Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

My friends and I (mostly my friends) have been helping another friend work out the bugs in his 1941 Packard Six. During the restoration, a rebuilt R-9 overdrive was installed, along with all the proper peripherals. New wiring.

On the first night, we made big headway in straightening out some problems. We adjusted shifting linkage, checked for proper operation of the solenoid and relay, corrected some wiring that was incorrect (dash overdrive light), and installed the missing "engaging" bolt for the kick-down switch.

It now shifts very smoothly -- albeit somewhat sloppily -- through the gears without overdrive engaged. The overdrive system seems to work properly, however, it seems that about 50% of the time when shifting from first to second, it doesn't find second gear (remains in neutral). When moving down to third, same thing.

It seems if I'm more aggressive with the shift, it finds second and third more often. When it does find second and third, the overdrive shift works just fine, too.

I only have the car for a few more days before it heads back south. My friends and I wanted to "fix" this for our friend, who has given 30 years of his life to serve in the U.S. Marines as an enlisted man.


Any ideas? Any questions? Thanks for any help in this matter.

Almost sounds like lost motion. Regular shift so-so but a little extra oomph and inertia gets it there. Would wonder about the condition of the bushings and are they all the steel ones or some of the rubber still mixed in.

Don't know about the bushings. Are you talking about ones inside the transmission, or the bushings around the levers and casing?

I don't even know if the transmission, itself, was rebuilt. It doesn't seem like it was, to us.

About a year and a half ago a similar thread was started about the 1940 shifter problems. If you re-read this thread, then it might give you some ideas as to solving the problem:
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6106&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

And as you will read in there, "...do not try to 'firewall' the shift lever - use a deliberate shift patten."

Yes. I'm familiar with that thread. And I contributed to it. The problem we're having is not the famous "lock" problem. The shifter itself moves to the proper location, but when you let out the clutch, it remains in neutral.

The car shifts just fine when the overdrive lockout switch is pulled out. The problem happens ONLY when the overdrive lockout is pushed in.

Bushings at all the lever and rod connection points. There were some bulletins on lost motion, poor shift feel and some other symptoms. All the original rubber bushings having a steel center sleeve only were replaced with solid steel.

Sounds like the overrunning clutch in the overdrive is not biting every time. That can be caused by bad springs on that clutch, or damaged or missing rollers. Or perhaps even extra slippery oil. Use GL-1.

Otherwise I would just drive around a while with the floor plate off and watch the motion of the shift levers

GeeWhiz:

Years and years ago Captain Baldridge had his 1942 Packard 180 Formal Sedan converted to overdrive. Boy was that a problem!

There is an endplay specification for cars equipped with overdrive using selective snap rings and a washer. Nobody but the Packard dealer is going to have a drawer full of that stuff.

I'll bet that's the problem here because when the car is in straight stick shift mode the opposing force is holding the main shaft forward.

Hope this helps.

Uhhhhhhh. I believe the overdrive is engaged or should ONLY be engaged during high gear operation ONLY. That is to say, shift to high gear BEFORE overdrive engagement. Overdrive should NOT be engaged at any other time. ONLY during high gear operation.

See if that works.

PackardV8, I don't know that I can agree with you on that. Over many years with my R9 equipped 22nd series Custom 8 I used 2nd overdrive countless times and drove many, many miles in that mode with nary a problem. And the engagement occurred whenever you were accelerating in 2nd gear and for whatever reason backed off the accelerator momentarily - viola! 2nd overdrive.