Re: 1954 Deluxe Clipper Coil ?

Posted by HH56 On 2015/9/29 16:32:27

# 1 cylinder is closest to fan. The coil polarity depends on the battery ground. Normally Packards were positive ground in 54 and if your car still is the coil plus would go to the dist. points. If it has been changed to negative ground then the minus goes to points.

One thing that is very unforgiving on 6v Packards is the cable size and battery charge. The starter motors turning the big engines pull a lot of current when running. If the battery is down or too low in cca capacity or the battery cables are too small or have dirty connections, voltage to the coil can drop below 5v and the spark will be very marginal -- sometimes not high enough to fire reliably. If the original cables are in use the size is fine but if someone has replaced with a typical parts store cable they are most likely too small. Packards like 0 or 00 gauge and very clean connections..

Even though you changed the condenser there have been issues with brand new ones not being any good. Another thing to check is the flexible wire inside the dist. If you have the fabric covered flexible wire between points and the outside terminal, the old fabric insulation is notorious for falling off after being disturbed with any dist service like a point and condenser change. It can create an intermittent or even complete short.