Packard

[Bulldog9]

Local buddy says 'Hey can you help me out, my car won't start..... I swing by his place to discover his 'car' is a 1953 Packard. 6V positive ground system.......  Oy Veh..... Beautiful straight flat head 8.  Changed his plugs, cleaned out the carb bowl, but alas no spark, coil is bad..... Holy cow what a tank.  He has a coil on order, we will see how things develop.

I've heard about positive ground, but never seen one. Had a hair on end moment when I saw the braided ground strap on the positive terminal.......

[oldbike54]

 Fairly common until the mid 1950's on American cars , the English didn't abandon it until years later .

 Dusty

[s1120]

Ya, a lot of the old 6vt old US cars and tractors used it. Does take some thinking when you are working on it...  You are so used to neg ground...  you have to stop and think every electrical connection you make..

[JJ]

They just don't make 'em like this anymore...




image upload

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Back in the sixties I had a 53 Packard ambulance with only 14000 miles on the clock.  300 inch thunderbolt eight, great engine but poor milage.
 It weighed 5,920 lb. empty and would glide quietly and smoothly unto 90 mph drinking quantities of gasoline,  which inn those days was less than 30 cents a gallon.

[Muzz]

I've heard about positive ground, but never seen one. Had a hair on end moment when I saw the braided ground strap on the positive terminal.......

BMC (the British Leyland Group) had it on the Austi/Morris land crabs in to the 70's, 12 volt though.  A lot of people used to reflash the generator and make it negative earth.  Easy to do but you had to have the cover off the regulator and haul the contacts apart REAL quick.

Put the battery in wrong and it would cost you a new regulator.

[dustybarn]

Local buddy says 'Hey can you help me out, my car won't start..... I swing by his place to discover his 'car' is a 1953 Packard. 6V positive ground system.......  Oy Veh..... Beautiful straight flat head 8.  Changed his plugs, cleaned out the carb bowl, but alas no spark, coil is bad..... Holy cow what a tank.  He has a coil on order, we will see how things develop.

I've heard about positive ground, but never seen one. Had a hair on end moment when I saw the braided ground strap on the positive terminal.......

Yep. I also have a '53 Packard (a Clipper Deluxe) and it's 6V positive ground. It's a darned big car, but smooth, quiet and relaxing to drive (unlike today's feature-crammed "luxury" cars that demand constant attention). My '63 Triumph TR4 was 12V positive ground, until I converted it to negative to install a modern radio.

[Roebling3]

Sasquatch Jim: My dog man! You must be nearly my age.  "Ask the man who owns one".
Didn't they (Packard), improve on the Rolls Royce v12, during WWII. Something about super charger drive ratios and higher octane fuel allowing operation at higher altitude? R3~ 

[Sasquatch Jim]

 In ww2 they made aircraft and marine engines too but I don' know mush about them.  I think John Kennedy had Packards in his PT boat.  They used aviation gas.

[Roebling3]

You're correct Jim, about PT boats and Jack Kennedy. Packard also made tank engines & 4 row radials. The Packard muse` in Dayton, OH is terrific, btw.  R3~ 

[larrys]

In ww2 they made aircraft and marine engines too but I don' know mush about them.  I think John Kennedy had Packards in his PT boat.  They used aviation gas.

Mystic Seaport has a running Packard PT boat engine. They run it at the Marine Engine show in August. Sweet sounds! Its a dry sump engine and was derived from the airplane engine. Air cooled cylinders were replaced with water jacketed cylinders amongst other things.
Larry