Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Hey there friends. Decided to do some poking around the back seat area and found a small burned hole in the carpet. I removed the carpet and found this bad boy there. Miracle the car didn’t go down. It seems like the red wire was merged together with the one going to the seat with that black thing. Is this the cable that goes to the power seat? Because if so it still worked up until I unconnected the battery and cut it to replace it. Haven’t tried anything since. Wondering if it is in fact the power seat cable and what gauge wire to use to replace. Because if the merging of wires wasn’t original then it means whoever did it obviously did it wrong.

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Rear compartment cigar lighter? A power seat would have been hydraulic.

The year or model wasn't mentioned but 4-way electric seats were available in 1954 but, as I recall, their wires and those of the lighter came from the front along the tunnel rather than from the pillar. I am not sure of the cigar lighter's power on the earlier models.

I would agree with O_D about it being for the cigar lighter in the ashtray on the seat back. That wire is spliced to the body feed wire above the center pillar and would drop down and out the hole at the bottom where the black inline connector would join it to a wire coming out of the seat frame.

Seatwise, unless it is a 54 it would have had the hydraulic power seat but there would be two wires going toward the front and joining a loom coming from the rear windows at the tunnel edge. For the 54 4 way seat a single wire usually went under the front carpet over to an opening in the sheet metal at the left kick panel area. An underseat heater is also a possibility but that should be on the passenger side and a smaller wire.

To have that much damage you may find a dead short where the wiring has been damaged or pinched or the socket became shorted. Very possibly the element in the lighter became melted and could be stuck in the socket. After 48 the body feed wire was protected by a self resetting circuit breaker on the back of the instrument cluster rather than a fuse. A short would cause the breaker to trip but after a few seconds it resets and the cycle starts over. It will keep tripping and resetting until the wire opens, the short is fixed or the breaker fails. With the automatic reset and intermittent power to the shorted wire over a period of time damage can be substantial.

Is it possible that the person responsible for the wiring problem used Lucas wiring? Packard wiring was not infamous for its shorting and "smoking" ability.

My mistake for not mentioning the year. It is a 1954 patrician. The cigar lighter was missing from the car when I bought it so bought one from another patrician of the same year and put it in. It actually worked (though barely) so it most likely is. So is the issue with the fuse you’re mentioning or just faulty wire splicing?

I warn about this all the time in older cars. And, NO, Packard wiring is not exempt from it. The same company, was sold to GM('30s) and supplied most of the major manufacturers.
You better check way up that line, as there's likely other burns or loss of insulation. And the rest of the car wiring.
Copper oxidizes over time, that reduces the effective wire gauge and the resistance increases. If the insulation is aged/broken that accelerates the oxidation. It also allows for short circuits. So when you power up, they heat up.
Any wiring over ~30 years old, or in rough shape, should be thoroughly inspected, bumper to bumper.
Take this as a "warning shot"/"learning experience" that the whole car didn't catch fire. (I've seen many people post about their beloved car that went up in smoke.)
This condition will extend into areas covered with tape(harness) and you'll never see it happen.
The wiring stds of the period are not the same as today. You'll find all sorts of branch connections, mismatches, etc. that do not meet today's auto electrical code.
If it's a lighter feed, it probably comes off a 20A or larger circuit, so can do lots of heating and sparking before the fuse blows, if at all.
You might(due to burnt condition) be able to look at the electrical diagram and determine the insulation color and wire gauge and then compare to find it's source/endpoint. As far as I know they don't tell the routing. There maybe verbage or by segment info.
When 67 years old, a lot of modifications could've been done/repairs made, so no way to tell for sure. Best to correct the issues, than spend time wondering.

Thanks a lot for the insight. The seller mentioned the small hole burnt in the carpet but I hadn’t bother to check until yesterday. You are right. It would’ve been a great shame if after putting that new cigar lighter in to try it out the whole car went up in smoke. I will remove the seat and try to follow the wire all the way up. I was thinking about reupholstering anyways.

Has any one started a post mentioning how to remove the front seat without damaging the four way power adjuster???