Drove my '37 Chev coupe with 6v electrical system several thousands of miles a year, from 1983 to just last Spring when I sold it (which I still regret doing!). Never had any electrical problems starting or anything else, with the exception of a coil going bad, which had nothing to do with the fact it was 6v. The secret of success with 6v is making sure the ground connections everywhere are the best you can get and the wire connections are tight.
Ugh. I can think of no reason to stay with 6 volts unless you are going bone stock or total restoration. Switched my 860 Ford tractor over to 12 volts and negative ground 30 years ago and it has always started in the winter, Buddy had a '37 Packard 120C which always gave him issues. we debated for 10 years over adding an 8V battery (he's stubborn,too) and once he did it fired right up. Every time. Electrical power is like horsepower-more is rarely worse.
I put 80,000 miles on my 1952 Pontiac, straight eight, 6 volt. Still have the car, still 6 volt. It's been parked for about 5 years now, but still starts right up. Never had much trouble.
To me, there is nothing like the sound of a flathead Ford with the stock 6 volt system cranking up, and I am not even much of a Ford guy. I noticed while watching the AG movie one time that one of the later cars started up and the sound track sounded like a flathead firing off, any body else notice that or am I just crazy( my wife says yes bit I think she is too so it don't count)
I was listening to an old Nightwatch radio program the other day, and it was cool to hear Police Harley-Davidson motorcycles scooting off. They sounded great.
Ray, the gentleman I bought it from said he had worked for VW and had placed a order in late '65 and had it shipped to the United States where he worked as a mechanic for Volkswagon in California before ended up here in Anderson,South Carolina at Frank Myers VW. He was in my my shop buying artist supplys and I mentioned I liked his VW and he said he was getting ready to trade it in for a '67 if he could sell the car, I ask and he told me it wasn't a normal VW and that's when he told me about the headlights, I ask what the dealership offered him and I stepped up and offered him more than the dealership. The car had a lot of spare parts, extra headlight bulbs and the spare tire hub cap tool kit. I drove this car daily for many years and after I joined the Hamb a local electrician kept bugging me (pun unintended) about the car and it was sitting at the time, I told him 8 grand and he bought it, I was a solid car and stayed inside when I wasn't driving it. To be honest, I wish I still had it, it was a fun car to drive. HRP
Still 6 v positive, everything works as it should. Batteries last five to seven years. Most manufactures switched to save money on wire when they started adding circuits for power accessories and car radios went to transtransitors. Big wire, 16 gauge has no place in a six volt car, 0 or00 primary cables, clean tight connections and good grounds. If your six volt car doesn't have a ground cable from the firewall to the engine, trans or frame add one. Makes a lot of difference. To
I had a 6v '50 Chevy, The main problem I had was that I couldn't just go to a regular store and get a battery off the shelf. Accessories, replacement parts, etc were harder to come by. I had a chronic problem with the car not wanting to restart when hot, but that was probably a ground issue rather than a voltage problem, but I have a feeling that a 12v system could have overcome that easier. I got a lot of practice push-starting that car...
They went to 12 volts because the newest engines had increased performance, higher compression. 6 volts wouldn't reliably turn them over fast enough. A better question is why they switched to negative ground. The advent of transistors is one answer I've heard. Elvis was drafted into the Army about that time, that makes about as much sense as anything.
I believe most 6 volt alternators are positive ground, but they do make a 6 volt negative ground alternator that replaces a 6 volt generator and not have to worry about rewiring the rest of the vehicle. This alternator has a 1-wire regulator so your only connection is a battery cable on the rear of the alternator to the vehicle's battery post. HRP This product is available through Quality Power 31510 Yucaipa Blvd. Yucaipa, CA 92399 (909) 794-1600 Voice
@HOTRODPRIMER ......Danny, I don’t think it is necessary to make many, if any, changes to the wiring when swapping polarity within the same voltage. There are some accessories that are polarity sensitive, some radios come to mind, and of course the ammeter gauge and coil. Most everything else, lights and various motors, are perfectly happy whichever direction the electrons are flowing. One experience I had with a radio about had me tearing my hair out. In 1966 I was working in a Ford dealer shop and an old gentleman brought in his ‘59 Mercury because the radio didn’t work. I checked fuse, etc., power was available, so I pulled the radio and it was sent out for repair. When it was returned, I reinstalled it. It would not function. Pulled it again and sent it back to the radio repair place. Back it came, note saying there is nothing wrong with it. Same deal.....put it in....no sound. I remember all that very well. What I don’t recall is how we stumbled onto the actual problem, which was, the battery was charged with reverse polarity. Not connected backward....charged backward! After removing the battery from the car, I attached a headlamp bulb to the battery and let it draw the battery to full discharge, then recharging it with correct polarity. Reinstalled in the car and the radio played just fine. Ray
Not engine starters or heater blower motors, which is all we're concerned with here. Polarity does not matter.
I'm not sure, ask a Spark Chaser. Has something to do with the way they are wound. How do it know?? But they spin the right way regardless.
DC motors with permanent magnets care which way the current flows, because the magnets are oriented one way, but changing the polarity reverses the direction of the magnetic field in the armature. DC motors with field windings instead of magnets, do not care which way the current flows, because when you change polarity, the magnetic field is changed in both the armature, and the field coils. Since both of them are changed, the result is that it still turns the same way.
Primer, i'm running 6v pos. grd. on my 52Vic with mildly souped flatty & B W overdrive and have ZERO problems. In the early 60s i drove my 55 6y + grd to California and back from Ohio....no problem! mike
Farm and Fleet carries 6 volt batteries. That's where I got one for my 52 dodge. I'm still 6 volt. Been that way for about 5 years and 10,000 miles. Headlights are bright as can be. One burned out a few weeks ago so I replaced both. I should have done that from day one. They pretty bright now. I will convert to 12v maybe in a year or two from now. I want to air bag this car and it will just make future mods more simple. Plus I have a Tom Langdon HEI distributor waiting to go in it
I believe the reason Oem went to 12 volts was economics. The auto industry was needing more “ power” in their starters and accessories. To get more power in a six volt system, you would have to increase the size of the already huge wires. Wires are made of copper, copper is expensive! Solution: more volts= smaller wires= less money=more profit. Just my opinion. Bones
They also happened to go to 12v just about the time that higher compression, OHV engines were being introduced. I think that has something to do with it, cranking a big high compression V8 with a 6v system just ain't gonna work out well.
Power = Voltage X Current same power....more voltage...less current. Current is what determines how big a wire needs to be. Voltage is what determines how good the insulation on a wire needs to be! And at low voltages like used in cars, it doesn't matter. Until you get to the spark plug wires, with over 10,000 volts, then it makes a big difference.
My daily driver used to be an ex-Army 1986 Chevy M1009 blazer. They have a dual system where it is 24 volt starting and charging system, everything else was 12 volt. I loved that thing!
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