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Don't have a good photo of a 55 dash but this has everything labeled and is of reasonably decent quality.

The headlight switch could probably stand taking apart and cleaning and adding a bit of grease to the inside of the box section. On the courtesy light and rheostat part, Ross uses a tiny dab of valve grinding compound. A dab on the wiper, brass circle and contacts for the courtesy light side and on the circle side for the dash light section followed by a vigorous back and forth action to get the working parts clean followed by a good cleaning with brake cleaner. That probably works better than using contact cleaner alone because the abrasive can cut thru the scale and oxidation. It probably wouldn't hurt to follow with a dose of contact cleaner that contains a protectant to keep things from oxidizing again right away. The power antenna switch is the only other one that could come apart but doubt it needs anything.

The Bowden cables for the heater and vent controls could probably stand a bit of light oil. Apply with the cables hanging vertical and let the oil run down the wire and into the housing. Might take a time or two to get from one end to the other.

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Thank again Howard that image will come in handy.

I have the painless wire harness from Summit. The original fuse box has this pink wire (image 1) coming out and going to the instrument panel in image 2. Any idea what purpose this wire actually has.

I am trying to determine what I need to run to replace it. All the lights seen to have their own power and the gauge's have their own lines so what this pink line do?

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If it is the pink wire from the instrument fuse, it is supposed to go to the cut off pink wire (arrow) on the cluster and is the feed to the instrument voltage regulator. It will be needed.

Power to the instrument fuse comes via a splice in the yellow wire running from the ign switch to the ballast resistor. It is hot only in the right or run position. Goes to the voltage regulator where 12v is dropped down to 5v to run the gas, oil and temp gauges. In a Clipper instead of an oil gauge there would be idiot lights for Oil and Gen and the pink wire would also supply one side of those bulbs.

It looks as if the gauges have been rewired. Instead of white, power out of the instrument regulator to the gauges is usually black and the pink wire on the fuel gauge should be orange and goes to the sender.

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Yes, I have started rewiring the dash. It's going to be a learning experience for me so I may be calling for your help more and more.

The colors will be different. I would have loved to get a Packard harness but $1600 and I know others have sure this same painless harness.

As for the white wire you mentioned. The original was a very light grey so it must have faded from age. I had no idea it was black.

The painless harness does have a voltmeter wire that comes from the fuse box. Its hot only when the key is on.

Thank you

Well, this is fun.

Below is a snip from the wiring diagram for my 400.
I colored a couple of lines to match the actual wire colors. The white wire may be difficult to see.

I have been over this multiple times but it appears that the left turn signal (white wire) from the dash lights run to the right front turn signal. Then of course the right side dash light (orange wire) runs to the left front turn signal.

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That is correct. Have a look thru this thread for an explanation of how the indicator light circuits operate. Pertinent info starts around post #6.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... 4621&post_id=237040#forumpost237040

Well at least I'm not crazy.

I am not sure that info will make much difference to me and my painless wire harness. If I wire the brake lights as Painless diagram shows I may be good to go.

So far all that I know for sure that I need to replace is bulb housing for the turn signals on the dash. The originals have 2 wires and this harness only provides a single wire for the bulbs.

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The Painless harness places indicator bulbs in parallel with front turn signal bulbs instead of powering them separately so no need for the opposite side grounding scheme Packard used. Just need to change the sockets to single wire shell grounded type. If you cannot find the sockets locally or at Amazon, RI Wiring has some that should fit in the cluster holes.

Here is the Painless diagram with the plug numbers for the round plug from the turn signal switch located near the front of the dash at the steering column. The main loom side should have terminals that can be removed from the plug although you might need to completely remove the old wires from the terminals and reuse them. I usually can cut the old wires off flush and drill the remainder out and then solder in new wires.

If you have the original 3 terminal brake switch the Packard colors are shown or if you are going to use the two terminal and relay conversion then just follow those diagrams referring to the original colors.

There is no provision for hazard lights in the Packard turn switch so not sure if there is anything available to incorporate that function.

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Howard, if not for you answering my questions and guiding me on this project I might have sold this Packard years ago and bought an Oldsmobile.
Others have helped me here but are always there and I greatly appreciate it.

I received a package today from Mike Chirco @ Tuscan Packard. New and Old rear fender scripts in the image below. I actually received them a couple weeks ago but one of them was slightly bent and the gold was pealing. I emailed Mike and he made it right by sending me another and a return label for the bad one. I am very pleased with the scripts.

All the remaining gold items have been sent to a chromer in Tennessee and the cost estimate was less then I figured it would be. I should get them back around Thanksgiving.

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On your turn signal indicator sockets, rather than finding new you could reuse the old 2 wire sockets you have by connecting the new Painless wire to the old center wires and add a ring terminal to the shell wires that formerly went to the opposite side signal wires and ground those under the dash using the cluster screws.