Re: Vacation Car - 56 Patrician

Posted by CarFreak On 2023/4/12 12:21:12
I got a little time to look into this a little more.

I did not see any chewed through wires, and all the connections I made while putting the car together involved light sanding on the terminals and adding dielectric grease.

So far I have tried 3 compensator boxs:

Box one: originally came on the car. I am getting some clicking when its installed on the car when I move and hold the rotating arm.

Box two: looks the best, has a date painted on it of 1961. Automatically moves the rear of the car down regardless of the position of the on off switch.

Box three: doesnt do anything unless you touch the threads of one of the screws in the area of where you connect the wires. if that is done, the car will plant the rear of the car on the ground.


Below I added screen shots of what John Lauter (who I believe is Mr. Pushbutton on here) posted on facebook regarding the operation of the control box. I will use his terminology and his indicators he put on his attached photos.

I opened up box one and box two. I connected the green terminal on the box to the positive side of the battery and attached the base plate of the box to the negative side of the battery. I rotated the rotating arm so I was getting contact in the timing box marked "A". On both box 1 and box 2 I was seeing movement in the time delay switch marked "B". depending on which side I moved the rotating arm too the time delay switch would have the arm move to the closest terminal for that. So I can assume that on both box 1 and box 2 that the timing section of the boxes are in working order.

On box 1 I was seeing (and heard while under the car) movement of the C&D relays trying to close. However, the contacts on the copper arm were not moving enough to make contact with their corresponding terminals on the steel arms below.

On Box 2 I was not seeing any movement of the relays C &D.


I believe I found my issue of the leveling not working. The third photo shows a close up of the C&D relays where the copper armed terminals and steel arm terminals would make contact. In order to get box one to work, can I just bend the steel arm terminals closer so that the terminals will make contact once those relays see power?

Seeing that I have 2 boxes that have no movement of the C & D relays. Is there a place I can send them to get them rebuilt? Can I get new relays like them? or could there be enough tarnish/corrosion at the terminals that are preventing a good connection when they close? could I lightly sand the contact terminals?

I heard of the solid state conversion for these, but I heard that they dont function as well? is that true?

thanks again for all the help!

Attach file:



png  IMG_1660.PNG (632.08 KB)
203788_6436e85bb2f44.png 828X1792 px

png  IMG_1661.PNG (1,574.74 KB)
203788_6436e86c93f20.png 473X1024 px

jpg  IMG_1744.jpg (242.43 KB)
203788_6436e8762c2bd.jpg 1440X1920 px

This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=255795