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

Driving the 51 200 today, both the gas gauge and fuel gauge stopped working at the same time. Later, they came back on for a few minutes, then quit working again. My first guess was a bad ground - second guess is a failing breaker. Any suggestions?

Circuit breaker is shared with the turn signals so if the failure occurred at the same time you used them, then a possibility of a short in the signal wiring and CB did it's thing and then reset. If turn signals OK, then possibly the instrument voltage regulator. That component needs a ground to work. If no ground, then voltage should be high and gauges will read high on a 6v car. The regulator itself could be failing and have a bad contact set so no voltage out.

the turn signals are still working ok. Where is the instrument voltage regulator located? I'll pull the instrument panel tonight and see if I can locate it. I'll also add another ground wire as a backup. thanks

On back of cluster centered just below the speedometer cable. The large rectangular can between the two smaller rectangular circuit breakers.

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51-56 used the same regulator. Basically it takes in 6-14 volts on the input side and steps down to regulated (via a chopper type circuit) 5v on the output. The Packard gauges are 5v. If the VR is bad these can be found at Napa still as most of the Fords through the 70s still used 5v gauges.

thanks guys. Another trip to NAPA tomorrow.