Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

The brake switch checked out. I am leaning towards the rubber bushings. Is there a write up some where on replacing these. Ross, how long did it take and difficulty?
For some reason, messing with the TL scares the .... out of me.

Not to be afraid. You will need a decent hydraulic press to press the bushings in. Make sure you note the position of the dimple before you disassemble the upper control arm and count the revolutions and spacing of the upper pivot pin.
I just put jack stands under the lower control arms at the pivot pin to hold the car in position while I replaced the upper bushings.

I'll be back in the country in March. Why not just contact me then. Bring the car up to north of Baltimore and I'll replace every rubber bushing front and rear for 1600 or thereabouts.

Thanks for the offer Ross. If I were a little closer to you, I'd take you up on the offer. I'm about 30 miles east of San Francisco.

55Clipper, get your car ready for the PAC meet in 2015. I think I read, in The Cormorant News Bulletin, that it's going to be up your way next year.

From what I hear we will have the 2015 meet. We had the 50th Anniversary of the Packard Club in 2003 which was good because the club was founded here and one of the founders is still in the area.

55 i am in san diego, i will help you out if i can,,

Riki,

Thanks for the nice offer. I'll keep it in mind.

Just to confirm, PAC has published the time and place for the PAC 50th National Meet as July 2015 in the San Francisco area.

I had the same problem with my '55 400. The suspension was loose as a goose, no binding. When I would lift up on the rear bumper the front end would drop and then some body weight on the front bumper would level the car back out. I found out the contacts inside the compensator switch box were out of alignment. The were leaning towards each other and the pivoting contact point was going from raise to lower, back and forth because when the bi-metallic point would release from one contact it would touch the other contact instead of reaching a neutral position. I simply straightened the raise and lower contact so they were parallel with each other and no more seesawing. I did a bench test of the switch after adjusting the contact points and it worked like it should so I installed it and it worked fine. Since your problem only occurs when you are in motion, you might try spreading the contact points apart a little to increase the neutral position space. You will probably need to adjust the turnbuckle on the suspension adjustment after you adjust the contact point gap. Hope this helps.