PackardV8 is certainly correct about his cautions of overuse of a trickle charger (as opposed to a battery tender), but technically it doesn't deplete the acid, the acid is actually strengthened by charging until the max of about 18% is reached; thereafter overcharging can warp the plates and if they warp enough to fracture the insulator between them they can short. You could also damage the cell matrix, in either case the battery is not recoverable.

My general practice is to trickle-charge overnight (at about 4 amps) once every 6-8 weeks during periods of prolonged car storage.

Is it any one how know any producer of bodys like on this picture

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I have had one on my 400 for years and it works well. As HH56 says it's a WOW at the car cruises for people not familiar with Packard.
Now, a question. Although I have heard this repeated for years, has anyone actual first-hand experience with the battery going dead from repeated use of the T/L system? I have demonstrated mine at length and never had it drain the battery to the point where the car didn't start. I'm beginning to think this is an old wives tale. Urban legend?

Nice work, and I'll send the 1939 list to you some day next week. I'm not sure "Swiss Packard" is the correct name in Zurich; the Packard dealer in Zurich at least for the decade of the 30s, was "Werner Risch," Seestrasse 407, Willishofe, Zurich. Don't have a picture of the building but you might want to use the enclosed as an alternative.

PS - photo credit to Peter Issler, Muttenz, Switzerland.

PPS - the Finnish dealer from the very early years all the way thru 1956 I believe was Autola Oy. They were a prolific dealer, selling more than 300 Packards just in the years 1936-1939. Address during those years was Heikiaktu 9, Helaiagfors, Finland. (hope i got the spelling right)

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Connect battery charger '-' to '-' of battery and '+' of charger to '+' of battery. The battery charger is a BATTERY CHARGER. The car connexions or polarity are irrelevant to the battery charger.

However, i would be cautious not leave the trickle charger on the battery continuously for more than 2 or 3 days at the max without checking water level in the battery.

Charging a battery depletes the **WATER level leaving higher acid concentration **. So CONTINUOUS charging for LONG periods of time is or may not be a good idea. I never use trickle chargers on a continous basis for more than 2 or 3 days and that's only if the battery is dead to begin with or i plan to operate the equipment in a few days or there are some other unusual circumstances.

Trickle charges CAN FRY a battery over a long period of time, ESPECIALY small batteries such as motysickle batteries.

IMPORTANT: Let the battery charger warm up for about 30 seconds or longer BEFORE connecting to battery. DO NOT BELIEVE THE MODERN INSTRUCTIONS OF ANY charger that states to connect to device BEFROE plugging in charger to wall outlet.

when DISconnecting the charger use safety glasses and hold your head AWAY from the battery as far as is comfortably possible. Batteries produce hydrogen gas WHEN CHARging and there IS a remote chance of a spark occuring especialy in confined spaces.

** edited for correction **

I switched the battery cables to positive ground and polarized the generator. WORKS !!!!

I have a 6v trickle/float charger - would like to connect to battery when car is sitting.

Question: Can I connect this charger to battery with battery in car ? I think answer is "yes".

I don't know if the charger is expecting or requiring the attached battery to be negative ground or not.

Thanks for your help !

Hi,

I got the kit from Max Merritt but have not installed it yet. A friend put one on his 400 and it works well.

Gene

Thanks BEDeb

I will remove the ball from where I installed it. Is there any chance I could get a copy of your sheet on the the 644SA carb. If you can email it to ralwesnotary@gmail.com

For my dim tail/stop lights as I posted earlier I redid the grounds and also I ran a wire from the power side of the started solenoid to the brake switch along with an inline fuse. My lights are now nice and bright.

As part of my Packard obsessive/compulsive makeup I'm currently undertaking a review of what I term "obvious errors" in the Owner Registry. Basically this is confined to the initial identification fields of each entry being:
Year: 19xx
Series: xxth
Model Number: xxxx

I am reviewing the entries as listed and looking at those first three fields, just to try to gain some consistency so that, for instance, all 1956 Packards are listed as 1956 Packards and are not mis-identified as another year, and so on for 1955. 1954, 1953, etc, etc. Similarly for Series and Model Numbers. However if any of the Series and Model numbers fields are blank I don't raise that as an issue. Saying that, BigKev's recent changes to loading entries in the Owner Registry requires completion of these fields from drop-down lists so new entries won't have those blanks from now on anyway.

Working from the top of the Registry down, so far I have found 14 entries containing an "obvious error" in the first three fields and have sent PM's to 12 PackardInfo members as a result covering 13 of the entries. The 14th PackardInfo member is no longer in the member list so must have been purged when Kev did his clean-up some time ago. I'll PM Kev about that and any similar entries I find as I go along. That said I've done up to and including 1952, and will work through the rest over the next few days. So if you get a PM from "Ozstatman" I'm just trying to get a little housekeeping done so we can all benefit from an Owner Registry that is reasonably sequential.