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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Forum Ambassador
 
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I don't think the problem is in the column itself -- unless your mechanic can see something flopping around. There is a stop in the lever/top collar assy which could wear but that usually meant the handle would move into park or reverse without lifting it. Bushings at a couple of places can wear but again would be pretty severe sloppy motion noticed.
There were 3 common items in 55 cars which caused the parking lock to stick. All were reworked & are documented in the 55-56 Service counselors. Hard to say if all or even any have been done on a car without looking. First was the manual valve which had a wide shoulder and would stick in the bore of valve body. Cure was to grind off a specific amount. Second was the parking gear itself in which pawl would stick in the gear. Those were replaced with gears precision ground and having a slightly different contour. Third was the linkage itself. Early cars design could have the rod coming from front and lever at trans almost in a straight line when in park position. Anything worn or loose that would let the rod drop a bit and go absolutely straight & trans lever could not move out without help. Cure was a revised lever which allowed it to be more vertical and a different length rod to work with it. That last is the easiest to check. I'd compare with your other car to see if the problem car might still have early linkage.
Posted on: 2012/9/9 15:38
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Howard
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Home away from home
 
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I also forgot to mention that the shifter also sticks when it goes to far to the right and sticks in reverse. So the problem is at both ends of the spectrum (great!). Up to now, I've just been very, very careful when shifting gears and have avoided using Park. Another interesting fact is that when the car is put into reverse, and actually moves in reverse, the reverse or back-up lights do not illuminate. This problem does not exist on the Patrician.
Am I looking at re-building or replacing the transmission shortly down the line??
Posted on: 2012/9/14 10:56
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PA Patrician (Tim Wile)
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Forum Ambassador
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There is the end or reverse stop in transmission which could be loose allowing too much travel. Definitely worth a look because that whole lever assy coming loose on the shaft is a known issue. Usually if the stop is not correct, the manual valve travels too far and reverse is slow to activate or doesn't work so if that is OK, maybe not your current problem.
The light could be several things. The switch is on the steering column on engine side and is shared with the neutral safety start function. Been awhile but IIRC, there is an adjustment on the switch bracket via some slots. Assy is moved to where the start works in neutral and reverse works at the other end of travel. Assuming a wire didn't come loose, another strange thing they did with column shift Ultras was power the backup lights off the heater fuse. If blower doesn't work, might be the problem.
Posted on: 2012/9/14 11:22
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Howard
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Home away from home
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I know that it has been a while since I've posted anything on either the 400 or the Patrician. I had injured my right shoulder back in August and I've been in physical therapy since. My right shoulder is finally getting to the point where I can work on my Packards again.
I think I mentioned that I had to rebuild the fuel pump on the 400 since the new formula gasoline had rendered the old fuel pump worthless. I finally finished that little chore earlier today and managed to get the fuel lines hooked up and the 400 now runs much better. On a short run to the local service station, I noticed that when I let up on the gas, it no longer bucks like it formerly did, which is a relief as I thought the bucking might be indicative of a transmission problem. It was nice to get some additional work done on one of the Packards and take it for a short spin again.
Posted on: 2012/11/11 17:57
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PA Patrician (Tim Wile)
[size=x-small][color=000099][font=Georgia][url=https://packardinfo.c |
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Home away from home
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Wow! Spring is here and now that my right shoulder is back in service, Packard-time has returned. The 400 was treated to a new battery and it has made a world of difference in starting. The new battery cranks the starter much more vigorously than did the old one, even with a trickle charger attached, and the car starts quite easily now. The difference is like night and day.
I'm still in the process of gutting the doors and the back panels to have them re-done. Apparently, the seats were re-done some time ago and are in decent shape. The seat frames could use some going over, though. The door panels and kick panels are clearly toast but I managed to get a decent set from a donor 400 to use as a model for my re-upholstery person. The window tracks for the glass are also in sorry shape, which isn't surprising for a 55+ year old car. The headliner cleaned up nicely, but the seams are going in a number of places and a replacement is certainly in order. I took it out for a short spin around the neighbourhood the other day when the temperature was decent and it felt good driving it again. My wife is waiting until I put the windows back in the doors before she takes a ride. I can't blame her.
Posted on: 2013/4/19 12:49
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PA Patrician (Tim Wile)
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Home away from home
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Wow. It has been a while since I've posted anything regarding the 400. Mostly, I've been enjoying driving the vehicle and fixing the odd little problems as they arose.
I had taken the windows, including the vents, out of the doors to replace the cracked glass and hopefully re-align the windows into their respective tracks. I picked up a replacement driver's door for cheap that had nice glass in it and that door became the donor for the 400's driver's side glass. With the temperatures falling, I felt it was wise to get the windows back into the doors so that driving the 400 in the autumn would be more comfortable. While the heater works fine, my wife doesn't like having one part of her body warm and the other cold. Odd, huh? I've run into a bit of trouble getting the window to fit into the tracks. Even when I have the rear track as far foward as it can go, I still have about a half-inch of slop and the window won't stay in the channel. I strongly suspect that the vent window frame is not installed/adjusted correctly but things appear to line up there rather well. Anyone have any experience with installing door windows in coupes that might offer some gems of wisdom? I guess my first question is how does one properly line up the window channel in the vent frame assembly so that the window will remain in both the forward and rear channels when it is operating? I've appended some recent photos of the 400 so you can judge for yourselves what I'm dealing with. It definitely looks better from the outside. Attach file:  (41.85 KB) (45.84 KB) (44.36 KB) (41.90 KB) (39.48 KB) (43.32 KB)
Posted on: 2013/10/28 10:51
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PA Patrician (Tim Wile)
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Forum Ambassador
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The vent window side is fairly fixed. Very little fore/aft motion there. The window rear should have the narrow edge chrome or stainless piece on the glass which rides in the lower rear track.
There should be a narrow width fuzzy to fit the chrome piece pressed and maybe riveted inside the main rear U channel support. That main channel has pieces welded on and has screws to the brackets inside the door for tilt and side to side adj. Brackets and complete assy should be able to slide fore and aft in the slots in inner door panel to bring it up to the window. The welded on brackets were a source of issue with welds breaking. If you can't slide everything forward enough to catch the window, it might be a good idea to make sure they are not loose or bent or was not broken at some point and poorly repaired. If all that looks good, I don't know if it's possible the way the pieces are welded on but any chance the brackets are screwed onto the wrong side of the welded pieces or the U channel is upside down or pieces were swapped so wrong side piece is installed? Any of those might account for the 1/2" loss.
Posted on: 2013/10/28 11:19
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Howard
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Home away from home
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I considered whether the brackets attaching the channel to the inside of the door were on backward, but it was set up the way in which it was taken out of the donor door. I'm going to do some additional work on the driver's door tonight until the light fails or it simply gets too cold.
Our temps here in southeastern PA dropped some 30 degrees in a week. With the Patrician and its associated parts taking up the garage, the 400 has to sit outside under a car cover. I still have visions of getting the second bay of our 2-car garage cleared out enough so I can ge the 400 parked there next to the Patrician. However, I digress. As I mentioned earlier, I have the new window glass in the door and I'll be playing with the window channel tonight as time permits. It certainly would be nice to get glass back in both doors now that the colder weather is here. The 400's heater works great, but with missing windows on both doors, the interior still leaves something to be desired. Then there is foul weather which requires me to leave the 400 parked.
Posted on: 2013/10/28 13:42
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PA Patrician (Tim Wile)
[size=x-small][color=000099][font=Georgia][url=https://packardinfo.c |
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Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
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Home away from home
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Well, it is mid-November here in Pennsyltucky and I'm still working on re-installing the door windows in the Four Hundred. The colder weather and the lack of a heated garage makes such work a challenge. I find that I can only stand perhaps a half-hour at a time before the fingers start to get numb and don't work the way in which I want them to.
The Four Hundred has presented me with another challenge. The metal bracket that holds the hand brake handle under the dash has rusted in two. While I have procured a replacement, I observed that the handle appears to be pinned into the rod. I was thinking that replacing the bracket would be an easy thing to do; remove the handle from the hand brake rod, slip off the rusted out bracket, slip on the replacement; re-install the hand brake handle; and then bolt the bracket onto the underside of the dash. But with the hand brake handle being pinned to the rod, it now appears that the correct procedure would be to disconnect the pull handle rod from the hand brake assembly under the hood, pull it out; remove the old rusted bracket; reinstall the hand brake rod; and then bolt the bracket to the bottom of the dash. I only raise this question since I had been planning on removing the hand brake handle in the Patrician for re-chroming. If it is going to be such a PITA, is is worth getting the hand brake handle re-done at all? The group's thoughts on this would be welcome.
Posted on: 2013/11/20 10:56
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PA Patrician (Tim Wile)
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