Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I have a 55 clipper custom with the wonderbar radio and as I recall the head itself has a designation of pos earth and I assumed there was a difference. There did not seem to be and such warning on the front speaker/power unit except for the wires.Are you sure the wonderbars can have the polarity swapped without damage? has someone done this swap with a wonderbar successfully? My car is still pos chassis

FWIW
When I bought my 55 400 7 years ago, one of the first things I did was get the radio repaired. I removed both parts and sent it off. When I picked it up, the guy told me he had changed it to negative ground, assuming I was doing the same to the car. He said I would need to change the car to negative ground before installing and using the radio. I wasn't planning on it but since the radio was changed to negative ground, so went the car. Now I can charge my cell phone, etc. with the car's ground being negative. He said a lot of the capacitors in the radio were bad and so were a couple of the tubes and the vibrator. It works like a charm now and I still get a kick out of waiting for it to "warm up" and then start playing. Since he told me the radio now had negative ground polarity, I can only assume the radio is polarity sensitive. My advice would be to call a couple of the businesses that repair these radios and see what they say.

My 55 Panama has been running neg ground for the last forty years. The radio hasn't failed yet.