NO, I didn't do that! I'm finally getting some time to tear into my 55 Packard. The best guess is that in 1983, grandpa tried to charge the battery and hooked up the leads in reverse. He said, "I hooked up the battery charger, there was a big flash somewhere on the firewall, and it never ran again. I don't know much about cars, so we just parked it in the garage". Visually I can't find anything that looks like it burnt out. The only thing on the firewall, where the old guy indicated the flash was, is an ignition resistor, and it doesn't look damaged or discolored. I freely admit that I am an electrical idiot, and I am willing to ask dumb questions since I am an idiot. Help an idiot out and give me some pointers!
Nothing ... if anything you might have to re-polarize the charging system. It should be gone over after 20 some years sitting.
Possibly popped the voltage regulator. Your gramps is lucky, usually hooking the charger up backward tears a hole in the space-time continuum and the charger, car, and person are never heard from again. Close call. PS thank your gramps for doing that so you have that packard to work with today. If it'd kept running probably wouldn't be around now. Sometimes bad luck turns good.
hook up a fresh battery and see whatchu get. See if it will run, then see if its charging. If not charging, check the generator and regulator
If it were me, I'd hook a NEW battery up into the car and see what/if anything was actually wrong by trying to start it. AFTER changing all the fluids and the 20 year dormant stuff that is rotted away, of course, you knew that already. On a related note, I have heard - from relatively reliable sources - that when you do have a battery go bad you can supposedly re-energize it this way. Run a small light on it to completely kill all traces of remaining juice in the battery. Then cross the polarity of the trickle-type charger on the battery (- to +, + to -) and then charge it up. Once fully charged, hook the light back up and completely drain it again. Restore the charger to the correct polarity, and then charge it up again. This is supposed to rejuvenate a battery. Although I've never tried it, I've been curious to try it.
Don't know about old cars - but I imagine whatever damage was done was minor. A friend "helped" me jump my 89 Honda backwards in the dark once... We managed to burn just about every fuse under the hood, fry some wires, and that car was NEVER the same again. Listening to the radio was kinda fun, there would be this creepy wooooohoooooo sound that came out of the speakers that coincided with the acceleration or deceleration of the motor. Good times.
Hahaha....a freind hooked up a charger wrong to his '89 Bronco......when he hit the key it F'd it up good......like you said, that car was never the same after that.....he took it to his the******..........
I've tried the new battery, and I get nothing at all. I was at least hoping for something to power up with the ignition in the accessory position, but that didn't happen. I'm not seeing any wires burnt or fused under the hood. After the problems I had with the generator and voltage regulator on my Ford, I'm either 1) Take it back to the guy who fixed the problem on my Ford after I screwed it up twice 2) switch to an alternator 3) take it to the guy and have him switch it to an alternator! How do you test a firewall mounted ignition resistor for damage? Oh yeah, this wasn't my grandpa, it's just the term I used for the old guy (80) I got the Packard from.
First things first,check your fuses,then check your grounding links,then fusible links,then your charging system(everything that keeps the battery charging system functioning.Also,check your ignition,might be screwed and don't know it..
It's a 12V. I'm just trying to get everything in mind before I go tearing into this thing all the way. Thanks for the replies everyone!
My younger brother did that once. He needed a jumper from my almost new 68 Chevelle, and hooked up the cables backwards. It flashed, I heard a little pop, and a long split-open crack in the side of the battery let all the acid run down the inner fender of my car. I told him he owed me a battery and told him how lucky he was that the acid didn't spray in his direction when it went flying.
i THINK in 55 packards were 12v positive ground... do you have the battery hooked up for positive ground or negative ground?? i've never worked on a 55 packard though, so i could be wrong.... i'm just going by what i have been told
i have seen this done a couple times at work, one guy tried to start the car a couple times intell the battery blew up, it was funny intell he had to pay for it and then got fired,
Your granddad probably let all the smoke out of the wires, and now they won't work. A new battery will replace the smoke and return them to normal operation;-)
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