Packard Forum Index » General

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. This Packard is new to me.

Was it working before? I guess we need a bit more background and information. If wasn't working before then it could be a faulty sender or gauge. If it worked before, and now doesn't, I'd recheck your wiring or anything you disassembled to replace the wiring.

Either way a mutli-meter is your best tool to diagnose. Check sender to back of guage for continuity, that will tell you if the wiring is good. Ohm check the sender to ground. If it's open or short, then the sender is bad. OHM check guage to ground as well. It shouldn't be open or short either.

What Kev said but on a 48-50 model all the senders most likely will read a short or very low resistance to ground when off and tested with an ohmmeter. The type sender Packard used in those years have a heater element wrapped around a bimetal strip which only opens and closes a contact to work the gauges. Other years use the changing resistance type senders most are familiar with and that type will read between 10 and 75 or so ohms with the meter.

External force (temperature, in this case) working with the sender heater in conjunction with another heater in the gauge all work together to vary the heating action on the bimetal strip in the sender which opens and closes the contact. The frequency and duration of the open and close action as changed by the temperature, oil pressure, or fuel level provides varying length pulses to ground which works the gauge heaters to move the gauge needles.

Thank you both for your information. Tomorrow, I will attack the problem via following your advise. Since I am 84, my work pace is slow; however, I will post my progress and, probably, more questions.

Attach file:

---

  CUSTOM 8 With AARON.jpg (63.20 KB)

It was working before. However, the wire was frayed near the connection. Thus, I replaced the connection = now NOT working,

I’m a step behind you in age and a bit frayed at the ends too! No amount of splicing will help, I’m afraid.

Anyway, did you solder, crimp or otherwise splice in a new section of wire or did you replace the entire wire? If spliced, first thing is to check those connections to be sure they are good, then proceed as Kev and Howard outlined.

Hit the sender with some steel wool or other means to make sure you have bright metal to connect the wire to.

Could I have broken the sending unit by over tightened the screw when attaching the new connection?

Possibly but I would think that would have been obvious. It probably wouldn’t hurt to source a new sender anyway and have it handy just in case as some are relatively hard to find. Not sure if yours is one of those or not.

Let's see this might help... With the key in the ON position and the wire removed from the sender unit ground the wire. The gauge needle should move to the extreme high reading. Just momentarily do the grounding so as not to damage the gauge. Have someone watch the gauge while you do the grounding. If the gauge moves then the wire is ok, and the fault is the sender unit. If not then wire or gauge problems. This should apply to your Packard, but I am not sure. If mistaken, others here will quickly correct me. Good luck.