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Owen... Thanks. I don't think it is actually working, I'll have to watch it on next startup.

Yup set up for ac, so God knows what all this is, but when all of that was taken off it was supposedly cleaned up, but kept 12v.

Howard... Thanks for the illustration. I guess city driving is less light with no use of high or low beam switching. I faintly remember on the wiring diagram that the original headlamps had 2 bulbs in them. Then there is the country driving with meeting setting. Country driving would be a brighter bulb with a high and low setting via floor switch. But since the car is 12v and seal beam converted... The 2nd and third pull of the switch is the same brightness and the only difference is the use of the foot switch. Technically if you leave the foot switch in high beam.... You could use the headligh dash switch to go from high and low beams like modern cars as there is not "city" bulb anymore. It would be nice if the fender lights stayed on with the headlights on pull 2 and 3, but they only come on with 1st pull.

Basically the second pull is unnecessary. It's like a modern car now... Off...running.....headlights with high and low foot switch. Ignore position 2.

City was 1 headlight on, and country was 2 headlights on low beam.

Wow, that wiring is a bit of a rats nest. You can tell layer after layer was hacked on top of old wiring.

I think for less that $300 a brand new 20+ circuit GM style harness could be had. And then you can retape and cover with period correct harness wrap and make it look original. While being functional and far easier to troubleshoot.

Wiring I like. It's logical.

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I believe City is both headlights on low beam; Country is both on high beam; Country can be controlled by dimmer switch to dim the LH headlight when meeting traffic. This kind of headlight control, I believe, was used by other makes.

The modern two position (both high/both low) control was introduced with the advent of sealed beam headlights starting with the 1940 model year.

The City-Country-Meeting function should still be available on Hank's 138CD even if it has has been retrofitted to sealed beams providing the factory headlight wiring has not been changed.

(o{}o)

a new wiring harness is def in the future. I don't think I will need anything as large as a 20 circuit. probably only need like 7-10 at the most. found a 7 circuit for under 200. just gotta think it over more before buying.

been working on the weather stripping around the doors, half of it had either come out of the channel or was not put in to begin with. Trying to do that without damaging paint. I did notice that the top of the driver's door doesn't even seal correctly. sooo....don't spray water there. is that even the correct seal? I need to research that as well.

The doors needed some adjustment as well, so I loosened the door strikers and moved then as needed. driver's door still doesn't touch the weather stripping when closed. also I learned that I should have left the strikers alone. one of them broke where the screw goes in....jb weld fixed it....the other one i took apart because the rubber was all but completely gone and the striker was moving around. taking it apart was fine, but bending the little tabs back just broke them. so, i put in new rubber and held it down with a c-clamp and jb welded that bad boy too. its good to go again this morning.

i know that is pretty rigged up, but replacement strikers are pricey and nobody will see them when the doors are closed. there are some solid stainless replacements on ebay...but again pricey and I have other more pressing concerns on the car.

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LOL! no doubt it has! dimmer controls both headlights at once, not just the left. so I'm willing to bet they wired it that way to be more like a modern car. kinda silly cause technically you could leave the dimmer switch in high beam and just use the dash switch to get between low and high. two dimmer switches....floor and dash. silly.

Even if you plan on keeping 12v, just in case you change your mind later I would spring the extra few bucks for an upgrade to the heavier duty harnesses. Not all of the aftermarket loom companies offer the choice but here is one that doesstores.ez2wire.com/Universal-Harnesses_c_709.html Even at 12v the larger wire gauge has benefits.

this is who I planned on using. they are local to me and well known in the industry. I do need to look around though, so thanks for the link!

http://www.painlessperformance.com/


I see on your link they have an option for Upgrade harness to 6v...I wonder if that gets you the thicker gauge wire?

the voltage regulator on the car says 6v....so not sure how that all works with 12v or maybe the alternator has a built in regulator and that firewall 6v regulator is just for looks. no idea yet, but it worries me a bit when trying to use a universal wiring harness and 12v.

According to that website the harness has heavier gauge wires. It doesn't say if that is for all or just specific wires though.

Alternators work on a different regulator and what and where depends on the alternator. I expect the 6v regulator is jumpered out somewhere but possibly if the alternator has an external unit it could have been installed inside the old case. Even though they have been disabled many just leave old ones in position to look good or provide a connection point to other wiring.

I know you think you will only need 7 circuits, but the option of having more than less is pretty appealing. I prefer things on their own circuits. Makes troubleshooting any problems much easier to track down. Plus is you're going to run A/C, that usually needs more circuits.

Packard used those large self-resetting circuit breakers which were fine, but it you have a small wire that got shorted, that wire could really heat up and cause a fire way before that breaker would trip. Once of the reasons that the clocks usually had their own 3amp fuse and a meltaway link inside the clocks. Becuase points inside the clock could fuse and the load was not enough to trip the breaker larger breaker. So I am a fan of small individual fused load circuits, as opposed to lots of different loads on one large fuse/breaker circuit.

Also, if a fuse blows, it only takes out that one or two things. For example interior lighting, or taillights or headlights, as opposed to all the lighting.

If you are going back to 6v then of course originality comes into play. But if you're staying with 12v, then the horse is already out of the barn, so give yourself the flexibility for anything future. You only want to rewire once.