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Are the parking lights on the 53 Clipper supposed to illuminate along with the headlights or only in the first detent position? My parking lights come on in detent 1 and the turn signals work perfectly but the parking lights don't come on in when the headlights are on. I followed the wiring diagram and everything appears hooked up correctly. Just checking.

Are the parking lights on the 53 Clipper supposed to illuminate along with the headlights or only in the first detent position?

You're asking about the fronts only, I assume. They do not illuminate when the headlights are on, just in the first light switch position and when the directionals are activated.

Though it may run counter to your expereince with vehicles of more recent manufacture, what you've described with your '53 matches that of my V8 Packards.

I haven't checked the '53 owner's manual, but I know the '56 edition is rather vague on that subject.

The shop manual is a bit clearer, including the 51-54 edition. It advises that the first position out (detent) turns on both parking and tail lights. However the second position out only turns on headlights and tail lights.

The way I'm reading that, the parking lights were intended to go out with the second position.

Thanks guys!

The key there is they are parking lights....not driving lights. As others have stated, they only are on in the parking light position (first indent). They also blink when with the turn signals regardless off the headlight switch position.

The two lights in the grille have dual filament bulbs and perform two independent functions. The dimmer filament is the parking light which illuminates only in the first detent of teh headlight switch along with the rear tail lights. Teh brighter fialment is the turn signal which iluminates intermittently through the flasher when the turn signal stalk is turned left or right. It also illuminates the rear tail lights intermittently.

That behavior was a common design on many cars thru the 60's. I guess that "every amp is precious" when you have a generator that puts out 30A or so.

They didn't call them "parking lights" for nothing. When I was a kid and you parked on the street at night for a few hours, you left your parking lights on or risked a ticket from the local constabulary. I can also recall cars where only the traffic side (front and rear) were on, not the curbside.