Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Greetings from the left coast.
The other day I was fiddling under the hood. Had been running the engine and shut it off to do something. Went to start it and it only cranked. No horn, lites, ignition , nothing. A little sleuthing and I found nothing thru the ammeter. Also, the needle was down scale with battery disconnected. When I bridged the ammeter, car started and everything worked. So, ammeter is open circuit. How does it come out and where do I send it to be repaired? Have been driving the Dowager regularly as my go for coffee and grocery getter. Also can the temp gage be serviced?
Cheers, Fred.

A transient short may have burned out the ammeter and caused the needle to bend or jam.

It might be a good idea to add a fuse to the battery side of the new ammeter.

Can't help on how to remove the ammeter but for repair, Bob's Speedometer has had a lot of favorable mentions on the forum for repair of various gauges. You might contact them and see if the ammeter and temp gauge is something they could do.

On the cause it does seem likely that some kind of short caused it to open but ammeters are fairly robust and for the gauge to be damaged it would probably take a fair amount of current. Since you were able to jump the gauge and have things appear to work normally would wonder if whatever caused the problem was also burned open or a wire is damaged and just laying there waiting for a bit of vibration to act up again.

If you do decide to add some extra protection I would recommend a circuit breaker rather than a fuse. A fuse is absolute which means carry several spares in case it blows again and once it blows you are stuck until it is replaced. A circuit breaker in that application will allow you to get going more quickly and can be either a type 1 which is self resetting or a type 3 which would require you to reach under the dash and do a manual reset. On either a fuse or breaker get something a bit larger than the expected load to have a bit of extra room so whatever you use is not working at almost full capacity. For example, if your maximum charging capacity and load is say 20 amps then get a 25 or 30 amp fuse or breaker.

If you are handy, you might consider repairing the ammeter yourself. An ammeter is just a small coil that creates a magnetic field and moves the needle. They are very simple.

Often you won't even see a coil. The amount of magnetism from just a half loop or so will be a sufficient electromagnet to move the needle.

Compare in the regulator, the current coil is only a few turns with an iron core and that is enough to pull in the spring loaded contact at 50A or whatever.

Thanks guys, I guess this is like a Landrover. To remove the clutch, step 1, remove the roof. Looks like I have to remove the front seat so I can be comfortable under the dash. The seat locating pin under my back wasn't pleasant. Breathe Fred breathe. This may be the time to sort out the rest of the annoying dash issues.

Fred -= For your repair, try Mike at KM Lifestyle. Very knowledgable, responsive, and well priced. He's in Massachusetts. He's helped me on a number of electrical related issues and I've never been dissatisfied. Good luck!

mykmlifestyle.com/

Now, since I am an old guy, how does the front seat come out? 4 hidden bolts thru the floor? I might as well take it out to lay on the floor to play under the dash, and recover the seat while its out.

It's either remove the seat from the tracks or the tracks from the floor.

Separating the seat from the tracks is usually less fasteners.

Kev, no tracks. Drivers side moves like a recliner chair. Handle under drivers front, pull up handle , scoutch bum forward and back tilts. Pass seat doesn't move . Storage under both cushions.