Re: Stewart's 1955 Packard 400

Posted by HH56 On 2016/2/8 20:48:24

For a NOS switch to not work, as long as the switch itself is good I can only see a few possibilities. One is the ground is somehow not adequate to the switch case. Am assuming the paint on the frame or case was sanded away or some kind of toothed lockwasher is being used that can bite into both pieces of metal. Even the new switch could use a quick wire brushing.

A second possibility would be the wire connecting the green terminal of switch to the battery is not heavy enough or has a poor connection. If you are using a store bought cliplead, some are only 18 or 20 gauge actual wire size so those may be too small to work both the heater and relay simultaneously.

A third but somewhat unlikely problem would be the contacts have oxidized after sitting on a shelf 60 years. As mentioned, that is unlikely but in my other lifetime I have seen it on service parts for medical equipment where components had been in storage under poor conditions -- and those parts were nowhere near as old.