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In this Discussion
- redron June 2007
- Scatedemon August 2007
- Steve E. August 2007
- tstarr October 2007
No Start. nothing!
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Ok im Quite new here, i bought a 1956 Packard executive 4 dr.
To my knowledge it is a 352, and it has the carter carb, and autolite ignition.charging system. ( i heard they were that or delco ray?)
Anyways It wont turn over. it does nothing. i turn the key to the on position and the red light comes on above the key, but when i turn it to start it nothing happenes, no click no nothing.
I have rehooked the wires up to the ignition coil and distributer, What else should i look for and start with on my search for this problem.
The car is in neutral. (to my knowldege) ive been pushing it around. The old owner took the puchbutton tranmission control out and sold them. he cut a hole in the floor for a floor shifter. ( how hard is it to put in a floor sifter?) i think its a twin ultramatic. (it is automatic)
I may sound like a moron, but im just trying to put out what i know, hopefully it'll help a bit
A bit amusing
The car has sat in a garage for 30 years, then it belonged to the motion museum in south dakota( i have paperwork), for god knows how long, then it was brought to cleveland Ohio 3 years ago where it now sits.
Have anybody heard of brake fluid turning in a paste, and dust? my master cylinder has Think white dust at the top and the deeper in you go it goes to a paste. -
Id check to see if the starter is also hooked up. have you checked the fuel tank you might have nothing but sludge there too, and no sence trying to pump that through the carb. If it sat in a museum they usually remove all flamables. Is there oil in the crank case? Instead of trying to start it , I would just try to be sure the engine is free to turn over. Let us know how your doing.
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redron wrote:Id check to see if the starter is also hooked up. have you checked the fuel tank you might have nothing but sludge there too, and no sence trying to pump that through the carb. If it sat in a museum they usually remove all flamables. Is there oil in the crank case? Instead of trying to start it , I would just try to be sure the engine is free to turn over. Let us know how your doing.
There is clean fuel in the tank and i have flowed gas throught the lines. It has been prepped for start. new oils all round, even has clean trans fluid.
I have turned the engine over by hand, the engine doesent crank when key ois turned, absolutly nothing will happen.
Im going to check all the wiring to the starter and the nuetral saftey switch tomarrow -
I just started bringing my 1956 Clipper back to life and have exactly the same problem. Battery charged up, red light comes on, but nothing. There is also a ballast resistor mounted on the firewall that might be the culprit. I'm going from memory here, but I think if that has gone bad you'll get the same thing. I am getting no hint of any movement in the starter, so it seems it must be either that or loose wiring at the starter itself. Let me know how your situation goes!
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tstarr wrote:I just started bringing my 1956 Clipper back to life and have exactly the same problem. Battery charged up, red light comes on, but nothing. There is also a ballast resistor mounted on the firewall that might be the culprit. I'm going from memory here, but I think if that has gone bad you'll get the same thing. I am getting no hint of any movement in the starter, so it seems it must be either that or loose wiring at the starter itself. Let me know how your situation goes!
Ive been under the car and traced all the wires i could find connected to the starter and the torsion bar motor, all's connected.
What does the ballast resister look like? and where would it be mounted? can you take a picture? how do i go about checking that out?.
Yes i get nothing from turning the key. i dont even get a click.
also where is the sensor(thing that stops it from starting in drive/reverse etc)? how can that stop the starter? how can i check it? -
The ballast resistor is a rectangular, ceramic piece screwed to the firewall on the passenger side, just below and to the left (as you look at the firewall) of the washer mechanism. This past weekend, I checked the resistance on mine, cleared the rust off of it, and reinstalled it. Still nothing.
This weekend, I'll follow the wiring to the starter and neutral safety switch. I believe the switch is going to be under the car. The parts manual shows it at the end of the steering column, but I haven't been under the car yet to confirm/deny. You can view that in the Parts manual, which can be downloaded from www.packardinfo.com if you haven't already done so.
I'll be back out to my car on Saturday and will do more troubleshooting on it then and keep you posted.
- Ted -
tstarr wrote:The ballast resistor is a rectangular, ceramic piece screwed to the firewall on the passenger side, just below and to the left (as you look at the firewall) of the washer mechanism. This past weekend, I checked the resistance on mine, cleared the rust off of it, and reinstalled it. Still nothing.
This weekend, I'll follow the wiring to the starter and neutral safety switch. I believe the switch is going to be under the car. The parts manual shows it at the end of the steering column, but I haven't been under the car yet to confirm/deny. You can view that in the Parts manual, which can be downloaded from www.packardinfo.com if you haven't already done so.
I'll be back out to my car on Saturday and will do more troubleshooting on it then and keep you posted.
- Ted
I have found that the upper solenoid in the front left fender is bad on mine. or at least the wiring is. but i know i have no power throught there. for the moment i have the starter hot wired so i can just connect a wire to the positive battery terminal to get it to turn over.
but i plan to fix that soon -
An update on mine - I pulled the starter and took it down to the local starter/generator shop and he put it in the test harness. He indicated that the solenoid was bad (of course - I put power directly to the starter and nothing happened...) and that the starter didn't seem to have the kick it needed when power was applied directly to the starter. A rebuild is on its way and hopefully I can get it running again.
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If the ballast resistor was bad, the engine would crank & start but as soon as you released the key from the start position the engine would die.
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Steve,
Thanks for the info. My dad told me that he had had to replace the ballast resistor on one of his Packards, but didn't provide me any details of exactly the effect of a bad one was. So I'm still not necessarily out of the woods! I talked to the starter rebuild guy today and he's going to replace the solenoid and replace brushes, etc., in the starter and I'll have it back in a couple of days. THen back to the battle.
- Ted -
tstarr wrote:Steve,
Thanks for the info. My dad told me that he had had to replace the ballast resistor on one of his Packards, but didn't provide me any details of exactly the effect of a bad one was. So I'm still not necessarily out of the woods! I talked to the starter rebuild guy today and he's going to replace the solenoid and replace brushes, etc., in the starter and I'll have it back in a couple of days. THen back to the battle.
- Ted
I stripped out my starter and manually engaged everything and got it to work. i found out that a solenoid is bad,
i ended up hot wiring it to get it to start.
Now i have to rewire the car because all the wiring is worn out and bad -
Bummer on the wiring. I'm in the process of moving my Packard into a garage where I can be a little more effective in getting it going. I got the starter rebuilt and it turned the engine over, but I haven't gotten it to fire yet. I replaced the coil with one from the auto parts store, and it didn't exactly fit. So, I'm going to get one from Kanter or Max Merritt. It appears that I'm not getting any spark to the plugs and I just started backtracking to find the source of the problem. I've had the car in a guy's back yard about a half hour from my house and it just isn't working to be able to get anything done, and being outside isn't helping the car anyway. I found a guy here renting out 2 double bays with outdoor parking and a lockable, fenced area around it. Seems perfect, so I'm going to take that and try to get cracking on this. I'll keep you posted.
- Ted
