Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I drove my Patrician to my auto tech clas in school today, I have a new exhaust system that I was going to install. I went to the parking lot to pull it to the shop, and it wouldn't go into drive! It wont go into low, high, or reverse either. <br>
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I used a test light and checked for power at the selector in the cab, and at the relays in the engine compt. and they are getting power, it just won't go in! <br>
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How can I, or is it possible, manually engage Drive? Or somehting else to get it into drive??

Check the connector under the dash, sometimes it works loose.

Graham -

I know of no way to manually engage the transmission when it has the pushbutton control - not without removing some pieces down at the actuator, which should be a last resort.

Eric's suggestion to check that connector on the driver's side of the firewall is a good first step. Pay attention to two circuits in particular: an orange and a red with white tracer. Sometimes these terminals were not fully-seated in the connector bodies and eventually work loose. They can be nudged back in with a small screwdriver.

When you get a chance, do a site search on:

autolite

You'll find an article containing a complete scan of Auto-Lite's Service Manual Bulletin for the "1956 Packard Transmission Control". Be sure to download, it print it, and add those pages to your shop manual.

It has some very telling approaches to troubleshooting this system, and the only additional materials you'll need are some wire and a couple of 12V bulbs, sockets, and alligator clips.

However, if you are unlucky enough to have a problem with the actuator (down at the trans) or its wiring, you may need help from Mr. Pushbutton, who frequents this forum.

Somebody call me?

Graham--unfortunately, the car isn't going anywhere until the problem is fixed. Eric made a very good suggestion, check the pushbutton wiring harness coming from the steering column, going to the sector wiring harness that goes through the feed-through hole in the firewall. I think based on what you are saying that one of the two end fingers is either bent or not making contact, or the shorting segment has over-travelled. Since you are in the auto shop class you can jack up the car. Do the following:

get the car on jack stands

take a floor jack, put a piece of scrap plywood on the load plate, jack it up until it is just supporting the trans on the pan.

remove the rear trans crossmember, six bolts per side, there is one on top on each side you may not see the first time around, I think you need a 1/2" socket to pull those bolts. Remove the crossmember, supporting the trans with the jack.

take a small scissor jack from a tiny import car, the smaller the better and place it between the frame and the trans tailstock on the side with the actuator (driver's side) crank the jack open until you have moved the tail end of the trans as far diagonally as it will go. The output flange of the trans will hit the frame and then you are done with this part.

get out every right-angle screwdriver you own and remove the eight cheese head screws that hold the segment cover on the pushbutton actuator. Once you have the cover off you can see what's going on with the fingers. This is where the trouble is 95% of the time. In order for the system to work you need good spring tension on all fingers against the shorting segment, good solder joints on all fingers at the tab that holds them on to the plastic bridge (the wires going to the connector under the IP are connected here) and if overtraveled you need to take the motor off the actuator and spin the shaft going to the worm gear drive to center it again. If you have to do this be very careful and slow-- loosen/remove the two long screws in the end of the motor and grasp the motor and slowly, carefully do a twisting, oscillating motion while gently pulling away form the actuator until the motor come free. The goal here is to leave the armature in the motor, because getting it back in once the brushes snap together while you are under the car is the farthest thing from fun you can experience. Should you be successful with the procedure I've outlined put the motor in a small cardboard box under the car with the open end of the motor facing UP at all times.

Examine the fingers, they should be a dull silver color. If they are copper--orange in color they have touched ground (grounded out), at which time they glowed orange like the element in your electric oven and are now distempered and need replacing.




Have fun, tell us what's going on, we're here to help.

THANK YOU!
Im heading out there tonight to check the wiring again and to check a couple other things my boss told me to. I work with an older man who's been working on Packards since he was about 16, so I've got some good guiance. Unfortunately, the car is in the parking lot and unless it'll go into neutral i cant get it around to the shop. But ima try and see what is doable in the parking lot tonight, other wise i guess a flatbed is in order, thanks!

Hi to BH,
I checked the Autolite website but could not find the link to the 56 Packard Transmission posting you referenced. Could you find the site and post a copy of the internet link to the site? Thanks!

Thanks Mr. Pushbutton for the link and the other post on this subject.

Is there a way to engage the motor directly (bypassing the internal fingers and sector etc) without disabling the car???

Yes, you could take a momentary double pole switch (center off), feed power to the center terminal and hook a wire from the two "out" terminals to terminals 4 and 6 of the trans shift relay on the inner fender IF (and a big if it is!) the motor has not overtraveled and jammed itself to one side. There is too much torque in most instances required to break it free, the motor tries but can't do it. You would have to "goose" the switch and go by feel. Were this the case I would want this diagram handy so that you know the order of operations thruout the travel of the segment gear driving the input shaft of the trans. If you hook this up and it works you would have to be extra careful not to over travel to the extreme ends.

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