Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

My car is a 1955 Clipper Custom with the 352 V8. The engine is presently out of the car; I am having difficulty installing the torque converter on the Twin Ultramatic. The converter engages the splines on the shaft coming out of the transmission, but despite many tries and much rotating and jiggling of the converter, I cannot get the other 2 sets of splines (those on the converter) to engage. Is there some trick to doing this, or is it purely a "try until you get it" kind of thing? It's hard to picture a mechanic at a Packard dealership sitting there for a couple of hours (which I did) trying to get the converter seated.

G'day Gearhead,
to PackardInfo. Sorry I can't answer you question but I'm sure there'll be someone along soon who can.

And I invite you to include your '55 Clipper Custom in the Packard Owner's Registry.

You do need to lift and rotate the converter slightly as you gently push inward. There are 3 places splines need to mesh with their freely rotating mates so it does take a bit of trial and error.

You need the slight lift to make sure nothing is cocked so nothing will be catching the edge of a bushing. It is probably the teeth on the end of the converter pump shaft that are not meshing with the front oil pump so just a very gentle push. Pushing too hard during rotation will jam the shaft into the inner rotor and turn it at the same time so nothing changes position to allow the mesh. If doing both movements simultaneously doesn't work then just turn a tiny tooth's worth at a time and then lift and push.

As long as nothing is damaged or mismatched because of spline changes from 55 to 56 and the converter is lifted to take weight and any bind off when feeding straight in, it should go without too much difficulty.

Mr. Gearhead:
I ran into the same issue and just was not able to get everything aligned at the right moment. What finally worked for me was literally standing the transmission on its tail (hopefully all fluids have been drained) and slowly dropping the torque converter onto the transmission into position. By positioning gravity forces along the axis of the transmission it allowed the gears to align themselves.
But if you know what you are doing, performing such contortions are probably not necessary.
Good Luck.

Like h saids...i think the shaft is your hang up.

Use blocks of wood to get torque converter level then. Push and rotate slowly..and it should drop in.

Then use wire on stud to hole in bell housing and wire it so it does not slip off when moving it..