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The only problem you could have with the 5/16 adjustment is if the car has a very early trans with a sand cast rather than die cast valvebody. But I am 7000 miles away from my manuals just now and daren't ttry to look up anything online with the connection I have. Anyway, go with 5/16.

Your reasoning is correct concerning the throttle linkage: at slow idle, that shaft should be all but fully CCW. (The throttle valve itself is slid toward the front of the car.) As you give gas, the shaft rotates CW, and the throttle valve slides rearward.

Its been a while since I've done a bathtub but I am still thinking that the throttle lever points up. The pull rod makes a weird snake around that trans mount and goes onto the bellcrank. I've gotten into trouble there by having the bellcrank on wrong way round and trying to put the pullrod on the wrong arm. There must be a good photo somewhere?

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6455&post_id=69693#forumpost69693


Here's a link to a thread with the pictures posted, looks like the arm does still go up! You guys were right again! (You'd think i'd learn!)

Put a couple more quarts of fluid in to let it fill up the coolers and lines. Tested it inside the garage today. With the shifter in park, the car is in park and can't be pushed. When in neutral, it's in neutral and can be.

Started it up, seemed to be a slight load on the motor in park, put into neutral and went away.

Worked through the gears and all seemed spot on except reverse. Nothing seemed to work near reverse, car acted as if it was in neutral.

Put it back in park and the slight engine loading was gone. Put it in and out of park a couple times and same thing, no issues.

Now just to figure out reverse and take her for a drive!

Started it again later today. Same issue, if you start it you feel it pressing against park, like it's trying to go. Reverse is nothing. Scratching my head over this one. Nuetral and low and high SEEM to work, but haven't had it out of the garage yet.

Sounds like that selector dimension may still be slightly out of adjustment with it wanting to engage in Park and not reverse but maybe Ross will check in soon with a better answer. Were you the one having trouble with the band adjust screws? Are they adjusted or do you have the old style bands where one of those link bars could still fall out of place if you looked sideways. No reverse at all could be band or piston related also.

What's odd is that if you move it right to neutral it works and the 2 forward gears seem spot on. Reverse seems like neutral.

Now i DO have only about 7 quarts of fluid in it so far, i was really only putting enough fluid in to start the motor for about 10-15 seconds at a time to test and tune things without hurting a dry tranny. Maybe i don't have enough going. Once or twice putting it in park didn't "load up" the drivetrain.

My tranny is an early 50 that had one of the thinwall bushings (of two), and not the other thinwall bushing. It has the 49 and 50 two piece tv rod setup. I have the clutch piston plate/driven plate in the converter that has tons of "teeth" with groves on the outside, not the later one to reduce bind. It has the 11" disc and not the smaller one.

So i'm thinking that if there's an "old style" anything with the ultramatic, i seem to have it. I don't know how to tell if i have a "sand cast" valve body, but Ross mentioned that the 5/16 dimension may not be the same for the sand cast units.

The tranny rebuilder did everything but the converter, so i can't speak to anything about link bars or bands, only that i asked him if they were adjusted and he said yes, it was totally ready to go except for the tv linkage adjustment and shifter lever/piston adjustment. He said his book didn't show the correct info for my tranny so he couldn't set it properly. Later i found the 5/16 dimension and set it myself.

Sounds similar to what was happening to me. I think you need to adjust the gear selector. Ross explained it in my blog by helping me find "reverse" first. It's on page 7...

"To help you find reverse, lets do this in reverse order! Unhook the shifter rod at the lever at the steering column. Now rotate that shifter lever on the trans as far forward as it conveniently wants to go. The should put you in Park, which you can check by trying to rotate the driveshaft by hand. Now rotate your shift lever backwards to the first notch:N, second notch H third notch L and fourth notch R. If you look up in the trans, you should see that little plunger seated in its notch and not up on a ramp or flat spot. Set your 5/16. Then move the shift lever on the trans two notches forward, that is, H, and adjust the length of the shifter rod at the column so that when it is all hooked back up your pointer by the steering wheel is centered on the H. That will probably do you, but be sure you can feel N H L, and R as you shift. P does not have a detent, but relies on the steering column mechanism to hold it."

That is how i set my 5/16 setting (off of your blog actually!). (Actually, i put the car in reverse, disconnected the shift rod, verified it was in the reverse detent, set the 5/16, locked down, and adjusted the linkage a smidge to bring it to the shifter lever.) Should be the same result, correct? Also, all of the detents to line up with the column idicators, although i know that doesn't gaurantee the plunger is in the right location.

Another thought, if i was close, moving the shifter "around" the reverse selection on the indicator should allow it to try and catch reverse, at least for a second until i found the detent. Trying yesterday, i couldn't "find" reverse around reverse anywhere.

I'll have to drop the pan and double check it all again step by step. I hope it really is just misalignment, i don't know anything about the band links or anything.

Would you be able to get the 20 ft lbs adjustment if the link to the band has fallen out? He said the bands adjusted no problem.

Does anyone know of a way to tell if you have an earlier sand cast valve body unit? If so, i may just be using the wrong dimension for the plunger altogether.

In "Packard's serviceman training book" page 26 it talks about using a gauge to adjust 3/4" out:

"Place the control valve inner lever in the reverse (R) position. Be sure the detent is in the well. Using control valve adjusting gauge PU-316, adjust the link so that the rear land of the control valve is 3/4 inch out of the control valve lower body. In this position, the distance from the center of the link pin to the control valve lower body should be 1.28 inches. Tighten the link clamp bolt."

Would this be the same as the 5/16 dimension?

I believe this is the dimension that my transmission guy couldn't get right and said was different than my transmission.



Also,

I hope i didn't hurt anything:


"Caution: Be sure to place at least 7 quarts of fluid in the transmission before the engine is started, putting the last quart in more slowly than the previous 6."

I started the car accidentally and once for an ignition test for less than one second with nothing but assembly lube in the transmission. (And i mean, WAY less than a second. motor barely caught...maybe 5-10 crank revolutions at best.)


I have been testing with 7 quarts, but did my initial real start with 5 quarts and then added two more after about 30 seconds or so of running. I have never run it a full two minutes to see if the convert is full. I have new lines running up front through one frame mounted heatsink style tube cooler and then connected to each other up front as i don't have my coolers up front connected yet.

Maybe I've hurt something or maybe i'm ahead of myself and don't have full pressure in the system yet? I know full is supposed to be about 11 quarts.

With 7 quarts, once the converter starts filling, and then pumping out to the cooler setup, there isn't much left. I don't know if it would even be high enough to cover the filter. I would add at least 3 more and then see.

If you have the one piece curved link as shown in bulletin 50-T6 and here in new link photo then it is 5/16 but if you have the older two piece link with a bolt shown in old link, it is the original adj dimension.

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