Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

heres another try for the pulley looks wrong compared to your picture

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Pulley does look a bit small. If I'm not seeing things, also looks wide and belt is way down inside running on inner diameter of pulley. If so, that could be a big part of the problem. Belts grip from their sides rather than bottom. Heavy demand under load and pulley could be slipping.

Don't have info on that year. Earlier pre 1950 has almost a 4" gen pulley driven by an approx 6 1/2" crank. Wide belt though so perhaps those dimensions are a bit skewed. V8 is about a 3" on gen driven by about 7" crank. That works out to about the 2.25:1 ratio given for gen to crank RPMs on V8s. Perhaps someone has a 51-4 accessible they could measure.

If Jason from Advanced Electrical sees this, perhaps he can give us the recommended max RPM on a typical generator.

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Hi Steve 52-200,
I'm really glad you got the hang of taking a pix and posting it on the website.
Would you please be good enough to take a few pix's of your battery tray conversion so I can do the same thing? Looking forward to seeing the pictures soon.
Regards, Steve F.

On the 51-54, there is no ground strap between the motor and the body, just the braided cable between the battery and the engine. The attachment point is the bolt through the water pump that doesn't go into the block, which is right above the generator.

Also there is a ground wire that connects to the ground terminal on the generator and runs over to the ground (attachment screw) on the driver side fender terminal block.

I will measure the pulley tomorrow morning sometime. What else will you need? My car (1953) has AC-Delco electrical system.

Appreciate it. I think just the gen pulley diameter should be enough. The one in question looks small and if belt is actually working off the inner diameter, suspect it turns even faster when it's not slipping.

You may or may not have the wrong pulley on the generator and you need to resolve that. But making the generator go "too fast" due to a smaller pulley, pretty unlikely unless your driving at speeds of 90 mph or higher. The generator system was designed to function properly at whatever top speed the car was capable of when new.

Equally important is to check the belt for the proper width; it MUST ride on the side flanges of the pulley!! If it's riding in the bottom, there probably isn't enough contact or gripping surface to power the generator.

if you follow the grounded thread someone sent me a great view of the battery tray unloaded ,I just snipped it in 1/2 and moved the rear piece back a tad , ill have to dismantle it to show the 8 x 16 piece of sheet metal i bolted down ,comming up

thanks for the info on the generator pulley ,Ill see what the verdict is and start looking at the junk yards ,sounds like someone just stuck a alternator pulley on there cuz it looked better if I go 6v alternator theht pulley size may not matter as much

Width will definitely matter but O_D is right about the diameter and speed. It will go several thousand with no problem figuring max engine RPM times whatever the ratio spec Packard had on those.

No idea on the engine max on yours but V8 charts go to 5000. Just guessing 100 mph would be around 4000 or so, 2.25 times that or around 10000 at least for V8 generators would be possible.