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Hello - First Post! Thank you for this awesome knowledge base! I greatly look forward to learning and contributing as my experience grows.

Just brought home a 48' Deluxe yesterday and started to get to know "Clara Belle" today.

First hurdle - Starting
She will not start by the traditional method of depressing the accelerator. Nothing happens when this is attempted. If you jump the solenoid she fires up and runs/idles great. I am not confident that the solenoid installed is the proper one, or perhaps it is not functional.

Both wires are attached to the appropriate sides of the carb switch. However the wire that is supposed to go from the carb to the back of the ignition switch ( according to the wire diagrams ) is connected to the + side of the ammeter?

And as you will see in the attached photo there is also a red wire that is coming out of the firewall that must be attached to the battery in order to get her to run. I think this must run to the ignition switch?

I would love to "A" get it to turn over by depressing the accelerator and "B" figure out where that red wire is suppose to go.

I realize I am probably missing some critical details here, please let me know what else I can provide to help.

Thank you

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Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your "new" car.

Check and make sure someone has not installed a push button to replace the carb switch. That was frequently done back in the day. Am assuming the ign switch is stock but those have also been replaced to have a key start. 22nd series 48-49ss have a two position OFF and ON switch. In 23rd series 49-50 models they changed to a typical 3 position ACC OFF and ON switch.

The starter switch on the carb should have power coming only from the GA terminal of ign switch. The + side of ammeter feeds the AM terminal if ign sw which would be the BAT terminal on other switches. COIL should feed the coil when key is on and GA feeds everything else. If the starter switch is being powered from the + side of ammeter it will be hot all the time and if switch was currently working, starter will operate any time the acc pedal is pushed -- although the car should not start unless the key is on. For safety I would change that to the proper feed or at least be aware that working on the car and accidentally pushing the acc pedal could move the car if it were left in gear. In either case make sure you have power on only one side of the switch and when the linkage is moved the power then comes out the other side. It could be a bad or misadjusted switch is causing a problem and it could also be that the ign switch is faulty and maybe the reason for the red wire. You will need to trace it. One common item needing an extra wire is an electric fuel pump but those are usually fed from the ign switch and not the battery.

The Deluxe models with a 288 or 327 engine have a regular Bendix starter and a typical starter solenoid with 3 terminals. Voltage comes thru the carb starter switch or pushbutton to energize the small terminal on the solenoid. Ground is provided thru the solenoid case. Custom models with the 356 engine have a gear reduction starter and a large solenoid with 4 terminals. Someone could have changed the starter to that model. The two small solenoid terminals are the start signal. One is power from the start switch and the other is ground which goes to the regulator where it joins the ARM wire to generator. That route provides a safety circuit that gets ground thru the generator and prevents the starter from engaging if the engine is running and generator producing voltage. If you have that circuit make sure the generator wiring is intact and generator is in good condition so there is a ground at the solenoid. If the circuit is problematic it can be bypassed by identifying which wire comes from the starter switch and then removing the existing wire from the other terminal and taping it. Add a new ground wire to the terminal.

G'day Icescreamer,

Had posted this in another area, but seeing you're here now thought it best to move it over.
So it's to PackardInfo and for including your '48 Deluxe Eight Touring Sedan in the Packard Owner's Registry.

As for your problem, I'm sure one of the experienced, knowledgeable and friendly Packard gurus will be along soon to assist.

EDIT - See Howard, one of the gurus, is already on the case.

Thank you for the welcome!

I will move the carb switch power to the GA terminal and check the switch at the Carb. Appreciate the guidance will let you know what I discover.

Is there a simple way to remove the ignition switch from the dash? I have looked and I can't seem to land on the answer.

Scratch that, I found some details on ignition switch removal

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If you want to remove the ign switch, depending on type it removes one of two ways. If it has a bezel that is fairly thick metal -- maybe 1/4" -- with squarish front and back side, that unscrews from the switch and switch just pulls out from the rear. If the bezel is fairly thin metal with a sloped or rounded contour -- maybe 1/4" near the key opening tapering to a very thin section at the dash, those are spring loaded. The switch has to push into the dash from the rear to relieve the spring and then while the switch is being held in, the bezel is turned a quarter turn to line up a slotted opening

If your 48 has the stock 22nd series two position switch it is the first unscrew the bezel method. If someone installed a later 23rd three position switch it is the second push in and twist the bezel 90 degrees method.

Thanks Howard, It is the original two position.

Success! Put in the proper solenoid and she fired with the carb switch... with a little encouragement! I need to do some adjusting/optimization on the carb switch to get it working at the right part of the pedal press, but we made progress!

For now I am going to leave the wire hooked to the battery, it is feeding the ignition switch. I will tackle that issue after I get through the next steps.

Hurdle 2 - Checking out the generator, does not seem to be charging.

Hurdle 3 - Going to focus on getting the breaks to function.

The car sat in a damp leaky warehouse, and from what i read on here a lot of my gremlins may be due to corrosion on some of the connections. Will start to clean them as I identify things that are failing to work.

Maybe I should change this to a project blog.....

Thank you!

A simple test for the charging circuit, temporarily ground the field terminal at the generator and raise the engine speed to more than a fast idle while watching the ammeter. If it shows a charge, the generator is functioning and the regulator is suspect.

Don't leave the jumper connected after completing the test.

Viewing the engine compartment, this car has the electromatic clutch.