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

The timing marks are stamped but sometimes the stamping was lightly done & the impressions may be filled with paint or grease. You could try scrubbing with a wire brush and some cleaner to see if you can find them. Some have had luck with wire brushing and then rubbing chalk around to find and fill the impressions.

As to your "pull off", if the car is above a certain speed it won't drop down out of direct readily. Maybe when you let off it lowers the speed enough to drop below the point. I don't remember the exact speed where the cutoff is but should be in the literature. That whole ratio is determined by the throttle adjustment pressure vs governor or speed pressure.

To answer the other part of your question, if your "rattle" is indeed preignition or detonation, it means you have insufficient octane for the timing you have. Adding diesel will make it worse, adding higher octane gas will relieve it.

oh wow ,INTERESTING ,WHEN i INSTALLED A NEW GAS PUMP, THE VACUMB LINES WERE IN DISSARAY AND disconnected ,I WONDER IF IVE PUT THEM TOGETHER OUT OF ORDER .,you mentioned that the gas pump vacumb is in SERIES between the carb and the wiper motor ,so the vacumb line which comes from the carb is the sourse or first , then hooks to the gas pump vacumb on the front ,and then the vacumb goes to the wiper motor and terminates there?does the vacumb get "boosted" at the gas pump?

it was mentioned that the only adjustment that the 52 needed to the throttle linkage was the cross link height as measured off the height of the top of the head.. I tried this with the 2 2/3 " height and a scale but the exhaust manifold is where the rod is over ,not he head .shall I measure the height of the short bent part where it wouldhave lined up with the hole on the special tool to where it would be over the head by trying to get a horizontal line thats level with a carperters level or something , and then measuring its height ,I think iLL need 3 hands
,also the excellent but complicatedservice bullitin proceedure went into adjustment of the throtle lever on the side of the ultramatic transmission ,this still have to be adjusted on the 52,no?
it has to be loosened after unhooking the throttle lever rotated back on the shaft somehow untill it begin to compress a spring and then retightened and rehooked up.

thank you ,imagine going up a steep hill with the car floored in high gear ,Ill bog down to almost a stall, but if I release the accelerator itll pop down into a lower gear ,it feels like itll stall before it down shifts. I ve been " preemting " this by forcing the car to down shift before it bogs too much with the pull off (like a fluid drive),this works fine but I didn't know if thats how its supposed to work

On the plumbing, can't say which port front or back as pumps may be different. Remove the two hoses from vacuum side of pump. With engine running use your finger to see which port has suction. That one goes to wiper motor. The other goes to the intake manifold or carb.. The way it works is normally the intake manifold is stronger and just pulls air thru the vacuum pump. When engine under load and accelerator more open, that vacuum source becomes weak and pump is stronger so it does most of the work.

On the linkage, lay a ruler or some other narrow but STRAIGHT item on the head that is long enough to cover two of the ridges on head and extend out over manifold the way the gauge is shown in picture. Use a tape measure or another ruler to measure from the BOTTOM of the straight piece to the center of the rod. It should be pretty close to 2 3/4 inches. The measurement will vary a bit when other adjustments are made but should be very close. If you can't keep the ruler flat across the head and measure at the same time, then maybe another set of hands would help.

On the bottom end, remove the cotter key and slide the pin and rod off lever. Ensure the top end measurement is still correct then see if you can move the lever more to rear without compressing the spring. IIRC, the spring is not terribly stiff so won't require a lot of force to compress it. Use a fine touch. If you can move lever far enough to rear before reaching spring that the pin and rod won't go back in the hole then it needs adjusting. If you do need to adjust, follow the instructions. If the pin goes back in, then leave everything alone.

On first examination, if any of the measurements or adjustments are really far off, don't change anything until you find out what is not correct. There is another turnbuckle on accelerator pedal side that also comes into play and a bent rod could also be present. This is one adjustment that needs to be done correctly.

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I have the engine and trans out of the car right now so I can't go look at the linkage however......If I remember correctly there is a spring loaded plunger or equilvelent the provides the down stop or full throttle position. To get the transmission to shift out of direct drive you need to push the throttle to the floor ( contacting the stop ) and then push it harder compressing the spring. This is there so the trans will not attempt to come out of direct drive unless you want it to. And yes it will not shift out of direct drive above a certain speed no matter how hard you push the throttle.

My advice about fooling around with the linkage is to leave it alone until you determine that the trans doesn't shift up or down properly. You can do more harm than good. From what I've read here you are new to an ultramatic equipped Packard and unfamiliar with what to expect. I was there too. Find someone who knows Packards and ask him to drive it and see what he says. It may be just fine and operating just the way it should. Better would be to find a good transmission shop but good luck finding a shop that was around when these transmissions were in general use.

Good Luck

thanks many good advices !excellent explanation of the mysterious wiper vacumb system
excellent explanation of the plunger thing

the height of the carb throttle link where it attaches to the transverse rod is only about 2 1/4 inches ,1/2 " off,
the rod going forward to the carb is a bit bent theres a spring that is acting as the cotter pin for the transverse rod /carb rod junction that holds the linkage forward. the other end is hooked on the manifold vacumb line ,it doesnt look like its hooked up the way its supposed to be but it works.. although the link to the transmission may not be being held sufficiently upwards since the linkage is being pulled forward by the spring


but it works ,and it seams to allow the carb urator to function properly .i noticed the rod going to the carb has a spring loading function inside of it

the spring loaded button to make sure you really want to downshift makes sense out of the mystery switch
i cleaned off the bottom engine pully with a wire brush and found an old painted timimg mark but not the embossed degrees may theyll show up with some welders chalk

With things as you describe, Bobs51 has the best idea to just leave it alone for now since it is working after a fashion.

With a bent rod and short measurement the geometry is already messed up so Packard instructions are no longer much help. Hopefully the person who did that change also made sure something else along the line was bent or adjusted to compensate for the bent carb rod but if not, the shortened swing could be related to the issue of not dropping out of direct on command or at full throttle. Without first going thru and measuring each piece and ensuring everything was to spec, you could do damage by changing just that one measurement and nothing else at the same time.

Once you get all the other issues sorted and engine running well, the linkage can be tackled.

Again I strongly urge you to find someone who has a Packard with an ultramatic and ask them to drive your car. These transmissions are old and the cost to repair is high. It would sure be a shame to damage it with unnessary adjustments and then after it's wrecked find out it was working correctly to start with. When I got my car I was sure the transmission wasn't working correctly. I was wrong. These transmissions just are not like newer ones. For one thing they do not shift gears. You start and drive in only one gear. The torque converter slips when you start off and then around 20/25 mph the direct drive clutch closes. No gear change. Just the torque converter slip is eliminated by the closure of the direct drive clutch. Sort of feels like a shifting into high but that isn't what is happening.

Just a note: You will probably find out that the car takes off from a red light with more power in the low range. One of the worst things you can do to the transmission is to start in low range for the quicker start and then through it into the high range on the fly. You will most assuredly break it eventually. You won't like the cost to repair it.

thanks you guys
,good advice again ,as things and kinks get fixed one by one, and the car is getting more dependable ,I drive it more, which seems to make everyting work better almost like the old girl is getting getting limbered up .Im excited about the valve adjustment Im having done in the am .
there is indeed a panel which can be unbolted in the inner fender to get at the valves and ive got the new gaskets
each piece of advice from the web site has gotten the old car over a hump tword the daily driver status