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Are you sure there is not another wire on the BAT post at the starter solenoid. If nothing is connected there or directly to the battery it is very hard to understand how the car is being powered because nothing else in a feedback path could supply the power to the places needed for the car to run or have lights work.

Normally there would be a short length of 10ga red wire with a thin flag terminal coming out of the loom. That wire has some splices inside the loom and feeds the voltage regulator before it goes inside to power the headlight switch, body circuit breaker and ignition switch. Sometimes the wire out of the loom is very short and if it has lost color then with the flag terminal laying flat it is almost hidden against the case of the solenoid or under the battery cable.

If it is in fact missing and the battery cable and connection is stock then I am truly confused as to what someone could have done.

Howard, I am absolutely sure and there is nothing that anyone did to cause it. This was a running and driving car (my everyday car) when parked so many years ago and has completely stock wiring.

As mentioned earlier, the other two wires that were on the battery post included the body feed (the one with the bundle of wires coming together) and a single, separate large gauge wire that I believe is for the headlights. There is nothing else on the terminal except the battery cable.

However, BigKev may have hit the nail on the head on suggesting that the ignition switch is somehow to blame and if not that, it may be the solenoid itself giving feedback through the small starter wire still attached to the third terminal.

Unfortunately, the shop is now closed up until I come back next as I’m leaving today but I’ll try to have on hand what is needed to fix it when I do return. The first thing, though, will be to replace the fan with the proper one.

I haven’t had a chance to revisit the odd electrical issue because it isn’t a priority as I have been trying to stop the coolant leak at the thermostat housing. There is corrosion in the aluminum head which was fixed once years ago but it’s back now! I tried to use multiple gaskets in addition to the form-a-gasket sealer which I thought would fill the irregularities but does not.

What I tried today was to put some sealer into the deepest pits, leveled it, then let it sit. Then I applied a coat to the bottom of the gasket, which this time is the heavy cork type, and applied it, putting the housing on without tightening,

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I am also getting rid of the noisy flex fan and instead am installing a 20” factory A/C fan. I had to fight to get the lower radiator hose disconnected and don’t recall it being so difficult when I did it before!

The radiator was also attached directly to the frame without the benefit of the rubber pads that I recall it should have.

Now that it’s apart and the flex fan removed, I can’t see what it is that is supposed to align the stock fan! It it possible that the screws alone were to do that? Thinking that maybe it was the wrong pump, I looked at others from identically equipped Packards and they are the same with the flange and pilot long enough to only go through the two pulleys. Any thoughts on this?

Any clues of how to get the lower hose reconnected?

What is the trick for removing the transmission cooler? It seems that the studs to which it mounts are too long to allow it to slide off in order to pull the upper hose free.

Don, I just replaced my lower radiator hose and I didn't have any issues whatsoever. The part I used was NAPA 7197 (for Ultramatic) and it was a perfect fit. Having the hose a bit wet made it slide right on. Do you have a lot of corrosion?

-Kevin

With a manual transmission it’s easy but with an Ultramatic, the cooler IS the lower hose and it’s mounted to the engine with a short straight hose to the water pump and no room for movement, and a 90 degree hose at the bottom to the radiator which also has little room to move. The shop manual simply says to remove the lower radiator hose and I can find nothing specific to the cooler! Anyway, I finally managed to get it out with some prying.

What’s odd is that when I used to work on Packards regularly I had no manuals and never needed them but now it seems that everything I do requires looking it up! I guess that’s the price for waiting so long to work on these cars.

As for corrosion, there is not much but the cooling system does need a good flushing. I’m not planning on driving this car anywhere so just getting it moving under its own power is a good thing!

I got the proper fan back in but I am very leery or it not having any alignment from the hub on the pump and every core I have, most of which came from power steering cars, is the same. Can this be normal?

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Don, I installed an after market flex fan on my 55 Clipper. It had the larger than normal pump shaft which prevented the fan from fitting over it. I used some spacers to get the fan to mount just beyond the end of the shaft. The bolt holes in the fan were fan shaped so as to accommodate a variety of bolt patterns. I found this design to be self-centering and the fan ran true when installed.

The fan you have may not have the fan shaped bolt holes, but drilled for your pump's bolt pattern. I would think that with spacers it should work fine.

Give it a try and see what happens.

Thank you but I’m not trying to install a flex fan. I am taking one out and putting in a stock fan that cars with factory A/C used. The problem is that the hub on the pump aligns both pulleys but it does not protrude through them to align the fan. Aligning only by the four screws seems a disaster in the making.

As for the flex fan that was removed, it has an adapter/spacer that did align it with a nub that went into the hole in the pulleys and one on the other end that went into the fan itself.