Re: 1955-56 Senior instrument cluster

Posted by HH56 On 2016/9/7 10:07:56

There have been some modern solid state regulators installed. I don't remember the number that was mentioned as working other than it was a Ford item. Apparently it took some experimentation because as I remember the discussion the poster had at least one failure before hitting on the right one. There are some home made kits or schematics to build your own available too. Don't know if anyone has tried one of those.

One issue with solid state is the load needs to be appropriate for the regulator. I have no idea what the Packard load with two or three gauges might be but Ford has several versions for their various models. They all look very similar on the outside so differences must be in the electronic section. Unfortunately the catalogs don't give specs for the output capacity -- only the model cars the regulators were for.

The main problem with going the solid state route is that they are polarity sensitive. AFAIK the regulators only come in negative ground. That leaves the 55s and earlier out unless changes are made. Like other solid state replacements, an accidental polarity swap as has happened to our Packards would also be an issue.