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I had traded the caribbean for the clipper from my brother in law for two weeks while I had the bi-annual inspection done at TÜV, and also did my Service and checkup. Clipper is good to go, now back to the caribbean. On the way home yesterday we got caught in a torrential downpour, but the caribbean actually stayed pretty dry inside. The family was very quiet and nervous with Rain beating on the soft top, but luckily we were only 20 min from home, and the car and wipers ran fine.
I am trying to get the antenna working. It was frozen. I already read the Service counselor, and checked big kevs description from when he did his clipper years ago.
I got it apart and cleaned. Motor was Stuck and rusted.....I loosened it up, and hope I can get it working again.
Here is a before pic.

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I was on vacation in Boston and New York City visiting friends and family, and brought home a little treasure of packard parts. Travelling with a wife and two daughters allows me to spread out the weight of packard parts to 4 suitcases!

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I tried some LEDs that I got from LEDLight dot com, but are not happy with them. So far all are not any brighter than the good incandescant bulbs that I have. They do have a sharper on/off edge when turning on/off, but as others have reported, they dont fit so well, and are not brighter from what I can tell. Maybe better LEDs from Bruce Blevins would be worth it, but this try was not a success. The electronic Blinker relay I still like, but the bulbs....not so much. Just sharing my experience. -Mike

The clutch return spring was not really a correct spring, so I replaced that with one that I got from Gerry. Thanks! I also swapped in some new A308 sparkplugs for old rusty (but working) ACR45 plugs.
These cars are individual works of Art that need attention, and personalized effort.

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I was taking my daughter to Kindergarten this morning in the caribbean, and noticed that my battery lamp Was on at idle and would slowly go out when I gave the engine some rpms. Voltage Was also around 6, and not 7.4 or so....I removed the Generator this evening and found that one bolt to the lower mount Was missing, and when I removed the old brushes, one of the wires fell out of the brush itself!
I replaced the brushes as shown in the below picture. Should I be careful about the copper wire from the brush not to Touch the housing of the generator?
If there is anything I should do in Addition to re-polarizing the Gen, I would appreciate a hint. Thanks!

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It's not uncommon for the BAT light to come on at idle, especially if it's set to a low RPM, but your generator definitely needs some work!

One of the brush leads will be grounded but once the generator starts charging the other will be a direct short if it touches the case. That one I would advise careful routing or protection of some sort.

Here is a bit from the 53 OM on the battery light operation and flickering as well as a diagram of a typical charging circuit showing generator internal wiring. Regulator details are slightly different between Delco and Autolite but basic operation is the same.

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I would remove the brushes and simply use some shrink tube around the copper, then reinstall.

If you have some time, I would honestly disassemble the whole generator for cleaning and inspection of the bearings, bushings, and connections. A rebuild kit, if you will need one, is pretty cheap. $47 from Kanter.

My idle is set to about 550 rpm, which used to be enough to keep the BAT light off at idle. Something changed since I last drove the car a week or so ago, that's why I removed the generator to replace the brushes. I hope fixing the one missing bolt, repairing the loose brush wire connection, 2 new brushes and a clean up will do the trick.

I agree that the Gen is pretty dirty and greasy, so I will take the time and clean it up with brake cleaner etc. Other than being dirty and the brushes worn down, the bearings look and feel OK.

That is a good idea to put some shrink wrap on the wire to the one brush. I will do that. The diagram helps too.
Thanks guys. Hope to get through the generator in the next few days.

Be careful of brake cleaner or other similar cleaners as they could possibly strip off the shellac from the windings.