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well the brakes still need done i just steped out of the paint booth as i was painting my wheels and still trying to get the old girl fird up. it was froze up tight i got that taken care of. but i can not get this thing to put out a spark too save my life. jumped the coil condensor new hard wire to coil and then to the distribtor still notta its killing me. i have done every thing i can think of to get this thing to light ??????????

First would be check for 12v on the ballast resistor. The single yellow wire should be the feed and straight battery voltage from ign switch. There should be a lower voltage on the other side going to coil.

If that checks OK, then do the same at the coil. If points are open, voltage will be on both coil terminals, if points closed then voltage on only the side from resistor. If those are good, remove the wire from dist and touch to block and see if you get a spark. Perhaps the coil has failed.

If you get spark by touching the lead from dist to ground but not when cranking I'd look at the distributor again. There is a fabric covered wire inside between the points and outside terminal. Several have been caught by the fabric insulation rotting and then falling off when disturbed. Frequently the bad spot is out of sight but once that fabric fails, wire grounds and kills point action.

Good advice, as usual, from Howard. I had installed an NOS distributor with new rotor, points and condenser, but it would not fire. I took several swipes at the points with a point file and it fired right up. The points had oxidized from sitting for so long.
And WELCOME! to Packardinfo - glad to have you on board.

Points are before my time not too sound stupid but if I ran a new test wire to + side of coil then a new connector too the - side of coil and tried a differnt coil and no spark then put a new condenser in the distribtor and I did check the wire inside the distribtor and yes it is brittle but not touching the side of distribtor I checked for power at the points there is power there but no spark coming out of coil wire what am I missing

While this is marked for 1941-1947, the general concepts and service procedures are the same.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/article/view.article.php?12

Did you try the manual method removing the wire from dist? I'd do that just to verify coil and electrics OK. Remove the high tension lead from center of distributor and move it near ground -- around 1/8 inch. Remove the point wire from distributor outside terminal and touch it to ground. Should be a small spark when you do and when you remove the wire from ground there should be a spark from high voltage lead.

If all that is good, while there may be power at dist does it go to 0 volts when points are closed. Continuing on Randy's suggestion, the points have to make a solid connection to ground when closed. If they are oxidized or have a high resistance, they can't. The coil has voltage on one side, points close and complete the circuit to ground and then when points open, coil's magnetic field collapses and the spark happens. Anything that keeps the points either continuously grounded or open and there will be no spark.

Ok that makes good sense I will try that tomorrow for round 3 thank you all for the help I hope one day I will be able to repay you all like a said I own a salvage yard so if any one needs any thing don't hesitate to ask even if it's just info my main thing I do is auto parts and auto body collision and painting thank you again

Howard, thanks - I was not aware of the different location. Makes sense if they were trying accommodate the torsion level suspension with the non-boosted brakes. Live and learn.

(o[]o)

Addendum: My Clipper has conventional suspension.

G'day AUTOKING,
to PackardInfo. Sorry, no Packard advise or wisdom to dispense, instead I invite you to include your '55 Clipper Super Panama Hardtop Coupe in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo!

i would love too i would do it now but i can not find my vin and my title is at home in the safe the only thing i can find is in the driver door jam and looks like 5547-1833 is that the vin ???????