Re: Someone hooked the battery up backwards / new member 55 Clipper Deluxe

Posted by HH56 On 2021/8/10 9:30:01

The 17-Y terminal on the resistor is the one terminal in the engine compt that is hot ONLY when the key is in the right or run position. Any other ign key switched power sources in the engine compt are hot in both the run and the left accessory position. If you were working on an early 56 the first guess for an extra yellow wire on 17-Y would have been for the electric shift. Packard picked up power for the relays at that point with a second yellow wire before changing it to a white wire on later production.

No idea on a 55 but sometimes small factory accessory items were added. The emergency brake handle indicator is one such option but that wire was usually black. If not factory then something a previous owner only wanted on when the engine was running was added and later removed. Same thing was probably done with the extra green wire on the ign switch. Some accessory or aftermarket item installed and later removed.

Back up lights were optional on Clippers but since the backup light ready housings were not easy to swap it is odd you have the housing for the light but not the wire. Some optional Clipper backup lights were separate and mounted on the vertical panel below the trunk lid. If you have an Ultramatic do you have a dk green wire on the neutral safety/backup light switch screwed to the steering column a few inches away from the firewall? On a standard trans, the switch would be on a bracket where the two gearshift levers exit the steering column. The bulb sockets or at least the wiring to them are accessed from the trunk interior so you should be able to see a socket or a wire with a molded on weatherproof grommet running thru a hole where the reverse light would be if it was present from the factory.