Re: An open letter to all who might work on a 1956 Packard with pushbutton shifting

Posted by Mr.Pushbutton  On 2009/9/8 23:02:14

41ParPack-I don't know if it's just me, but it seems that every mechanic, shade tree or "pro" (read into that what you will) thinks they know better than the engineers who wired the car. I have seen the worst monkey work done by "Improvers" who don't take the time, or can't understand what the original design goal was. I have seen orange wire nut hell, blue-butt splice connector hell, "I can't figure out what any of this original wire did so I'm going to re-wire the whole car, with one spool of blue wire", just really scary s__t. In one large collection I worked at we spent some considerable time straightening out some of the cars that came through our hands. They always left better than they arrived, and usually put back to what was originally documented in the shop manual. There was a Pierce Arrow that defied description for all it's sins, electrical, mechanical and cosmetic.
This kind of monkey work would not be tolerated in body work, because everyone has eyes and can see a hack job from several feet away.
I've said it before and think it bears repeating: Packard (Autolite)did not put disconnects on the motor or finger harnesses at the unit because in 1956 the did not have good oil-tight connectors, they know the thing was going to live in the greezy-est place on the car, so they put the connections far away.
Actually, I'm getting to like the cut wires, I've gotten good at replacing the four 12 ga. wires coming out of the motor and should have the finger wiring harness replicated soon, and that makes the job better for me.