Packard/Douglas Connectors

[rboltz]

Last winter, when I was taking my truck apart and I made the electrical drawings, I found my headlights to contain both Packard and Douglas connectors. I was curious about this at the time but put it aside. Now, as I reassemble, the subject has come up again. My wiring harness has Packard connectors to the headlight pans and then Douglas connectors to the lamps. Since all new Mil-Spec head lamps have Packard connectors I wonder if they once had Douglas or my truck was modified? The PO spliced the wires to Douglas connectors so that muddies the waters.

[sf38a1]

I found the same thing. I don't know because they used parts left over, such as lights used on the M38A1 , or that the metal douglas connectors fit in the metal clips in the headlite housing. I used the rubber connectors with an adapter that i purches from Saturan Surplus,Seem to work OK.

[Barrman]

A stock M715 had 10 Douglas connectors on it from the factory. 3 inside each headlight bucket and 4 at the back of the on/off switch.

The on/off switch ones really make you scratch your head because the switches since 1952 that I know of for sure have Packard connectors on the back. However, there is a 6-8 inch pig tail that goes from the back of the switch to a Douglas connector and then the rest of the harness is Packard until you get inside the head light buckets.

I really think the headlight thing is because of the M38A1, M35 and M37 having Douglas headlights for the 10-15 years before the M715 went into production, huge piles of replacement bulbs world wide and being the cheapest bidder. David Doyle might know, but I can not find a date where the peopel in Warren said "Starting on this day, all wiring will be with Packard connectors and all old parts will be sold off." I doubt they did that. So, we have the situation this thread is about as a result.

All Douglas fittings are male at the wire. The clam shell cover might be different for each side of a connection, but the wires are the same at every single end of each connection. The little reddish black double ended female adaptor is what makes the connection work. Both the adaptor and the male metal ends will fit into the appropriate Packard fitting. It just won't be water proof. Smear some Vasoline on there, plug them together and move on.

[rboltz]

Just what I'm going to do. Plug the Packard male into the Douglas female, seal and go! It seems to fit quite well.