I don't have a picture of it but both the nut and the bolt that holds the control unit in place have an "attached" lock washer that are toothed.

I was just thinking about my grounding issue.

The chassis is painted.

I removed some of the paint behind the control unit so it would get a ground. I also removed some to ground the battery.

Should the bracket that holds the compensator also have a good ground? I did not remove any paint when I bolted it in place.

Do to the cold I brought the two T/L control units (old and newish) into the house along with my week little bench tester.

Right from the beginning I noticed something was wrong with the older unit. See the picture below. Both of the thin copper pieces that have two contacts each, were curved away from the grounding contact. So when the coil energized and pulled the copper piece forward the two contacts never made grounded the unit.

I don't know what was wrong with the newer unit. I cleaned the contacts and wired it up and it seemed to work well. It worked better if I moved the ground closer to witch ever coil (up or down) that I was using.

I am almost certain that my main problem is not getting a good enough ground. When it gets a little warmer I can get back out there and give it another try.

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55 Caribbean, I could cry.

http://charlottesville.craigslist.org/cto/5435239932.html

Thanks for the info about the exhaust. I checked out the Waldron page and with all the positive feed back I go with them. Beside, Troy made me a offer I couldn't refuse.

Also to clarify about the upholstery. I'm not asking what colors to buy. I'm just not sure what types of cloth to look for.

Went out to the shop for about 30 minutes tonight. Cleaned up all the grounds and bolted the control box in good. Got larger lead wires (everything that was recommended I think) and still got nothing.

I guess I'll drill out those rivets and open this sucker up like the other one and clean it up too.

I have nothing new to report on the T/L stuff right now. Just trapped at my soul sucking day job.

Thinking ahead (and aloud) and some questions on a couple future projects.

This spring I hope to put the engine and transmission back on the chassis. So before I put the body back on I want to at least get the front half of the exhaust installed. Looking for suggestions on who to buy that from. I'm not sure Kepich is still in business and if they are they have many, many, many bad reviews. I found a place called Classis Exhaust but I know nothing about them (they sale on Ebay as well). I see that Max's and Kantor's offers exhaust kits but don't know who their supplier is.

Anyone have a recommendation for the duel exhaust?

Also, I am thinking about future Paint Color and Upholstery.
I know, I am a long way from either paint or upholstery but they require a good deal of fore thought. Originally my 400 was two tone, Onyx (body) and White Jade (Lower body & Roof). There is no way I am going to repaint my Packard to look like a typical black and white picture. I may consider reversing the black and white. I posted a photo of my father in laws 400 way back on page #1 that used this scheme. I think the reverse looks classy but my original paint combination looks more like an old police car. I also like the White Jade and Sardonyx or maybe Fire Opal combination. I like white cars.

My question is actually in regards to the upholstery not the paint. I also saw a discussion here about possible wait times for materials ordered from SMS upholstery. So, why not order really early so I have it on hand when the time comes. I am looking at the sales brochure for paint and interior and looking at all the possible color combination and choices but I am just not sure what cloth ask for or how much.

The reversed Onyx and White jade has little "0" next to every one of the 5587 interior combinations. I assume that the original Nylon Lurex is no longer made for automotive purposes since it's so hard to locate.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what type of material and yardage is required to completely redo a 55 Four Hundred?

Thanks

Just out of curiosity; what size should the wiring be?

I am using 16 gauge for the green, pink, yellow and so on.

The main red lead with the fuse is a 12 or 14, I can't recall.

I keep thinking my problem has to be with the ground so I clean up everything like you said next time I am out there. Its going to be cold the next couple nights so it may be a couple day.

Its awful cold out tonight but that new delay switch came in today so I went out and to give it a try.

I wish I had something good to say but I do not.

The delay switch did nothing at all, not even a clicking sound from within.

I am getting 12 volts at all three terminal on the switch. I have grounded the box multiple different ways and still no response. I have also tried with positive and negative ground.

Funny thing when I did the positive ground, I touch the negative lead to the yellow terminal within and the motor started running and would not stop until the limit switch stopped it. I did not get the same result when I touch the pink terminal. It ran but did not continue running

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If Howard runs out of suggestion its time to replace the part. I don't think that's a bad plan to have.

Fortunately for me these was a 56 NOS unit on Ebay for $50 less then the next lowest price I've seen. I just bought it. Maybe this time next week I'll have a happier ending.

Thanks again Howard.

Time for our nightly T/L conversation.

Removed the control box from the frame and pulled the cap off tonight.

Picked up the electrical cleaner and got some 1000 grit sand paper to burnish the contacts.

Hooked up all the wiring, made sure I had a good ground and worked the lever.

Once again, when I moved the lever toward the center of the frame the contact made a connection but no action at the motor. When I moved toward the outside there was no movement at all. I could manually move the contact for that direction and it would magnetize as it should but still no movement at the motor.

The bi-metal contacts in the center of the unit are so far apart that the moving contact never actually makes a connection. I could manually move these as well and it "locked" in place but no response from the motor.