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Got in my '53 Clipper this morning and the headlights would not turn on this morning. They worked the day and night before. The running lights turn on, the interior lights come on and I can hear the relay switching when i try to turn them on. Any clues as to what to look for or where to start?

Work backwards. Check for power at the dimmer switch. If you have power coming in but not going out, it's a bad dimmer swtich.

If a relay has been added, check for output power on the switch.

Relay may click, but doesn't have feed power.

Finally check the output power on the headlight switch.

Normally there is no relay used on the headlights and if one has been added, it is almost always mounted in the engine compt so would be hard to hear inside the car. Are you sure you are not hearing the circuit breaker on back of the headlight switch clicking off?

If you are hearing the CB and the parking or running and tail lights work OK in the first switch position but not the second or headlight position, there is a short somewhere in the headlight wiring between the switch and lights. Packard used a self resetting breaker so when a short occurs it immediately clicks off, waits for a few seconds, clicks back on and then immediately off again. That cycle repeats for as long as the short is present or the breaker has power.

When I pull the switch out for the headlights, the tail, brake and turn lights all work. My mistake on the relay. I work in a shop and we typically only see 12 volt systems lol. I hear something click under the hood when I pull the switch out and push it in but the headlights do not come on. Where is the circuit breaker/what does it look like? I see a bunch of black, what looks like old relays, labeled Remy or Delco or something scattered about.

Perhaps you can post a couple of pictures of what you are seeing under the hood. As like Howard said, originally, there would not be any relays associated with the headlights. There is a horn relay up in the front left corner. But who knows what a prior owner may have done,

The stock circuit breaker is a small metal can or rectangle on the end of the headlight switch. Nothing stock under the hood would click with headlights being turned on but added headlight relays were common to try to get brighter lights by minimizing the run of relatively small wire. Providing more power thru relays using a more direct route with larger wire also cuts down on issues with old switches.

Many possibilities where someone would have mounted the relay but for ease of tying into the headlight circuit you might look somewhere near the main headlight terminal junction strip on the left fender. Often the older relays have metal cases and fuses on the side so check for something like that.

The only stock 53 relays located under the hood are for the horn which is a black metal case relay mounted up front on or near the radiator cradle and if the car has overdrive, a usually silver colored relay with a fuse that is mounted on the firewall. Neither would be affected by headlights.

Black boxes

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Definitely not stock and no idea how they are wired into the headlight circuit or where power is coming from. Typically there would be an added wire coming from the BAT terminal on the starter solenoid supplying power to the relay contacts. Turning on headlight switch and then using dimmer switch would energize and switch one relay or the other on to select high or low beam. Actual power for the lights would be a separate feed turned on or off by the relays.

I believe there is a fuse on the side of the relay at the middle left and on the bottom relay. The relay on upper right without a fuse may be the horn relay and if it is, there is a heavy wire already coming directly from the BAT terminal on solenoid or a splice in the main loom that feeds the horn relay. Power for the lights could have been taken from there.

Check for a 6v supply input to the fuses and then the fuses themselves to verify you have power for lights.

Thank you! Its good to know that. Me and a co-worker were looking at a wiring diagram and did not see half of the components. I found a couple wires that were spliced that looked like they were coming from the headlights. The connections were suspect. After moving the top regulator off of the fender to get a better look below, I got my volt meter and all of a sudden the headlights started working again. I put the regulator back and tried my headlights 5 times, they turn on now. I have no idea. This is pretty much my daily driver, 200+ miles a week. I wonder why there are all of the extra parts?

Really hard to say what might have been done or added during a 70 year old cars lifetime. When Packard went away original parts became harder to find and after awhile it was just an old car and maybe not worth spending money on so a scrapyard part from a brand X might have been mickey moused in to save the day. Even on today's cars there are aftermarket items installed that if you believe the hype "makes your car much better than the factory made it". That same spiel was common back then too.

On your headlights, I would spend the time to find out exactly what is going on with power. Moving the regulator should not have done anything to the headlight wires directly so there must be a bad wire or loose connection in that same area that was also moved. Just because they worked OK 5 times in a row won't mean they will a 6th or 7th. Vibration could also shake something loose again and this time they might not stay on as you drive home some night.