Gerd, If they copied the Packard radio which was built by Philco, a bulb covered by a metal hood with a slot like window is behind the wheel with the opening facing outward so a narrow beam of light shines thru the wheel. Very close to and on the other side of the wheel is the dial plastic. A pickup which is part of probably Lucite plastic that has the dial numbers embossed on contains the pickup portion which sits closely in front of the wheel. As the wheel turns it moves to a different color and the color is transmitted thru the plastic pickup and changes the dial colors.

In the bare dial photos, I did not show the additional felt and metal pieces which keep the light closely confined to the plastic so it does not shine thru the PB openings but those are shown in the last two photos. Don't remember what the purple celluloid filter does at the moment.

The color is part of the tone control. Been a long time and my memory could be out to lunch but as I recall, more bass is supposed to be warmer so dial is red and as tone control moves toward more treble it changes to amber then blue.

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54 is different from the 40 and earlier models and the drawing in post 4 of this thread is accurate as far as the major pieces and how the wire connects to the horn ring.

Main difference between the 47 wheel in the drawing and the 54 is the horn emblem and retaining method is different and screws holding the ring mounting to the wheel is from the front instead of the rear.

Basically the 54 wire is soldered to a copper cup that sits on an insulating washer at the end of the steering shaft. The insulating washer supports and keeps the cup from touching ground. When the horn ring mounts, ground is carried by the large spring and 2 spring guides from the steering shaft to one side of the ring. The wire cup is pressed against another piece which is a contact plate isolated from the ring and makes the connection for the other side. Pushing the horn ring tilts it slightly and closes a very small gap between the edges of the two sections to complete the circuit.

It looks as if Packard changed the horn ring assy in 41 or 42 and kept that system thru 54. The exploded drawing labeled 41 thru 54 I added in post 4 of the old 40 banjo wheel thread Joe linked above is apparently not applicable to the 40 models and could be misleading if used.

Once the 40 horn is figured out and working, if someone could post some decent photos of the components and setup it might help the next person needing the info.

I believe so but the articles are all hard to read. Here is another mention from a later bulletin.

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Packard first detailed the rods in service counselor Vol 29 #4 and reprinted it with addition of 56 models in a couple of others. For convenience here is an early article. 23rd series had a completely different two piece rod arrangement.

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If you find there is no power, or at the best, intermittent power going to the relay or the reverse lights and the inline connectors or plastic plug terminals at the base of the column where the wires exit to the engine compartment are good, there are a couple of known issues with PB assys that could be causing a problem.

One is the wire U shaped clip on the end of the PB shaft can burn or wear and another is the leaf fingers can weaken or break off entirely due to metal fatigue with the repeated flexing. The damage happens right at the sharp 90 degree bend where the vertical portion attaches to the fiber insulation board.

I don't know if Mr Pushbutton had the clips or contacts repro'd. If he did not, as far as I know there are no repairs that can be made on the original contacts that will last very long. Options are to find a NOS or at least a better used PB assy or eliminate the contacts completely and change over to microswitches. I think Riki has some photos on his Ultramatic blog showing the microswitch conversion.

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Am a bit confused because if you are working on the black car shown in the photo in an early post it has PB shift. The PB setup has a relay on the fender panel activated by the P and N buttons for the start interlock and takes power off the R pushbutton for the backup lights.

If it is an actual column shift, as I recall, there is not a lot of adjustment -- just the length of the elongated slots on the bracket so maybe 1/8" in total. Adjustment is sort of a compromise. You place the car in neutral and reverse alternately and move the assy the allowable length of the slots to make both functions work. Sometimes it is a hairs width before one or the other quits.

If the linkage is loose or worn or the detents in the transmission are sloppy due to the pot metal manual lever inside the pan being loose on the shaft then there will be enough play at the shift tube inside the column that works the switch, the detent positions may not consistently line up with the switch positions.

In most cases I believe it will be the 24046 but it depends on what is there now and how the solenoids and buss bars are currently mounted on the bracket. The BAT terminal needs to be on the same side as the long buss bar connected to power. That is why I posted both versions in case someone installed a different solenoid at some point and only one needed to be changed. Due to hole spacing there is not enough room to reverse orientation on just one of them if the pointed ends would need to wind up facing each other.

I have always associated any direction given on TL writeups with the rear since that end is where the compensator driven short bars connect to raise or lower.

It is shown in the mounted location on the back of the cluster and like most things Packard replaced as a unit, diagrams just show wires going in and out of essentially a black box.

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