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This is for anyone who has installed a new harness in their Packard. I need to install a new harness and was wondering if others have gone with the 12 circuit or 20+ circuit harnesses that are available.
As I've stated in the past, I'm building a driver and want/need to add some "creature comforts" to the car to appease the family, as well as to increase the safety factor. I intend on using harnesses made with only GXL or better wire, and am wondering if it's worthwhile to split up some of the original circuits. IIRC, my 55 Clipper has 8 circuits, so bringing in a 20+ circuit harness seems a bit like overkill.
Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
John

I have a 20 circuit harness that is going into my '54. My original harness was brittle and rodent damaged. Plus I intend to build a driver, and I am adding power windows and locks (using original Packard switches) and aftermarket A/C. I paid about $200 for my aftermarket GM style harness. But one thing I discovered was that the GM style harness almost matches the Packard wire harness color scheme exactly. Plus the fuse box that came with the harness has a master kill switch built into it.

Did you get the one with the 50A main or a fusible link? I'm looking at the EZ2Wire unit, since just about all of the ones I've looked at all use the same gauge GXL crosslinked wire. I, too, want to add power windows, and maybe power locks, AC, and upgrade to 12V, neg ground, with an alternator. Since my car was "gutted" when I bought it, I have pretty much a clean slate to work with. I did luck out and find an old friend who does sheet metal work and has a home shop with a 50" brake, 40 ton press, and 54" shear, and he helped me make a couple of pieces that were all but rusted away. I need to get out and take some photos and start posting updates here. Of course, I also need to clean up the garage so I can at least try to get the car inside!! 8>)
John

It uses a Maxi-Fuse instead of a Fuseable link. I converted to an GM alternator, so I no longer needed the Regulator box on the firewall. So I gutted that box and mounted the Maxifuse in there and wired it up to use the terminals from the regualtors. So it basically hidden in plain view.

So the terminal on the left will be the feed that comes from the solenoid that is connected to the battery. The center terminal will connect to the alternator for the voltage sensing, and the right terminal is the connection for the main harness feed.


Here is a earlt pic of what the box looks like inside. The cover was repainted after this and I removed the relays I was going to use for the headlights as I didnt want the extra wires coming out of the regulator box. But you can get the basic ideas.

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Great idea Kev! That one is going in the "to do" list.....
The harness that I'm looking at has a fusible link it it, but I think it could be converted pretty easily to a "fused" configuration. Did you use a standard 55 Amp GM alternator?

Yes it's a standard GM 10SI alternator. You can get them pretty cheaply for any parts store it different AMP outputs and "Clocked" positions.

You harness probably comes with a GM style alternator plug. I recommend using a standard 3 wire Alternator rather than a the 1 wire style type. If you have a AMP warning light, then this will not work if you use a 1 wire style alternator.

If you do a search on this subject here in the forums, you will see a couple dicussions on this.

I also made my own bottom alternator bracket which bolts in the same place as generator bracket, but the top bracket is the stock Packard generator bracket. Look at my project blog for more details on that.