Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Well today was a day to get several things done.

First I got the rear filler panel reinstalled on the car, and then the bumper went back on.

Next I cut a piece of scrap "speaker box" carpet to make a temporary carpet for the trunk. It will do until I have new carpets made.

A couple of years ago I had picked up a Signal Seeking radio that came out of a '53 senior. But the face plate that came with it would not seat against my dash. Also the radio was missing the rear panel. So I found a different face plate, and used the back off my '54 Clipper radio. So with that I have a signal seeking radio in my dash. It currently doesn't work, and needs to be gone through and converted to 12v. But at least there is no longer a gapping hole in my dash.

The rest of the time was spent de-grimming the garage from all the recent stripping operations.

Attach file:

---

  (84.98 KB)


  (91.32 KB)


  (102.46 KB)

I discovered an odd problem yesterday after putting the taillights back on the car. The passenger side brake light was not working. But the parking light does work.

So i thought it was a checked the the brake light feed wire...no voltage or very low voltage. Hmmmm.

But here is the kicker, brake light does blink when the turn signal is applied. (Voltage good) So that means the bulb is good, the wire is good, and the taillight ground is good.

So the best I can figure that problem must lie in the turn signal switch contacts themselves up in the column. Like one of the contacts is dirty or burnt and is not providing brake switch power to the passenger side tail light when the brakes are pressed, but another contact is allowing the turn signal blinking feed to come through when a right hand turn signal is used.

It obviously can't be the brake switch since the drivers side one works.

Do you all concur?

How hard are those switch contacts to get at in the column?

Here is the turn signal extraction showing the switch internal wiringpackardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/wir ... rams/Turn%20Signal%20Extraction.pdf

If memory serves, that switch has some phenolic or fiber supports for the contacts. Probably one has warped so your suspicion of a bad connection and contact being lost sounds pretty good. Aside from the steering wheel having to come off, not too terrible otherwise to get to.

Howards,

Thanks for that. Is the switch itself pretty easy to tear into?

I cant really think of anything else that would cause one brake light not to work, and still have the turn signal work.

Been awhile & think it's fairly open but riveted together.

I'm hoping it just dirty and some contact cleaner will help rectify the issue.

Progress last night:

Passenger side brake light is working again. It was a contact issue in the turn signal switch. Just had to work the turn signal back and forth about 20 times while putting some pressure on in the turn signal level. This was enough to knock of whatever was fouling the contact.

Also I pulled the carb of the car and cleaned it with a little brake cleaner. The choke plate was just a bit sticky and that is the reason the high idle was never working. All I know is after judicious spraying with brake cleaner, and a little lubrication on the pivot points, the carb is working as it should again. Only issue to rectify is the broken choke cover. Superglue is holding it together for now.

THe carb will also probably need a throttle shaft bushing at some point soon.

Well first job on this evening list was getting the license plate lights squared away. So I media blasted them. One of them is just toast. Almost all the retention tangs are missing, and the old bulb base was corroded to the sockets. So it looks like I am going to need a replacement socket of that one side. Anyone got one in a junk parts pile?

The it was on the something I needed to do. Created a temporary toe board/floor patch were the accelerator pedal bolts to the toe board. The toe board was completely rotted there causing the pedal to shift down and into the toe board. This caused the push rod to catch hole in the toe board. So I used a piece of scrap metal and hand bent it to the shape of the floor/toe board transition, and used some self tapping sheet metal screws to hold it. This is only temporary until the entire floor can be replaced. Not pretty, but functional.

Attach file:

---

  (77.15 KB)


  (83.86 KB)

Are the license plate lite sockets same as 56??? I think i have seen those at auto parts strores recently.

I think 54-56 are the same. Anyone confirm?