I Wouldn’t Do That If I Were You by George Hamlin

We have been around the world and back again and have ridden in hundreds of Packards (and other collector) cars with lots of folks. We have observed a whole lot of practices we don’t recommend, if you plan on keeping the car forever. Without naming any names, we would discourage the following:

1. ABUSE OF THE OVERDRIVE, I. -

The overdrive is intended for ordinary driving but probably wasn’t designed to operate for over 50 years, so it wants gentle handling. Running the car up to 30 in second, letting up with a bang, letting the overdrive come in hard, stepping on it with a bang, then shifting to third overdrive down the road is NOT gentle handling.

2. ABUSE OF THE OVERDRIVE, II. -

Kicking the overdrive down is a fine advertising sales point, but it’s hard on the equipment. The engine comes up to speed quickly and gives the gear set a brutal kick when it catches up to the gear ratio. Ed Proctor examined this topic a few years back in one of his columns, and our recommendation parrots his: if you have to downshift while you’re in overdrive, use the foot clutch.

3. ABUSE OF THE OVERDRIVE, III. -

Using a manual switch instead of the governor and relay; Well, yes, this practice increases flexibility. It also introduces the possibility of hanging the car in overdrive on an upgrade in the equivalent of second gear, and really wears things out three times as fast if you use the rig to simulate a six-speed transmission. It doesn’t give you that much more in the way of gearing anyway; first overdrive is about the same as second and second overdrive is about the same as third.

4. VROOMING THE ENGINE FOR FUN ON SHUTDOWN -

We used to live across the street from a guy who drove a truck and did this every night when he returned home. Finally we asked him, why are you DOING this?! He said everyone knows it puts that last bit of fuel in the carburetor to permit easier starting next morning. Another chap once told us, everyone knows it gives the battery one last charge. Here’s what it really does: it puts raw fuel on the cylinder walls to wash the oil off, promoting rapid wear. Furthermore, a car engine is designed to be shut off while it is at its slowest idle; shutting down at 1000 rpm is likely to cause it to diesel, and that’s murder on the pistons.

5. DECLUTCHING ON ACCELERATION –

Lots of folks, trained on automatic transmissions, have missed something about standard-transmission cars; you don’t have to punch the clutch the minute you decide to slow down. Letting the engine slow you down just to the point of lugging, before you declutch, saves fuel, saves brake lining, saves brake drums, saves clutch linkage and throwout bearings. Oh, and it’s safer too.

6. ABUSE OF THE ULTRAMATIC, I –

Manual shifting; Automatics, with specific exceptions starting in the 1960s. are generally designed to be left in one range while the governor makes the decisions. Manual shifting can cause direct-clutch slippage (leading to direct clutch burnout, which is something you really don’t want) and, if you’re shifting between L direct to H direct, puts more wear on the driveline. There’s a subset of this practice too: with the pushbutton control, shifting between ratios on the fly can overload the electric motor, because there’s a torque lock in the transmission specifically designed to discourage manual shifting by making it harder to do when the car is moving. The electric motor doesn’t know, and it WILL succeed in overpowering the resistance, but it’s hard on the equipment.

7. ABUSE OF THE ULTRAMATIC, II –

Keeping the accelerator down on takeoff. Well, yes, it’s an automatic transmission, and everything should be automatic, but there’s a way to make it last longer. When we bought our new ’53, the salesman took us out and showed us the factory-recommended acceleration method: push down, take off, then let up a little when the direct clutch is coming in. Still good advice; it really cuts down on direct-clutch wear. Do it, and have a lifetime of happy motoring. Do it not, and wonder why the direct clutch has begun to groan and slip.