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Hello Packard Fans,

My Temperature and Gas Gauges on my 56 Patrician go to the right after starting the car. I changed the Instrument Voltage Regulator and still the gauges go to the right.
Any suggestions ?

Joe

Cluster not grounded correctly?

Hello BigKev,

I was thinking the same thing. What should I do to test for good grounding ?

Joe

The 51-6 instrument regulator needs a ground but the gauges do not. If the cluster is grounded and regulator having a good screw contact with the cluster does not help check for grounded wires going to the senders or faulty senders. To test the cluster ground just use a volt-ohmmeter with one clip connected to a clean rust free spot on the body sheetmetal and the other to the cluster. The meter should read a direct short or maybe a few tenths of an ohm higher. Anything more than that then check the cluster to dash mounting screws and nuts for tightness or you could just run a 16 ga wire between the cluster and a convenient screw going into a cleaned rust and paint free area on the body sheetmetal. The output of the sender is pulsed 12v but the duration and speed between the pulses provide an average of 5v to the gauges. Because of the pulses an accurate average voltage may be hard to read on a typical home Volt-ohmmeter but if you read a solid 12v with no fluctuation of the meter there is a good chance the regulator is not working.

The temp sender usually does not have too many issues other than outright failures. You could check the wire terminal and make sure it is not bent and touching grounded metal. If that is OK then remove the wire and check the sender resistance with an ohmmeter. There should be around 200 ohms on a cold engine. On a hot engine it may be harder to check but at normal running temp I would expect it to be somewhere around 25-30 ohms.

The gas senders can be a failure item due to sitting in the harsh environment and rusting or corroding. On the wire at the gauge coming from the sender, if you disconnect the wire from the gauge you should read about 70-75 ohms at empty and 10 at full. Depending on how much gas is in the tank you would see something in between that minimum and maximum value.

Hello Howard,

Some things I forgot to mention.
1. When I reattached the instrument regulator back on the dash, none of the gauges moved. They all stayed to the left.
Separate problems, may be related or separate problems.
2. Brake lights to not light up when pressing the brake, but tail lights do work when headlights are turned on.
3. Radio stopped working.

I will try your suggestions and get back to you.

Thanks,

Joe Jr

Might double check that when you were under the dash replacing the regulator that none of the wires going to the fuse block were pulled loose.

The instrument voltage regulator is fed from the Instrument cluster fuse in the block on firewall under the dash so check that fuse. It could be the fuse holder is corroded so fuse is not making good contact but if the fuse is blown, it is a small 7/8 inch long fuse -- AGW 7 1/2 amp. Most fuses in a Packard are specific in length to amperage so only the specific called for sizes will fit in most of the holders or in the fuse block. Napa and other parts stores should have the needed AGW 7 1/2 amp or in most cases an SFE equivalent size fuse that will also fit.

On the brake light issue the most common problem is with the 3 terminal brake light switch which is a well known failure item -- particularly if used with silicone fluid and today's 3 terminal replacements don't seem to be all that great either. Many have switched to a standard easily found 2 terminal replacement switch with a relay added in the circuit to duplicate the function of the third terminal on the original switch to feed part of the Torsion Level system. There is also a 7 1/2 amp fuse feeding the brake light switch. That is an inline fuse in the upper drivers side of engine compt in the area next to cowl and under the fender where the torsion level solenoids and vacuum reserve tank is mounted. That fuse also provides power to the control switch part of the TL system so is fed from another inline fuse in the same area which is a 30 amp fuse that is protecting the TL motor. If fuses and switch are good the brake lights do go thru the round plug connected to the turn signal switch. That plug and bunch of wires exits from the steering column just under the dash edge so make sure the plug is intact.

Radio also has a 7 1/2 amp fuse in the block under the dash but there could also be other things not working as the reason the radio has failed. Make sure the antenna lead is still plugged in tight in the part above the glovebox because without the antenna even if working the radio is mostly silent. There is also another small plug from the glovebox section that goes to the power supply section and if the car has a rear seat speaker a wire going from the power supply section to the speaker fader switch that could have been pulled out. That disconnection would kill both speakers.