So I was wondering what all was involved in doing the 12 volt swap. It's a '53 Chrysler Windsor 265 straight 6 with fluid drive. I've read a few things online about it but wanted to see what some folks opinions were on this. Also was thinking about swapping out he fluid drive for a modern overdrive. Thanks for any advice given. Philip View attachment 2975367
Depends on what you have in mind? Are you just going to drive it around town? I still have the six volt system in my ford. It runs great don't have no electronic ignition, I don't drive it in the winter so cranking power isn't important, I have a 12 volt battery in the trunk to run my 12 volt radio in the glove box, I use the 6 volt just for starting and to run my headlights at night. I do however have a 6 volt alternator on it which keeps the headlights bright at idle. but if you plan to put in a new or updated motor go for a 12 volt. Again I run a nice little 292 cu in. I don't race it, I make a few fun runs at some shows but, I drive the hell out of it during the summer, cruises, shows some far, some close.....that's my two cents worth.........Dave
They don't need to be around town cars to run on 6V. There are a lot of threads that cover converting to 12V. A simple search will give hours of reading. Swapping to late OD is going to be work swapping to anything other then a stock tranny in that old Chrysler is going to be work. Figure driveshaft rear end bell housing, transmission mount. I am not discouraging the swap and that old 6 is the perfect engine if you keep your rear gears low enough, it is a low RPM engine anyway so running @ low RPM won't hurt it a bit. It is not a torque monster though so you are going to have to keep your final drive pretty low so you aren't shifting out of OD all the time.
I found a number of threads on 12v conversion when I did mine last year. It's pretty straightforward and not very complex unless your wiring is super brittle and you end up having to rewire the car like I did. Even so, that wasn't too difficult and I feel much better knowing that the wiring is new and I'm less likely to burn up. Good luck!
Do yourself a BIG favor and leave it 6 volt. If you ignore this advice please don't come and ask me how to make it work on 12 volts, I have been working on cars especially Chryslers for 50 years and I don't know. Just fix whatever is wrong and leave it 6 volts positive ground and it will be fine. I know people who have driven similar cars for years, on 6v with no problems. If you do figure out how to do it, and the transmission, wipers, heater, radio, lights, and everything else works correctly please tell me how you did it. I sincerely would like to know. I know of several people who have tried to do this conversion, none got the car to work properly on 12 volts. Most ended up changing back to 6v or junking the car.
If you really want a 12v car with a modern transmission sell the 53 Chrysler and buy one 4 years newer, it will have everything you want including 12V, Torqueflite trans, V8 engine, possibly power steering, power brakes, air, and a lot of other improvements.
Best suggestion is, get it running on 6v positive ground (stock) and learn how to operate the Fluid Drive and semi auto trans (not hard). Drive it around and see how you like it. Find out if it needs anything. Then make up your mind if you like it or not. You may find out you like the old beast the way it is, with all its quirks. Or you may hate it. Then make up your mind if you want to keep it. That car is NOT a good candidate for a hot rod or modified car. Guys don't get your panties in a wad I know anything can be turned into anything but there are lots better cars to start with than that one.
Best suggestion is, get it running on 6v positive ground (stock) and learn how to operate the Fluid Drive and semi auto trans (not hard). Drive it around and see how you like it. Find out if it needs anything. Then make up your mind if you like it or not. You may find out you like the old beast the way it is, with all its quirks. Or you may hate it. Then make up your mind if you want to keep it. That car is NOT a good candidate for a hot rod or modified car. Guys don't get your panties in a wad I know anything can be turned into anything but there are lots better cars to start with than that one.
Ok thank you. It runs and works great so far. I really only planned on doing the swap cause of my own lack of knowledge on 6v positive ground systems. I need some to find some resources for parts though.
All parts available thru your local NAPA or other good parts store. Not all parts stores will bother looking up parts that old but they are available through normal channels. Starters and generators from your local auto electric rebuilder. Batteries from your local farm store, battery specialist or auto parts store.
Get a 1955 or later 12 volt genny and regulator, it will have a green tag instead of a red tag, which are 6 volts, or convert to an alternator, not difficult at all, especially with a GM 10SI 1 wire type. Radio, absoultely require a voltage dropper, and a new 6 volt negative ground vibrator installed, the heater motor, either a beefy voltage dropper or a new 12 volt heater motor, can be bought at NAPA, wipers voltage dropper, the gas gauge has a built in voltage reducer, and can live with 12 volts, the ammeter wires need to be reversed. All light bulbs and the signal flasher need to be swapped to 12 volts. The M6 Semi auto trans, you will need voltage reducer for it. Whay would this be crazy difficult, I have know a few people personally who have done this, myself included. Having sad this though, staying with a healthy well maintained 6 volt system is not a bad idea, and they spin up these engines not bad if all is good, especially the battery cables, they should be nice and heavy like 2/0, and all ground connections should be tight and clean.....
Flat six fix hope you are still around when the OP comes back with plaintive questions about why his car won't work.
I've seen some ppl have 12v systems in the trunk to run radios and such, how does that battery charge then?
Unless you can come up with a 12 volt charging system (alternator or genertor), It's "drag out the battery charger" when it goes flat.
Rusty what exactly won't be working? Now I will say the radio is tricky but the rest, come on it ain't rocket science, many have successfully done this conversion on these cars. What or where do you find the difficult areas of this conversion? I guess you did not read my final sentence, I agreed with you that keeping it a well maintained 6 volt system might be the way to go. I am here, have also done this conversion, know a few others too. I will be here to help out if I can, in the event the OP does choose to convert t 12 volts...
I have done a few conversions too. All the time we get newbies who think they have to change their cars to 12v, get the car all torn up then don't know what to do. In almost every case they would have been better off leaving the car alone. I haven't done a conversion since the 80s because I figured out it was a waste of time. Just keep it 6v and if necessary fix what you have.
A set of 00 gauge battery cables from your local farm store and a new 6 volt battery will fix 99.44 percent of your starting problems, and leave that '53 as pure as ivory soap (but won't allow it to float).
Believe me I have tried the local Napa auto parts and the like, these guys are useless. I friended a local builder that has been a god send in helping me find parts and a helping hand too. I don't plan on leaving it alone what fun is that. I'm leaving the flat six and fluid drive in as long as it keeps going, it runs very good for now. After I fix the flintstone style floors I need to drop it down some after all it's not a 4x4. I was thinking air ride but not going to mess with the 6volt till a new power plant goes in. I'll just settle for a static drop for now. Thanks all for your posts
Best advice I have seen in a long time. Parts are nothing, I work in a 6V bike for a local guy and get everything I need at NAPA. Only two things you need to know about 6V one is that it is just electricity and that it is lower voltage than 12v. The other is that it is just electricity and follows the same rules as any electricity, Line is line, earth is earth and being lower voltage you will have a greater amp draw then with higher voltage. Like all things automotive it is direct current and not alternating current so your grounds are very important. Ok that's more then two things but you catch my drift right? its just a damned old car and you treat it like any other damned old car.
If your electrical system is in relatively good shape with proper grounds and decent battery cables, swap in an Optima battery and there will be no need to convert to 12 volts. I did this in my '51 Ford twenty years ago, and the Optima was probably the single greatest improvement to driveability I made. It seems to me that the currently available 6 volt batteries are not of the highest quality.
For those who don't know... Chryslers of the 40s and early 50s are particularly hard to convert to 12V because they were the most advanced, best built cars of the times. They were the first with electric wipers, and they had a complicated electric control system built into the ignition, carburetor, and transmission for their semi automatic trans. They used circuit breakers instead of the cheaper fuses. They even had more dash lights than anybody, including a little light to help you find the ignition switch at night. Cheaper cars with vacuum wipers, manual trans, no radio, no heater and just a few light bulbs are a cinch. This is why I would not want to convert a 53 Chrysler to 12V. You would be way better off keeping it 6V.
Years ago, Radio Shack made an inverter for converting 12v pos ground or 6v neg ground to 12v neg ground. I had one and used it on my 65 MGB, which was 12v pos ground. I also used one in a 50 Chrysler limo that had the flathead 6. Had to isolate the case of the device from the vehicle ground, but did work fine for modern day radios.
just did a 12v conversion on my 51 deluxe, all went smooth however turn signal and flasher seem to be malfunctioning or just a very low pitch buzz from the flasher. also brake lights work when the car is on but the brake pedal is not activating the brake lights. question is would 12 v burn out all of the above? in a matter of minutes?
I keep reading these posts and it seems at least most if not all arguments for saving the 6 volt positive ground system rather than switch to 12 volt system do not bring up the most important in my opinion reason for switching. The 6 volt batteries I have bought cost the same as the 12 volt ones and they only give me a one year warranty with the 6 volt ones. I get a 6 year warranty with the 12 volt batteries. Same money and 6 times the warrantied life. I have never got more than a couple years life, and rarely at that out of a 6 volt. Maybe others have had different results but this has been my case. Also the already brought up point that 6 volt systems are more likely to need more maintenance on connections and corroded wires etc. to keep voltage drops from causing problems and reliability. Who wants to work on their wiring more than they have to.
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