Curious. The wire going to the coil is fine, the one going to the ignition has the insulation melted off. When I pulled the melted wire I must have removed the short so I could drive home. The wire may have shorted against the oil sender wire. I am using the old coil, but that is not on the side of the Pertronix unit that melted the wire's insulation. The wires from the Pertronix unit are fine. The connection with the Pertronix unit's wire is ok and after the connection the insulation is burned. I too am looking for why it got hot and melted.

I am still running 6V positive ground, just like it came out of the factory. The wire gauge might be 14, it did not seem like it. Why wouldn't the Pertronix wire insulation melt too?
The harness is from Rhode Island wiring.

I put the original headlights back in, but when I put the halogen lights in I will use the relays and follow the above schematics.
On another problem:
I was driving home and the car stalled. I popped the hood and took the following picture. This wire goes from the ignition to the coil. I did install the pertonix ignitor and that wire is fine. The insulation melted off the wire. This is a brand new wiring harness. I am guessing a larger (thicker) wire would work, but what caused the wire to over heat and melt the insulation?

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No the brakes weren't worked on before this. The car was running fine before the brakes started the scraping noise. Took the car to a shop and they found the driver's side brake backing plate loose. Don't know why I couldn't find that one.

Found the problem with my headlights going out. A circuit breaker on the back of the instrument panel was dead, so I replaced it with a circuit breaker from an instrument panel I had bought earlier. The dimmer switch was also bad and I bought a generic dimmer switch from NAPA. I then went for a spin to fill the gas tank and noticed the headlights were flickering. I forgot I put in Halogen headlights, because I had half a dozen 6V halogen headlights in the garage. I then found the original headlights and put them back in. The headlights no longer flicker. I was thinking of getting a 6V relay so the headlight switch would turn the relay on and the relay would turn on the headlights, so the original switch would not have that much current flowing through it. I do have a new wiring harness, so that was not the problem. I don't think the original headlight switch could handle the current of the halogen headlights.

I have owned this car for over 16 years and have put over 60k miles on it. So I don't own a trailer queen. It has been driven from Phoenix, Az to Los Angelos, CA and had it's picture taken with Big Kev's 54 Clipper.
The problem I am having is a scraping noise coming from the back of the car. It only scrapes half the tire rotation. When I go slow I hear it until I apply the brakes. I don't hear it when I am going faster, above 20mph.
I have pulled both back tires and thought I had a brake nail that was too long so I changed them. The clips on the nail were shiny but it is not them now. Part of the brake shoe edge is shiny.
Any ideas?

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Thanks Ross. I need to look at these things closer before I say anything. I did get another clip from a local Packard guy who happened to have a few distributors on hand. With the Parts X-Ref I was able to goto NAPA and get a new distributor and rotor the next day.
Love this forum!
Thanks Kevin
Now to get back to waiting to order the rubber for the doors before doing the interior door panels, headliner and carpeting. Of course I need to look into the lighting and a new master brake cylinder.
But still having fun!

This usually starts with: "It's been awhile".
I drove the 53 Patrician to a friends 50th wedding anniversary and parked it next to a 52 Patrician and my 55 Clipper. The party was good and many people liked seeing the Packards.
At the end of the party I was getting ready to drive home when the strange started happening. The car started fine and I heard a loud PING! The car was still running and I thought ok, it didn't kill the engine. Then I turned the headlights on and they went out, engine still running. I had brake lights so we decided to drive the 12 miles home with no lights. I had my wife driving the 55 Clipper in front of me and a friend in a modern vechicle behind me. The car would not get up to speed, finally it was slowing down too slow so I pulled into a parking lot and it died. Looking around the engine I found the distributor cap had lost one of it's retaining clips, that explained the pop sound. I found some ribbon from the party and tied the distributor cap down and drove home with no lights, but plenty of power and good brake lights. The following picture shows the distributor and the ribbon. Can I replace the spring clip or do I need another distributor? I know I need a new cap. I have the Pertronix Ignitor in the cap and will put it in the new distributor, but all will depend on the style/brand of the new distributor.

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After getting the carburetor rebuilt, I put it back on and got the same results. I then decided to install the Pertronix Ignitor because I thought the points were acting up. The car starts great and idles great but loads up and hesitates. As I was pulling the points out, I noticed the plate of the distributor was loose. That would change the gap of the points and the car would run bad (at least that's my theory).
After I put the Ignitor in, the car started up, just like always and I was able to rev the engine without hesitation. I went for a test drive and took off for the freeway. The acceleration is slow but it got up to speed. The transmission locks into gear at 40-45 mph. I was able to go 75 mph but it felt like it was in passing gear. I need to make an adjustment.
I just put the chrome back on. The wife said it needed to go back on. I know I need to do some body work, get rid of the rust, but you gotta do what the wife wants. The rest of the body work will come later when she lets me. This is my 3rd running Packard, the 4th is in the wings.

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Thanks Kevin, I don't have a problem there, as far as I know. After my recent drive the battery was dead only because I left the radio on.
I took my wife out for a spin in her car for Mother's Day and the car was shaking. The car ran fine but it rode rough. So Tuesday I bought a set of new tires to replace my 10 year old radials that were sitting for most of the time so they have a flat spot on them. The ride was greatly improved. I also bought cheap radials and hope to replace them later with the correct size bias ply tires. Replacing the tires was not because of the new government mandate they are trying to push through, where when the radial tires are more than 6 years old they should be replaced. Mine were bad from just sitting on them. If I had put the car on jack stands and stored these tires indoors, these tires would have been fine.
I have lights on the outside of the car but not in the instrument panel. I need to work on that one.
Also on the freeway, with my phone's GPS, the car was fine at 60-65mph but it couldn't do 70mph. What's the recommended speed for this car? I knew I wouldn't be hitting 100. I probably need to rebuild the carburetor.
I also have a ticking sound that may be an exhaust leak, just like the leak I had on my 1940 160 Sedan.