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

Does anyone have a carbruator start switch for a carter 2 bbl that they would be willing to sell? ( 1949 delux sedan)

Is your missing or just not working?

If it's just not working, usually taking it apart and cleaning out the inside and the steel ball fixes it.

If you need a switch, the usual vendors should have them. Also, you can check with Ross or Gerry as they may have good-used ones.

Daytona carburetor rebuilder actually manufactures them. They printed one for me.

Just by-pass it electrically, it's not worth the bother.

Totally agree, it is not worth the bother. I installed a push button starter switch on my 47 Custom. Used the original two wires, feeding them through an access in the cowl wall and connecting them to the switch under the instrument panel. I left the switch on the carburetor in case the next owner wanted to use it. Keeping the starter and the carburetor functions separated was a big improvement.

Bother? I've never had trouble with one on many pre-1954 Packards and rather like the looks passengers give what starting the car that way.

I agree with Packard Don and think it is something that makes cars equipped with it unique.
I've been driving my 22nd Series Custom 8 with it since 1984 and a 1951 Patrician daily driver in the 60' with no problems at all.

If they don't work, like mine didn't, it's an easy fix over trying to chase the parts that don't exist. My key switch was also MIA, so two birds one stone solution for me just to get things going.
This was not a "big" seller and quickly died in the history of carbs.
I don't have any problem, if the one you have works, but it's one more rare item to maintain for "nostalgia".
Goes around comes around?
50 years later, we're now back to "start" buttons in cars which also died with the four position ignition switch.
Maybe some one will "invent" a new "gas" pedal starter - GEE it's in EVs already and golf carts for a long time now.

The 40s and 50s era was definitely an interesting time for starter means and button or switch placements. I don't know exactly when the key start came into almost universal use. Packard changed over in 54 and by the late 50s probably most had adopted it. I think Buick and Mercury maybe others hung on to their methods until the 60s.

Until then, there were any number of different starting means thruout the era. From cars where you had an ordinary dash button to those needing a step on a gas pedal to others where you twisted your foot over to the transmission hump to hit a foot switch. Others had to be in neutral and then pull back on the gearshift lever or those where you had to be in neutral and step on the clutch pedal. As I recall Mercury had a start button placed in such a way you had to push extra hard on the neutral button in their pushbutton transmission shift panel.

Between walking up to a car and figuring out starting methods, or gas filler placements, or how to open the hood it was a most interesting era. I expect more than one gas station or parking lot attendant needed a hair transplant after a busy day.

Some of those interesting methods hung around thruout the decade and that was just the Americal cars. Who knows how many interesting combinations were used in foreign made cars.

My 1937 Chevrolet sedan that I had when I was 14 years old (the only kid in junior high being driven to school in his own car!) had a large button or pedal-like device on the floor which actuated the starter. Very hard to access for replacement so I would take the carburetor switch any day! I think the family's 1941 Chevrolet flatbed truck also had the same pedal arrangement. On the 1937, I would generally go out mornings and just use the crank as it was more dependable.