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Here is one good test to check with a new harness to make sure that there isn't anything hooked up wrong, or causing a draw when it's not supposed to.

With everything turned off, doors closed, and the clock fuse removed, disconnect the non-ground terminal on the battery.

A continuity tester or ohmmeter connected between that non-ground main cable and ground on the body should show open. Which would be no tone on the continuity tester or infinite on the ohm meter.

If not, then something is making it's way to ground, and as such there could be a short, or a parasitic draw on the battery. Recheck that none of the switches are turned on (headlights, ignition, radio, etc), and the doors are closed. Also check that the headlight interior dimmer switch is not turned to force the dome light on with the doors closed.

This is how I discovered that the trunk light switch was struck in the on position.

Thanks Kevin, I don't have a problem there, as far as I know. After my recent drive the battery was dead only because I left the radio on.
I took my wife out for a spin in her car for Mother's Day and the car was shaking. The car ran fine but it rode rough. So Tuesday I bought a set of new tires to replace my 10 year old radials that were sitting for most of the time so they have a flat spot on them. The ride was greatly improved. I also bought cheap radials and hope to replace them later with the correct size bias ply tires. Replacing the tires was not because of the new government mandate they are trying to push through, where when the radial tires are more than 6 years old they should be replaced. Mine were bad from just sitting on them. If I had put the car on jack stands and stored these tires indoors, these tires would have been fine.
I have lights on the outside of the car but not in the instrument panel. I need to work on that one.
Also on the freeway, with my phone's GPS, the car was fine at 60-65mph but it couldn't do 70mph. What's the recommended speed for this car? I knew I wouldn't be hitting 100. I probably need to rebuild the carburetor.
I also have a ticking sound that may be an exhaust leak, just like the leak I had on my 1940 160 Sedan.

I guess freeway speeds depends on your gearing. I have had the Clipper up to near 90 on the freeway at time. But thats with a 3.23 rear which was standard on the Clippers with Ultramatic. I think the Patricians have a larger ratio, but still should at least be able to go that fast.

What exactly was the problem?

Sometimes on a grade at certain speeds, I get a flat spot where it is like the carb is not giving it enough fuel, and I have to put my foot it in a little bit and then she is fine. That is usually about 60-65 on a grade.

So if you are getting seeing something similar where she starts to buck a little bit, maybe it is carb related.

After getting the carburetor rebuilt, I put it back on and got the same results. I then decided to install the Pertronix Ignitor because I thought the points were acting up. The car starts great and idles great but loads up and hesitates. As I was pulling the points out, I noticed the plate of the distributor was loose. That would change the gap of the points and the car would run bad (at least that's my theory).
After I put the Ignitor in, the car started up, just like always and I was able to rev the engine without hesitation. I went for a test drive and took off for the freeway. The acceleration is slow but it got up to speed. The transmission locks into gear at 40-45 mph. I was able to go 75 mph but it felt like it was in passing gear. I need to make an adjustment.
I just put the chrome back on. The wife said it needed to go back on. I know I need to do some body work, get rid of the rust, but you gotta do what the wife wants. The rest of the body work will come later when she lets me. This is my 3rd running Packard, the 4th is in the wings.

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looks good Duane. my wife likes the purple top

your doing an awsome job looking forward to seeing it

This usually starts with: "It's been awhile".
I drove the 53 Patrician to a friends 50th wedding anniversary and parked it next to a 52 Patrician and my 55 Clipper. The party was good and many people liked seeing the Packards.
At the end of the party I was getting ready to drive home when the strange started happening. The car started fine and I heard a loud PING! The car was still running and I thought ok, it didn't kill the engine. Then I turned the headlights on and they went out, engine still running. I had brake lights so we decided to drive the 12 miles home with no lights. I had my wife driving the 55 Clipper in front of me and a friend in a modern vechicle behind me. The car would not get up to speed, finally it was slowing down too slow so I pulled into a parking lot and it died. Looking around the engine I found the distributor cap had lost one of it's retaining clips, that explained the pop sound. I found some ribbon from the party and tied the distributor cap down and drove home with no lights, but plenty of power and good brake lights. The following picture shows the distributor and the ribbon. Can I replace the spring clip or do I need another distributor? I know I need a new cap. I have the Pertronix Ignitor in the cap and will put it in the new distributor, but all will depend on the style/brand of the new distributor.

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The clip can be changed by removing and replacing one screw that you can see in your photo.

The spark advance curves of the distributors are matched to the engine, so for best results, if you change distributors, get one from another 53 327.

Thanks Ross. I need to look at these things closer before I say anything. I did get another clip from a local Packard guy who happened to have a few distributors on hand. With the Parts X-Ref I was able to goto NAPA and get a new distributor and rotor the next day.
Love this forum!
Thanks Kevin
Now to get back to waiting to order the rubber for the doors before doing the interior door panels, headliner and carpeting. Of course I need to look into the lighting and a new master brake cylinder.
But still having fun!

Found the problem with my headlights going out. A circuit breaker on the back of the instrument panel was dead, so I replaced it with a circuit breaker from an instrument panel I had bought earlier. The dimmer switch was also bad and I bought a generic dimmer switch from NAPA. I then went for a spin to fill the gas tank and noticed the headlights were flickering. I forgot I put in Halogen headlights, because I had half a dozen 6V halogen headlights in the garage. I then found the original headlights and put them back in. The headlights no longer flicker. I was thinking of getting a 6V relay so the headlight switch would turn the relay on and the relay would turn on the headlights, so the original switch would not have that much current flowing through it. I do have a new wiring harness, so that was not the problem. I don't think the original headlight switch could handle the current of the halogen headlights.