Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Packard instrument voltage regulators appeared in 51 when they went to the type of King-Seeley thermal gauges used thru 56. Those require a 5v supply and were used by other mfgs too. Packard's were ones similar to those of Ford, AMC and some Mopar models which require the resistance in the senders to have a working range of around 73 ohms at the low end and around 10 ohms at the high end of the gauges.

That is the noise suppression capacitor hanging near the voltage regulator and the bulbs are 12v. The dash bulb voltage is supplied from the tail light terminal of the headlight switch and goes thru a combination on/off and rheostat section at the front of the switch turned by the knob. The wipers in the rheostat section are known to oxidize and corrode to the point they won't pass voltage and the bulbs no longer function. If at some point your dash bulbs won't work that is the first place to check.

Thanks Howard. Yes, that makes sense. I can get the Buck 12V-6V reducers here, but probably won't need if the existing unit on the instrument assembly is serviceable. Will turn my attention now to the part finished 12V conversion on my 1941 120 Club Coupe (started by somebody else - bad idea). Cheers Brian