Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

This was triggered by part of Dad's 5677A blog. I happened to be dealing with the exact same issue on a 56 Super. On this car the splines on the lever not only twisted but actually broke off--the first time I have encountered this in forty-odd years. Fortunately nothing else was ruined.

Whilst cleaning and checking decided to look at the ball bearing that supports the first stage reduction worm drive. To do that I drill a hole in the 1 1/8" soft plug and flip it out with a punch. The bearing was rusted solid as condensation tends to collect at the top of the gearbox. The shaft was spinning in the inner race.

Replaced the bearing as pictured and Loctited the shaft into the bearing for good measure. Made sure there was a lot of the Moly grease all around the worm and bearing during reassembly.

Once again, flee the temptation to operate your leveler manually. Once it has gone over center and you have lost track of which way it is rotating, the gearbox produces enough torque to destroy itself before the fuse blows. My guess is that they put such a heavy fuse in the circuit so the units would operate in sub-zero temps.

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Amazing that nothing else was chewed up with those broken bits.

Thanks for the photos, was hesitant to proceed with this part, but will now give it a go, thanks for the bearing number

So many '55 & '56 cars have ad-hoc manual control switches added that are not wired through the limit switches, as per the service bulletin and just plain common sense. The automatic leveling feature is not hard to make work correctly, but all the "mechanics" of the world prove they know little about electronics when they touch these cars.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/partslist/images/Plates/1955-1956/32A.jpg
Hello

Just putting my compensator gearbox back together and have a question

One of the gears, 15.951 , there are 2, has small notches. I read somewhere about being careful during reassembly to ensure the one with slots is on the correct location. And now I can find it
Can anyone help?

Is this what you are referring to?
https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SC-VOL29NO4.pdf

That would be it
Thanks so much LTRD!!

Will print that off and add to my service manual

So far I'm liking the solid state timing switch.

What would someone with a positive ground '55 have to do to make their T/L work with negative ground?

So far I'm liking the solid state timing switch.

Posted on: Today 20:59:06
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Riki



Good to know, I have 1 original that's tested well, I think I will try that for a bit once I get the compensator back together and in the car