Allllrighty then, here's what I know of the Packard Torsion Level suspension system.......Packard had patents on various torsion bar systems going back to the 1920's but it wasn't until one Dr. William D. Allsion approached Packard in the early 50's that they ever developed something for production.

Allison had tried shopping his design all around Detroit, starting with the major players. Every one of them shot him down as it was considered too expensive/complicated. His timing was finally right when he got a chance to meet with Packard's new Prez James Nance.....he was looking for novel features to put Packard a cut above the competition and felt this would be ideal.

This system used two long bars on each side of the car, each essentially connecting the from to the rear (on the one side). As the front wheel encountered a bump and was pushed up the twisting action of the bar would bear down upon the rear wheel and push it down---all of which actually raised the side of the car in a gentle motion. No twisting forces were exerted upon the chassis itself......all went thru the suspension.

In the center of the chassis was a small "Equalizer" device. This was basically a modified starter motor with gear reduction, a series of limit switches and a pair of much smaller interlinking torsion bars. This did nothing to affect the ride or handling but was essential in maintaining a level ride height. Without it the car while normally sitting level at rest would then list fore or aft once the ideal balance was changed due to luggage or by adding passengers.

How this Equalizer worked (this was the "Level" part of the name) would sense a load fore or aft, and then wind or unwind the torsion bars thus changing the pre-set on the main ones. This in turn would bring the car back to level. There were various delay switches built in so that this wouldn't keep running while driving......during extended braking downhill for instance it might try to raise the front end but a brake light interrupt circuit prevented that.....same thing with driving over a lot of bumps...they system would go crazy trying to interact and compensate for them if it wasn't for a 5 second delay.

They designed this to be interchangeable with the standard suspension so that the customer could order a car with either the new torsion bars or the conventional coil and leafs. Torsion Level was standard on all the Packards and was optional on most of the Clippers. Now don't get me started on the pushbutton gear selector on the 56's LOL

Anthony