A few months ago, you might remember I said the 51 Packard Mayfair Coupe is finished, and I will drive out the flaws and repair whatever comes up.  Well, the car wandered all over the road, and I thought it was the bias ply tires (I have a set of 8:20 x 15 4wide Firestone bias ply tires on it.)  These have been on it several years, and sat in one place while I was restoring the car.  They had flat places on them, which quickly rounded out as I drove it.  I found lowering the tiresair pressure (24 lbs.) helped, but that wasnt it; it was the shocks!

        I am in the middle of our next project finishing my 53 Buick Roadmaster 2 dr, and thought I would have the shocks replaced by an outside shop.  I bought a new (front) set of Monroe shocks and let the outside shop do it.  When I got the car back, the generator light was on.  I noticed the light flickering on the way over, so I dont hold them responsible.  Through 1950, Packard used an amp gauge on the dash that used the traditional ( +) readout and in 1951 they changed to a light.  There is a redlight (Battery) that comes on in the dash and goes off when the car is started, assuring that the generator is charging.  When I got the 51 back, the red light was on and stayed on(?).  

        I tested the generator, Delco-Remy 110745 1F1, to see of it worked,  (It is a 6-volt positive ground system.) and there are multiple ways that you can check the generator:  1) Run a wire from the Fieldscrew to a ground (engine block) or any good ground, and rev the engine up to 1000 RPMs.  If the generator takes off and starts climbing over 1000 RPMs, its putting out and must be disconnected quickly!  The dash red light will go out when this test is done.  If NO output is indicated on the dash ammeter, the trouble is in the generator, but if the ammeter shows a charge, the trouble lies in the voltage regulator or wiring.  I couldnt get this test to work, so I took the generator off the car using it as a motor. This worked!  

And my generator was bad.  I found a rebuilt generator (no core) online.  I tested it the same way, motored it, and it tested good.  When the new generator was sent to me, the wire hookup Field/Ammeter screws were not positioned where they were on top of the generator as before, but now were positioned where you had to get to the wire hookups from under the car.

        This is awkward, and Steve had to screw down the wires, because the convenience of top-mounted wires was now gone.  When I have my old generator rebuilt, I can have them set correctly, but to change them now would have to do with removing the frontmounting bracket and rotating it up, which could pull the wires or void my warranty, so I will have to leave them alone for now.

        With the generator back on and hooked up, I still wasnt getting any charge output!  I knew the generator was good, so I used my multimeter.  On these old cars, I always use an analog multimeter.  The digital ones are not accurate.  So I set the selector on 10 Volt, DC Current(nearest setting to 6 Volt) and grounded one lead and put the other lead on the voltage regulator armaturewith the car running.  It showed no readingthe voltage regulator was bad!

        This is a NOS one and it is a Delco Remy 6 volt positive D-607 #1118828 regulator.  First, I cleaned off the contact points with a point file, used black electrical tape all around the contacts before polarizing.  To polarize, momentarily touch the Batand Genposts (not Field). The tape kept me from touching the metal casing and Field by mistake.  Because the fender of the car is so high, I just didnt want to take a chance of touching the wrong leads.  After the battery and generator posts were touched, the electrical tape was removed and the car now started right up and the Red Batterylight went off as soon as the car started.

        I have had generator/voltage regulator close calls before, such as my 1936 Packard Super 8 (gear driven generator), but I think this was more of a hassle, probably because of the height of the car.  I just couldnt see the bottom of the voltage regulator, but the black electrical tape masking the metal around the Arm,Batt,Fieldscrews did the trick.  Its fixed, and with the new shocks, handles well.  The new shocks are Monroe #5751, made in USA, and they were put on as follows:

See you next month.  Merry Christmas, and keep em driving!