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

Much ado about nothing. Proper chassis lubrication includes doing the U joints and all other fittings. When my father owned his first, a 53 Patrician he was 48 and my mother 48. Neither of them crawled under the car to lube the ujoints or anything else, they took it to the service station whre the grease monkey did all the work. The gm know where the dipstick was.

Nowadays there are few grease monkeys, the people who work on cars are highly trained and understand complex electronics and mechanical systems. Ever see the front end of an Audi off to change the timing chain/belt?? Looks like a 747 engine or worse. Agreed thye do not know where the dipstick is on your 52 Clipper, but if they can fix a car with two turbochargers and you tell them it is in the right front uper corner of the case, they'll find it.

If you want to make a federal case out of it you can, but I know how simple it all is so you won't convince me, and I alos know that nobody is capable of slithering under a 52 Packard with 100,000 mile sagged springs to lube the ujoints , so the car has to go on a lift or ramps at which time the trans dipstick is a piece of cake.

As to the grit that may fall into the pan, there's a very fine brass filter screen thast will catch virtually all of it. I've disassembled many 50-54 trans for aprts nad never saw grit stuck in the filter. This is a non-problem. Of course if you want to......

I will research the applicability of the 55-6 pans to earlier cars,. a slight mod may be needed I think.

I will research the applicability of the 55-6 pans to earlier cars,. a slight mod may be needed I think.

I think you're correct on the mod. Is there enough room on the right side to access the 55-6 dipstick without burning yourself on the manifold. That is probably why the gearstart dipsticks were on the left.

Existing linkage and exhaust pipe would make it a very tight fit on the right side of the pan on a 51-54. For sure needs to go on the left side.

If you look at the construction of the a '54 Gear Start filler tube, it is just a tube with a bend at the bottom, and a compression fitting and one piece of flat metal tack welded to it as a brace that attaches to a lower bell housing cover bolt.

So that being said.... drill a hole in the pan, and braze a brass or copper 1/2 female fitting to the pan. Then bed up a piece of 1/2 tubing with the matching compression fitting to the end of it. Tack or braze on a piece of metal to duplicate the brace and voila... a 54 GS like filler tube. Then just find a long dip stick and cut to length and mark as needed.

Next time I am under the car, I can take a pick of what the 54 one looks like if interested.

Probably someone could make these up for under $50 and sell as a kit for $125.

I found a pic the tube when I had it off the car to clean out the transmission filter.

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Couldn't ask for a more simple dipstick. Next time under maybe a pict of the pan showing where it connects. New aftermarket dipsticks are easy enough. Just need to figure out the connection. Maybe a screw on tank sidewall fitting instead of welding.

Howard, the pan has a bung that welded/brazed in it that is just the female side of a compression fitting. Similar to the bung fitting in the fuel tank, just way much larger.

I think the pan metal would be too thin to simply drill and tap. It would need to be reenforced similar to how the pans where the drain plugs are. But I am sure the correct fitting could be "sweated" or brazed to the pan with minimal effort.

fred -

Not sure where you're coming from, but I don't recall anyone in this thread saying that they were trying to lube the chassis with car sitting on the ground.

The thread started out with someone asking for an alternative to lifting the carpet to check/add fluid; later, others wanted to do so without going under-car. The obvious solution for those people, who want to check the fluid level themselves, is an underhood dipstick - as Packard accomplished with the Gear Start.

In my last post, I merely tried to point out that with the car on a lift, the practice was to attend to other under-car service while engine oil was being drained - common knowledge back then, but not so today.

Your Audi dealer aside, I have a pretty low opinion of the typical modern car dealer. I may be limited as to what I can fix on late model iron, but when it comes to my old cars, I generally do better work myself, and know many others who do as well.

Though I prefer my cars to be bone-stock, I wouldn't deny anyone the simple convenience of an underhood dipstick. Actually, I'm a bit surprised that Packard didn't offer a retrofit for that, but they probably had bigger fish to fry at that point.

I look forward to seeing what you or others can come up with in that regard.

There have been a number of references to checking the fluid level from the passenger compartment. I was under the impression that while you could fill the transmission from there, you do not have access to the dipstick from inside.

I could be wrong of course. I've never tried filling the transmission from inside the car due to new carpeting, wool upholstery, etc. so I don't know what is accessible through that small hatch.

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Kev, I agree pan is too thin to tap but was thinking something along this line with a fitting where you just drill a hole. There is a gasket and nut on either side to provide support and do the actual sealing--either flare or compression on the tube. Just a thought that it might be more conducive to the average home guy rather than needing to have something welded. Brazing would be permanent and more secure though.

I am thinking more & more along the lines of the Locar setup being a better way to go. With it being flexible, it should be very easy to make an adapter to use the existing opening. Just stick the end straight down into that hole and the pan. I can think of a couple of ways that might work and if I had an older Ultra, would try something. Cortcomps rubber sleeve is a start but think maybe a step further with metal to prevent any chance of movement giving a varying reading. There's a different assy 52-4 and not quite sure what was changed so might need 2 versions.

As to calibration, just use the existing dipstick to first make sure level is proper. Pull dipstick out and mount the adapter and new stick and mark the spot. Advantages would be no downtime, no new pan gasket, no chance of any leaks, and the next owner could revert if wanted.

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Large plate is only on the pre 50s cars & would have to be removed to check level. I don't think there is enough space around the edge to get a hand in and down far enough to access the dipstick. Could be wrong though but still lots of work. Little plate would be good only for filling. 51-4 version of the fill spot is even smaller so only good for filling.