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I just bought my first Packard, a two tone 54 Packard Clipper Special for the princely sum of $500. The previous owner had gotten it seven years ago from a renter who couldn't pay his rent. The landlord had no interest in the car what so ever and told me it either got sold this year or it was going to the scrap yard. The car had been sitting in the weeds for the past 7 years and it hadn't been started in eight months. The guy put a battery in it and after a little coaxing of the throttle pedal the car came to life. I was able to drive the car home.

I noticed a few problems right off the bat, fuel pump is bad, the starter solenoid I fear isn't far behind, power brake booster doesn't seem to work, and the electrical system could use some help.

On the plus side the motor runs great, doesn't smoke or make any mystery noises, and the trans seems to work great. One thing is I have no idea where one checks the fluid for the Ultramatic.

All in all any advice would be appreciated. I am looking at making it reliable enough for a daily driver, nothing crazy like a full frame restoration or turning it into a street rod.

Phil,

Packardinfo.com may be the best place on the net to find info on your Packard. You can also find other Packard enthusiasts atforums.aaca.org that can help.

Peter

Welcome, and I'm sure you'll find lots of help once you start working on things. As to Ultramatic fluid, if it is a regular Ultra (5 detents PRNDL), it's a short dip stick and basically right under the accelerator hinge but the car has to be on a lift to access it. On the rare chance you have the gear start Ultra, then its between heater box and engine block on passenger side.

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I've said it before, so I'll say it again, this is the BEST place for Packards and Packard information in the entire internet, bar none! You will find more useful information and more knowledgeable people here than anywhere else.

On the 1954 Ultramatics there are two possible versions. If you have a Ultramatic the was built in the during the normal course of the production run, then you have a standard ultramatic and the dip stick/filler is only accessable from underneath the car as Howard said. If you car was built at the end of the production run (late July, August) then it may have a GearStart Ultramatic. It will have two indents on the selector for drive. One before and one after the "D". If you do have a GearStart then the dipstick is a more conventional style that is accessable from under the hood and you should see is sticking up close to where the stearing column is on the drivers side.

If you look at my project blob for my '54 Clipper Deluxe you can see the GearStar dipstick in alot of the pictures where I am repainting the engine.

The Clipper Special even though it was the base model Clipper is acutally a pretty rare car as very few of them were made when compared to the production numbers of the Deluxes and Supers.

Welcome to the website, and if you havent already, please add your car to the Owner's Registry.

Phil,

Welcome aboard Packardinfo, a great Site with plenty of experienced and knowledgeable Packard lovers willing to help and advise. As Kev said, please include your Packard in the Owner Registry together with a pic and it's history, if known.

and

Thanks for the replies, I ordered a new fuel pump so hopefully I'll get some round the block cruising time in on the ole' Clipper this weekend.

Still haven't found anything that resembles a dipstick, I'll have to look at it a little closer later. The shift pattern is not the standard PRNDL instead it is PNDLR..

Slip of the keyboard on the PNDLR bit. Here is dipstick. You will have to crawl under or raise on lift and it is very close to accelerator pedal hinge next to tunnel.

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................In other words you won't find the long dipstick tube curving up along the bellhousing like on mid 50s cars-up visable in the engine compartment.