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Hey all... silly question here. Been slowly re-working a lot of my wiring (many thanks to Howard for the wiring chart) on my '50, which remains 6v positive ground. One of the silly trivial things I thought I would do is update some of the exterior lights to LEDs. I bought amber-colored 1154 bulbs for the signal flasher/parking lights along with 6v flasher for LEDs. These are outstanding and work great.

The curiosity is the 1158s. This is of course what the manual defines as the taillight bulb. On top of not lighting at all, the bayonets on the LEDs were parallel, while the sockets in my 23rd require offset bayonets. I've also received incandescent 1158s that are also parallel. What am I missing here? Do 1158s come with different bayonet setups, should I be using a different bulb. The incandescents I have in there right now work well, but they are, of course, not labeled beyond their voltage, so I'm not certain of what they are (I THOUGHT I remembered putting 1158s in there... maybe not?) Definitely missing something. Thanks, all.

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I don't know the answer to your question, but where did you get your LEDs and flasher from? I've thought about doing the same.

LEDLight.com. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I LOVE the amber LEDs. They are SO bright, and the turn signal click isn't all that different than the original (definitely more consistent, similar timbre). They really work great. All the more perplexing as to why the 1158s didn't do anything.

Quick note on an edit to this: the website is LEDLight.com (no plural).

LED bulbs have polarity, so my first thought is that the bulb you bought is meant for a negative ground ("negative earth" in British parlance), and might illuminate if you could reverse the orientation of the bulb in the socket. Off the top of my head, I don't recall whether the small locating lugs on the side of the brass base of an 1158 are at the same height and can easily be flipped, or whether those are offset at different depths like the bulbs used in my 1955. This was intended to enforce a specific orientation of the bulb inside the bulb socket. Of course, if you have a polarity issue, these offset lugs will also prevent you from doing a simple 180 degree flip.

The Motor City Packard region of The Packard Club is running a project to locate and resell the proper LED bulbs for 6V positive ground Packards (as well as many other cars). You can go tomotorcitypackards.org/shop/ and scroll about two-thirds of the way down where you'll find the LED bulb section. Click on the link for either the Excel ordering sheet or the PDF version to check out the availability and pricing,

Also keep in mind that the loads on your electrical system will now be a lot different from the incandescent bulbs, and it will throw off the normal operation of your flasher unit, as well as your turn signals. The CEC company makes some great LED compatible flashers. I was able to buy what I needed off of Amazon.

In my case, because my 1955 is such an odd beast (12V, but still positive ground -- Packard didn't move to negative ground until 1956), I ended up sourcing 12V, positive ground LED bulbs from a classic car parts supplier in the UK. That installation project is still underway, but the LED front turn signals that I finished first are a true revelation.

I'm sure that you will love your new LED bulbs when they are finally installed!

The bulb chart in the owners manual is incorrect
The rear bulbs should be 1154 or equivalent, same as the front

The LEDs I use are shaped more like the old builds but now that I think of it, that was for my 12v cars. As for the rears, they should be the same as the front as the different pin locations is what make them go in only one way. Be sure to use red bulbs for the rear as white will overpower the lens.

Also, as someone mentioned, LEDs by their nature are polarity-dependent but retrofit automotive LED builds typically have circuitry to make them polarity-independent. Be sure to ask if that’s the case before buying and also ask the voltage range they need to be sure that they stay on at idle.