Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Parking relay, is all about ,, ground....

You need a good ground..

I run a wire straight to negative on battery.

I've had no problems.

Autopark was an interesting afterthought and the first few builds apparently didn't have it. I suppose was an exclusive feature they could advertise and Packard was throwing whatever they could to sell cars by then.

You are correct in that people didn't understand how it worked and some didn't follow the rules if they did. Packard even went so far as to mention in articles to mechanics and sales people they had to caution their customers to leave the key on when trying to push or tow the car with rear wheels on the ground. The automatic conveyor type car washes first started appearing in the 40s but had to still use attendants. I don't know how prevalent they were back in the day but can you imagine the confusion there might have been with an attendant not familiar with the feature or an owner that forgot to mention it.

My car appears stock but I added a hidden switch to the circuit so the feature can be turned on or off. Operation is normal in all other respects for either selection.