Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Saw on a car for sale. Any ideas on this?

It appears to be the size and shape for a trailer light connector.

That's more-or-less the location for the valve stem and Schrader valve for the optional remote spare tire inflator. Perhaps your car had that option and it was later removed?

My guess would be license plate light.

If the hole is approximately a half inch in diameter and that is some sort of blank cover I think O_D has called it but a trailer connection is also a possibility since the location would be close to the hitch.

The spare tire hose valve does not show up in the 55-6 accessory books but was undoubtedly available. Here is a showing from the 51 book. The placement so close to the license plate is a bit more hidden than the Packard suggested location but since it could be dealer installed, maybe an owner request.

EDIT: I think Don may be correct with the trailer connection. Enlarging and brightening the photo you can see the extra holes for screws that would hold the plug.

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Thanks John but the license plate lights were standard on these and are located here (black arrows on small picture).

Thanks Howard, the spare tire valve extension is an interesting accessory. I suppose so the owner or service men could top off the air pressure without opening the trunk? IF it were that I would assume that it would be installed as shown in the guide to avoid the hose being in the cargo area proper.

Good idea Don, whenever I check it out I'll look under the car and see if I can see any spliced wires or evidence of a hitch being attached. For a 4pin connector, it needs only spliced to the running lights wire, and each bright brake bulb wire. For a 7pin connector, it also needs a trailer brake and ACC wire, but I doubt that trailers that heavy were used.

What I find a bit curious is the the position of the exhaust pipe being quite close to the center of the car, but it's possibly just reattached in the wrong place after its mount broke. Also note the overspray indicating the car having been repainted.

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Now looking at these photos I took some years ago of an extremely original and very low mileage 1951 Patrician, I now agree the hole in question was not associated with the remote spare tire inflator. This car passed thru NJ a few years ago on it's way to Scandanavia.

Another curious accessory on this highly optioned Patrician was the rear window wiper.

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There is a loom extension that runs across the car in a narrow trough at the rear of the trunk floor just below where the hole is located. Some of the signals could be picked up there but they could have had a short cable from the plug share that channel and run to the left tail light area where everything could be picked up.

As an added note something falling or wedged into that trough and laying there mostly out of sight while rubbing or cutting into the loom or a failed rubber grommet protecting the wire exiting a hole and going to the license lights has been found to be the cause more than once of shorts in the wiring.

Very nice photos, OD. Didn't even know that a rear wiper was an option on those years!

Thanks Howard, I'll definitely keep that in mind.

It was an exceptionally nice, well-preserved example, less than 15,000 miles IIRC. Here's a couple more pix. That's Billy Masten looking down at the paint on the hood, Billy owned Precious Metals, one of the deservedly better-known collector car transporter companies.

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