Re: The Case of the Petulant Packard

Posted by HH56 On 2012/12/27 20:25:49

5.7 just sitting is too low. It should be at least 6 since the battery is a nominal 6.3v. With the starter load it will fall well below 5 and be very hard to start if it will at all.

My first thought after going thru something similar is possibly the battery --even though just charged-- has had a cell start to go and just can't produce with any kind of load applied. Also very possible one of the cable terminals has corroded and developed a resistance. Possibly the points were closed when you measured. Even possible something in dist has shorted. Did you ever manage to get any kind of spark?

If you haven't cleaned the battery terminals that would be a good thing to do. After doing that, would take a few more measurements in the same place. It would be good to see how much the starter pulls voltage down but not absolutely necessary at this time.

First measurement I'd do is with the charger connected. It should be close to 7v. If good, remove charger and measure again to see how much it drops. If back to the 5.7 or so with either measurement, remove the wire from coil going to distributor to eliminate any chance of closed points or a problem pulling the voltage down and measure again. If now good then time to look at the distributor and see if the points were closed or there is a short. If low with no points in the picture then battery or a resistance somewhere in the circuit feeding the coil