Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

The 51 200 is almost ready to hit the road, as soon as the upholstery guy is finished. One of the details is the dome switch on the B pillar. It was frozen in place, more correctly heated in place. The wiring diagram suggests that there may be two wires, a hot and a ground, which would mean that there should be two brass block connections, not one. The Filling Station catalog, one for Chevy's, has a switch for 29-36 Chevy's that looks just like my damaged one, but with two connectors. Price is $11.50. Any words of wisdom from the more experienced guys?

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The dome light is powered via body feed and the switch grounds the other side. It is in parallel with the back door button switches on sedans and only has one wire. The screws to the switch body mount provide the ground connection. It is possible the switch just corroded and developed a high resistance which heated in use and caused the burning but if you have not replaced the wiring, also look carefully for a short in the wiring feeding the lamp.

If the Chevy switch has two terminals and is just a normally open switch, then a wire to ground on the second terminal would be all that is needed to make it work. Check and make sure it's not a dual circuit switch and the terminals are not connected to the body of the switch in one position or the other. If so, then just use a terminal normally open which connects to the switch body in one position and leave the other one unused.

thanks - next step is the multimeter. I love hunting electrical shorts.

The Clipper's do not have a rear door jam switch only the front doors. The hot wire feeds to the dome light and ground from the light runs along the roof and down the b-pillar to the pictured switch where it grounds when the switch is activated. A wire splices off the that ground wire and runs forward and down the a-pillar and ties into the wire that connects to the door jams switches. Basically one power feed to dome light and under-dash light, and multiple possible points of ground (b-pillar switch, door jam switches, or headlight switch).

Thanks Kev - the door switches are missing, so that could be part of the problem as well. I appreciate your advice and all you do for the Packard nuts of the world!

David, thanks for the kind words.

Even with the door switches missing, the interior lights should still work by use of either the B-pillar switch or turning the headlight switch. If not, then I would check to make sure you have constant power at the dome light socket. If not, then there is a break in the power feed wire.

My wiring was all rat chewed and bare in places where you couldn't see it. So rather than having a rolling fire hazard, I rewired the car with a GM streetrod harness. Most of the wiring colors are pretty close to Packards as they used the same supplier (Delco-Packard Electric). I used a 12v harness as I wired it out for future A/C, but they are now available in a 6v version as well. It was all ran in the exact same manner as the original harness, and re-taped the same way. So unless someone is really inspecting it looks original, except for the new fuse box hiding under the dash, and the alternator under the hood.

Here is a wire diagram the is applicable to the 51-54 models. It was retraced it acrobat so you can really zoom in and it always looks good. It may help.


packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/diagram54.pdf