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My family was nice enough to pick up this courtesy light switch for me at Hershey. It looks correct for my '41 touring sedan. I thought it was the correct switch until I opened the package, and realized that there is only a single screw post to attach the hot wire to.



Does anyone know what this switch goes to?

I've tested it, and it works fine, I just don't see how it would mount in my car, as it would cause a short. I thought of using a nylon screw and washer to isolate and secure the lower screw hole with the wire from the body, but that wouldn't look nice, or correct.

Thanks,
Chad

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You might want to verify in case your car is the odd one out but unless yours is different than most, Packard ran the hot wire directly to bulbs for courtesy and dome type lights and then had various or even multiple switches complete the ground to light the bulbs. The single wire going to the switch should be the ground side and the switch via its mounting screws into the metal frame complete the circuit.

Power was sourced from different places so fuses for dome lights are not a constant. I see one 41 model (unsure which as schematic label is missing) has the dome light fed via a splice from the tail light and license light circuit. The tail lights would have to be on for the dome light to work on that one and fuse is the same as for tail lights. Other models had dome and courtesy lights fed from the aux body feed fuse on rear of headlight switch. No other lights needed to be on for those to work. Circuit was completed via switch connecting to ground on both.

HH56,

Thank You for the feedback!

I think I left out some pertinent information in my original question.

The attached picture shows the only picture I can find of the remnants of what was left from the old switch. It's a poor picture.

The 2 yellow arrows point to the mounting screws, with remnants of the old switch plastic bits still attached. this did not have the brass strip that is on the new switch. The red arrow points to 2 screw posts, held together by remnants of the old switch plastic. The wires were still attached to the screw posts. these 2 posts look exactly like the single post on the replacement switch.

I've tested the wires with my multi-meter, and one wire shows 6.34 volts when one probe is grounded to the body, with no light switches on. The other wire shows 0 volts when tested the same way.

Thank You,
Chad

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If the bulb is good, with Packards usual method of powering one side of the bulb directly you would read the 6v on one terminal at the switch as it is reading the voltage coming thru the filament. The other point would be Ov because it should be ground. If typically wired, grounding that point at the switch reading 6v should light the bulb.

I would go ahead and pull the rest of the switch out and see exactly what is there in the way of wiring. It is possible there is only the one active wire and ground is coming into the switch via another route in place of the brass bar.

If in fact there is power going to the switch first then finding a different switch in the exact style may be more difficult. There are two terminal slide switches -- even some sold by Lowes for appliances -- but most of those have the black knob and chrome cover in the style as used in 24th series on. Finding a two terminal switch with the tan plastic knob and housing may be more difficult.

Thank you Howard!

I'll have to pull the housing and see exactly how it is wired.

-Chad

I finally had a chance to remove the courtesy light housing, and do some more testing today.

The housing is grounded to body by the 4 screws that hold it in place, and there is a single wire going into the back of the light socket. That wire has continuity to one of the wires in the B pillar (the one with the alligator clip in the picture).

The remnants of the switch I removed are below. There was no remnant of brass around either screw, when removed, just old plastic that disintegrated.

The picture titled light is showing the light on, when the 2 wires in the B pillar are connected, and I am manually grounding the housing to the body.

I wonder if there were multiple different switches that Packard used, for different light configurations?

Thanks,
Chad

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If yours has the power side switched then Packard must have used more than one method.

Here is a switch labeled as used on older cars. I believe this would work for what you need but it isn't the integrated plastic cover style so would require some kind of finish piece.http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-s-20-s-30-s-Cadillac-Chrysler-Olds-Hudson-Pair-Dome-Light-Pillar-Switch-NORS-/281853213732?fits=Make%3APackard&hash=item419fc2bc24:g:M7EAAOSwYshUZqUG&vxp=mtr
Doing a search for dome light switch, there are some chrome and even some older looking plates which might be appropriate. Packards1 has one labeled as a 39-42 NOS Packard bezel.http://www.ebay.com/itm/1939-42-Packard-Dome-Light-Switch-Bezel-337112-NOS-/370792648292?hash=item5654f6ce64:m:mTDU0xsr28B7Q_B5um8ztbw&vxp=mtr

Howard,

Thank you very much for your all of your feedback, and taking the time to look up those items on eBay.

-Chad