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I found enough time over the weekend to locate the source of the coolant leak on my 53' and discovered that the transmission cooler had a small hole in it that had been patched up with a dab of JB Weld and the patch was beginning to fail again. I removed the cooler for further inspection and found that the unit was still solid everywhere else except on the ends where the water hoses attach. These are bad...real BAD! the only fix that I can see is to cut off the severely rusted ends far enough up to find good metal and then locate some thin, similar diameter pipe and basically fabricate new ends that can be brazed on. That is unless someone has a good used unit that they would be willing sell me as I would rather not have to spend so much time repairing this one. Like most of us, I prefer to try to keep the car original in appearance however I'm not 100% sure that this cooler originally came on the car as the mounting brackets appear to have been slightly modified or re-bent.

Thanks in Advance

The rusted water hose connection was probably the most common failure on those things. Just about all the water leaks reported was because of that. The few other failures was a blown oil plate because of a stuck valve in transmission.

Decent used coolers are out there but are getting harder and more expensive to find. Some have used thin wall exhaust pipe tubing brazed or welded on as you proposed. If you have the ability to fix that one, it might be to your advantage. At least you know you wouldn't be spending money on one that might have had it's rust covered up with more JB weld and paint.

I don't have a cooler here in front of me to look at. But maybe bolt a T'stat housing to the cooler with a gasket. U'll mite have to saw off the existing hose snout and maybe plug part of the hole if it can't be covered up with a doner T'stat housing of somekind.

If radiator is suspect of age and any firther longevity then maybe delete oem packard trans cooler and replace rad with ford truck rad for automatic equiped ford trucks.

Search this website. Somewhere 5 or 6 years ago i converted to a F truck rad.

look thru ENTIRE thread:

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5042&forum=3&post_id=54120#forumpost54120

There should be earlier thread with pics.

I picked up the cooler from the welding shop last Thursday after they welded new stainless steel hose connections on in place of the badly rusted originals. They also welded up the one small breach in the housing and handed me a bill for a grand total of $25.00. It pays to have friends in the welding/fabrication business but I've still decided to purchase a spare cooler in anticpation of the day that this one fails again. I got a little bad news last Friday when I contacted the best local source for used 40's,50's, 60's and 70's car parts in North Central Florida and was informed by the owner of "Old Gold" in Old Town Florida that he had sold all of his Packards and early Lincolns to an oufit in Georgia... He had a good supply of 50's Packards and I really hated to hear that they were all sold but the owner did state that he would try to locate the name of the outfit that purchased the cars and let me know. Meanwhile, I have been in contact with some folks who have coolers that they are willing to sell so will see how that goes once I' obtain prices. Does the forum have an area where we can list parts that we need or post links to used parts or salvage yards that carry used parts?