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Good Day , over the weekend i purchased a 1940 110 6 cyl packard . seems I have no lights and was unable to find any info on how best to trouble shoot . Would someone be so kind and provide me some direction . Thank you in advance

Headlight switch is fed from the output side of the ammeter. There is a terminal on the switch where the wire from the ammeter connects to supply the headlight switch, aux fuses for options and courtesy lights etc, and is also used a a tie point for a wire continuing on to feed the ignition switch.

Assuming the wiring is all stock and the knob did not get disconnected from the actual switch, if ONLY the headlights are not working it would most likely be the headlight switch or the dimmer switch. If the tail, parking or instrument lights are also not working it could be a connection or the switch itself or the circuit breaker (as Packard called it, the thermostatic switch) built into the headlight switch that has failed.

Here is an illustration of the headlight switch showing the connections along with an AEA 110 wiring diagram coutesy of the PAC site. The AEA diagram is a bit easer to follow but there is a factory drawing you can download from the literature section on this site if you want that style. Note that the wire labeled for the panel light switch has an inline fuse after the headlight switch and before it gets to the panel switch. That fuse protects the instrument lights as well as the tail lights which also use the panel switch input terminal as the place they get their feed.

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G'day so many cars no time for tv,
to PackardInfo.

I invite you to include your '41 110 in the Packard Vehicle Registry.

Thank you for the response and the detailed explanation . Yes mine has been changed and if this is the issue I'm going to need a agile small fingered friend to help me lol I will start chasing voltage down tomorrow and report back . this issue may also be related to the battery going dead within 15 min of shutting her down . So far I have not found the sourse but i will keep at it . Thanks for the reply

plan to as soon as i make the time to find the body # . found the vin just need to take a pic blow it up so i can read it .

filled in as much as possible and when able will post a picture .

for includung your '40 One-Ten Club Coupe in the Packard Vehicle Registry.

well i now have lights . I'm embarrassed to tell you all the reason for no lights was due to not having the car running lol . I did learn much and even replaced the switch which being corroded may have also been a issue . Either way I had fun learning and feel good no matter how small the victory :) Now I'm going to tackle the non working horn .

Not sure you are totally out of the woods if the lights don't work unless the car is running. The car should not need to be running to have headlights because if stock, the headlight switch should be powered all of the time. Factory wiring has it connected directly to the ammeter which in turn is connected at the starter solenoid directly to the battery cable terminal.

Think back to the days before automatic headlights and all those who come out in the morning or after work only to find a dead battery because their lights were left on when they parked the car.

Thank you it is a replacement switch and not original so that does make sense. I did notice on the drawing wires coming to or from the starter switch . So that explains why the car needed to be running . My guess is the original owner could not find or did not want to deal with it so he bought a basic switch to drive the next owner nuts :)