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

I was looking at this UK market brochure (of a US one I have) to check for differences expecting only to see a reference to "aluminium" and some "ise" instead of "ize" here and there and noticed this point on 12 volt that was surprising to me (maybe well known to others).

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Apparently 12v was also used in other countries besides the UK but I don't recall ever seeing a list of how many or which ones. If you look thru section 4 of the 35-41 parts book most of the electrical items do come in 6 and 12v versions. A few that do not such as the gauges list a resistor and specify it is for use with 12v.

Finding one of the 12v parts today seems to be next to impossible and it may have been predominately prewar cars since the postwar parts books do not offer a selection. IIRC, one parts book did have a few pages of export parts buried in a section and that might be where such items would have been listed. Don't remember the book --maybe Clipper -- where I saw those pages.

Corey (CCR), 12-Volt Packards are mentioned -> there too.

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Howard (HH56), go -> this way, please, to find some few pages of the Service Parts List for 1938 Packard Super-Eight and Twelve, that make mention of 12V parts. Dave's (O_D's) good nose was a decade ahead of us once again.

Packards prewar cars seem to have been well documented with available 12v parts listed but nothing found yet for postwar. The 35-41 book lists them as does the Super 8 and Twelve book. I did find that right hand drive and special vehicles section in the 41-7 Clipper parts manual. While there are electrical items listed, none have a voltage specified. Unknown if they are 12v or just a special 6v configuration for use in a commercial or right hand drive model.

With all the postwar Packards exported the question is did they go over as 6v cars to be converted by the importer if they needed to match whatever the country of destination might use or were they also converted to 12v for export or was that still a thing.

Not really up on UK cars that servicemen brought back or were imported but believe many were 6v so the question would be if the special 12v electrical system was only a prewar thing. Almost all mfgs except VW had gone to 12v by the mid to late 50s so maybe Packard just exported 6v cars until then.