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Is there a forum dedicated to regular maintenance issues that all must face? I have looked through the forums, used the search tools and looked through the manuals to only gleaning spotty, usable knowledge. For example, 'What is the most common reason one's (1950 Eight 2301 Touring Sedan) Temperature Gauge or brake lights are not working? I guess I'm not nearly as educated on computers/Internet as I thought! I get twisted around and not very successful in finding the instruction I am looking for. Please share with me how a new Packard owner can find good resources on how to perform maintenance and repairs like these mentioned here. Unfortunately there is no 1950 Service Manual listed. I'm wound up and ready to go so I humbly ask my fellow members to help line me up in the best direction. Thank you very much. I am very grateful to be here with you.

We've all been there and it's a learning curve. For both of those, typical electrical troubleshooting would likely get your answer. Check for:
- blown fuses
- bad grounds (i.e. corrosion)
- broken/chewed thru wires
- corroded socket (lights)

You can ground the wire to the temperature gauge to test its operation. The gauge should read full hot when it is grounded... if it does, then your sender is bad. Short the two wires together that are on the brake light switch to test your brake lights.

P.S. for REALLY useful searching , search on Google with the phrase "site:packardinfo.com" before your search terms.

Welcome, you are in the right spot for your car.
Type '1950 Eight 2301 Touring Sedan' into the search engine, under the literature list will be your service manual PDF.
Bob J.

The 46-50 service manual was comprised of 7 individual booklets and is in the literature archive but there was no electrical section issued as part of the manual -- just a wiring diagram which was published in a service counselor. There is a decent electrical section in the 51-4 manual and some of the parts carried over and were used in later models. Even if the parts were not the same the instructions for service are for the most part applicable to your 50.

As to the temperature gauge, it is electric and uses a sender screwed into the rear drivers side of the head. One unfortunate thing about the 48-50 gauges is they were of different construction than all other year gauges Packard used. Most gauges used a changing resistance type sender but the 48-50 temperature and fuel senders consist of a contact on a bimetal strip which closes to ground so the gauges get intermittent bursts of 6v current flow. The senders are controlled by the action of a heater and external force of temperature or fuel level pushing against the bimetal strip. The external temperature (or fuel level) varies the pressure applied to the strip holding the contact so it takes a longer or shorter time for the heater to bend the strip to open and close the contact. The varying duration and frequency of the on/off pulses of 6v works another heater in the gauge which controls another bimetal strip that makes the needle move. The easily found resistance type senders of other years will not work properly with these gauges. You can see if the gauge functions at all by MOMENTARILY grounding the sender wire as you watch to see if the needle moves higher but without a properly operating sender you cannot know if it is reading correctly.

NOS Packard senders are getting scarce but some Ford products of that era used a similar system. BDeB posted that 36-55 Fords used a fuel sender that will work in Packards and I suspect the temperature senders will too but it will need to be the single terminal sender. Some Ford flathead V8s used two senders wired in series so one will have a single terminal and the other will have two terminals. What I don't know is if the threads that screw into the head will be the same or if some type adapter would be needed on a Packard. Ford vendor Dennis Carpenter sells repro senders.

The usual reason brake lights are not working is failure of the hydraulic switch mounted on the end of the master cylinder. Power comes from a circuit breaker located on the back of the instrument cluster and should be at one terminal of the brake switch at all times. From the brake switch in 23rd series and later models, the wire on the other brake switch terminal goes to the turn signal switch and then via two wires on to the brake light/turn signal bulbs. There could be a dirty turn signal switch or broken wire or disconnected plug elsewhere but in all probability the brake switch at the master cylinder is where to look first.

***TOPIC MOVED****

Also, when looking for forum content, instead of using the "general" search at the top right of the screen, I recommend using the "Advanced Search" link at the bottom of the Forum pages themselves.

The general search spiders across the entire website. However, it doesn't read the actual content of the literature in the archive, as it consists mostly of scanned images (no live text to search).




The advanced search at the bottom of the forum pages allows you to drill down into the forums only. So you can search by author, or only in a specific forum, etc. It's more specific.

Thank you very much! I will forge ahead through the fog! Where do you acquire expendibles such as the vehicle's light bulbs and fuses? I guess I need to explore to understand the fuse box and circuit breakers. It would be nice if my outlined problems are found there. Also, is there a clearing house for post war Packard parts? I am looking for an exterior sun visor for a 1950. Thanks!

Thank you Bob J!

Napa. They still have a lot of stuff for our old cars.

The Owner's Manual lists the bulb numbers and other parts.

Thank you HR56! I located the sensor on the engine and removed and cleaned the connection to a wire whose insulation virtually grumbled in my hands. (if this old wire grounded against the firewall would it have destroyed the dashboard gauge?) I did my best to wrap the exposed wire in black electrician's tape. What I thought was a gauge that was pinned on the 'H' (Hot) but when I started the car the needle moved from left to right rather quickly all the way to the right side of the gauge side by the 'H'. So the gauge responded with movement but this happened before the engine got barely warm. Would a bad thermostat give this result? Do you suggest, if all fuses and breakers are OK, to remove the sensor out of the engine and inspect and clean? Is there not a history that would indicate a weakness in this issue of the dashboard engine temp gauge malfunctioning? If the gauge is ultimately deemed bad, can you suggest where I could acquire one? I know of Kanters in NJ, but there may be better options. Thank you so very much!