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

Hello all,
I have a 1951 200, and a 1953 Clipper both with an auto transmission. I'm pretty handy with most of the work needing to be done.....that having been said, I hop into the car at the beginning of Spring/Summer "good weather time" and drive to WalMart with my Packard oil cartridge, my own oils, a lube oil pump filled with type A trans fluid, and get everything checked, lubed, oil filter changed, fluids checked, tires rotated (if needed) and as stated in the past about being able to find the trans dip stick....well, I find that when the workers first see me coming in I get all these wide eyed scarey eye ball bulging looks, but I've found that the workers are initially mystified but I ease them into the work and tell them what to do, how many zerks there are and at times I can hear them talking "where the hell are those other 5 fittings." All in all, they do enjoy working on our "wonder mobiles" and I've never had a bad experience. My point: I'm 68 and capable, but I have 4 old cars and I need to get them done each year and know that everything is okay after a winter slumber. I furnish all the parts and oils and I'm only charged for the lube total bill usually $25.00 to $35.00. Where else can you get 2 or 3 people to work on your car for that kind of money? I'm just saying.......

JD -

Thanks for that pic; I don't recall anything like that in the service manual or bulletins.

I now see that I didn't read the bulletin text carefully enough. That is, the fill hole accessed from inside the car and through the floor transmission cover is not the same location as the one for the cap/dipstick. Unfortunately, you still have to check fluid level from under-car.

Shame on me, but shame on Packard, too.

IMHO, that makes an underhood dipstick all the more desirable.

To BH,

It was stated that many owners like to do their own work and sliding under the car to check the trans is difficult esp at our age. I showed that it is not possible to do your own lube so therefore the car must be up on a lube rack at some regular intervals. Sooooo check the trans when it is being lubed.
It was also said that modern mechanics do not know where the "hidden " dipstick is.

My point was that trans fluid level can be checked when the car is up in ther air getting lubed. I showed that todyas mechanics cna find it if you explain where it is.

My take on the whole siutuation is that is much ado about nothing, my parents owned a 53 from 55-63 adn they had no problems juslt like the other 100,000 UL-Traumatic owners didn;t.

If you have some drips when parked, wait 6 months ujntil your next lube. If you have a 6 foot circle every time you park the car you have a bigger problem than a dipstick. If this happens, add 1 pint through the floor once in a while.

fred -

I disagree that a lube job has to be performed on a rack (or even over a pit). I've been doing that work for decades on a variety of vehicles in my garage and driveway; I've even removed and installed transmissions without such equipment. (Perhaps you feel that a mechanic's creeper is meant for taking a nap.)

A properly rated jack and a pair of jack stands can provide sufficient and safe access for most under-car maintenance. Yet, there are some things that DO require the car to be level, like checking fluid in the original Ultramatic and standard transmissions, which necessitates four jack stands (as other, here, have shown).

Again, I agree that Packard may have felt that while the car was up on a lift in one of their franchised dealers for a lube job, anyway, the under-car approach was the best way to check and add fluid to the original Ultramatic. However, the 1954 Gear Start with underhood dipstick clearly shows a change of heart in that regard.

I still think an underhood dipstick/tube for checking/adding fluid would be a good retrofit to the original Ultramatic - especially if it could be done in a way that looked like what the factory might have done.

Of course, a convenient point to check/add fluid is NO susbtitute for proper repair of leaks.

BH
I agree with you, work and checking can be done in the driveway/garage. There was a point made of how difficult it is to check the trans fluid and many owners are up in years (not like me who is a mere 66). My point was that even when my parents were in their 40's they took the Packard to the service station where the mechanic greased it and checked ALL fluids.

There was a point that today's mechanics do not know where the dipstick for the trans is. Believe me if they can diagnose and fix a car with 12 computers they can follow your directions and find the dipstick.

Checking the trans as often as the car is greased is sufficient, if needed any more often, fix it properly.

If you want to obsess about it, be my guest.

The fitment of the 55-6 dipstick is more complicated than I thought, did not consider the tight space at the back of the strt 8 manifold

In my 1950 Series 23 the Ultramatic leaked and slipped when I got the car. I wanted to check the fluid and was too lazy to use my hoist. I put the car on wheel stands and slid under. The dip stick attached to the filler cap came off easily and sure enough the fluid was low. I got a cheap plastic Chinese-made hand pump and attached it to a fresh bottle of transmission oil. I pumped some in but could not tell if that was enough. When I pulled the pump flex hose out the cheap plastic clip on the end snagged and pulled off the hose. Naturally it fell into the transmission.

Then I had the transmission overhauled for $2500 and the plastic part was removed easily in the process.

Now I want to be able to check the transmission oil without using my hoist and spending an hour to do it. I will give this project a serious look if nobody invents a kit soon.

I am an engineer so I can understand (but not agree with) their thinking 60 years ago. Unlike a modern car all these vintage cars had to go in for a "lube job" frequently and that was done on a hoist. Checking the transmission fluid was no more difficult than checking the oil in a manual transmission. If the ATF was leaking too much it would leave a big puddle on the ground and let you know to fix something. My thinking is different today because I spent $2500 overhauling the thing and I want to check it frequently.

Fred Puhn -

As I only have V8s, I appreciate your interest and input in this topic.

I'm not sure why others would even think of using a Twin Ultra parts (unless they had plenty of those laying around), when that implementation was designed with a 55-56 V8 in mind, rather than a straight eight engine and bay.

Since the pans for all versions of the Ultramatic use the same gasket and the Gear Start went behind a straight eight, it seems logical to explore fitting up a GS pan, tube and disptick to an original Ultramatic.

If GS pan depth sump level is the only problem. What would it take to "recalibrate" the GS dipstick? Is it too long or too short?

Given the short-term implementation of the Gear Start, perhaps NOS GS pans are in short supply. I'm not suggesting anyone tool up for a repro, but surely there must be a good used GS pan out there somewhere to try.

Else, it's back to installing some kind of bulkhead fitting in the stock pan to retro fit the GS dipstick.

Not to belabor the point, but I had another idea.

Since there is sufficient room for a dipstick type cap, I wonder if one could fabricate a replacement cap, minus the dipstick, but designed to accept a custom-bent dipstick tube, that winds its way up to the engine compartment?

Mind you, I'm not familiar with the details of the original cap, but assume it has a positive seal to the transmission case. If we anchor the upper end of the tube by way of a simple bracket welded to the tube and secured to an existing screw on the engine, the end with the cap whould also be secured.

The OE cap and dipstick already gives us a properly calibrated level from the plane of the cap. Perhaps a 54 GS dipstick could be adapted to fit.

Thoughts?

Interesting thought. My problem would be that I use the dipstick opening as the filler in order to use a gravity-feed plastic tube arrangement to fill the transmission (no wrench/spanner required). I've never used the actual filler location. I'll have to look under the car next time I check the fluid level to see if using the actual filler location (wrench/spanner required) with a gravity-feed plastic tube is practical. I won't fill the thing from inside the car.

I'm saving for an overhaul of the transmission which should make crawling under the car a less frequent event although -knock on wood- I'm still up to it.

Edit: on a non-leaking Ultramatic, it might be a workable solution as long as the path from the top of the dipstick tube to the engine compartment isn't too tortuous. A plastic tube makes the trip quite nicely. The final bend going into the transmission might be a bit much for metal though.

BH wrote:
"Since the pans for all versions of the Ultramatic use the same gasket and the Gear Start went behind a straight eight, it seems logical to explore fitting up a GS pan, tube and disptick to an original Ultramatic."

Seems to me like the best possibility to explore. Maybe a 55 or 56 T'Ultra pan and dip stick tube would fit????