two coats of epoxy have sealed the leak admirably ,no future tank draining, but at least Im back on the road ;I took the opurtunity to titanium heat wrap the part of the exhaust pipe where it turns south after the rear axel hump and goes right by the tank and under the tank so I dont get too warm gas

Thank You ,I think Ill just replace the 6 v with a name brand and chaulk the premature weakness of the current one to too much stress from the bad generator chapter of the rebuild ,I apretiate all of the great advice!! Best fix and most fun is to drive them alot I figure

I have a 50 delux with the l head 236 ,they just got a great write up an collectable auto magazine .lots of engineering parrelels with the packard .

Thank You ,is the breaker a fuse? or a breaker like a button that could be reset ? Did they do that sort of thig in 1950? also at a quiet moment I did note that I indeed do have a whir from the antenna motor ,its just much quiter after the rebuild ,but no light dip or up and down

Think I could use brake parts cleaner or some solvent like this to clean out the old lubricant without huring anything ?

My horn went on by itself for a while today ,its LOUD .

I suspect the wire that runs down the steering tube is old and has shed its insulation and is grounding inside the tube from the steering wheel to the steering gear which actuates the steering gear , the condition of the wire exiting the steering gear is poor . I didnt realize this was the horn wire untill someone on the site was kind enough to tell me
I have a similar era desoto and the wire had done this necessitationg tearing down the horn button and running a new wire down the tube ,I did this when I had the steering gear out for a rebuild .It was a magor effort ! There isnt a good picture of this in the manual .Coincidentially theres not in the desoto manual either .Maby this was concidered obvious in 1950

WoW
thanksfr the great answer !
Ill check for in line fuses and loose antenna terminal in the AM when its light out .I didnt notice the lights dimming when i tried the antenna switch and now that you mention it before I had it fixed ,the antenna switch used to dim the lights slightly when I hit the switch b ut didnt actuate the motor .I had a working one put in and it was working ok .
Hmm maby I lost a ground .
The radio was recantly rebuilt, but the guy couldnt find a new vibrator so he installed a "good used one" I'll listen for it buzzing after I turn it on ,Should I go lay down on the floor board wiith the ignition on and turn on the switch and hear a buzz ?After reading your note I suspect the unit isnt getting power.Does the car need to be running? Or just the ignition switch turned on? Ive invested in a simple as possible volt meter but am intellectualy chalanged along these lines Someone in the forum had mentioned the poles off the ignition switch which was very helpfull when I replaced the switch .Im not sure if the mechanic who installed the radio did it by the book ,and am doubtfull if he put fuses in the right place because of the positive grounding ,and the correct amperage fuses because of the cars age .

where is the auxillary breaker bat terminal you mentioned?

at the voltage regulator? To answer your diagnostic question the oil /battery lights and all guages are working fine .Is the radio dial supposed to light up when its turned on and has proper power,mine doesn't ,whould that be a no power tip?
If the antenna was disconnected as a no radio culprit ,wouldnt the radio hum or make some scratchy noises when I turned the tuner dial with the radio on? I dont have a back speaker ,the fron speaker is part of the radio assembly as I remember
I went through a lot of battery /generator issues so a fuse is a great candidate for trouble and Ill be lucky if thats all it is Thank You for being so helpfull !

Hello Packard guys ,
I ve had a optima ,At one point it wouldnt hold a charge ,I was wondering if the bad generator Id had ruined it with the repeditive charges on the charger because the generator wasnt keeping it up .It seems like the regular wetr cell battery's are more forgiving but just dont last more than a couple of years .
There would probably be room for two 6 v optimas that could be wire in series (parrelel?) in the tray /This would look funny ,but not any funnier that the heat shield I made for the carb out of a tomato sause can and the heat reflective fuel line sleeve I made after reading about vaporlock on your site

Its rainy season here and now the wiper is an issue ,It is very sluggish on my 52 200. It starts and moves a few inches and stops .If I get out and help it move back and forth itll start working and warms up such that after some time its pretty good .For it to be strong enough to do a sweep the windshield has to be wet .
I ve had a 49 studebaker and and a 50 chevrolet with vacumb wipers and they were happy slap slap slapers. I was intimidated by the cables under the dash ,is there any way to service the thing on the firewall without a dissasembly ? What was the silicone spray you used?Interestingly when I bought the car and was excavating the trunk theres 2 vacumb wiper motors in there one in a box that looks lie it may have been rebuilt at some point or on its way to being a core . I was wondering if I could use a vacumb line from the runnung engine to test them?

I had my radio redone on my 52 got the antenna to go up and down ,,now theyve both stopped working ,is there a common fuse?I was wondering what I could check before pulling out everything .