Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

What is the correct side of the amp meter to attach the regulator feed, battery feed, and load wires. Mine is not wired as Packard and others show in their wiring diagrams. But the Packard wiring diagrams have not always been correct either. They show battery feed to discharge side and regulator feed along with load feeds to charging side of meter. Mine is wired with regulator feed and main light switch on discharge side and battery feed and radio on charging side? Amp meter seems to indicate properly except it always shows charging even with the engine running and s fully charged battery and the lights off. Could this explain the fluctuating running voltage readings and the continual failure of ignition condensers. The latter I believe would have to be through the overdrive relay which is connected to the primary distributor feed terminal.

Hi Bill:

Are you sure those condensors are really bad? Could it be that you have a short circuit somewhere around the breaker plate that goes away for awhile after you tinker with the distributor? The only way to know for sure is to put those condensers on a distributor machine or a multi-meter with capacitance testing.

One thing the owners manual advised about those ammeters is that they only indicate if the generator is doing something. Translation: Packard admitted they were cheap stuff and not usable for much.

So, I would buy an inductive clamp meter or add an after market gauge in line. Not easy to do underneath that dash.

Generally, intermittent charging is probably due to worn brushes. So I would look there and verify good connections.
If that looks good then I would put a jumper across the ammeter and recheck the charging system. If all is good then I would send the regulator out for service.

Hi Tim
Thanks for the feed back. First of all your knowledge on this subject far exceeds mine, so please bare with me. Have tested all around the distributor and breaker plate to be sure of good ground as well to insure the was no leakage from the primary feed to ground. In the past to test a condenser I charged it with ohm setting on multimeter for about 10 seconds then set meter to a voltage to see if any stored voltage discharged. I realize this is a poor test but at least I can see if some voltage is getting stored. Will look into a better multimeter with capacitance capabilities. Have inductance clamp meter but thought it was only good for AC. Much more proficient at house wiring than car wiring. Will look into that as well. The ammeter does show consistent charging,seeming too much at times, so think the generator is OK. Will test again all connections when the dash and rear loom rewiring is complete. Are you saying as long as the regulator feed and the battery feed wires are on the opposite side of the ammeter and the needle moves to the charging side during acceleration that's about all these ammeters are good for?

Bill were you able to look at the Service letter on this site. It may help as to wire # gauge and the to from location.

Fred D

Fred, found some interesting stuff but not much on the ammeter.