Re: 49 touring sedan charging issue???

Posted by Fred Puhn On 2014/2/7 11:21:47

This sounds like a repeat of what I had go wrong with my 1950 Series 23 Deluxe 8 Touring Sedan. When I got the Packard it had a new NAPA battery. The charging was poor so I had the generator rebuilt, got new (big) battery cables, and put on a new regulator. The charging was marginally low (negative charge at idle)and the car was hard to start. After a dead battery I fixed the short in the electrical system by replacing the entire wiring loom. I bought another new NAPA battery, which was dead when I put it in the car. After 3 NAPA batteries I finally got one that was not old and dead from sitting on their shelf for years. Then the battery would not charge so I gave up on NAPA and bought a new Vintage battery. The charging on that was low (negative at idle) so I had the regulator checked and adjusted by a specialist. The charging was still negative with the headlights and radio on unless running at 60 mph and the battery went dead after any long cranking. Finally the Vintage battery would not take a charge. I bought a new Interstate battery and had to widen the holder slightly to make it fit.

Since I have headlights, fog lights, a radio and plan to add an electric cooling fan I needed even more charging. I finally got a "Genernator" which is a one-wire alternator inside an original Packard generator housing. Now everything seems to work well, the car looks original, and the car starts easier. The output of the Genernator is up to 20 amps at idle! However it still cranks a lot after sitting for a week. The next step is to install a hidden electric fuel pump so I can start it with only a little bit of cranking. The fuel apparently evaporates out of the carburetor if the car sits for a week. This entire episode has cost me $3000 and I had to do much of the work. The bad wiring loom was the most expensive and difficult.

I hope my trial and error experience is of some help. Good luck on your Packard.