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According to a friend who'se been selling parts for the V8 Packards for many years now, it's not uncommon for the cigar lighter sockets to fail (though without shorting), usually one or more of the 3 spring contact fingers breaks off. But as I checked mine it was OK. Then a look at the element and it became clear what happened - failure of the sliding sleeve kept the element energized when the lighter was replaced in the socket. The element overheated but instead of burning thru and thus opening the circuit, it pretty much fused into a solid mass and hence there was no resistance winding - just a dead short. Replaced the element today and everything is hunky-dory. And luckily, the feed wire, though it no doubt got pretty hot, did not melt, distort or burn the insulation.

A common story that circulated back in the day talked about faulty lighters in the rear compartment. The lighter would short and set on fire the seat and interior of car. I remember my father disabling all of these lighters on the Packards that came into his possession. On new cars, he would leave the lighter element in the glove box for the new owner to manage.

(o[]o)

Interesting how different things are now with things you take for granted. It appears very few of the mfgs protected liters back then. A quick check found one that looks like it comes off the headlight switch breaker in a string with normally protected stuff. Others are like Packard--straight off the main source. The later cars have fuses or links that vary between 20 and 30 amps.

Dave (Owen_Dyneto) should get accolades on some superior diagnostic sleuthing on this one! I can't say that I or anyone I know would have figured this problem out within the time frame and pure intellect that Dave accomplished.

Of course, now everyone should put a 30A fuse in front of the cigar lighter(s), just to be safe.

Craig