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I obtained from Kanter a pair of fog lights for my 1937 Packard 115C and am trying to figure the best way to wire them. The kit comes with a switch which must be mounted under the dash and wired separately from the rest of the harness. I am not enthusiastic about that approach for a couple of reasons, one being the switch is funky and not period consistent, the other being info I got from Service Bulletin 16/1 where it states such lights should be wired in series to the parking lights.

I would like to go the latter route so I am trying to scope that out. The harness forks on the left side of the engine to go to the respective headlight assemblies and I can expose the parking light wires there. One question is what kind of a splitter I should use since I will be plugging two lines in (parking light and fog light) for each side. The second question is whether I need a separate ground wire for each light because the fog light standards are anodized aluminum and they are attached to the powder coated bumper bracket so don't think I'll get a good ground connection there.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jake

A couple of options on the wire depending on what you have at the place you plan to interrupt and join. If it is just a continuous wire, in the day Packard dealers would have just done a cut and solder splice and tee'd off for the new accessory. You can do the same today with a 3M or equivalent Quik Tap tee connector. You could position it so as to cover the modern connector with heat shrink tape or maybe fabric loom or something similar to hide it. The one shown is 90 degree tab type but there is also one that is more compact using a bullet type connector for the extra wire or just a splice type with no extra connector needed.

If there is a bullet type or Douglas type connector you can interrupt then there are modern fittings that have a single input and double output that would work nicely and fit the period. If you have the older tab style Wade connectors then AFAIK there is only a single connector or basically a splice fitting available today. A parts car might have some of the older dual and triple Wade connectors you could remove.

I am more curious on your plan to power and would appreciate more info on the bulletin you found. Is it on site here?

Typically the fog lights are a pair and wired in parallel with a single switch turning both on and off. Not following how you can do that by having lights paralleled with the parking lights on each side unless you are going to have them on whenever park lights and headlights are on or plan on using two switches and run the wires back to switches and out again. If you took the power from the parking light terminal at headlight switch and ran to the fog light switch and then out to both lights it would make more sense. Some of the Packard schematics show the power taken from the aux fuse on headlight switch but that is powered all the time. Having them turn off with park or headlights might result in fewer dead batteries.

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The bullet connector is probably more period-specific but you'll still want to add the under-dash switch. I'm not sure that it's legal to have fog lights on all the time as I got a ticket for it once here in California in my 1940 Packard.

Jake, I went the simple route and wired the fog lights in a separate circuit with a switch under the instrument panel. This way I can operate them with parking lights or headlights, or by themselves. Don't recall where I tapped into the wiring for the power. They are more of an appearance accessory than one of function. Have fun.

(o{}o)

P.S. If you go with having the fog lights operate with the parking lights, then you may want to consider using a relay to avoid overloading the light switch.

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Did you mean relay rather than circuit breaker? With a circuit breaker the load is identical unless it trips so would not prevent any overload while a relay would take most of the load from the switch.

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Correct. I will change my posting. Thanks

Sorry if this is a repeat - tried to send the same message an hour ago and didn't see that it posted.

Anyway thanks Don and everyone else who responded. FYI the service bulletin advising wiring in series is Vol 16 No 1, which I got from this site under the 1942 service letters. While that approach is convenient I am not sure it is applicable to my model year and I agree it would probably require a circuit breaker.

It seems from the comments that the safest thing to do is go with a parallel set up and separate switch. The lights are 4012A sealed beam bulbs and come with a switch and 20amp fuse so it might not be a good idea to run them in series with the small amp parking bulbs.

Thanks again.
Jake

I suspect what Packard meant to say in the bulletin was parallel with the parking lights -- not series -- so that when the parking lights are on so are the fog lights.

Since headlights are not usually used with fog lights and parking lights by themselves are not a good idea and, I believe illegal in some states, that might work. You could tie the fog lights together and connect them to the parking light terminal on the fender junction block. The headlight switch would supply the voltage thru the normal headlight breaker located on the switch.

If you did want to be able to turn the fog lights off when the parking lights are on you could still take the power from the parking light terminal at the headlight switch and run it thru your under dash foglight on/off switch first.

That makes sense to me - thanks!