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If I were to make the rods adjustable could i independently raise and lower the car manually to get the stance I want then use a little compensation from the motor driven tl system?

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Changing those rods will change the height relationship side to side & one side will raise relative to other. Not sure if that is what you intend but was an issue when first introduced and was covered in tech bulletin 55T1 on uneven riding height. Some of the first cars apparently came with wrong or incorrectly installed ball end levers on the short bars which resulted in the short bars improperly twisted when connected to the transverse bars and leveler.

So basically those components only raise the car from side to side evenly, in theory. Basically the only advantage would be getting the ride level. Which is redundant because of my front adjustable load arm pins?

The overall height of a side (and the car) is determined by the amount of twist on the long bars which would be accomplished by the front pins. The short bars are called compensator bars because that is what they do--compensate. As explained in the descriptions, as designed, the car is essentially like a teeter totter with a balance point somewhere around the middle. When anything changes the weight relationship like a passenger in the rear seat, suitcases in the trunk, or a full tank of gas then the rear becomes heavy and the balance point is tipped and the rear falls down. The compensator setup comes into play at that point to give an extra boost to the rear and raise it back up. Same principal but in reverse when weight is added to front--then the compensator tries to lower the rear to match.

What I am ultimately trying to achieve is lowering the overall ride height at center point, and still use the tl system. I added 2 inch lowering blocks to the rear and adjustable load pins to the front. I think that is all i need to do at this point. Thank you.

Does anybody know what sort of strength the torsion leveling bars have? I know they are strong but I also noticed I can achieve a lower ride in the rear by adding weight, such as a piece of railroad, with the compensator disabled i would then be able to achieve an overall lower ride height and still have some front to back movement via the momentary switch. And just for the record and not to be rude.... I have pushed this system to its limits...IE it is only on a switch...front or back "tilt". I was able to set the rear bumper on the ground, however the front bumper was 14" inches off the ground. Hence the journey to lower the car. In my opinion to snap the drive gear from the motor you would have to be an idiot... the poor old packard will cry when you go a little too far in either direction. It makes some awful noises and anybody would know at that point to quickly go the other way. Also I will admit I very very slightly bent the arms coming off the motor while testing its capabilities, a 5 pound hammer corrected that. Does anybody agree that the cars will drop quite a bit naturally with some weight in the trunk?

The bent bars are not the worry. The splines are the weak spot. This one (new one is above it) is sheared completely off at the level where the lower planetary engages it. I have another damaged one and believe another poster has placed a photo on site somewhere showing the splines twisted at the same point but not completely sheared. I'll agree that one should hear the strain but sometimes it happens very quickly.

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I guess I have been fortunate. With the car lowered i will need very little travel from the tl system so hopefully I wont have this problem.

What is that center piece called with the large spline and 2 pivots?

Compensator lever assy.
Different between years due to limit switch change and required an orientation spline on 56. 55 lever won't fit a 56 but not sure other way around.

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