[choirboy]

I just purchased a flathead ford mounted on a trailer complete with rad,wiring harness, gauges etc. I just want to start it and check it out to see what I am going to do to motor. How can I use a 12volt battery so I don't have to buy a 6 volt. When I use it, I will switch it over to 12 volt neg. ground. It currently has generator, original points dist. etc.
Thanks,
Rick

[66GMC]

12V won't hurt the starter, as long as you don't crank it too long.
It WILL be hard on the coil and points, guages, and lights though.

You might want to make up your own jumper wire for power to the coil, and splice in good ballast resistor. That early Dodge two-terminal ceramic one would be a good candidate.

Maybe you should remove the wires from the generator and regulator and tape them up too.

Using the jumper wire, you shouln't even have to use the ignition switch ... which might leave all of the guages out of the loop.

The solenoid switch is a mechanical one ... either mounted on the floorboard or directly on the starter ... isn't it?

Just make sure that it's out of gear before lighting it up!

[redneck_9018]

we have a old six volt truck at my work that needs to be jumped every now and then we usually keep the vehicle that we are using the juice from and leave it off and jump it that way

[choirboy]

"You might want to make up your own jumper wire for power to the coil, and splice in good ballast resistor. That early Dodge two-terminal ceramic one would be a good candidate."


Would that be out of a 6volt vehicle? I know early 12 volt chevies have a ceramic resistor, but I am assuming you mean a 6 volt resistor.

Motor is actually mounted on a trailer to power an irrigation pump, I don't know what type of ignition switch is on it. Same with oil pressure gauge, I am hoping it is mechanical. My uncle found the flathead at a swapmeat and called me and got it for me. I will learn more about it soon and will get to work on it in Feb. when I get back to Fla.

Regarding jumper wire: can I follow wire from ignition to coil and just cut resistor in that?
Thanks for any more help you can give,
Rick

[66GMC]

No, I meant using the ceramic resistor from a 12V system, which would drop the voltage to the coil and points down to around 6V.

In fact, I don't believe that any 6V systems even used a resistor.

If this rig has mechanical guages on it, you won't need to worry about them. You'll be able to identify the guage type by the presence of tubes versus wires ...

Perhaps the best way to continue to advise you would be to ask you for a full list of what electrical devices are attached to this rig.

I'm kind of thinking of suggesting that you install the ballast resistor UPSTREAM of the ignition switch so that all components that rely on switched power from this switch will ALL see 6V.

You'd have to be fairly careful not to run some of the heavier draw items like a blower motor or cigarette lighter (which I doubt you have anyway) as the current draw might exceed the capacity of the resistor.