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

2392-5 Packard w/288 & Ultramatic

rides.webshots.com/video/3086481160051605899BEhwuz

Please listen to this video, what I had dad doing was putting an extended ratchet on the balancer bolt on the front of the engine and rotating the engine by hand. I was under the car, the video shows the bottom of the Ultramatic. I need to know what this noise is. I don't want to fire up this old girl and have it ruin the trans in the process.

Thank you all in advance for the boatload of info that is about to come in. You folks have always been good at providing extremely useful information.

It does sound somewhat metal to metal scraping so would suggest a couple of things. As others have mentioned many times on starting a long forgotten engine, drop the oil pan & clean and check the condition of things--particularly the oil pickup float & screen. A good friend found a mouse hotel in his pan after a long sit and while you may not be as lucky, possibly you can see something scraping. The second thing would be to remove the lower half of bell housing so you can see the flex plate and torque converter rotate while turning. Easy enough done by removing 4 or 5 bolts. You will need to remove it anyway to access the drain plugs so as to properly drain the trans fluid out of the converter when changing fluid.

The starter is engaged in the flywheel and will remain so til the engine starts and kicks the Bendix back. That is your noise. There is nothing in the Ultra that will make a noise like that unless it were thoroughly toasted already.

Mousies can't get into Ultras unless the filler cap was left off as the vent and weep holes are too small even for them.

Thank you for the reply.

I guess I should have gone a bit more into the engine thus far. I know the noise is in the trans, and does sound like it is coming from the bell housing area. The engine was running 4 years ago. Other than checking for a mouse house inside the oil pan, the rest of it checks out. (compresion, valves, oil pres, etc.) The car has been at my cousins house for the past 6 years until we bought it. Mice a scarce around there, the garage is attached to there house, and there cats litter box is in the garage, so if any mice where around, they would have been there for long. I'll drop the inspection plate this evening and have a look at what I an dealing with. I guess I wanted to be sure these Ultramatics came apart the same as a typical auto-trans before I got under and started moving things around.

Quote:

Hmm... I'm interested in testing this out. I would have though the bendix would work the same as the one I have on our 1927 Model T, Where it is disengaged unless you apply the starter, to which point it throws the gear down the shaft to turn the fly wheel.

From your explanation, it works the exact opposite. I should be able to apply 6 volts to the bendix, and turn the engine again, and not hear the noise. I will try this tonight.

Again, thank you both for the suggestions/insight. I really do appreciate all the help/encouragement.

Packard went to a Bendix with an anti kickout pin that kept the pinion engaged until the engine started and spun it fast enough to disengage the pin and return the starter pinion to the rest position. It was introduced in 52 but made available for most starters all the way back to 42. If the starter were bumped or energized but engine not started, pinion could have engaged but never returned as Ross mentioned. Details on the Bendix are in 1952 service counselor vol 26 #9.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SC-VOL26NO9.pdf

My engine ('54 327) made the exact same noise when turing it over my hand. Once I finally go the motor running, and the bendix was able to retract, the noise went away. If you are still worried about the noise, remove the starter as a test and turn it over and the noise should be gone.

Regards,

I had the same thing putting the 53 starter/motor in my 50, i wasn't expecting it as the older starter didn't do it. It was fine once it started, as others said.