GM packard 56 and 59 connectors

[moparmat2000]

Hi Y'all,

I have been doing a little research about the typical connectors our cars use in the bulkheads, and wiring plug cavities. I came across the GM Packard style #56 for 14 to 16 gage wire, and the GM Packard style #59 connector for 10 to 12 gage wire.

The male ends look just like the chrysler ones, but the female ends look like they offer a more positive locking and more surface area contact than the mopar female ends do.

I am going to be redoing my dash harness over the winter since its never been cut into i was thinking of replacing all the female connectors in the bulkhead connector with the GM packard type, and packing the connector with dialectric grease to prevent future degredation of the contacts.

I was concidering repairing the engine harness but everythings too brittle to work with. Prob order a new one of these. I saw that year one has the engine/fwd lamp harness on sale for $180 so its not worth the effort messing with the old one.

I will be removing the amp gage from the system, and running a 10 gage from the alternator straight to the battery in my new motor harness. Prob going to run relays for the low and high beams as well.

Anybody here think the GM Packard 56 and 59 female ends might offer better contact surface area than the mopar female type?

 

[krazykuda]

I'm not familiar with them, but they sound promising. I'm going to watch this thread and see what the answer is.

 

[moparmat2000]

Type in gm packard 56 connector on your search engine, and take a look. They lock into the cavity with the raised metal tab like the mopar ones do, the standard mopar male end plugs right in. The difference is the raised flat tab that looks like it makes contact with the whole length of the male connector.

I also found crimpers for about $50 that can duplicate a factory crimp on one of these connectors.

Matt

 

[GMachineDartGT]

Make sure you have the correct crimper.

 

[moparmat2000]

Make sure you have the correct crimper.

The ones,i found the crimp end and handles pivot like a set of bolt cutters do for torque multiplication. I tested th at my electronics distributer friday. I could not pull the crimp out of the wire after i installed it. LOL

 

[BillGrissom]

Yes, the new Packard 56 work on old Mopars and GM. I recall the wider 59's are for headlamps and such. BTW, "Packard" refers to an electrical company, not the car brand.

I bought several bags (ebay) when I re-wired my engine bays (see post). I have a decent crimper, but soldered all my crimps to be safe.

What year is your car and engine? I have a few new harnesses (Year One & M&H labels) I got off a surplus site.

 

[moparmat2000]

Hi Bill,

I have a 67 barracuda V8 notchback. I have a new year one body/rear lamp harness already. PM me and let me know what you have for this year along with how much you are wanting for the harnesses if you have them. I'd really rather replace all of it with new but the cost of the year one dash harness for my car has made me pause and rethink. M&H harnesses are the best, and exclusive to year one. To stumble across these on the net is great. Hopefully you have what i need.

Thanks
Matt

 

[moparlover]

packard 56 aka gm 56 have been around for decades, it's what's in our cars on the firewall bulkead etc. they aint new

you can get them from rhode island wiring (google that) they also have every color wire you could think of... if you want to match your wires exactly

make sure you tell them plastic jacket when you call, they have wire in cloth and plastic jacketing for restos

my car ('74) had straight stripes for the color codes on the wires, not sure about the earlier A bodies

 

[moparmat2000]

packard 56 aka gm 56 have been around for decades, it's what's in our cars on the firewall bulkead etc. they aint new

you can get them from rhode island wiring (google that) they also have every color wire you could think of... if you want to match your wires exactly

make sure you tell them plastic jacket when you call, they have wire in cloth and plastic jacketing for restos

my car ('74) had straight stripes for the color codes on the wires, not sure about the earlier A bodies

My 67 has standard female spade connectors with a raised locking tab to hold them in the cavity, the wiring is original to the car. These are the common mopar connectors of the era. They look similar to the GM packard 56, and 59 but are not the same. The males are the same but not the females. Take a close look at a mopar and a GM female thesr are different.

 

[moparmat2000]

Just purchased some GM packard 56 female connectors, i will take a pic of these compared to the mopar type female spades. The males are the same Mopar or GM , and post it here for those who dont know the differences between the 2 connectors.

 

[64_Barracuda]

I did almost my entire car with the Packard 56 connectors, there available on the internet, I got my crimper from Del-City. There are a few folks at Carlisle that sell new bulkhead connectors and a bunch of other factory connectors.

 

[moparmat2000]

I did almost my entire car with the Packard 56 connectors, there available on the internet, I got my crimper from Del-City. There are a few folks at Carlisle that sell new bulkhead connectors and a bunch of other factory connectors.

My local electronics supplier had ordered me 50 of the females for $11. I got lucky my bulkhead connector never melted and is still good enough to reuse. I need to check out the Del-city crimpers.

 

[RedFish]

The main difference in dash harnesses is in connectors the inst' panels. If you have the original harness it can be refurbished with donor materials from a much later model.
I found the materials under the dash of a 73 Valiant to be in excellent condition so that's what I used to fix and improve the wiring in my 67 fish.

 

[moparmat2000]

I have also unpinned connectors one wire at a time, and used a product called alumiprep 33 by Henkel. The label says this product is designed to remove tarnishing on copper and brass. As well as etching aluminum for welding, or painting

I dip the connectot ends into the solution then scrub with a brass brush on the connectors to remove tarnishing on the brass end then rinse the connector end in baking soda and water, blow out w compressed air, and repin. This makes the brass shine like brand new, and instantly cleans the tarnish off the tin plated connectors. Just rinse real well, and dry off, then tighten the connecter with a pair of needle nose plyers.

 

[KitCarlson]

I had a bad experience with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) years ago when working on my electric car.. I made a Nickel-Iron battery cell using KOH as the electrolyte. It was a concentrated solution. I used standard multi-meter leads for measuring post voltage, and found that the KOH, wicked up the probes and leads the full length. The flexible copper lead wires turned black and brittle and were no longer usable. KOH is hard to seal from leakage, a very slippery long chain molecule.

 

[nm9stheham]

^^^ I think Kit has a good point and that would be my concern: wicking up into the wire ends where it can't be neutralized or removed. Just plain moisture will wick up into wire ends over time.

 

[BillGrissom]

mat,
The new harnesses I have are a 73 SB engine and a 74 engine/lamps (doesn't spec engine). Very different from your car.

If you are OK w/ a resto-mod, it isn't too hard to make your own underhood harnesses, especially if planning EFI, HID headlamps, etc, since many mod's needed for those anyway. I used smooth PVC sheath (ex. PVC-105 from SPC Technology or Alpha Wire).

 

[moparmat2000]

I had a bad experience with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) years ago when working on my electric car.. I made a Nickel-Iron battery cell using KOH as the electrolyte. It was a concentrated solution. I used standard multi-meter leads for measuring post voltage, and found that the KOH, wicked up the probes and leads the full length. The flexible copper lead wires turned black and brittle and were no longer usable. KOH is hard to seal from leakage, a very slippery long chain molecule.

Sorry, i am mistaken, the chemical i am using i just looked its NOT potassium hydroxide. Its made by Henkel, and its called Alumaprep 33. Its designed to etch aluminum for painting or welding. According to the label also used to remove tarnish on copper or brass. I took a pic of label on the container, and will post it soon. I am going to edit my prev post and remove the reference to potassium hydroxide.

Matt

 

[moparmat2000]

mat,
The new harnesses I have are a 73 SB engine and a 74 engine/lamps (doesn't spec engine). Very different from your car.

If you are OK w/ a resto-mod, it isn't too hard to make your own underhood harnesses, especially if planning EFI, HID headlamps, etc, since many mod's needed for those anyway. I used smooth PVC sheath (ex. PVC-105 from SPC Technology or Alpha Wire).

Hi bill,

I just bought the year one harness, my mods to it are pretty minor compared to retrofirting a 73 and 74 harness back to 67. Not only that, but it was on sale down from $198 to $170. I found a 15% off disc code off the net that worked on top of the price discount my final price was around $150 for it.

Now on the dash side i will be repinning with packard terminals.

Matt