Has anyone ever messed around with the Thunderbolt and Ultra Glide transmission? As of yesterday while she is in drive and at idle she makes a rattle noise .... I have a mechanics shop manual for her . After looking the whole transmission section over. No where does it tell you where to fill or check the transmission . Weird part about it is the noise goes away once you hit the gas . I was thinking loose exhaust . Any help would be appreciated.....
That Packard is sweet man. These are so seldom seen and are really interesting cars. Proud of you for keepin it out there among the citizens. Good luck on your mystery noise. ~sololobo~
You have to raise the car up to check or add fluid,there is a cap with dipstick made on it think it is on left side of trans.Easiest way to add fluid is add a cap like gear oil has with a piece of hose and squeeze bottle.I believe the Ultramatics take type A trans fluid.Kinda hard to find these days.Been a while since I have done this.Hope this helps and Happy New Year. Stony
We had Packard ambulances in our fire department when I first went to work in '54. Those were straight eight flat heads and the body was built up by Henney. They even had dual carburetors and the Ultra-Matic transmission which was a really good performer for us. In 1958 when they were being replaced all had well over 100,000 miles on the odometers. None had any major repairs done to them either. The replacement units were on a GM chassis with a V-8 but never did perform like the Packard's. Too bad they were forced under by the big three. You car is a very rare and a very well engineered example of what Packard could build. Good luck! Normbc9
These guys have all the answers when it comes to Packards. They even have a modifications section. http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/ By the way it's an Ultramatic not Ultra Glide. Ultramatic was Packard's own design of automatic, one of the first torque converter trannies possibly the first, definitely the first by an independent. Similar in design to the 2 speed Buick Dynaflow Chev Powerglide and Chrysler Powerflite except the Ultramatic had a lock up torque converter (in 1950!). This made it as efficient as a manual trans above 22 MPH.
Normbc it is funny you said that ...... My Packard was a fire chief's car until 1961....the fellow I got her off of had all her paperwork and a few pictures of her loaded up with firemen .......I have them somewhere and will try and post em .......
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