Re: Starter Button and General Wiring Questions - 1941 Packard 110

Posted by HH56 On 2014/8/13 13:39:14

I'm going with the assumption your headlight switch is the standard 3 position typically used with sealed beams -- off, parking, and headlight. If not, and it is the older switch with a 4th position there are other things to consider so the rest of the post might not be completely applicable.

If the 3 position, then the first on position feeds the parking lights and tail lights but no headlights. From the tail light terminal is a feed for dash lights and if the car has fog lights, that foglight switch also connects to the tail light terminal on headlight switch to feed the tail lights. I am assuming every thing works OK in the parking light position. The tail lights being disconnected would not affect anything unless the wire was shorted.

For the headlight position, the front parking lamps are disconnected. The tail lights and dash lights are still fed but the terminal feeding the dimmer switch and headlights is now active. If the CB is now cycling, the main thing that changed is the dimmer switch and headlights are added. The dimmer switch is a known source of sudden problems so just disturbing it to change wires could have pushed it over the edge if it was ready to fail.

Assuming it is OK, the dimmer switch gets the feed from headlight switch and then selects either the low or the high beam filaments. Both bulbs are in parallel so if something was mis labeled and got crossed that could cause the issue. I would verify the same terminal on each socket is active. The high beam terminal on dimmer switch also has a wire running up to the indicator light on dash. If that dash socket shorted it could cause an issue if the dimmer is selecting high beam when you turn the headlights on. Sometimes the insulation can be a bit short and the conductor can actually touch the grounded shell when the bulb is inserted and pushes the contact button back. That would be another thing to verify. Mash the dimmer switch once to change beams and see if the CB still cycles.

I am not sure if the 110 has the same switch as the senior cars but if so there is a resistor for the overdrive light on the switch. If your car has OD, that resistor has been known to get bent and short against the headlight terminal. If might be a good idea just to verify if the resistor is there OD or not and make sure nothing is touching.