one size fits all" for practical reasons. At least that's my analysis of the situation.

Randy,

Interesting adaptors. Never seen them before. How did you come by them? Were they on one of your cars, or did you pick them up at a swap meet?

One last tidbit. Mention was made of Rock auto parts, who do indeed list shocks for the 56 Patrician. The pictures of the front shock lack the T-Bar (right term?) so I called them.

It was clear that the order clerk, while pleasant and patient, was clueless. The numbers provided are Monroe: a check of their website returned the answer that neither set was for the Packard.

If they have found a way to make these work, please say how in detail. I am really up to here with the "just buy it and it should work" approach.

There. I feel better now!

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Not very surprising. It appears rockauto is a one size fits all specialist. They list the same shocks back to 51 for all the models I looked at--junior and senior. Wonder where the number came from if Monroe doesn't publish it or was it just the 56 seniors Monroe said they didn't fit.

Napa also list only two shocks that cover all and again, no adapter for 56. Is there is a fancy or proper name for the adapter?

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The adapters were on my parts car and being the packrat that I am, I saved them. 55 shocks at one time were fairly common and these adapters allowed their use on a 56. I think they are generic - doubt they were made specifically for Packard.

ON SHOCK VALVING ETC.

O_D said it all, car manufacturers wanted to get certain ride characteristics when the cars were new and carefully engineered spring rates/shock valving to obtain it on cars of different weight, wheelbase etc. From his research you can see that in the 30's there were many more combinations than in the 50's as they too got closer to the "one size fits all" for economy and practical reasons.

In the Delco Pleasurizer line of shocks popular in the 70's and most other aftermarket brands, shock applications were by extended length, compresssed length, and end types. valving be damned. If a shock "fit" a Corvette and a Cadillac it had the same part number and you know what, we sold tens of thousands of shocks for cars of the 30's-'60's with virtually no complaints on ride quality. I'm sure Monroe, Delco and the rest of them couldn't have stayed in the shock business if their offerings were inadequate.

For my two cents, some cars were "over-engineered" for ride quality. Proof is that when shocks are replaced the owner is satisfied with a "one valving fits all".

On Rock Auto etc, when a vehicle get very old the information in printed catalogs gets more general. When it is converted to electronic sometimes more is lost. There is a reason that companies like Max Merritt and ours exist.

As far as we know, no major brand makes the 56 front TL shocks, nor dozens of other applications. So how do we get them?? Either we have bought up old stock years ago or we have them made in small/large quantities so we have them in stock when we get an order. Same with pistons, valves, etc etc.

Happy motoring

55PackardGuy wrote:

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Thank you for your kind words, but the real credit goes to all those who were generous enough to provide material for scanning to PackardInfo - which makes this online index clearly superior to any in print.

I merely helped "connect the dots" within a wonderful framework devised by BigKev, which permits mass uploads of my formatted information and then sorts all of the entries dynamically, but allows for later editing - line-by-line.

Still, it does take a lot of time to compile, summarize, and proof the information. Then, the need for further tweaking only becomes apparent after I can see it all on one screen.

FWIW, the tip-to-toe minimum compressed and maximum extended lengths on my 56 front shocks (MAECO 6489703) are 11-3/4 min. and 16-1/2 max. The Gabriels have the same dimensions. And agreeing with Jack Vines comment, they offer less resistance in compression than in extension.