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After trying everything I could think of and read about in these blogs, I must rebuild my ultramatic. The car runs fine in low , gos ok in reverse, but barely crawls in high. When I say barely, I rev the engine a I might go two miles an hour. Can anyone tell me how tall the ultramatic is? I'll have to jack up the car to that height plus the height of the transmission jack I purchase. I feel that I have to replace the high range clutchs. I did all the recommended adjustments, the fluid level is proper, it just won't go in High.
Thanks in advance

I have the transmission out of my 51, 300. Sitting on the ground it measures just under 17" high measured to the top of the bell housing. I think I have some bad news for you though. I don't believe you can get the transmission out by itself. I had to pull the engine and trans together. Tried to separate the engine and trans but was unable to do that with the assembly in the car. Was able to get all the bell housing bolts out but one. No way could I get on that last bolt at the top. Took the front motor mounts off and dropped the engine down till it was sitting on the front cross member. Not enough clearance. Even bought a swivel socket. Could not get that last bolt out. Couldn't even get a partial turn on it.

Other than the problem with the bolts another reason the trans will not come out without the engine is the fact that the tail cone of the trans sticks into the frames "X" member. Even if you get all the bell housing bolts out you still cant move everything forward enough the clear the tail shaft from the "X" member.

Needless to say to pull the engine and trans out you will need to remove the hood and the radiator support frame out of the car. The fenders are bolted to the radiator support so in my opinion the easier thing to do is to remove the fenders too. Then you will have all the room you need to work.

Good Luck with that.

PS. I know what I went through doing this however I am interested if anyone has done a transmission removal on a 51 without having to remove the engine with it. Thanks

Seems highly unlikely as transmissions were removed and serviced rather routinely by dealers and I doubt it required removal of the engine. Wish I could remember the details but it was more than 30 years ago, but I removed the Ultramatic from my 54 Patrician w/o removing the engine. Twice in fact. I might have removed the tail shaft, just don't remember. But I doubt a 51 is significantly different than a 54 so take another look before you bite the bullet.

Agree with O_D. The engine should not have to come out. I don't remember the top bolts being that big a problem but I think I might have been using a long extension and a universal socket.

I believe once the rear crossmember is removed and all is supported by a jack and block under the engine oil pan you can lower the rear of engine so tailshaft will drop down in the rear enough to clear the X. You do need to make sure nothing on engine or linkage touches the firewall when the engine is angled. Place the transmission jack, remove the remaining bolts and then all will slide back the couple of inches to have the converter clear the flex plate and then down.

The biggest issue I had was supporting the engine when trans was out. If you want to move the car, you have to clamp something to the frame rails and make a support. Otherwise it's a dedicated jack or blocks and nothing moves.

You're probably right. It just looked to me like the easier thing to do at the time. Maybe there was more clearance between the tunnel and the top of the trans on the later models. Don't know. This was the first car that I couldn't seem to get the trans out without the engine. Pulled many in the past. Maybe I'm just getting old.

PS did try every combination of extensions and swivel sockets and universals there was. Could not get on the last bolt at the top straight enough the get it to turn. I am pretty sure that even with the rear cross member out the rear of the trans still sticks into the "X" member far enough to inhibit the trans from dropping straight down.

Don't let the torque converter fall out or move out away from the transmission during trans removal..

I pulled the trans (engine in place) from my 56 Executive parts car. Had a terrific amount of trouble removing it. Getting the bolts out was'nt any trouble but just getting it to clear the engine and other obstructions was a major problem. IIRC i had to bolt TQ back to flex plate and then remove trans. Still had a lot of trouble. I've pulled several across many other makes. Never had as much trouble as with the 56 Exec.

I swapped trannys in a 51 Mayfair 250. I did not have to remove engine. I did have two scissor jacks - one for engine and one for tranny. I drained trans, dropped rear motor mount, and lowered the trans enough to reach the top two bolts on the bell housing with an extension and a universal.
After removing these two I jacked the trans up and supported the engine with the other scissor jack. I think you could also remove the top bolts from the engine compartment. I supported the engine with the other jack, removed the other bolts and lowered flywheel cover. I think I tied a piece of rope to the bell housing and front of converter to hold it in place. Slid the tranny back and tilted the front end down to slide it forward and out. I did have the car up on blocks for clearance. Defintely did not remove engine. I just swapped trans - no rebuild.

I believe I can understand your dilemma Casey. Possessing the correct tools and shop equipment to do the job is probably 75% of the ability to perform the job efficiently. The average hobby mechanic probably owns jack stands that provide 18" of clearance from the floor to the rocker panels at best. That distance is based on the stands being placed under the rear axle housing at the spring perches and the front lower control arms at the coil spring seats. I'm guessing that even the most compact transmission jack or hydraulic floor jack would have to be at least 4" high and is more likely to be 6" so to have a decent chance of getting the transmission out from under the car once it's unbolted, the car probably needs to be a minimum of 24" at the points mentioned above. So the real challenge is getting the car high enough to remove the transmission SAFELY. The '51 through'54 service manual provides explicit details and photos on how to do it but it's being done in a controlled environment. The car is up on a hydraulic lift providing standing room access. The mechanic is installing a factory engine support bracket and is using a transmission jack as tall as he is...he started the procedure with a hot cup of coffee and it's still steaming when the transmission is placed on the work bench...
The instructions for removing the transmission are on page 2 under the Ultramatic section of the manual here.
https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/servicemanual5154/Ultramatic_VII.pdf
Lately, I've been tossing around the idea of removing my transmission if it needs to be rebuilt and I've pretty much settled on removing both the engine and transmission together. Of course, my decision is based on the fact that my car could use a valve job which will probably include replacing the guides so I figure at that point just go ahead and replace the rings and bearings while its out and then its done.

Again Casey, I can't stress "SAFETY" enough. Honestly, If I had it to do and decided that removing the transmission by itself was the way I wanted to go, I believe I'd try to find four nice size blocks of oak to set that behemoth on that will give you a minimum of 24" from floor to rocker panels and you can rest assured it will be high enough and won't go anywhere barring an earthquake.

It is not necessary to remove the engine to replace the valve guides, rings, and bearings (assuming the crankshaft doesn't need servicing).