Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Hi.

The pre pre owner gave the gearbox to inspection/overhaul. I?ve got the receipt of the work. They have replaced a converter wheel and checked it. Than it has been serviced with dexron ATF fluid. I own the car since march and the pre-owners had the same problem but they did not care. They have always used the H range. When I checked the fluid level I had to refill 4.5 quarts but the gear was working as before.

Ulrich.

Ulrich,
for including your '54 Clipper Super Touring Sedan in the Packard Owner's Registry.

Hi Ulrich:

According to the manual, I suppose this problem is classified as "does not move in Low". There is a gadget called a "timing valve" which can stick or was perhaps put together wrong.

The oil leak is not good. If it is blowing fluid on the road then the transmission was not put together properly.

If you can't take it back then perhaps the valve may free up on its own. I suppose the band could be out of adjustment or place but that doesn't sound likely. All the other fixes require servicing the valve body.

I was making adjustments on an UM and everything was perfect except the idle speed. I had to lengthen the linkage. Just that little bit threw the transmission into chaos. Packard had all kinds of memos out about the throttle linkage saying that the manual was wrong. Oh brother.

Hi Tim.

I took a look on the hydraulic schematic and I also think the timing vale will be the problem in conjunction with a badly adjusted linkage. When the low range disengages the pressure is removed from the low range piston suddenly. It seems there is a hydraulic valve shifting and directing the pressure from one to the other side of the low range piston.
The pre-owners did not care about the problem and the exessive oil leakage. When they owned the car there was still warranty on the gearbox. Now not any more.
I don`t think the company that did the overhaul on the gearbox is experienced on oldtimer parts and the one who installed it on the car did not know how to adjust the linkage. It is absolutely misadjusted and the carburetor rod is bended.
According to the manual you need aspecial tool for adjusting the throttle cross shaft. I tried to find out the dimensions of this tool but I had no sucess.


I put my car into the database. Unfortunately the picture upload did not work. I think the picture was too big. I will take a new picture with a lower resolution and put it in the databse.

Thanks.

Uli

The dimension is 2.75 inches, or about 7 cm. In my experience, this is not life and death important compared with the adjustment of the lever at the transmission. Based on several cases I have now seen, make sure the lever on the trans. is pointing up and not down. Check out 51packard's blog from about a month ago for more discussion and pictures of this issue.

Hi Ulrich:

After looking this over perhaps you are on the right track in looking at the throttle valve (TV). Let's suppose too much TV pressure is going to the regulator via the limit valve then mainline pressure to the low band might be wrong.
I have to admit I never tried misadjusting the linkage to see what happens to Low range.

TV is universal. The more TV pressure the more the transmission delays up shifting.

With Ultramatic, correct TV pressure will have Direct Drive engaging between 23-28 mph under moderate acceleration.

Now if you study those special TV tools in the manual you will see they are intended to provide uniform results for flat rate service times.

Thus, follow first principles and get the throttle rod in the right place at the transmission clevis and then follow the picture. With a little road testing you can get TV where it should be.

I have a 54 scheduled in the future for which there is too much TV and it shifts into DD too late.

Anyway, getting the High Range working properly might fix the Low range problem.

Let me know what happens.